Michigan Wrongful Death Personal Representative, Court Approval and Distribution

Two people usually end up here: someone who just got a letter from a lawyer they never heard of, and someone asking how the money gets split.

One person brings a Michigan wrongful death case for everyone. A judge decides each family member’s share, and shares are not equal. Rights are forfeited if anyone misses a deadline stated in a mailed notice. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free consultation. Our wrongful death attorneys charge no fee unless we recover for you.

Why One Relative Has to Be Put in Charge

Nobody in your family has a lawsuit of their own. Under MCL 600.2922(2), the action is brought by, and in the name of, the personal representative of the estate; nothing is filed until someone holds letters. The act creates no liability: it is a filter, so a claim your relative could not have brought is not revived (Wesche v Mecosta County Road Commission, 480 Mich 75 (2008)).

Priority decides who gets it (MCL 700.3203): a person named in a probated will, a surviving spouse who is a devisee, other devisees, the surviving spouse, then other heirs. Subsection (1)(f) allows a creditor’s nominee after 42 days, (1)(g) the public administrator after 63 days, or sooner on exigent circumstances. Subsection (3) makes persons of equal priority who do not renounce concur in a nomination or apply. Subsection (2)(b) lets a court, on objection by an heir or devisee with a substantial interest, appoint someone acceptable to holders of more than half the probable distributable value, or any suitable person; (2)(a) is a creditor’s-petition exception. Informal appointment is an application at the probate register, with MCR 5.309 notice to persons of prior or equal priority; formal takes a petition and hearing.

Do it early; the clock is running. MCL 600.5852 has four parts, not one number. Subsection (1) applies only if the person died before the underlying limitations period expired or within 30 days after, and gives two years from issuance of letters. Subsection (2) runs those two years, in malpractice, from the first personal representative’s letters. Subsection (3) gives a successor one year if the first dies or is adjudged legally incapacitated then. Subsection (4) caps everything at three years after that period ran.

A filing made before appointment is not automatically lost: Eversole v Nash applied the relation-back provision in MCL 700.3701. And Estate of Ernest v Brown, Docket No. 168462 (Mich., July 29, 2026), overruled Waltz v Wyse (2004): MCL 600.5852 incorporates a period of limitations and is tolled under MCL 600.5856, so the MCL 600.2912b notice period now tolls it.

The Letter in the Mail, and the Two Deadlines in It

It is not junk mail. Within 30 days of filing, MCL 600.2922(2) requires the personal representative to serve the complaint and a statutory notice on everyone who may be entitled to damages under subsection (3): spouse, children, descendants, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, the children of the deceased’s spouse, certain devisees and trust beneficiaries. Where none survives, subsection (3)(a) reaches those taking by intestate succession. Service follows probate procedure (MCR 5.125, MCR 5.102, MCR 5.105).

Subsection (4) sets what the notice must say: the personal representative’s and attorney’s names and addresses; that the attorney must be advised within 60 days after mailing of any material fact evidencing a claim; that you will be told of a distribution hearing; and that a claim must be presented.

Two of those can cost you your share. Subsection (7): a claim must be presented on or before the hearing date, or it is barred. Subsection (8): the attorney must be advised of any material fact evidencing a claim within 60 days after the complaint and notice are served under subsection (2), and the court may bar recovery. The two 60-day provisions are worded differently, one running from service, the other, in the notice text, from mailing. Count from the earlier.

A Judge Has to Approve the Settlement

An agreed number is not final. On the personal representative’s motion, the court must, with or without notice, hold a hearing and approve or reject the proposed settlement (MCL 600.2922(5)). That does not switch off MCR 2.420 where a minor is involved, and notice is required for the distribution hearing under subsection (6).

The Hearing Where Your Share Is Decided

Before any money moves, subsection (6)(a) requires a motion for authority to distribute and an ordered hearing; (6)(b) notice to everyone who may be entitled to damages, unless waived; (6)(c) appointment of a fiduciary or guardian ad litem first for a minor, disappeared, or incapacitated interested person. Subsection (6)(d) sets the order of payment:

1. “The reasonable medical, hospital, funeral, and burial expenses of the decedent for which the estate is liable,” and nothing else.
2. No other charges against the estate may be paid from the proceeds; general creditors cannot reach them.
3. The remainder to the persons designated in subsection (3) who suffered damages, and to the estate for conscious pain and suffering, “in the amount as the court or jury considers fair and equitable considering the relative damages sustained by each.”
4. Where a jury returned a special verdict allocating damages, distribution follows the verdict.

Shares are not equal, and they are not set by inheritance rules. A judge measures loss of society and companionship by the actual relationship, objective behavior and shared time, not legal status: McTaggart v Lindsey, 202 Mich App 612; 509 NW2d 881 (1993), which also sets out the personal representative’s fiduciary duties. That representative is often a competing claimant.

Subsection (6)(e) is a shortcut: if no one entitled is a minor, disappeared, or incapacitated, and all execute a verified written stipulation specifying each share, the court enters that order.

If the case settled before suit, MCL 700.3924 of EPIC is the parallel provision: subsection (1) requires a written petition and notice to all who may be entitled to damages under MCL 600.2922.

If the Case Is Against the State

Then it goes to the Court of Claims, jurisdiction defined by MCL 600.6419 and subject to its exceptions. There, MCL 600.6431 requires the claim or a notice of intention to file within six months of the event, signed and verified before an officer authorized to administer oaths.

Six months is not always the end. Where the conditions of MCL 600.5852 are met, the wrongful death saving provision extends the filing timeframe and tolls the notice period in MCL 600.6431. Estate of Hana St. Juliana v. State Police, No. 370427 (Mich Ct App, July 17, 2025), published. File within six months anyway; whether the conditions are met is itself litigated.

What the Lawyer Gets Paid

Attorney fees are not in the subsection (6)(d) order of payment. They come from the contingent fee agreement, reviewed by the approving court under MCR 8.121, which caps the wrongful death fee at one third of the net sum recovered, after deducting all disbursements properly chargeable to enforcing the claim. So it is not a third of the headline number. The rule also requires a written agreement, a copy to you, and advice that other arrangements, including hourly, are available. For installments, MCR 8.121(C)(2) applies the one-third maximum to the present value of the future payments.

If a Child Is Entitled to Part of It

If your child is entitled to a share and suit has been filed, MCR 2.420 governs. MCR 2.420(A) draws the line by posture, since a claim settled before suit goes through EPIC under MCL 700.3924.

• MCR 2.420(B)(1)’s personal appearance requirement applies where the claim is for personal injury to the minor, so a wrongful death beneficiary does not trigger it.
• A guardian ad litem is not appointed just because an adult will receive the money. MCR 2.420(B)(2) is a conflict provision: one is required where the child’s next friend, guardian, or conservator is claimed in the same action and will share in it.
• Under MCR 2.420(B)(3), where a probate court appointed a guardian or conservator, the court requires written verification that it passed on the bond’s sufficiency and that the bond, if any, was filed. Those two words matter: a bond is not always required.
• The threshold is $5,000, with two branches. Under MCR 2.420(B)(4), a settlement requiring neither immediate payment of more than $5,000 to the child nor installments exceeding $5,000 in any single year during minority can be paid as provided in MCL 700.5102; otherwise a conservator is appointed before entry of judgment. There is a live mismatch: MCL 700.5102 now says $50,000 while MCR 2.420(B)(4) still reads $5,000, and the Michigan Judicial Institute notes it, so ask which figure your judge applies.

A conservator ordinarily holds your child’s money in a restricted account, imposed by court order rather than automatically; release is governed by EPIC.

Who Else Has a Claim on the Money

Whether Medicare, Medicaid, or the IRS reaches any of your share turns on which category it went in.

Loss of society and companionship goes to the surviving family members under subsection (6)(d) and passes outside the estate. Conscious pain and suffering belongs to the estate, passes through it by will or intestacy, and is exposed to estate creditors. Where a claim is purely wrongful death, with no survival or medical expense component, the argument is that Medicare has no recovery right because state law does not allow recovery of the decedent’s medical expenses. CMS will not say so on request.

Medicaid has two tracks. MCL 400.106 is its third-party recovery and subrogation provision, with notice obligations, rules about settling a claim the state has an interest in, and restrictions on releasing the governmental claim. It applies whether or not estate recovery is in play. Estate recovery reaches individuals aged 55 or older and covered Medicaid services paid on or after July 1, 2010, not only long-term care; Michigan has generally limited it to probate assets, except assets disregarded under a qualifying long-term care partnership policy.

Allocation is on the record and worth settling before anyone signs. Compensatory damages for personal physical injuries are excluded from gross income under IRC section 104(a)(2); punitive damages and interest are not.

Every Deadline in One Place

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

We obtain letters of authority so the time under MCL 600.5852 is not spent before the investigation begins, serve the statutory notices correctly, prepare the allocation with liens in mind, and appear at the distribution hearing with evidence for your share.

From our Livonia office, we represent families throughout Michigan. Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars. Our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs, we work in English and Spanish, and we are available 24/7.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I got a notice about my brother’s case from a lawyer I do not know. What do I do? Read it and respond. It carries two deadlines: advise the personal representative’s attorney of material facts within 60 days, and present your claim on or before the hearing date. Count the 60 days from the earlier of service or mailing.
• Can each of us have our own lawyer? The personal representative’s attorney represents the representative and the estate, not each family member. Where interests diverge, you can retain separate counsel for the hearing.

About the Author

Kara E. Weisman is a founding partner of Vahdat Weisman Law in Livonia and handles medical malpractice, wrongful death, civil rights, and personal injury claims. She clerked at the Ingham County Probate Court and for the Federal Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, and is admitted in all Michigan state courts and in the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan.

Talk to a Michigan Wrongful Death Lawyer

If your family needs a personal representative appointed, call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free consultation. Available 24/7, serving Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff. See our recovering damages pages.

Dedicated to Justice. Devoted to You. Winning for Your Future.

Reviewed by Kara E. Weisman, Vahdat Weisman Law. Last reviewed September 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.