How to calculate Wrongful Death Damages in Wyoming

Quick takeaways

• Wyoming wrongful death damages flow from the state’s “wrongful act survival” concept: if the injured person could have sued for damages had they lived, certain parties may sue after death under Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101.
• Wyoming’s operative language is tied to whether the injured party would have had a right of action “if death had not ensued.” Practically, that means your starting point should be the damages you would have claimed for the injury (before death).
• In DocketMath’s Wrongful Death Damages (US-WY) workflow, you’ll generally enter components that correspond to the underlying “person injured” damages (economic losses and any non-economic components you choose to include), then let the Wyoming wrongful-death framing govern the scenario.
• Based on the statute excerpt provided, no claim-type-specific “special schedule” or unique time-period rule was identified. Treat Wyoming’s wrongful death calculation as a general wrongful-act damages aggregation framework, not a specialized formula that depends on a particular sub-type of loss.

Inputs you need

Before you open DocketMath /tools/wrongful-death-damages, gather inputs that map to what the injured person “would have” sued for if death had not occurred under Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101.

Use this checklist to collect the numbers you plan to enter:

Economic damages (often entered as totals or monthly figures)

• Time period of losses (start and end dates)
• Lost earnings (gross wages/salary; use documented history where possible)
• Loss of earning capacity (if you’re modeling a longer-term reduction)
• Medical expenses related to the injury (including pre-death treatment)
• Funeral and burial expenses (only include if you intend to treat them as part of your Wyoming wrongful-death damages model)
• Other out-of-pocket costs (transportation, caregiving, etc., if supported by records)

Non-economic damages (if your model includes them)

• Pain and suffering (sometimes modeled through the decedent’s lifetime after injury, depending on how you structure the tool categories)
• Loss of enjoyment of life (if you include it)
• Emotional distress / grief components (include only if your DocketMath setup has a mapped category that fits your scenario—your provided statute excerpt does not list these components)

Liability / causation framing inputs (for structuring the calculation)

• Wrongful act basis (wrongful act, neglect, or default—describe in plain terms for your own notes)
• Whether the injury would have been actionable if death had not occurred (this is the statutory anchor described in Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101)
• Comparative-fault / reduction inputs (only if DocketMath’s WY workflow is configured for reductions and you have a defensible basis for them)

Allocation inputs (if you’re splitting among beneficiaries)

• Number of beneficiaries (if the tool supports allocation)
• Proposed allocation shares (enter only after you understand the method used by the tool)

Pitfall to avoid: Don’t start with “wrongful death” labels and skip the underlying “person injured” damages. Wyoming’s statutory framing is anchored to what the injured party could have recovered if death had not ensued.

How the calculation works

DocketMath’s Wrongful Death Damages (US-WY) approach is designed to translate Wyoming’s wrongful death statutory framing into a calculation workflow.

1) Start with the “if death had not ensued” baseline

Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101 (as reflected in the statute excerpt) provides that when a person’s death is caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default such as would have entitled the injured party to maintain an action to recover damages if death had not ensued, the person who would have been liable if death had not ensued is liable in an action.

Practically, that means your first step in DocketMath should be selecting/entering the damages categories that represent what the injured party could have pursued as “injury damages” prior to death—because the wrongful death action is built from that underlying right of action.

2) Model economic damages across the correct loss window

In most wrongful-death damage models inside DocketMath, economic losses typically depend on:

• Time period inputs (start/end dates), and
• Rate inputs (monthly earnings, wages, or projected earning capacity).

Common structures you may be using:

• Past earnings / lost earnings (past)
  [ \text{Lost earnings (past)} = \text{monthly earnings} \times \text{months of verified loss} ]

• Medical and out-of-pocket expenses
  Typically entered as totals backed by bills/records (rather than computed from dates in a complicated way—though your own date range still matters for internal consistency).

• Loss of earning capacity
  Usually requires a projection structure (for example, a future start/end period or an annualized value), depending on how your scenario is configured in the tool.

When you adjust the loss window (for example, moving an end date from 2 months to 6 months), your wage-based totals will typically change proportionally.

3) Add non-economic damages (only if they align with your category structure)

If your DocketMath WY workflow includes non-economic categories, you can add numeric amounts for those components. Because the statute excerpt provided is focused on the existence of the underlying action (“if death had not ensued”) rather than listing specific non-economic schedules, you should:

• keep non-economic components consistent with your “injured person could have sued” baseline; and
• avoid double counting (for example, entering the same period’s suffering into two different buckets).

4) Apply reductions or multipliers at the scenario level (if the tool uses them)

Some models incorporate scenario-wide adjustments such as comparative fault. If DocketMath’s US-WY configuration includes this step:

• apply the reduction once at the model/situation level (unless the tool explicitly requires category-level adjustments);
• keep your notes tied to the inputs you used (what factor was applied and why).

5) Produce a wrongful-death total consistent with the statutory anchor

After DocketMath aggregates the entered components (economic and any selected non-economic inputs), the output should reflect totals that are conceptually consistent with the statutory anchor in Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101: the wrongful death action is based on the damages the injured person would have been able to recover if death had not ensued.

Also note the jurisdiction clarification: no claim-type-specific sub-rule or specialized time period was identified from the provided statute excerpt. So you should not introduce a special schedule for particular loss categories unless you have an additional authoritative source.

Common pitfalls

These issues commonly skew wrongful death numbers when using DocketMath for Wyoming scenarios:

• Misaligned dates

  • Example: Using a loss end date that extends beyond the verified earnings loss period, then also adding another category that already covers the overlapping months.

• Double counting medical vs. funeral

  • If your “medical expenses” total already includes funeral-related expenses, don’t also add funeral separately (or vice versa).

• Skipping the statutory anchor

  • Forgetting that Wyoming’s wrongful death action is tied to what could have been recovered if death had not ensued under Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101.

• Assuming Wyoming has a specialized schedule you haven’t verified

  • The provided jurisdiction note indicates no claim-type-specific sub-rule was found in the excerpt. Avoid adding specialized timing rules without authority.

• Unrealistic earnings projections

  • Even if DocketMath calculates quickly, the result is only as credible as the earnings assumptions and the projection window you input.

• Checklist: consistency check before you finalize

  • Every dollar entered ties to an injury-caused loss period you can explain
  • Medical/funeral categories do not overlap
  • Non-economic components are not duplicated across multiple categories
  • The model reflects the “if death had not ensued” baseline under Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101

Sources and references

• Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101 (Wyoming wrongful death statute)
  https://www.wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title01.pdf

  • The statute provides that when death is caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default such as would have entitled the injured party to maintain an action to recover damages if death had not ensued, the liable party is subject to an action for wrongful death.

Next steps

1. Open DocketMath’s Wrongful Death Damages tool: /tools/wrongful-death-damages
2. Enter your economic-loss time window (start/end dates) and supporting wage/medical totals.
3. Add non-economic components only if they fit your mapped categories and stay consistent with the “underlying injury claim” concept described by Wyo. Stat. § 1-38-101.
4. Run multiple scenarios, such as:

   • a conservative scenario (shorter verified loss window)
   • a broader scenario (alternative earnings assumptions or a wider projection window)
5. Validate the output against the consistency checklist (especially double counting and date alignment).

Related reading

• How to calculate Wrongful Death Damages in Texas — Full how-to guide with jurisdiction-specific rules
• [How to calculate Wrongful Death Damages in Philippines](/blog/wrongful-death