Indiana Construction Accident Lawyer Presents: Who pays your attorney fees in an Indiana wrongful death case depends on your relationship to the deceased. Nearly all Indiana wrongful death cases are handled by personal injury and workplace lawyers on a contingency fee basis for the simple reason most injury victims cannot afford the hourly rate and expenses required to bring a lawsuit. Indiana law provides different remedies for who pays the attorney fee based on the type of case. In a traditional wrongful death case in which a worker is killed leaving a spouse and/or minor children, each party is responsible for its own attorney fees. This was clarified by the Indiana Supreme Court in SCI Propane v.Fredrick. However, in the event the person killed leaves only adult children or is a child survived by parents, then attorney fees are recoverable. The Court came to this conclusion based on reading the statutes, IC 34-23-1-2 and 34-23-1-1. The reasoning was that because these types of cases have limited monetary value, that in order to make any recovery worthwhile, the responsible party should pay the attorney fees.