If someone else’s carelessness took your husband, wife, child or parent, Texas law lets your family sue the people responsible, and it gives you two years from the date of death to file. Nearly all of these cases end up as a fight with the other side’s insurance company. You don’t have to figure any of that out this week. Call (713) 664-4000 for a free consultation and we’ll tell you where your family stands.
We know you’re in no shape to fight anybody right now. You shouldn’t have to be. Jay Blass Cohen founded Blass Law in 2009. He’s never been a prosecutor or worked for an insurance company. We take wrongful death cases on a contingency fee, so there’s no fee unless we recover. If we don’t recover, you don’t owe us for case expenses either.
Who can bring a wrongful death claim in Texas
The claim belongs to the surviving spouse and children of the person who died. Parents have one too (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 71.004(a)). Adult children count. So do parents who lost a baby before birth, because the statute covers an unborn child at every stage of pregnancy (§ 71.001(4)), with exceptions for claims against the mother and for lawful medical care or lawfully dispensed drugs (§ 71.003(c)). Siblings and grandparents don’t get a wrongful death claim of their own in Texas, and that catches a lot of families off guard.
One of you can file for everyone, or each of you can file (§ 71.004(b)). If nobody in the family has filed within three calendar months after the death, the executor or administrator of the estate has to bring the case, unless every one of you asks them not to (§ 71.004(c)). If a case goes to verdict, the jury divides the award among the family members in shares it decides (§ 71.010), and that money can’t be taken to pay your loved one’s debts (§ 71.011).
The second claim most families don’t know about
A death case usually carries two claims. The wrongful death claim (§ 71.002) pays the family for what the family lost. The survival claim (§ 71.021) belongs to your loved one’s estate and carries forward the injury case they could have brought themselves if they’d lived. Their medical bills from the final injury go there, along with the pain they consciously suffered before they died. Texas courts also let the estate recover funeral and burial costs through it. Those medical bills are measured by what was actually paid or incurred, not the hospital’s sticker price (§ 41.0105). We bring both, because skipping the survival claim leaves your family’s money on the table.
What your family has to prove
The family can sue only if your loved one could have sued for the injury had they lived (§ 71.003(a)). So the case gets proved the way an injury case does: someone’s “wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness, or default” caused the injury that caused the death (§ 71.002(b)). A company answers for what its employees and agents do on the job, which is why a death caused by an 18-wheeler driver is a case against the trucking company as well as the driver.
Expect the other side’s insurance company to blame the person who died. He was speeding. She stepped off the curb without looking. It’s ugly, and it’s on purpose, because Texas counts the fault of the person who died against the family (§ 33.011(1)). Whatever percentage a jury puts on your loved one comes off the family’s recovery, and if it’s more than 50 percent, the family gets nothing (§§ 33.001, 33.012). Shutting that down with evidence is a big part of our job.
What a wrongful death case can recover
No amount of money makes this right. But money matters to a family that just lost a paycheck, or lost the person who kept the house running. Texas courts let the family recover the financial support their loved one would have provided and the household help they would have given. They can also recover what that person likely would have saved and left to the family. And they can recover for losing that person’s love and companionship, along with their own grief, which the law calls mental anguish. And if a defense lawyer tries to bring up a surviving spouse’s new relationship or chances of remarrying, the statute shuts that down (§ 71.005). An actual ceremonial remarriage can come in. Speculation can’t.
When the death was caused by a wilful act or gross negligence, the family can also ask for exemplary damages, usually called punitive damages (§ 71.009). They take clear and convincing evidence and a unanimous jury (§ 41.003), and Texas normally caps them (§ 41.008(b)). The cap doesn’t apply when the death was caused by conduct that amounts to intoxication manslaughter (§ 41.008(c)). Punitive damages aren’t available at all against a government defendant sued under the Texas Tort Claims Act (§ 101.024), and that act also caps what a city or county pays (§ 101.023). More on punitive damages in a Texas drunk driving case.
Drunk driving deaths are where Jay’s background counts most. He’s an ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist and a certified Drug Recognition Expert. He’s also trained in forensic chromatography, the science behind blood alcohol testing. In a DWI case he uses that training to test the State’s evidence. In a drunk driving death, he uses it to prove the other driver was impaired.
If your loved one died on the job and the employer carried workers’ compensation, the family’s claim against the employer is usually limited to comp benefits. The surviving spouse and children can still seek punitive damages if the employer’s gross negligence or intentional act caused the death (Labor Code § 408.001(b)). And comp doesn’t protect a negligent driver or equipment maker who isn’t the employer. We handle those workplace death cases too.
Deadlines: two years, with exceptions you shouldn’t count on
A wrongful death suit has to be filed within two years of the death (§ 16.003(b)). The survival claim runs on your loved one’s own injury clock, which Texas pauses for 12 months after a death, or until an executor or administrator qualifies if that happens sooner (§ 16.062). A child who was under 18 when a parent died gets extra time on their own claim, because the clock doesn’t run while they’re a minor (§ 16.001). Deaths involving medical care are different. A health care liability claim has a two-year deadline tied to the treatment and a 10-year outer limit. Extra time goes only to children under 12, who have until their 14th birthday (§ 74.251). If a government body like a city or county may be at fault, the family generally has to give it notice within six months of the incident, and a city’s charter can set an even shorter deadline (§ 101.101). The City of Houston’s charter requires sworn notice within 90 days (Houston City Charter art. IX, § 11). If a doctor or hospital is involved, see our medical malpractice page.
Two years sounds like a long time. It isn’t. Store and traffic camera video gets recorded over in days, a truck’s electronic data can be overwritten, the wrecked car gets sold for salvage, and witnesses move away. The sooner we’re involved, the more of that we can lock down.
How we build a wrongful death case
We start by sending preservation letters to everyone who might have evidence, so nobody can say later they didn’t know to keep it. Then we pull the crash report and the 911 audio, find the witnesses, get the vehicles inspected before they’re scrapped, and when it helps, bring in an accident reconstructionist and an economist who can put a real number on decades of lost support.
We also take over every call from the other side’s insurance company. The adjuster’s job is to close the file cheap, and a grieving family is exactly who they hope to reach before a lawyer does. Don’t give a recorded statement and don’t sign anything until you’ve talked to us. When the case resolves, we sort out the liens and how the money gets divided, and you can read how a Texas settlement gets paid out.
Wrongful death questions we hear
The driver is being prosecuted. Can we still sue?
Yes. A criminal case doesn’t block the family’s civil case (§ 71.006). The criminal case is about punishing the driver. The civil case is about paying your family, and the criminal file often has evidence we can use. Read more on wrongful death caused by a drunk driver.
Can the bar that served the driver be sued?
Sometimes. A bar or restaurant can be liable if, when it served the driver, it was apparent the driver was obviously intoxicated to the point of being a clear danger, and that intoxication helped cause the crash (Alcoholic Beverage Code § 2.02(b)). Receipts and bar camera video disappear fast, so call early. See our page on suing the bar that over-served the driver.
What does it cost to hire you?
Nothing up front. The consultation is free, and we work on a contingency fee, so there’s no fee unless we recover. If we don’t recover, you don’t owe us for case expenses either. More on what a personal injury lawyer costs.
Call us before you talk to the insurance company
You shouldn’t have to carry the grief and the fight at the same time. Let us carry the fight. Call (713) 664-4000 or fill out our contact form for a free consultation. We’ll listen to what happened and tell you plainly what your family’s case looks like. If we take it, we start right away. There’s no pressure and no obligation.
Real Results for Our Clients
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. See all case results →
Related Personal Injury Practice Areas
- Houston Personal Injury Lawyer (Overview)
- Car Accident Lawyer
- Truck Accident Lawyer
- Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer
- Rideshare, Lyft & Uber Accident Lawyer
- Maritime & Admiralty Accident Lawyer
- Premises Liability Lawyer
- Medical Malpractice Lawyer
- Product Liability Lawyer
- Bicycle Accident Lawyer
- Catastrophic Injury Lawyer
- Burn Injury Lawyer
- Construction and Workplace Injury Lawyer
- Settlements & Verdicts
Frequently Asked Questions
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.