When a preventable accident takes a life, no claim can undo the loss, but Texas law gives your family a way to hold the responsible party accountable and recover for what was taken. A Texas wrongful death lawyer at Goldberg & Loren carries that case so your family can grieve. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we win.
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Texas Injury Law at a Glance
| Deadline to file a lawsuit | Two years from the date of the injury (wrongful death: two years from the date of death). Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003 |
| Who can bring a wrongful death claim | The surviving spouse, children, or parents of the person who died. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.004 |
| Survival claim | Brought by the estate for what the person suffered between injury and death. § 71.021 |
| Punitive (exemplary) damages | Available only on clear and convincing evidence of gross negligence, malice, or fraud. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.003 |
Wrongful Death vs. Survival Claim
| Wrongful death claim | Compensates the family for their loss: lost financial support, lost love, companionship and guidance, mental anguish, and funeral costs. Brought by the surviving spouse, children, or parents (§ 71.004). |
| Survival claim | Compensates the estate for what the deceased endured before death: their conscious pain, medical bills, and lost earnings between the injury and death (§ 71.021). |
Who Can File a Texas Wrongful Death Claim
Texas law is specific about who belongs to the circle of people it lets recover. Only the surviving spouse, children, or parents of the person who died may bring a wrongful death claim (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.004). That list is exclusive. Siblings, grandparents, cousins, and unmarried partners are not eligible beneficiaries, no matter how close the relationship was in life. Adopted children stand in the same position as biological children, and adoptive parents in the same position as biological parents, but the statute stops there.
Any one of those eligible family members may file the claim for the benefit of all of them, so the family does not need to agree on a single representative before the case begins. If the eligible relatives do not file within three months of the death, the executor or administrator of the estate may bring the claim on their behalf, unless the family expressly asks the representative not to (§ 71.004(c)).
That three-month provision is a practical backstop, not a second deadline, the two-year limit still governs when the lawsuit must be on file. When there are multiple beneficiaries, any recovery is divided among them in shares the jury or court finds proportionate to the injury each person suffered.
Wrongful Death vs. Survival Claim
Two separate claims usually run together after a fatal accident, and it helps to understand why Texas splits the harm into two. The wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents and compensates them for their own loss, the financial support the deceased would have provided, the value of lost inheritance, and the love, companionship, comfort, and guidance the family will now live without (§ 71.002).
The survival claim is different in character. It is not the family’s claim at all; it is the claim the injured person could have brought had they lived, which the law allows the estate to pursue after death (§ 71.021). Through the survival action, the estate recovers for what your loved one personally endured between the moment of injury and the moment of death, their conscious physical pain and mental anguish, the medical bills that piled up during any period of treatment, lost earnings in that window, and funeral and burial expenses.
Filed together, the two claims capture the full scope of the harm: what the family lost going forward, and what the person suffered before they were gone. Any recovery on the survival claim flows into the estate and passes under the will or, if there is no will, under the Texas rules of intestate succession, which is a separate distribution from the wrongful death shares that go directly to the beneficiaries.
What a Family Can Recover
Texas recognizes that the loss after a preventable death is both economic and human, and it allows recovery for both. On the economic side, a family can recover the funeral and burial costs, the financial support the deceased reasonably would have contributed over a lifetime, the value of household services they performed, and the loss of inheritance the family would otherwise have received. On the human side, Texas allows recovery for the loss of love, companionship, comfort, society, and guidance, and for the family’s own mental anguish. A surviving spouse may recover for the loss of the marital relationship; children may recover for the loss of a parent’s nurture and moral guidance; parents may recover for the loss of a child’s companionship. These are real, compensable losses under Texas law even though no dollar figure can truly measure them.
Where the conduct behind the death rises to gross negligence, malice, or fraud, Texas also allows exemplary (punitive) damages, but only on clear and convincing evidence, a higher standard than the ordinary preponderance used for the rest of the case (§ 41.003). Exemplary damages are meant to punish and deter, not to compensate, and Texas caps them at the greater of $200,000 or two times economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000 (§ 41.008(b)). That cap does not apply, however, when the death resulted from certain felonies, including intoxication manslaughter, in which case the exemplary damages are not limited by the statutory ceiling (§ 41.008(c)).
Is There a Cap on Wrongful Death Damages?
For a family reading about damage caps, the important point is this: in an ordinary fatal-accident case, Texas places no cap on the compensatory damages a family may recover. The widely discussed Texas damage caps apply to medical-malpractice claims under Chapter 74 and to claims against governmental entities under the Texas Tort Claims Act in Chapter 101. A standard car crash, truck collision, or workplace death carries no statutory ceiling on the family’s economic or non-economic loss. The only cap that can enter an ordinary case is the separate cap on exemplary damages described above, and even that falls away for felony conduct such as intoxication manslaughter.
How a Recovery Is Divided
Because Texas treats the wrongful death claim and the survival claim as two different things, the money they produce is handled differently. Wrongful death damages belong to the surviving spouse, children, and parents, and a jury or judge apportions them among those beneficiaries in shares proportionate to the loss each person suffered, so the split is not automatically equal. Survival damages, by contrast, belong to the estate.
They pass under the deceased’s will if there is one, and under the Texas rules of intestate succession if there is not, which means creditors of the estate may reach that portion while the wrongful death shares generally go directly to the family. When a beneficiary is a minor, the court supervises how that child’s share is protected until adulthood.
These distinctions rarely change whether a family recovers, but they affect who receives what, and they are worth understanding before any settlement is finalized.
How Fault Is Shared: Texas Comparative Responsibility
Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule, and it matters even in a fatal case. Under the proportionate responsibility statute, a family can still recover as long as the person who died is found 50% or less at fault; any percentage of responsibility assigned to them simply reduces the award by that share (§ 33.001, § 33.012). If the deceased is found 51% or more responsible, recovery is barred. Insurers know this rule well and often try to shift blame onto the person who died to cut or defeat the claim, which is one reason preserving evidence early and telling the family’s side of the story fully both matter so much.
The Two-Year Deadline
A Texas wrongful death claim generally must be filed within two years of the date of death (§ 16.003(b)). The clock runs from the date of death, not from the date of the accident, which can matter when a loved one survives for a time before passing. Narrow exceptions exist, for example, the deadline may be tolled for minor beneficiaries who are too young to bring a claim on their own, and different notice rules and shorter windows apply when a governmental entity is involved.
Those exceptions are limited and fact-specific, so they should never be assumed. Practically, evidence begins disappearing long before two years pass, skid marks wash away, vehicles are repaired or scrapped, surveillance footage is overwritten, and witnesses move and forget, so acting early protects the case regardless of how much time the statute technically allows.
What to Do After a Fatal Accident
In the days after a sudden loss, the last thing a family should have to think about is a legal claim, and they should not have to carry it alone. A few steps help preserve what the family is entitled to without adding to the burden. Keep every document that arrives, the accident report, medical records, hospital bills, and any correspondence from an insurance company.
Avoid giving a recorded statement to the other side’s insurer or accepting a quick settlement before anyone understands the full value of the claim, because early offers are almost always low and, once signed, releases are final.
Let a lawyer handle communication with the insurance company, request and preserve evidence such as vehicle data and video before it is lost, and track the deadlines while the family focuses on each other.
Proving a Wrongful Death Case
To recover, a Texas wrongful death claim has to establish the same core elements as any negligence case. The family must show that the responsible party owed the deceased a duty of reasonable care, that they breached that duty through a wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, or default, that the breach caused the death, and that the family suffered compensable losses as a result.
In a fatal crash, for example, that can mean proving a driver ran a red light, drove while impaired, or was fatigued and inattentive; in a commercial-truck case it can extend to the trucking company through its hiring, training, and maintenance decisions; in a workplace or premises case it can reach a property owner or contractor who ignored a known hazard.
More than one party can be responsible, and Texas law allows the family to pursue each of them. Building that proof depends on evidence that is easiest to secure early, the police report, vehicle data, maintenance and inspection records, employer logs, surveillance footage, and the accounts of witnesses while memories are fresh.
The Civil Case Is Not the Criminal Case
Families are often confused about how a criminal case and a civil case fit together, and the distinction is important. A criminal prosecution belongs to the State. Its purpose is to punish the wrongdoer through fines or imprisonment, and any penalty is paid to the State, not to your family.
The civil wrongful death case is the separate proceeding where the family’s own losses are actually recovered. Because the two cases serve different purposes and use different standards of proof, the civil claim can succeed even if the driver is acquitted, the charges are dropped, or no one is ever charged at all.
Criminal cases require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, while a civil wrongful death claim requires only a preponderance of the evidence, a lower bar that many families are able to meet even when a prosecutor decides not to pursue, or cannot win, a criminal conviction.
The Accidents That Lead to Texas Wrongful Death Claims
A wrongful death claim can grow out of nearly any situation in which the deceased would have had a valid injury claim had they survived (§ 71.002). In Texas, the most common causes are the same everyday dangers that produce serious injuries, only with the worst possible outcome.
Fatal car and truck collisions on the interstates and rural highways account for a large share of these cases, and commercial-truck wrecks in particular often involve a trucking company as well as the driver. Motorcycle crashes, pedestrian and bicycle deaths, workplace and industrial accidents, unsafe premises, defective products, and medical negligence round out the picture. Each kind of case points toward a different responsible party and a different set of records, which is why identifying the cause early shapes the entire claim.
More than one party can be legally responsible for a single death, and Texas law lets the family pursue each of them. A fatal truck crash can reach the driver, the motor carrier that hired and supervised that driver, and a maintenance contractor whose neglect left the rig unsafe.
A workplace death can implicate a property owner, a general contractor, a staffing company, and the maker of a machine that failed. Because each responsible party usually carries separate insurance, naming all of them can be the difference between a recovery that truly reflects the loss and one limited to a single policy that falls short of it.
How Insurance Companies Approach a Fatal-Accident Claim
Behind almost every wrongful death claim is an insurance company, and its financial interest runs directly against the family’s. Adjusters are trained to limit what the insurer pays, and in a fatal case that often means contacting the family quickly, expressing sympathy, and asking for a recorded statement or a signed authorization before anyone has had time to understand the claim.
Early settlement offers tend to arrive before the full scope of the loss is known, and a release, once signed, is final. A family that accepts a fast payment can give up far more than it receives.
Insurers also lean on the comparative-responsibility rule, since shifting blame onto the person who died can cut the award or, if they can push that share past half, defeat the claim entirely (§ 33.001). That is why the family’s side of the story has to be documented carefully and the evidence preserved before it disappears.
A lawyer levels the field: handling all communication with the insurer, gathering the vehicle data, records, and witness accounts that establish fault, and building the claim to its true value rather than the number an adjuster hopes the family will accept.
How Goldberg & Loren Handles a Wrongful Death Case
Goldberg & Loren represents families across Texas after fatal crashes, workplace tragedies, and other preventable deaths. The work begins with an investigation into what happened and who is responsible, moves through the careful documentation of both the economic and the human sides of the loss, and continues through negotiation or, when an insurer will not pay what the case is worth, litigation.
Throughout, the family should be free to grieve while the firm carries the legal weight, tracks the two-year deadline (§ 16.003(b)), and deals with the insurance companies.
The firm has handled more than 20,000 cases and recovered over $550 million for clients since 1994. The consultation is free, and because the firm works on a contingency fee, a family pays nothing unless there is a recovery.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome, and every case is different, but the aim in each one is the same: to hold the responsible party accountable and to steady a family’s future after a loss that should never have happened.
Frequently Asked Questions
Only the surviving spouse, children, or parents of the person who died (§ 71.004). If none files within three months, the estate’s representative may.
Wrongful death compensates the family for their loss; the survival claim, brought by the estate, recovers for what the deceased suffered before death (§ 71.021). They are usually filed together.
Generally two years from the date of death (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003), with narrow exceptions a lawyer should evaluate.
Yes. The civil case is separate from any criminal case and uses a lower burden of proof, so it can succeed even without a conviction.
In an ordinary fatal-accident case, no. Texas’s damage caps apply to medical-malpractice and government claims, not to a standard car, truck, or workplace death, so there is no statutory ceiling on a family’s non-economic loss.
Yes. Texas allows a family to recover non-economic wrongful death damages, the loss of love, companionship, comfort, and guidance, plus mental anguish, in addition to lost financial support.
Legal Sources & References
The Texas laws described on this page are cited to official primary sources and were last reviewed on August 1, 2026.
- Wrongful death beneficiaries, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.004
- Survival action, § 71.021
- Exemplary damages, § 41.003
- Statute of limitations, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003
- Wrongful death damages & apportionment, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 71.009–71.010
- Wrongful death beneficiaries: Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.004
- Survival action: § 71.021
- Exemplary damages: § 41.003
- Statute of limitations: Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003
- Wrongful death damages & apportionment: Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 71.009–71.010
