Practice Areas
Wrongful Death Claims in Austin, TX
Texas is specific about who may bring a wrongful death claim, and the list is shorter than most families expect.
Free Case ReviewWrongful Death
What actually decides this kind of claim.
Texas law treats a death as two separate claims, and families are rarely told this. Understanding the difference changes who needs to be involved and what can be recovered.
The wrongful death claim belongs to the family. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.004, it may be brought only by the surviving spouse, the children, or the parents of the person who died. That list is exhaustive. Siblings cannot bring it. Grandparents cannot bring it, and neither can a partner who was never married, however long the relationship lasted. Texas does recognize an informal or common-law marriage, but the surviving partner has to prove it. This claim compensates the family for its own losses: financial support, the relationship itself, and the grief.
How It Works
Tell us what happened
A conversation, not an intake form. What happened, what hurts, and what the insurer has already said to you.
Evidence gets locked down
Preservation demands go out for video, truck data, and records while they still exist. This is the step that cannot wait.
Treatment and documentation
You get care. The claim gets built around the medical record, because that record is what the injury is worth on paper.
Demand, negotiation, or suit
A documented demand goes to the carrier. If the number is not serious, the case gets filed before the deadline, not after.
The Part That Decides It
Where these claims are won and lost.
The survival action belongs to the estate. Under § 71.021, it carries forward the claim the person who died would have had if they had lived, covering what they endured between the injury and the death, including their own pain and their final medical expenses. Because it runs through the estate rather than through the statutory beneficiary list, heirs who cannot bring a wrongful death claim, siblings among them, may still have a role here. It usually requires opening an estate and having a representative appointed.
Most fatal cases involve both claims, and they are pursued together. Which one a particular loss belongs to affects who must join the case, how the proceeds are divided among beneficiaries, and whether an estate has to be opened at all. Getting the structure wrong at the start creates problems that surface at settlement, when it is expensive to fix.
The deadline is two years from the date of death under § 16.003, rather than from the date of the injury that caused it. When a person survives an incident for a period before dying, those are different dates, and the difference has ended otherwise valid cases.
There is a practical reality to name alongside the legal one. Investigation in a fatal case has to begin while a family is in the worst weeks of its life, because the vehicle, the site, and the records will not wait for grief. That work can be carried by someone else, and it should be.
Free Case Review
What You Are Up Against
Texas is specific about who may bring the claim, and siblings are not on the list.
Section 71.004 limits a wrongful death claim to a surviving spouse, children, or parents. A survival action under § 71.021 works differently.
Free Case ReviewBefore You Call
Wrongful Death, answered.
My brother died and there is no spouse, no children, and no living parents. Can I file?
Not a wrongful death claim. Section 71.004 limits that claim to a surviving spouse, children, or parents, and siblings are not on the list. You may still have a role in the survival action under § 71.021, which belongs to the estate and passes through the heirs, so the answer depends on the estate rather than on the wrongful death statute.
We were together for years but never married. Do I have a claim?
Possibly, if the relationship met the requirements of an informal marriage under Texas law: an agreement to be married, living together in Texas as spouses, and representing to others that you were married. It has to be proven with evidence rather than asserted, and it is worth raising early because it determines whether you are a statutory beneficiary at all.
What is the difference between the wrongful death claim and the survival claim?
The wrongful death claim compensates the family for what the death cost them: lost support, lost companionship, and their own mental anguish. The survival claim compensates the estate for what the person who died went through personally between the injury and the death, including their pain and their final medical bills. Most fatal cases involve both.
How long do we have?
Two years, running from the date of death rather than the date of the injury. Those are the same date in an immediate fatality and different dates when someone survives for a time, and the distinction matters enough to confirm rather than assume.
More from Waterloo Injury Law
Wrongful Death
Two years to file. Far less than that to save the evidence.
Let's Work Together
Talk to someone before you sign anything.
Tell us what you need. We come out, look at it in person, and give you a straight answer at no cost.
Waterloo Injury Law PLLC (512) 555-0142 · intake@