Jail & Custody Death.
The government that holds a person owes them basic care.
Once the state takes a person into custody, it takes on a duty to keep them safe. When that duty is ignored and someone dies, the Constitution has been violated.
A person in jail cannot seek their own medical care, call their own doctor, or walk out to safety. The law recognizes that dependence by requiring officials to provide for serious medical needs and to protect detainees from known dangers. The standard is deliberate indifference: an official knew of a substantial risk to the person's health or safety and disregarded it. A jailer who ignores obvious signs of a medical crisis, or denies known medication, can cross that line.
These are among the hardest and most important civil rights cases. The evidence is held by the institution: jail medical records, surveillance video, staffing logs, and policies. Where an in-custody death traces to a pattern rather than a single lapse, the claim can reach the county or city itself for a policy or a failure to train. Preserving the records before they are lost is the first and most urgent task.
On indifference and duty:
Is this a case I can take?
Almost every day someone tells me about a stop that felt wrong, and I hear you. Being treated badly by an officer is real, and it stays with you. But the cases I can actually take into federal court are a narrower thing than most people expect. Reading the two lists below will tell you, in about a minute, whether yours is one I can help with. It saves you a phone call, and it saves the people with the strongest cases the time I owe them.
- ✓An officer used force and you were hurt: hit, thrown down, tased, shot, or bitten by a police dog.
- ✓You needed medical care afterward, such as stitches, an ER visit, surgery, a broken bone, or a lasting injury.
- ✓Someone was seriously hurt or died in a jail or in custody, or was denied clear medical care there.
- ✓You were arrested or held with no real reason, or kept for days without a charge ever being filed.
- ✓Police entered or searched your home without a warrant and without your permission.
- ·A traffic stop or a ticket where no one was physically hurt.
- ·Being pulled over, questioned, or searched during a stop, when it ended without force and without injury.
- ·An officer was rude, unprofessional, or dishonest, but caused no physical harm.
- ·A stop you believe was unfair or about your race, but that ended without force, injury, or an unlawful arrest.
- This is the honest truth, not a brush-off. Qualified immunity stops most stop-only claims before a jury ever hears them, and I would rather tell you that now than leave you waiting on a call.
If yours is on the left.
Email is the fastest way to reach me for a civil rights matter. The button opens your email with the right questions already in it. Fill in what you can and send it. I read every one myself. Free, and no fees unless we win.
Email me your case detailsPrefer to speak by phone? (713) 239-2300. Email usually gets you a faster, fuller answer, because I can see what happened before we talk.