Wrongful Death.

If you searched for a Texas wrongful death lawyer, someone in your family died and you know, or suspect, that someone else caused it. What follows is a serious case: two separate claims, a two-year clock that has already started, and rules written for families that an ordinary injury case does not have.

I am Orlando Rodriguez, a trial lawyer in Houston. Wrongful death cases are a central part of my practice, not an exception. Under Chapter 71 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the family has a claim for its own losses and the estate has a claim for what the person suffered before death. The two run together, and both have to be proven with evidence.

The two claims a death creates

The first is the wrongful death claim. It belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents, and one or more of them can bring it for the benefit of all (Section 71.004). It covers what the family lost when the person died: financial support, companionship and guidance, mental anguish, and lost inheritance. It does not compensate the person who died or the estate.

The second is the survival claim. A person’s own claim for an injury does not end with the person’s death; it passes to the heirs, legal representatives, and estate (Section 71.021). It covers what the person suffered between the injury and the death: conscious pain and mental anguish, medical expenses, and funeral expenses. Its value can be substantial when the person survived hours or days.

If no family member files the wrongful death claim within three calendar months of the death, the executor or administrator must bring it, unless all of them ask that it not be brought (Section 71.004(c)). And when the death was caused by a wilful act or omission or by gross negligence, exemplary damages can be recovered as well (Section 71.009), on proof by clear and convincing evidence (Section 41.003). That is a question the defense has to answer for months, not an ornament on the case; Gross Negligence explains the standard.

The clock starts on the first day

The general deadline for a wrongful death case in Texas is two years from the date of death (Section 16.003(b)). Two years sounds like a long time until the evidence starts slipping away: the vehicle is repaired or scrapped, the video is recorded over, the witnesses move, and the company’s records follow their own retention schedule.

Against a governmental unit, such as a city, a county, or a state agency, the Texas Tort Claims Act requires written notice within six months of the incident, and a city’s charter can require it sooner (Section 101.101). Unless the government already had actual notice of the death, missing that deadline can end the case before it starts. Limitations covers the clock in more detail.

The wrongful death cases I take

Why hire me

A wrongful death case is not a bigger injury case. It is its own file, with its own rules, and with a whole family waiting for answers. I work these cases as a trial lawyer. I write my own motions, I present my own witnesses, and when the case goes to trial, I am the one at the plaintiff’s table.

And I speak with you in your language. In English or in Spanish, one lawyer on the file, with no screen between you and the person handling the case. That matters when what is at stake is the memory of someone who is gone.