What Constitutes a Valid Wrongful Death Claim in Texas and How is it Applied?
What Constitutes a Valid Wrongful Death Claim in Texas and How is it Applied?
Without a clear understanding of the law, many people in your situation may not be fully aware of whether or not you may be able to seek legal action against a negligent party through a wrongful death lawsuit. Below is a list of basic conditions that had to have existed, or may have existed, for a wrongful death lawsuit to be pursued:
Your loved one must have died due to the negligent behavior of another person or entity. This negligent behavior could have been the direct cause or, in legal terms, the proximate cause of the fatal truck accident.
Proximate cause means that the liable party played a contributing role leading up to the accident.
Your relative must have a surviving family member or beneficiary that can pursue legal action.
Your beloved victim or your family must have incurred some form of tangible financial loss due to the fatal truck accident, which in a civil case is known as legal damages.
If at least one of these basic aspects existed as a result of the accident that claimed the life of your beloved family member, you have every right to seek legal action against the liable parties through a wrongful death insurance claim or lawsuit in civil court. Furthermore, you should also be aware that a civil case can be pursued regardless of whether or not a liable party is also facing criminal charges. If criminal charges were considered against any negligent parties but weren’t filed, that has no bearing on your right to file a wrongful death lawsuit in civil court. But suppose criminal charges are filed against the liable defendant, regardless of whether a guilty criminal verdict is rendered. In that case, the fact that charges were filed significantly strengthens any civil case you might choose to file against that defendant subsequently.
The Types of Damages That can be Won in a Texas Wrongful Death Lawsuit.
Damages is the legal term for the financial loss that a victim, or a victim’s family, incurs due to a fatal accident. In Texas, damages in wrongful death lawsuits are separated into two categories known as wrongful death damages and survival damages. Because these damages can be viewed differently by a jury, it’s important that both types of damages are sought in a wrongful death lawsuit so that the bereaved family can be properly compensated for their loss: and the liable defendants are held properly accountable for their negligence.
Wrongful death damages are those directly incurred by the family members that have lost a loved one due to a fatal accident. These damages can be sought by multiple immediate family members such as a spouse, parents, or children, either separately or collectively. Wrongful death damages often, but not always, include compensation for items such as the deceased family member’s medical bills prior to death and funeral expenses, along with a family member’s pain and suffering due to their loss, loss of financial support that the decedent had provided, loss of consortium (or unique familial love) and the fact that they likely had to witness their loved one suffer and die. Loss of consortium can also be business-related if the deceased loved one was in business with other family members.
On the other hand, survival damages relate to those damages that the decedent family member incurred or would have had a right to collect had they survived the accident. And in this case, only one family member can seek survival damages since that family member effectively acts as a legal proxy who speaks for their deceased relative in a Texas wrongful death case. However, it should be noted that the family member who seeks survival damages can also seek wrongful death damages. But only the closest living family member can pursue a survival damages claim. Usually, the one that will file a survival damage lawsuit is the spouse. But if the spouse is absent or does not file a civil suit, the children (from oldest to youngest) are next in line. The only restriction is that the child must be of legal age to have standing (at least 18 years old). After that come the parents of the deceased loved one, then maybe a sibling. But again, only one family member can file a survival damage lawsuit.
Survival damages can include financial compensation for things such as a deceased family member’s medical bills that would have been presented to them had they lived, their lost wages due to time off from work while injured, their pain and suffering, their mental or emotional duress in the accident, the compensatory value of their disfigurement or possible long-term injury, and the value of any damage to the decedent’s property as a result of the accident, such as an automobile or anything of value that was in the vehicle at the time of the big rig wreck. But survival damages are very subjective and open to a certain amount of interpretation. So computing the value of these amounts is seldom easy, especially for one who is not well-versed in establishing the value of such losses or projected – but unrealized – amounts of income that might have been earned. So having an experienced Texas fatal truck accident attorney who knows how to properly calculate these damages is virtually a necessity for surviving family members.
Call us today at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation. We will fight for your legal rights and the compensation your family deserves so you can begin to recover from the tragic loss of your loved one at the hands of a negligent trucker and the trucking company who callously took the life of your beloved family member.
