What Is a Wrongful Death Lawsuit? Who Can File for Wrongful Death?

Cornell Law provides the basic definition of a wrongful death action as “a civil action against someone who can be held liable for a death.” This means that any unjust injury which causes someone’s death may be grounds for a wrongful death action. The civil action could happen in lieu of or separate from a criminal trial, depending on the situation.

The definition goes on to specify that, originally, claims for wrongful death had to be brought by the decedent’s survivors (close relatives only, like parents, partners, or children). However, modern law has been modified in some states so that distant relatives (like grandparents) or financial dependents (like unmarried domestic partners) may also sue for wrongful death.

For example, though Pierce Skrabanek handles nationwide cases, we are based out of Texas. In the state of Texas, only immediate surviving family members can file a wrongful death suit, specifically spouses, children, or parents.

• Spouses may file suit even if they were separated at the time of death, or if they have since remarried.
• Biological or adopted children may file a claim (though adopted children may not file for their biological parents).
• For parents, adoptive or biological parents have the right to file wrongful death lawsuits.

Those who do not have the right to file wrongful death claims in Texas include grandparents, siblings, cousins, or other relatives, as well as live-in partners who are not bound by a formal or common-law marriage.

If you have questions regarding who has standing in your state to file a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of your deceased loved one, call 832-690-7000 to speak with the wrongful death lawyers at Pierce Skrabanek. Do not hesitate, as there may be a statute of limitations (filing deadline) that applies to your circumstances, and your window of opportunity for justice may be closing.

How Do You Prove Wrongful Death?

Our clients often report feeling relieved once they’ve hired legal counsel. This is because the Pierce Skrabanek team immediately takes over the work to prove a case like wrongful death, removing that burden from your shoulders.

Here are the basics of how your attorneys may prove wrongful death cases:

• Establish duty of care: Establishing a duty of care may be showing that a surgeon has a responsibility to do no harm to patients. That is often an easier standard to prove, as medical professionals swear an oath regarding their responsibilities. Harder duties of care to prove may involve the duty a retail shop owes to customers and employees, or the duty of a person to their neighbor.
• Show a breach of duty: Examples of breach of duty stem from what standard of care was established above. A surgeon who operates on the wrong body may be guilty of medical malpractice. Another is a retail store that allows customers to walk over wet floors without warning, leading to a slip-and-fall injury. Personal duties of care may involve making sure a tree in one yard doesn’t drop a branch into a neighboring yard where children play and could be injured.
• Connect causation: Once it’s established that someone knew to do better, but failed, the next step is to show that failure or “breach of duty” led directly to someone’s injury. In personal injury cases, this could involve a driver who rear-ended someone, causing whiplash. In wrongful death cases, it’s a far more grievous injury.
• Account for injury damages: The injury in wrongful death cases is usually a fatal one, though there are instances where one negligent injury is compounded by malpractice treatment at a hospital. Legally, these distinctions matter for assigning fault and deciding who owes support for the resulting losses. Those losses must then be proven in terms of “calculable damages” like lost income after the death of a breadwinner, as well as damages that are harder to quantify like pain, grief, and emotional anguish.

The above points are also known as the four elements of negligence, and are required to prove in cases of personal injury and wrongful death before damages awards are agreed upon or decided by a judge. This is why you hire a wrongful death attorney, because while these are the concerns of the legal system, your time is better spent elsewhere. Specifically, your personal priorities likely involve processing your grief and rebuilding your life after a loss, rather than trying to deal with legal matters on your own.

For the support needed to recover, you may require a legal settlement.

THE REASON YOU NEED A WRONGFUL DEATH ATTORNEY IS BECAUSE THE CONCERNS OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM ARE FOR YOUR LAWYER TO WORRY ABOUT—YOUR TIME IS BETTER SPENT PROCESSING YOUR GRIEF AND REBUILDING YOUR LIFE AFTER A LOSS.