What are Damages in a Wrongful Death Case?

Video transcript: First, I want to say about wrongful death is it’s always difficult obviously when you’re burying a loved one to think about well why did this happen and should we get a lawyer? Because you’re trying to obviously go through the grieving process and it’s hard. But again, the person who caused this tragedy most likely their insurance is already investigating it, already have their experts.

As far as who can make a claim in Texas for wrongful death: parents and it doesn’t matter their age. If someone who is in their 50s passes away, but their parents are still alive and

In their 70s, they have a claim. The spouse has a claim and any children have claims. And again, it doesn’t matter their age. As far as spouses, that can be common-law spouse in Texas or legally married, you know, either went to the church or went to the courthouse and got married.

In wrongful death, the estate itself, the person who passed away estate can recover funeral and burial expenses as well as conscious physical pain and suffering, which literally means did they physically consciously experience pain and suffering before they died. What we call wrongful death beneficiaries, the parents, spouse and children, they can recover loss of what they call pecuniary support, or how much money was the person who passed away providing to the family or to this person. You can recover loss of companionship in society, which is you know kind of similar to mental anguish, the love, not having that relationship anymore because they passed away. In some cases, you can recover punitive damages but it’s not as common in Texas. But again, it’s hard to think about when to hire a lawyer, but you really need to.