Nothing here undoes what happened. What a claim can do is hold the responsible party accountable and take the financial weight off a family that did not ask for any of this. Jose Robles Jr is an Air Force combat veteran who handles wrongful death claims for families across Bexar County.
A San Antonio wrongful death lawyer helps a surviving spouse, children, or parents pursue the party responsible for a death. Texas law limits who may bring the claim to those three groups, and the deadline generally runs two years from the date of death. A separate survival claim belongs to the estate. Free consultation, no fee unless we win.
Only the surviving spouse, the children, and the parents. Texas law is narrow here, and families are frequently surprised by who is left out.
Texas law says the claim exists for the benefit of those three groups only, and any one of them can bring it on behalf of all.
Who Texas law allows to bring the claim.
Surviving spouse
May bring the action, individually or on behalf of all family members the law names.
Children
Biological and legally adopted children may bring the action, including adult children.
Parents
Parents of the deceased may bring the action, including the parents of an adult child.
Siblings
Cannot. Texas courts have consistently held that brothers and sisters cannot bring the claim, however close the relationship was.
Executor or administrator
If none of the family members the law names has filed within three calendar months of the death, the executor or administrator must bring the action unless all of them ask that it not be brought.
The exclusion of siblings is the one that causes the most pain in a first meeting. A brother or sister who was the closest person in the deceased's life still has no right to bring the claim. Where a sibling is also the executor of the estate, there may be a role through the survival claim, but that is a different claim with different damages.
The three-month provision also matters more than it appears. If none of the family members the law names has filed within three calendar months of the death, the executor or administrator is required to bring the action unless all of them ask that it not be brought.
One compensates the family for their loss. The other compensates the estate for what the person endured before dying. Texas families can pursue both.
The two separate claims Texas allows after a death.
The wrongful death claim
Belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents, and compensates their own losses: lost companionship and society, mental anguish, lost financial support, and lost inheritance.
The survival claim
Belongs to the estate and covers what the deceased person could have recovered had they lived, including conscious pain and suffering before death, medical bills, and funeral expenses.
The distinction is not academic. The survival claim belongs to the estate, which means it flows according to the will or the intestacy rules rather than to the family members the law names directly. Cases are sometimes structured badly because this was not sorted out at the beginning, and untangling it later is far harder than getting it right at the start.
Conscious pain and suffering before death is often the most contested element of a survival claim. Whether the person was aware, and for how long, is proven with medical records, first responder documentation, and sometimes witness accounts, which is another reason the early record matters.
Commercial vehicle collisions, highway accidents, unsafe premises, workplace incidents, and medical malpractice account for most of them in Bexar County.
The freight corridor is a recurring factor. I-35 carries Mexico-United States trade north through San Antonio, and collisions involving heavy commercial vehicles are disproportionately fatal simply because of mass. Those cases also carry federal record-keeping obligations, and the records that prove fault can be destroyed on a six-month cycle, which is covered on our San Antonio truck accident page.
Highway crashes on Loop 410, Loop 1604, and I-10 make up another large share, along with fatal motorcycle collisions where a rider had no protection. Premises cases, including drownings at inadequately fenced pools and assaults at complexes with a documented history of crime, form a smaller but significant category.
Where the death occurred determines more than jurisdiction. A crash on a municipal street may implicate a governmental unit and its far shorter notice deadlines. A crash involving an interstate carrier brings a different body of federal rules into play.
Whatever caused it, the claim rests on proving negligence: that someone owed a duty of care, failed it, and that the failure caused the death. Experienced wrongful death attorneys build that proof from records rather than from sympathy.
Generally two years from the date of death, but the practical deadlines are shorter and some arrive within months.
Texas law runs the filing deadline from the death rather than the injury. That is the outer boundary. Inside it sit deadlines that can quietly expire first: notice requirements when a governmental unit is involved, which are sometimes as short as six months, and the retention windows for the evidence itself.
There is no good way to say the next part. The period when family members are least able to think about legal deadlines is exactly when the evidence is most perishable. Nobody expects a grieving family to run an investigation. That is the reason to have someone else start one early, before any decision about filing a lawsuit is made.
Families seek different things from this process. Some want financial security for children. Some want an answer nobody has given them. Some want the responsible party held to account. Seeking justice for a loved one and seeking compensation are not in conflict, and a claim can serve both.
Deadlines vary with the facts. Confirm yours with an attorney rather than counting from a web page.
You talk to the attorney handling your case, not a rotating queue of case managers. In a wrongful death claim that is not a convenience, it is the difference between being informed and being processed.
Jose Robles Jr is a decorated Air Force combat veteran with a 95% success rate, $5M+ recovered, 1,000+ cases handled, and a 4.9 star Google rating.
Before becoming a personal injury lawyer, Jose "Joe" Robles Jr served nearly 15 years as an Air Force Military Police officer, including four combat tours in the Middle East, and earned his law degree from Texas A&M University School of Law. Afterward he spent four years at Bailey & Galyen, rising to Managing Attorney of the Pre-Litigation Personal Injury Department, before founding this firm.
Four combat tours mean the subject of sudden death is not abstract to him, and families are not handed a script. For San Antonio clients that also means a bilingual team, an office in the South Texas Medical Center, and an attorney familiar with the military community at Joint Base San Antonio, including survivor benefit questions that intersect with a civil claim.
For the firm's full range of services in the area, see our San Antonio personal injury page.
Only the surviving spouse, the children, and the parents of the person who died. Texas law says the claim exists for the benefit of those three groups only, and any one of them can bring it on behalf of all. Siblings cannot bring it, no matter how close they were. If none of the family members the law names has filed within three calendar months of the death, the executor or administrator must bring the action unless all of them request otherwise.
There is no meaningful average, and published figures are drawn from cases with nothing in common. Texas wrongful death damages turn on the specific relationships and losses: the deceased person's age, earnings and expected career, the ages of any children, the closeness of the family relationships, the conscious pain suffered before death, and the insurance or assets available to pay a judgment. A commercial defendant with substantial coverage and an uninsured individual produce very different outcomes from identical facts.
The honest answer is that any firm quoting a typical payout before reviewing the facts is advertising rather than analyzing. What can be explained is what the payout is made of. A Texas family may pursue two separate claims: the wrongful death claim for the survivors' own losses, and the survival claim brought by the estate for what the deceased person endured before dying. Those are valued differently and are often paid from different sources.
It depends almost entirely on liability and coverage rather than on sympathy. Cases where fault is documented, such as a commercial vehicle collision with electronic records or a premises hazard with an inspection history, resolve far more predictably than cases resting on contested eyewitness accounts. The second variable is whether the responsible party has meaningful insurance. A strong liability case against a defendant with no assets and minimum coverage can still produce a disappointing result, which is why available coverage is investigated early.
Generally two years. Texas law runs the two-year period from the date of the death rather than the date of the injury. Shorter notice deadlines apply when a governmental unit is involved, sometimes as little as six months, and those deadlines can pass while a family is still grieving. Evidence also degrades quickly, particularly in vehicle cases where electronic records may be retained for only months.
Most wrongful death claims resolve without a trial, though preparing as though there will be one is what produces a fair settlement. Families are often most worried about being forced to relive the loss publicly. In practice the bulk of the work is documentary: records, employment history, expert analysis, and negotiation. If the case does proceed, you will know well in advance and will not face it unprepared.
Nothing upfront. These cases are handled on contingency, meaning the fee is a percentage of any recovery and there is no fee if the case does not succeed. Under Texas attorney conduct rules, the agreement must be in writing and must state how the fee is calculated. Jose Robles Jr Law Firm charges no fee unless we win, and the first conversation costs nothing.
This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Consult a licensed Texas attorney about your specific situation.
6323 Sovereign Drive, Suite 220
San Antonio, TX 78229
(726) 241-2523
In the South Texas Medical Center off Loop 410. Home and hospital visits available across Bexar County.
No fee unless we win. Call us now or schedule your free consultation online.