Austin Wrongful Death Attorney

Austin Wrongful Death Lawyer Michael Grossman Explains What Rights You Have After Losing a Family Member Due to Someone Else’s Negligence?

• How Does a Wrongful Death Case Work?
• Wrongful Death Damages
• How Long Do I Have to File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
• Work-Related Fatalities
• Fatal 18-Wheeler Accidents
• What Should I Do Now?

Have you lost a loved one due to a fatal accident in Austin or elsewhere in Central Texas? According to statistics, someone tragically perishes every few hours on the roads of the Lone Star State.

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The Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code outlines the specific rights that the family members of those killed due to the negligence of others are entitled to. Generally speaking, certain family members will have the right to seek compensation for damages incurred from a potential defendant. The following information provided by Austin wrongful death attorney, Michael Grossman, can help you understand these legal rights and help you determine if you need to file a wrongful death lawsuit in a Central Texas court.

The unexpected and sudden death of a loved one in a fatal accident is a devastating loss from which to recover no matter where it happens -- on the road, at work or on someone else’s property. While nothing compares to the emotional loss you have sustained, the monetary strains caused by the death of a loved one can also be tremendous. On top of figuring out how to live without the deceased family member, surviving loved ones must also try to determine whether or not the family has legal recourse for compensation and whether or not they need an Austin wrongful death attorney. The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been successfully litigating wrongful deaths claims in Austin and all over the Lone Star State for 20 years, and we want to help you better understand the legal options available to you so you can safely navigate the legal challenges in front of you and secure the compensation you deserve for the loss you have suffered.

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How Does a Wrongful Death Case Work?

For a wrongful death lawsuit to have merit, it must contain three distinct parts: a legal duty, negligence that leads to a violation of that duty, and a fatality caused by that negligence. People owe other people certain legal duties dependent on the circumstances of their interactions. For instance, all drivers owe all other drivers a legal duty to drive safely. Doctors owe patients a legal duty to provide for their patients’ care. Employers owe their employees a legal duty to provide for their safety at work. However, legal duties owed can change dependent on the circumstances of the accident. For example, an employer utilizing a contractor does not owe a legal duty to the contractor for their safety since the contractor is liable for their own safety while on the job. Establishing one party’s legal duty to another is often the first step in assessing a wrongful death claim against a negligent party, and in some instances it can take an experienced Austin wrongful death attorney like Michael Grossman in order to determine the exact legal duty that was owed by a defendant to a plaintiff.

Once the legal duty has been assessed, it must be proven that the defendant’s negligent behavior caused that legal duty to be violated. In simple car wrecks, a legal duty is violated when one driver crashes into another. In medical malpractice suits, a legal duty is violated when a doctor does not act in accordance with the standard of care as set forth by his peers, resulting in injury or death to his or her patient. Violations can occur in any number of ways, and having a knowledgeable wrongful death lawyer on your side to help identify how your legal duty was violated is vital towards a successful outcome of a wrongful death lawsuit.

Lastly, wrongful death lawsuits are named as such because a person has died as a result of another person’s or entity’s negligence. In order for a wrongful death lawsuit to have merit, a fatality must have occurred. Furthermore, the burden of proof in such cases rests with the plaintiff, i.e. the family member that has lost a loved one. The family member must pursue legal action against the negligent party or parties and cannot simply wait for compensation to be awarded to them. They must seek legal action through a wrongful death lawsuit and be able to prove, with their attorney’s help, that the liable party’s negligence was in fact the cause, or a contributing factor, to their loved one’s death.

Proving the negligence of the responsible party is complex process, so not everyone is able to secure compensation for the loss of a family member even when they deserve it. The laws governing accidental fatalities are very complex, and defendants contest most wrongful death cases. Thus, in order to protect your rights and secure equitable restitution you deserve for the loss of your loved one, you need an experienced Austin wrongful death attorney. Our firm cannot bring your lost loved one back to you, but we can ensure all of the parties who caused your family member’s death are held accountable.

Why Should I Pursue a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?

In most wrongful death cases, the family of the deceased can recover damages through some form of insurance, either through a standard car insurance policy in the case of fatal car accidents, or through a workmen’s compensation insurance policy for work-related deaths. On the other hand, if the liable parties did not carry insurance, then a lawsuit must be filed in order to recover the compensation your family deserves. Actually receiving that compensation is rarely easy, and several different factors affect the type of claim that needs to be filed and the amount of restitution that can be pursued in any wrongful death case.

Wrongful death lawsuits are brought by a surviving family member in order for that family member to be compensated for the financial losses that they’ve incurred as a result of the loss, and to be compensated for the financial losses their loved one would have incurred had they survived the accident that caused their death. These types of damages are known as wrongful death damages and survival damages, respectively.

Wrongful Death Damages

Only spouses, children, parents, and in rare cases siblings, may pursue wrongful death damages in most wrongful death cases. Wrongful death damages may include:

• The victim’s medical bills prior to death
• Funeral bills
• Loss of financial support provided by the victim
• Compensation for mental and emotional distress and the loss of the unique consortium provided by the deceased

Survival Damages

Survival damages provide the family of the deceased compensation for the damages the victim could have pursued had he or she only suffered injuries in the accident and not perished. Only the closest living relative of the victim is permitted the opportunity to seek survival damages, following down the line of ascension from spouse to children to parents and finally to siblings. Examples of survival damages include:

• Medical expenses
• Damage to property
• Lost salary for the hospital stay the victim would have had if he or she had survived and recovered
• Lost earning potential due to possible long-term, severe injuries
• The victim’s physical pain and suffering
• Emotional or mental trauma the victim would endured during the rehabilitation process if he or she had survived

Claims for wrongful death and survival damages require separate strategies and must also be filed separately. Inexperienced lawyers fresh out of law school will likely become bogged down in the complexities of these procedures, and non-lawyers will likely be doomed to failure. In order to give yourself a greater opportunity to seek compensation for your loss, seek the help of an experienced Austin wrongful death attorney like Michael Grossman. After twenty years of litigating wrongful death cases, our attorneys have mastered these procedures, and we can ensure that all of your family members who have suffered due to the loss of your loved one receive damages for the pain and suffering they have incurred.

How Long Do I Have to File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?

The time frame in which an aggrieved party can pursue legal action against a liable party is known as a statute of limitations. The statute of limitations for a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas is two years, with a few notable exceptions. This means that, if you’ve lost a loved one due to the negligence of another person, you have within two years of the date of the accident in order to seek compensation from the negligent party through a wrongful death lawsuit. The exceptions to the general Texas wrongful death statute of limitations concern circumstances where the plaintiff is a child, or the date of death was unknown, or the cause of death was unknown, or if the plaintiff was mentally or physically incapacitated to pursue legal action within the standard two-year time frame. Such exceptions exist in order to provide an aggrieved party with enough time to pursue legal action in light of mitigating circumstances. For more information on the exceptions to Texas’ wrongful death statute of limitations, contact our wrongful death law firm at 1-855-257-1111 (toll free).

What are Some Challenges That Can Occur in Particular Texas Wrongful Death Lawsuits?

Since wrongful deaths can occur in a wide variety of ways, there are some types of wrongful death lawsuits that present particular challenges based on their unique circumstances. Such types of wrongful death claims can include on-the-job wrongful deaths, 18-wheeler accident wrongful deaths, premises liability wrongful deaths, and product liability wrongful deaths. Texas wrongful death law covers these types of accidents, but more specific laws will also come into affect depending on the specifics of the accident. As such, enlisting the help of an Austin wrongful death attorney that also has prior experience in work-related accident cases, semi-truck accident cases, or product liability accident cases can be a beneficial step towards helping you receive proper compensation for your loss.

Work-Related Fatalities and Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Issues often arise in work-related wrongful death cases based on the employer’s worker’s comp status. Unlike most states, Texas does not require its companies to subscribe to workers’ comp, although Texas law attempts to persuade employers to do so. If an employer subscribes to worker’s comp, then an aggrieved family cannot bring a lawsuit against the negligent employer, except when an employer may be guilty of gross negligence. To prove gross negligence is much more difficult than establishing standard negligence, i.e. a momentary lapse of focus. When the employer carelessly or intentionally neglects his or her legal duty to provide safe working conditions for his or her employees, then that’s gross negligence. For instance, if a construction worker accidentally knocks a cinder block off of the top of building, killing a co-worker, then that’s standard negligence. But, if that same worker has the tendency to kick objects off of buildings when he or she gets upset, and the foreman knew about this behavior, then that would be gross negligence. The foreman should have reasonably foreseen that kicking objects off the top of a build would eventually lead to an accident and possible a fatality, and yet nothing was done to stop this grossly negligent behavior and protect the safety of the workers. Proving gross negligence often requires a skilled Austin wrongful death attorney that can meet that high standard with a thorough and timely investigation that constructs an airtight case.

Furthermore, it should be noted that if a wrongful death occurs as a result of the standard negligence of a workers’ comp subscriber, there may have been other parties involved in the accident that can be held accountable through a wrongful death lawsuit, such as a co-worker or another entity unrelated to the subscribing employer. In these instances, it can prove beneficial to your wrongful death claim to have an independent investigation conducted into the accident scene so that all liable parties are identified and held accountable for their negligent actions.

Work-Related Fatalities and Non-Subscriber Employers

Employers that are not covered by worker’s compensation insurance are called non-subscribers. These entities can be sued through a wrongful death claim regardless of the type of negligence shown in the accident. In other words, the standard of proof in such cases is much lower than bringing a wrongful death lawsuit against a grossly negligent subscriber. The loved ones of victims who are killed while working for non-subscribers must sue to secure compensation for their loss. However, proving the equity of requested compensation is still complicated because the process of determining the value of compensation for a death is highly subjective.

The only line of defense for non-subscribing employers defending themselves in a work related death is proving sole proximate cause, or that the employee’s own negligence is 100 percent responsible for his or her own death. In order to do so, non-subscribers will usually attempt to sully the deceased loved one’s reputation by making him or her out to be a negligent or incompetent employee. The risk of paying a sizable settlement convinces most non-subscribing employers to invest in a highly experienced attorney who knows how to manipulate an investigation to make it look like the victim’s own negligence caused his or her own death. Our Austin wrongful death attorneys have the skills to deflect this mudslinging technique.

Fatalities in 18-Wheeler Accidents

If your loved one suffered a wrongful death due to an 18-wheeler collision or a commercial trucking accident, the sizable sums at stake in these large-value insurance policies often cause the defense teams in these particular kinds of wrongful death cases to be quite stout. Experienced insurance adjusters and rapid-response defense attorneys will be utilized on the claim. Additionally, semi-truck wrongful death claims often involved multiple liable parties, including the truck driver, the truck driver’s employer, the employer’s insurer, and possibly other third parties that contributed to the accident in some way, such as a cargo-loading company or a route-planning company. In such instances, it can prove quite beneficial to have the expertise of an Austin wrongful death attorney that is knowledgeable in both Texas wrongful death law and the laws and particular challenges that surround Austin 18-wheeler accidents. Michael Grossman has 20 years of such experience.

Furthermore, it should be noted that a common thread often runs through all wrongful death cases when insurance companies are involved. Insurance companies are in business to make a profit, and not to help people recover from the loss of a family member. As a result, insurance adjusters will attempt to have a claim denied by shifting as much liability as possible off of their insured client and onto any other entity. If that fails, then they will work to convince the grieving family to agree to a low-ball settlement in order to save their company money. When Grossman Law Offices takes a case, we become the entity that deals with an insurance company on your behalf so that they cannot take advantage of you.

Fatalities in Premises Liability Cases

According to Texas laws, property owners must provide a reasonable standard of safety for visitors to a property they own. A legal concept called premises liability allows the victim’s family to file a wrongful death lawsuit to seek compensation if the owner neglects this duty and someone dies while visiting their property. Whether or not such an accident can be litigated depends heavily on the nature of the visitor and the conditions that caused the fatal accident. Different safety responsibilities are owed to different types of visitors, and our Austin wrongful death attorneys can determine what type of visitor your deceased loved one was and ascertain whether or not you can pursue compensation.

Fatalities in Product Liability Cases

In the event that a product released to market, such as a diet pill, causes a wrongful death, a product liability wrongful death claim can be pursued based on either negligence or strict liability. Negligence concerns the way in which the product was designed or manufactured. Furthermore, negligence can occur when a drug manufacturer fails to list all side effects of a drug or fails to properly warn a user about the dangers inherent in the drug’s usage. Strict liability concerns a product’s inherent danger to a person, such as lawn darts or other such items that, although properly designed and manufactured, are inherently dangerous. An Austin wrongful death attorney that understands product liability cases can be an asset in your case should your loved one have died due to a faulty or defective product.

What Should I Do Now?

The first thing to do after your loved one has been wrongfully killed in an accident is to follow this rule: don’t sign anything provided to you by the insurance company without first consulting with an attorney. By no means should you ever sign away the right to sue in exchange for a low-ball settlement offer.

Next, hire a lawyer as quickly as possible. To successfully prove an employer’s gross negligence can be difficult, and it’s just as tricky to prove premises liability or the liability of a negligent driver for the death of a family member. Evidence begins to fade away immediately after an accident; witnesses change their stories, videos get erased and the physical scene becomes altered. The longer you hesitate to hire an attorney, the more harm you are likely doing to your chances of finding the evidence that will secure maximum compensation. Your attorney needs a chance to find proof before it disappears and question witnesses before their memories become clouded. The insurance company and defense specialists are likely already searching for evidence to prove the victim’s liability, and they may even be manufacturing or altering evidence. Furthermore, since the victim of a wrongful death case cannot speak for themselves, the evidence gathered must be able to speak for them.

An experienced Austin wrongful death attorney can protect your ability to secure fair compensation regardless of the particular circumstances of your loved one’s death. For 20 years, the lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have been aiding grieving Texas families to secure compensation and justice in all kinds of wrongful death claims in Austin and all over the state of Texas. As soon as we’re brought in on the case, we will conduct a timely and diligent investigation, locating and interviewing any witnesses and searching for and finding any evidence that could secure maximum restitution for our clients. Furthermore, we know how to file a comprehensive lawsuit that will make all of the parties who caused your loved one’s death pay for what they have done.

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We have secured millions and millions of dollars for hundreds of devastated Texas families, and we’ve beaten every major insurance company in the nation. The insurance companies know about our successful history firsthand, so they know better than to take us into a courtroom. As a result, they often provide our clients with fair settlement offers rather than risk taking us to court. We’re dedicated to doing whatever we can to get our clients back to enjoying their lives with as little stress and strain as possible.

If you have lost a family member in a fatal accident caused by another person’s or entity’s negligence, then call Grossman Law Offices at 1-855-257-1111 (toll free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you like we’ve helped so many others.

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