Losing a spouse or child to someone else’s negligence is one of the worst things a family can go through. The legal questions start almost immediately, and most people have never dealt with anything like this before. I’ve represented wrongful death families in Austin and across Texas for years, and I want to give you direct, honest answers to the questions I hear most often. This post covers the core scenarios: car crashes, truck accidents on I-35, pedestrian fatalities downtown, passenger deaths, adult child losses, and workplace deaths. If your situation fits any of these, read through carefully — and then call us.

Written by Travis S. Kelley.

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Can I File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Texas if My Spouse Was Killed by a Negligent Driver in Austin?

Yes, you can. Under the Texas Wrongful Death Act (Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 71.001–71.012), a surviving spouse has the right to bring a wrongful death claim against any person whose negligence caused their partner’s death. You do not need to wait for a criminal case to proceed or conclude. The civil and criminal systems run on separate tracks.

To win a wrongful death claim in Texas, you must show four things: the defendant owed a duty of care to your spouse, the defendant breached that duty, the breach caused your spouse’s death, and you suffered damages as a result. In a traffic fatality, duty and breach are usually established through the police report, witness accounts, traffic camera footage, and sometimes accident reconstruction. A negligent driver who ran a red light, was texting, or was drunk almost always satisfies the first two elements without much dispute. The fight typically centers on damages.

As a surviving spouse, you can recover for loss of companionship and society, mental anguish, loss of financial support, loss of household services your spouse provided, and funeral and burial expenses. Texas law also allows the estate to bring a separate survival action for the pain and suffering your spouse experienced before death. I file both claims simultaneously in nearly every case — they serve different purposes and you should not leave either on the table.

The statute of limitations in Texas is two years from the date of death (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003). Missing that deadline almost certainly ends your right to recover. Start the process early, because building a wrongful death case — gathering records, interviewing witnesses, working with experts — takes time.

Our Austin team at Kelley Wolff Injury Attorneys | Austin Accident Lawyers handles these cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we recover money for your family. If you need to speak with an Austin car accident attorney about a traffic fatality, we’re ready to help.

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Can I File a Wrongful Death Claim if My Loved One Was a Passenger in the At-Fault Driver’s Vehicle?

Yes, and this question comes up more than people expect. Passengers have full wrongful death rights under Texas law, regardless of their relationship to the driver who caused the crash. If your spouse or family member was riding in the at-fault driver’s car and was killed, you can sue that driver directly.

The dynamic here sometimes gets complicated when the at-fault driver and the deceased were friends or family members. People hesitate to sue someone they know. What I tell clients in that situation is this: in practice, you are suing the driver’s auto insurance policy, not the individual’s personal assets. Most drivers in Texas carry at least $30,000 per-person liability coverage under the state’s minimums, and many carry far more. The insurance company defends the case and pays the judgment or settlement. The driver named in the lawsuit rarely ends up personally paying anything.

That said, if the at-fault driver was uninsured or underinsured, we look to other sources — the deceased’s own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM), any other vehicle owners who may share liability, or third parties like a bar that overserved an intoxicated driver under Texas’s Dram Shop Act.

There are also cases where multiple parties share fault. Texas uses proportionate responsibility rules (Cornell Law School has a solid overview of comparative fault principles), so even if your loved one is found partially at fault, you may still recover as long as their share of fault is 50% or less. I do not let insurance adjusters push unchallenged fault percentages onto deceased passengers — we investigate the facts independently.

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Can I File a Wrongful Death Claim Against a Trucking Company Whose Driver Killed My Spouse on I-35?

Yes, and in most truck accident cases you should name both the driver and the trucking company. I-35 through Austin sees some of the heaviest commercial truck traffic in Texas, and fatal collisions involving 18-wheelers are far too common. The CDC reports that large truck crashes kill roughly 5,000 people in the U.S. each year, and Texas consistently leads the country in those fatalities.

Trucking companies can be held liable under a legal theory called respondeat superior — an employer is responsible for a negligent employee acting within the scope of their job. But there are additional theories worth pursuing. If the company hired a driver with a known history of violations and didn’t do a background check, that’s negligent entrering. If they pushed the driver to exceed federal hours-of-service limits set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), that’s negligent supervision. If the truck’s brakes, tires, or coupling equipment were poorly maintained, that’s negligent maintenance.

Trucking companies are required under federal law to retain driver logs, inspection records, black box data, and GPS records. That data starts disappearing quickly — sometimes within 30 days if there is no litigation hold in place. The moment we take a trucking wrongful death case, we send a spoliation letter demanding preservation of all electronic and paper records. If you wait months to contact a lawyer, critical evidence may be gone.

Our Austin 18-wheeler truck accident attorneys know how to dig into carrier compliance records through the FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System and subpoena black box data. These cases are more technically involved than a standard car accident claim, and the insurance limits are substantially higher — most commercial carriers carry $750,000 to $1 million in minimum liability coverage, and many carry far more. That means the stakes on both sides are higher, and you need a lawyer who has handled these cases before.

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Can I File a Wrongful Death Claim if My Loved One Was Killed in a Pedestrian Accident Downtown Austin?

Yes. Pedestrian fatalities in Texas have climbed steadily, and Austin’s downtown corridor — Congress Avenue, 6th Street, East Cesar Chavez, South Lamar — has seen its share of tragic accidents. Texas Department of Transportation data shows pedestrian deaths have increased over the past several years statewide, tracking a national trend documented by the Governors Highway Safety Association.

A driver who strikes and kills a pedestrian in a crosswalk, at an intersection, or even mid-block under certain circumstances can be held liable for wrongful death. The analysis is the same as any negligence case: did the driver fail to exercise reasonable care, and did that failure cause the death? Speeding, distracted driving, ignoring traffic signals, and impaired driving are the most common culprits I see in pedestrian fatality cases.

But drivers are not always the only liable party. If a city or property owner created a hazardous condition — a broken sidewalk that forced a pedestrian into the roadway, a malfunctioning crosswalk signal, poor lighting in a parking area — those entities may share liability. Claims against governmental entities in Texas come with their own procedural requirements, including a notice deadline that is often much shorter than two years. I’ve had families come to me after missing a six-month notice deadline with a city and losing the claim against the municipality entirely. Don’t let that happen.

Our Austin pedestrian accident attorneys investigate every angle, not just the obvious one. Contact us early so we can preserve the evidence and meet every filing deadline.

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Can a Parent File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Texas for the Death of an Adult Child?

Yes. Texas law is broader than most people realize on this point. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 71.004, wrongful death claims can be brought by a surviving spouse, children, or parents of the deceased — and there is no age cap on the deceased. Whether your child was 19 or 45, you have standing to file a wrongful death claim as a parent.

What changes with an adult child is the damages calculation. You are unlikely to recover for financial dependency unless you can show the adult child actually supported you financially. But you can recover for loss of companionship and society — the loss of that relationship, the shared experiences, the future you expected to have — and for your own mental anguish. Texas courts have upheld substantial damages for parents who lose adult children even when no financial dependency existed.

In my experience, defense attorneys and insurance companies try hard to minimize these damages in adult child cases. They argue the child was independent, had their own family, didn’t spend as much time with the parents. I push back with evidence: text messages, photos, testimony from siblings and friends, records of family gatherings. The law is clear that the parent-child relationship has value regardless of age or independence.

One additional nuance: if no one files a wrongful death claim within three calendar months of the death, Texas law allows the personal representative of the estate to file instead. But I strongly recommend that eligible family members file themselves rather than waiting on estate administration, which can be slow.

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Can I File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit and Also Pursue a Workers’ Compensation Claim for My Spouse’s Workplace Death?

This depends on whether your spouse’s employer was a Texas workers’ compensation subscriber, and the answer matters enormously to your total recovery.

Texas is the only state in the country that does not require most private employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Employers who do carry it are called “subscribers.” If your spouse’s employer was a subscriber and your spouse died on the job, workers’ compensation will provide death benefits — a portion of the weekly wage, paid to dependents, plus up to $10,000 in burial benefits. However, in exchange for those benefits, you generally cannot sue the employer directly in civil court. The workers’ comp system is the exclusive remedy against a subscribing employer.

That sounds limiting, but there are important exceptions and parallel paths. First, if a third party — not the employer — caused the death, you can absolutely file a wrongful death claim against that third party while also receiving workers’ comp benefits. A concrete example: your spouse was a delivery driver killed by a negligent motorist. Workers’ comp pays from the employer’s carrier, and you sue the at-fault driver in civil court. Both claims run simultaneously. The workers’ comp carrier will typically assert a lien on any third-party recovery, but you can often negotiate that down.

Second, if the employer is a non-subscriber — no workers’ comp coverage — Texas law removes virtually all employer defenses, including contributory negligence. Non-subscriber claims are heard in civil court, and damages are not capped the way they are in workers’ comp. These cases often result in significantly higher recoveries.

Third, if the employer engaged in gross negligence or intentional conduct, there may be pathways to pursue them even within a subscriber framework in limited circumstances.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Texas consistently has one of the highest absolute numbers of fatal workplace injuries in the country, given the state’s size and industries. Our Austin workplace accident attorneys have handled both subscriber and non-subscriber workplace death cases. The strategy differs significantly between the two, and getting the analysis wrong early can cost your family real money. Learn more about our team’s experience with these complex cases.

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What Damages Can a Texas Wrongful Death Claim Actually Recover?

Texas wrongful death damages fall into two buckets: those claimed by the surviving family members under the Wrongful Death Act, and those claimed by the estate under the Survival Statute.

Family members can recover for loss of companionship and society, mental anguish, loss of financial support and services, and loss of inheritance (the wealth the deceased would have accumulated and passed on). The estate can recover for the deceased’s pre-death pain and suffering, medical expenses incurred before death, and lost earnings the deceased would have earned had they lived.

Texas does not cap wrongful death damages except in cases against governmental entities and in certain medical malpractice deaths. For standard negligence claims — car accidents, truck crashes, pedestrian fatalities — there is no statutory cap on what a jury can award.

FindLaw provides a useful general overview of wrongful death damages for readers who want to understand the national framework, but Texas practitioners need to know the state-specific rules, which differ in meaningful ways from what you’ll read in a generic summary.

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How a Wrongful Death Attorney Approaches These Cases in 2026?

The practical work in a wrongful death case starts before any lawsuit is filed. We send preservation letters, gather 911 recordings, subpoena crash reports, obtain surveillance footage from nearby businesses before it gets overwritten, and sometimes hire accident reconstructionists within the first few weeks. By the time a suit is filed, we already have a clear picture of what happened and who is responsible.

Insurance companies move fast after a fatal crash. Adjusters may contact you within days, before you’ve had a chance to grieve, offering a quick settlement that sounds large but represents a fraction of what the case is actually worth. I’ve seen families accept $25,000 settlements in cases that were later valued — had they not settled — at several hundred thousand dollars or more. Once you sign a release, that’s it.

The American Bar Association recommends consulting with an attorney before speaking with any insurance adjuster after a serious accident. That recommendation goes double when someone has died.

For more context on how wrongful death law fits within the broader personal injury framework, Justia maintains well-organized state-specific legal information that can help you understand where Texas law stands compared to other states.

If you have questions about any Austin-area accident that resulted in a death — whether it involved a car, truck, motorcycle, bicycle, or a pedestrian — our Austin personal injury attorneys can evaluate your case at no cost.

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Speak With an Austin Wrongful Death Attorney

Wrongful death cases are time-sensitive and legally complex. Every day that passes makes evidence harder to obtain. The two-year deadline sounds generous until you realize how much work goes into building a case before it ever gets filed.

Kelley Wolff Injury Attorneys | Austin Accident Lawyers represents wrongful death families throughout Texas on a contingency fee basis — no fees unless we recover. We handle car accidents, trucking crashes, pedestrian fatalities, workplace deaths, and every other scenario discussed in this post.

Call us at (512)-470-6068 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation. You can also visit our Austin office at 17800 Hamilton Pool Rd Ste. 203, Austin, TX 78738, United States. We’ll listen, give you honest answers, and tell you exactly what we think your case is worth.