Wrongful Death Lawyer in Corpus Christi

The first weeks after losing someone in a crash bring a strange kind of practical weight. Bills still arrive. An insurance adjuster may call before you’re ready to talk to anyone. Nobody hands you a list of what you’re allowed to do next. A wrongful death claim exists for one plain reason: to give the people left behind some financial footing, not to put a number on the person who died.

What this claim actually is

Texas law sets aside a specific claim for the closest family when carelessness takes a life. Through it, the family can seek compensation for what the death changed, whether the responsible party is a driver, a company, or someone else. It runs separately from anything happening in a criminal court.

The clock starts on the day you lost them

The filing window here is two years as well, but it opens on the day of the death itself rather than the day of the wreck (see Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(b)). When someone survives their injuries for weeks or months before passing, that difference matters. The statute of limitations guide covers the general rule; this claim follows its own version of that same clock.

Who the law lets step forward

Texas typically allows a surviving spouse, children, or parents of the person who died to bring this kind of claim. Exactly who that includes can depend on your family’s specific circumstances, which is worth asking directly instead of assuming.

What it can cover

The categories are concrete: the cost of a funeral and burial, the support the person’s income would have carried, and the companionship and guidance that are now missing from the household. It isn’t built to calculate what a life was worth. It’s built to help a family manage what changed financially because that person is gone.

Some crashes like this one also involve a drunk driving arrest or a commercial truck. Either one is worth mentioning during a review, since it can shape how the claim gets built.

In 2024, Corpus Christi recorded 41 fatal crashes that took 43 lives, according to TxDOT’s own crash data. Your family isn’t the only one carrying this.

When you’re ready, and not before, the free review can help you understand what applies to your family’s situation. An independent Texas attorney will look at it with you, with nothing owed and nothing expected, whenever the timing feels right.