EXPERIENCED PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER SERVING ALL OF TEXAS
Losing someone because of another person’s careless or reckless behavior leaves families with questions that go far beyond grief. How does the legal process actually work? Who files what? Does the district attorney get involved, or is this something you handle on your own with a private attorney? These are the kinds of questions I hear regularly, and the answers matter enormously to families trying to figure out their next steps.
This post addresses the specific mechanics of wrongful death civil claims in Texas — including the role of prosecutors, how attorneys value these cases, how contingency fees work, and what happens when the victim was a child. If you are in McAllen and need answers fast, Dashner Law Firm | McAllen Injury & Accident Attorney is ready to talk through your situation.
Do District Attorneys Bring Wrongful Death Civil Suits in McAllen?
This question comes up often, and the short answer is no — district attorneys do not file wrongful death civil suits. It is one of the most common misunderstandings families have after a fatal accident or criminal act results in a death.
Here is the distinction that matters: district attorneys handle criminal prosecutions. If someone kills another person through drunk driving, an assault, or gross negligence that rises to the level of criminal conduct, the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s office may pursue criminal charges — manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, or potentially murder. That criminal case runs through the state court system, and the DA represents the State of Texas, not the family of the deceased.
A wrongful death civil lawsuit is entirely separate. Under the Texas Wrongful Death Act (Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, Chapter 71), the family files a civil action for monetary damages. The goal is financial compensation for surviving family members — not a jail sentence for the defendant. A private wrongful death attorney files this suit on behalf of eligible family members, not the government.
These two tracks can run simultaneously. A person can face criminal prosecution and a civil wrongful death lawsuit at the same time. The standard of proof differs — the criminal case requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, while the civil case uses the lower “preponderance of evidence” standard. This is why families sometimes win civil claims even when a criminal case results in an acquittal or is never filed at all.
If the death involved a criminal act and you are waiting to see how the criminal case resolves before pursuing civil action, be careful. Texas law gives most wrongful death claims a two-year statute of limitations from the date of death. Waiting too long can eliminate your right to sue entirely.
How to Find Experienced Wrongful Death Attorneys in Texas?
Not every personal injury attorney handles wrongful death cases well. These claims are more complex than standard injury cases — they require a detailed understanding of Texas survival statutes, estate law, and how to value losses like grief and loss of companionship that are not tied to a paycheck.
Start by looking at an attorney’s actual case history, not just their practice area list. Has this attorney litigated wrongful death cases through trial, or do they settle quickly to avoid courtroom work? Ask directly. A willingness to take a case to trial matters because it changes the way insurance companies and defense attorneys respond to your claim.
Check client reviews and documented results. Law firms that handle these cases regularly will have a track record you can examine. The American Bar Association provides resources on verifying attorney credentials and disciplinary history through state bar databases.
Look for an attorney licensed with the State Bar of Texas who has specific experience with Texas wrongful death law. Texas has its own statutes governing who can sue, what damages are recoverable, and how the case must be structured. An attorney who primarily practices in another state or handles mostly minor injury claims may not be the right fit.
You can also use Justia and FindLaw to search for attorneys in the Rio Grande Valley area and review their published case information. These databases let you filter by practice area and location.
Geoffrey Dashner has handled wrongful death and serious injury claims throughout Texas. If you want to understand our background and approach before making a decision, you can learn more about us and review how we have handled past cases.
Do Wrongful Death Attorneys Work on Contingency in Texas?
Yes, virtually every wrongful death attorney in Texas takes these cases on contingency. This means the attorney only gets paid if they recover money for you. If the case produces no recovery, you owe no attorney’s fee.
The typical contingency fee in Texas personal injury and wrongful death cases ranges from 33% to 40% of the recovery, depending on whether the case settles before trial or goes to litigation. Some cases that require years of litigation, expert witnesses, and heavy discovery may carry a higher percentage, which should be disclosed clearly in the fee agreement at the start.
Contingency arrangements matter for families in practical terms: you do not need money upfront to pursue justice. Wrongful death cases often require significant resources — accident reconstruction experts, medical experts, forensic economists to project lifetime earnings — and the law firm fronts those costs. If the case wins, those costs are reimbursed from the recovery before the fee is calculated, or they come out of the contingency fee depending on how the agreement is written. Read the contract carefully and ask your attorney to explain exactly how expenses are handled.
Under Texas law, the fee agreement must be in writing. The Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute has a useful overview of contingency fee rules and how they function across different states. Texas follows standard practices but requires written disclosure of the fee structure before representation begins.
The contingency model means a good wrongful death attorney is financially motivated to maximize your recovery, not just close the file. They earn more when you recover more. That alignment of interest tends to produce better representation than hourly billing, where an attorney gets paid regardless of outcome.
How Accident Attorneys Assist With Wrongful Death Claims?
A fatal accident rarely comes with a clean paper trail. Reconstructing what happened — and proving who was responsible — takes serious investigative work. This is where having a Texas personal injury wrongful death attorney with actual accident experience makes a measurable difference.
In car and truck accident deaths, attorneys work with accident reconstruction specialists to analyze skid marks, vehicle damage patterns, black box data, and witness statements. They pull cell phone records to check for distracted driving, obtain the defendant’s driving history, and request any surveillance footage before it gets overwritten. Speed matters here — critical evidence disappears fast.
Fatal accidents involving commercial trucks are particularly document-heavy. Federal motor carrier regulations require trucking companies to maintain hours-of-service logs, inspection records, and driver qualification files. An attorney who knows where to look and how to issue preservation letters quickly can secure evidence that would otherwise disappear.
Pedestrian deaths near busy intersections, construction zones, and parking lots in South Texas require site inspections and sometimes engineering analysis. A construction accident that causes a fatality may involve OSHA records, contractor agreements, and multiple liable parties.
Beyond investigation, attorneys handle all communication with insurance companies. After a death, surviving family members often get calls from adjusters offering quick settlements. Those early offers are almost always far below what the case is actually worth. An attorney stops that process immediately, responds to the insurer on your behalf, and ensures that nothing you say is used to reduce or deny your claim.
The attorney also handles the procedural requirements — identifying proper plaintiffs, filing within the statute of limitations, and making sure the complaint correctly states the legal claims under Texas law.
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics tracks unintentional injury deaths by state and cause. Motor vehicle accidents remain one of the leading causes of fatal unintentional injury in Texas, which reflects the high volume of serious wrongful death cases arising from traffic crashes throughout the Rio Grande Valley.
How Attorneys Determine the Value of a Wrongful Death Claim?
This is a question families ask early, and the honest answer is that it requires careful analysis — not a formula pulled from a chart.
Under Texas law, wrongful death damages fall into two general categories: economic losses and non-economic losses.
Economic damages include the deceased person’s lost earning capacity over their expected working life. If a 42-year-old skilled tradesperson with 25 more years of earning potential dies in a fatal accident, the attorney works with a forensic economist to calculate the present value of those lost wages and benefits. Medical expenses incurred before death, funeral costs, and loss of household services the deceased provided are also calculated as economic damages.
Non-economic damages include mental anguish, loss of companionship, loss of inheritance, and loss of parental guidance. Texas law allows surviving spouses, children, and parents to recover for these losses. Quantifying grief is not straightforward, but experienced attorneys build these claims by documenting the specific relationship — the roles the deceased played in the family, the activities they shared, the financial and emotional contributions they made daily.
Texas does not cap wrongful death damages in most cases. Medical malpractice deaths carry a non-economic damages cap, but deaths caused by motor vehicles, negligent property owners, defective products, or other non-medical negligence generally do not.
Several factors push a claim’s value higher: clear liability with strong evidence, a defendant with substantial insurance or assets, a young victim with decades of earning potential, multiple surviving dependents, and egregious or reckless conduct by the defendant. Forbes has noted in coverage of personal injury litigation that cases involving gross negligence — like a drunk driver or a company that ignored known safety hazards — frequently resolve for significantly higher amounts because defendants face greater exposure at trial.
An attorney also looks at the defendant’s insurance coverage. Even a strong case has practical limits if the defendant carries minimal insurance and no other significant assets.
How Attorneys Handle Wrongful Death Claims Involving Children?
The death of a child is handled differently under Texas law, and the differences matter in ways families are rarely told upfront.
First, the damages framework shifts. A child may have limited or no documented earning history, so economic damages based on lost wages are not the central component of the claim. Instead, the recovery focuses heavily on the non-economic losses suffered by the parents — mental anguish, loss of companionship, and the grief of watching a child’s future disappear. Texas courts recognize these as real and substantial losses, and experienced attorneys build these claims with care.
The potential earnings of the child, while speculative, can still factor in. Attorneys use actuarial tables and economic projections to estimate what a healthy child might have earned over their lifetime. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data on lifetime earnings across education levels and occupations can support these projections.
Second, any settlement involving a minor’s interest requires court approval under Texas law. If a child survives but a parent dies, and the child receives wrongful death proceeds, those funds must be protected through a structured settlement or a guardianship account. The court oversight exists to prevent mismanagement and ensure the child receives the money when they reach adulthood. An attorney familiar with Texas family and probate courts handles this process.
Third, if the deceased child was injured and survived for some time before dying, Texas law allows a survival action in addition to the wrongful death claim. The survival action lets the estate recover for the physical pain, mental anguish, and medical costs the child experienced between the injury and the death. This runs alongside the wrongful death claim, not instead of it.
These cases carry heavy emotional weight. I have seen how families can be pressured by insurance companies to settle quickly for amounts that do not reflect the actual value of the loss. An attorney’s job is to slow that process down, document the full scope of the harm, and demand a result that treats the life of that child with the seriousness it deserves.
The Pew Research Center has documented how economically vulnerable communities — including border regions in South Texas — face systemic disadvantages in accessing legal representation. This makes having a local attorney who genuinely understands both the law and the community critical.
Talk to a Wrongful Death Attorney in McAllen Before You Accept Anything
If your family is dealing with the death of a loved one caused by someone else’s actions in or around McAllen, do not wait and do not accept an early settlement offer without speaking to an attorney. Texas’s two-year statute of limitations runs from the date of death, and every day that passes without preserving evidence is a risk to your case.
Dashner Law Firm | McAllen Injury & Accident Attorney handles wrongful death claims throughout the Rio Grande Valley and across Texas. We work on contingency, so there is no fee unless we recover for you. You can see what our clients say by reviewing our verdicts and settlements.
Call us at (956) 303-6170 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation. Our office is located at 813 N Main St #608, McAllen, TX 78501. We are here to answer your questions, explain your options under Texas law, and help your family make an informed decision about how to move forward.
