Dying is a natural part of our lives, the unyielding truth of life is that everyone dies. Unfortunately, sometimes death isn’t natural, if an individual died because of someone else’s mistake or reckless behavior, it’s called a wrongful death. Unlike murder, there’s no intention of hurting someone, and that’s why family and friends can pick a wrongful death law firm to file a wrongful death claim. Wrongful death is a term that has a different definition based on the state you’re living in. Most states have different laws when it comes to wrongful death. So the question arrives, who can file a wrongful death lawsuit, and what requirements need to be met to file a wrongful death suit. According to the Texas wrongful death statute the deceased’s spouse, parents, or adult children can file for a wrongful death suit. The only other person allowed to file a wrongful death suit is the deceased individual’s personal representative.
Immediate Family May File in Texas
The Texas wrongful death statute allows the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit from the deceased’s spouse, adult children, or parents. Other members of the deceased’s family or members of the estate can’t file a wrongful death claim. The children of the deceased have to be legal adults if they wish to file a wrongful death suit and they have to be the legal children of the deceased. Someone who was adopted isn’t allowed to file a wrongful death lawsuit according to the Texas wrongful death statute. Adopted children can only sue if they were legally recognized as the deceased individual’s child.
Immediate family members have 3 months from the date of death to hire a wrongful death attorney and file a wrongful death lawsuit. Once that period is over, they can’t hire a wrongful death lawyer to file a claim. Only one person has the authority to file a lawsuit after that time.
Personal Representative Can File Claim
A personal representative is someone who’s handling the affairs after the individual is deceased. The personal representative can be an executor or administrator based on the situation at hand. If the immediate family doesn’t hire a death attorney in 3 months, then the personal representative has full 2 years from the date of death to file the wrongful death lawsuit.
Wrongful Death Damages
There are multiple types of compensation that can be won in a wrongful death lawsuit. The first, thing that you do as you file a suit is to win damages for wage losses. If the person who lost was the sole earner of the family, their death can significantly affect the income of the home. The potential of income can also be considered while seeking damages for the wrongful death lawsuit. Immediate family members or personal representatives can sue to seek financial damages caused by the wrongful death of the individual.
People also provide for others in more than just a financial sense, emotional support and physical support are considered. For obvious reasons, there is no possible way to put the value someone brings to your life in a dollar amount. However, getting compensation for someone else’s fault or reckless behavior that caused you to lose your loved one can help in easing some burden.
Hiring a Wrongful Death Attorney
Immediate family members and a personal representative need to hire a wrongful death lawyer or a wrongful death law firm that ensures that you can get through this hard time and seek the claim for financial damages.
