Fatal Car Accident Claim Lawyer in Austin, TX Evidence, Liability and Loss Claims

Who Texas allows to bring the action

Section 71.004(a) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code assigns the wrongful death action to three groups and to no others. The surviving spouse. The children. The parents. Subsection (b) lets any one of them file for the benefit of all, so the family does not need to agree before the claim is protected. A brother or a sister is not on that list, and neither is a grandparent or a grandchild. Section 71.003(a) adds a quiet threshold: the action exists only if the person who died could have sued for that injury had they lived.

Three calendar months, and a duty that shifts

Subsection (c) of the same section is the part almost nobody is told about. If none of those relatives has begun an action within three calendar months after the death, the executor or administrator of the estate is directed to bring and prosecute it, unless all of them ask that it not be filed. This is not a cutoff that erases the family's rights. It is a duty placed on whoever represents the estate, and it becomes real as soon as an estate has been opened. Read alongside the ordinary two-year period for a death claim, it explains why the calendar matters early rather than in year two.

Which government owns the pavement

Austin reported 99 traffic deaths in 2025 and estimates that roughly 65 to 75 percent of the city's traffic fatalities happen on roads owned by the state. The city's own Vision Zero performance review is blunter: deaths on city-owned streets have stayed relatively flat while deaths on state and other agencies' roadways rose. Across Travis County, TxDOT counted 139 fatal crashes and 155 traffic deaths in 2024. Ownership is not trivia in a claim. A crash on a state highway points toward a state agency, while a crash at a Bouldin Creek or East Cesar Chavez intersection may point toward the city, and each carries a different clock.

Forty-five days, written into the city charter

Article XII, section 3 of the Austin city charter requires written notice, verified by affidavit, to the city council or the city manager within forty-five days. The notice must state when, where and how the death occurred, the apparent extent of the injury, the damages claimed, the claimant's residence, and the names and addresses of the witnesses being relied on. In the charter's own words, failure to give that notice exonerates and exempts the city from any liability whatsoever. The city's claims instructions repeat the same 45-day window. The Tort Claims Act default in section 101.101 is six months, but subsection (b) ratifies charter periods, which is how six months becomes six weeks here.

Naming the wrong defendant can end it

Section 101.106 treats the first filing as an irrevocable election. Suing the government employee immediately and forever bars any recovery from the governmental unit unless it consents, and suing the unit bars any recovery from the employee. Where a suit names both, the employee is dismissed on the unit's motion. Two other provisions narrow the target further. Section 101.021 waives immunity mainly for the operation or use of motor-driven vehicles and equipment, and for a condition or use of tangible property. Section 101.056 removes discretionary decisions from the chapter altogether, which is why a design choice and a maintenance failure are treated differently.

What a public defendant can be made to pay

Section 101.023 sets the ceilings. A municipality is liable for death or bodily injury up to $250,000 for each person and $500,000 for each single occurrence. The state government carries the same two figures. A unit of local government that is not a municipality drops to $100,000 for each person and $300,000 for each occurrence. Those numbers are the outer edge of what a public entity can be ordered to pay under the chapter, whatever a jury might otherwise have found.

The first two weeks, in practical terms

Record the agency that investigated, the report number, and the medical examiner case number if there is one. Do not let the vehicle be repaired, sold or scrapped while its condition is still a question. Save the adjuster's letters with their dates, because the date a request arrived can matter as much as its content. On fees, Texas puts no percentage limit on a death recovery. The protection sits in Rule 1.04(d), which requires a signed writing stating separate percentages for settlement, trial and appeal. It must also list the expenses deducted and say whether they come off before or after the percentage.