How Wrongful Death Lawyer Fees Work in Austin

The rule number is 1.04, and it names no percentage

Fee conduct in Texas sits in Rule 1.04 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, not in a rule numbered 1.5 as in most states. Subdivision (a) prohibits an illegal fee and an unconscionable one, defining the latter in one sentence: a fee is unconscionable if a competent lawyer could not form a reasonable belief that it is reasonable. No maximum percentage for a death claim appears in the rule or in the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Two agreements offered to an Austin family are two proposals, judged against a professional judgment test rather than an arithmetic limit.

The eight measures of a reasonable fee

Rule 1.04(b) sets out what goes into that judgment. The labor and hours a case demands, its novelty and difficulty, and the skill required. Whether the matter keeps the lawyer from other employment. The fee customarily charged in the locality for similar legal services, which is why an Austin comparison is not a Houston comparison. The amount involved and the results obtained. Time limits imposed by the client or by events. The length of the professional relationship, and whether the fee is fixed or contingent.

What has to be on paper

Under Rule 1.04(c) the basis or rate of the fee has to be communicated to the client, preferably in writing, before or within a reasonable time after the representation begins. For a contingent arrangement, 1.04(d) goes further. The agreement must be written, signed by the client, and it must state the method for determining the fee, including the percentage accruing on settlement, on trial and on appeal. Those three numbers are frequently different. It must state the expenses deducted from the recovery and whether they come off before or after the percentage is figured. When the case closes, the client is owed a written accounting of the result and, where funds came in, the remittance and the calculation behind it.

Who owns the claim, and what happens if nobody files

Section 71.004(a) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code makes the wrongful death action the exclusive property of the surviving spouse, children and parents of the deceased. Under (b) any one of them, or all of them together, may bring it for the benefit of everyone entitled. Subsection (c) is the deadline most families never hear about. If none of those individuals has begun an action within three calendar months of the death, the executor or administrator must bring it. The exception is a request from all the beneficiaries that it not be filed. Section 71.021 keeps the deceased person's own injury claim alive separately, passing it to the heirs, legal representatives and estate.

The jury splits the money before the fee is applied

Section 71.010 lets the jury award damages in a proportion it finds and then divides the recovery in the shares the jury sets. A verdict resolves into separate shares belonging to separate people, each with a different age, dependency and loss, and the percentage lands on each share rather than on one undivided pot. Where one of those people is a minor, that share cannot simply be handed over.

A minor's share and the chapter 142 route

Property Code chapter 142 governs money recovered for a child with no legal guardian, who appears through a next friend or a guardian ad litem. Section 142.001 lets the court, on application and after a hearing, decree how the funds are invested. Section 142.004 limits the vehicles to a qualified tuition or ABLE account and federally insured interest-bearing time deposits, widening only slightly where the clerk of court invests on written order. Section 142.005 allows a court-created trust instead, and (b) fixes its terms, including that a minor's trust ends at death, at a stated age, or at the twenty-fifth birthday, whichever comes first. Subdivision (l) caps what the petitioning party may be reimbursed in attorney fees for setting the trust up at $1,000, and (m) and (n) restrict who may serve as trustee depending on whether the principal exceeds $50,000.

What the Travis County clerks charge

The District Clerk's schedule effective January 1, 2026 puts the total base fee for a civil suit at $350, being a $213 local consolidated fee and a $137 state consolidated fee. Issuing a citation, subpoena or writ is $8. Service by certified mail through the District Clerk is $85, while a Travis County constable serving citations and notices charges $90 plus a separate $10 witness payment fee. A jury demand under Rule 216 costs $10. Later filings in the same case, including an intervention, a counterclaim, a third party petition or a motion for new trial, are $80 each. Money held in the court registry carries an administrative charge of 5 percent capped at $50 where it earns no interest, or 10 percent of the interest where it does. On the probate side the County Clerk charges $360 to apply for letters of administration, for a determination of heirship, or for a management trust. Add a $525 ad litem deposit in the situations the Clerk identifies, $2 to issue letters, and $25 to file an annual account.