Houston wrongful death lawyer

ByJimmy Suerken, Esq.

• Texas Attorney
• Yale B.A. · University of Houston Law Center J.D.
• Habla español
• Updated November 4, 2026

What is the deadline if the City of Houston was involved?

Ninety days, not two years. If a City of Houston vehicle, a city employee on the job or a dangerous condition the city controls played any part in the death — a garbage truck, a police car, a dead traffic signal, a flooded underpass with no barricade — the city charter requires written notice, sworn before a notary, within 90 days (Charter art. IX, § 11), sent to the City Secretary and stating when, where and how it happened. The charter counts from when the injury was sustained, so if your loved one lived for days or weeks after the crash, assume the clock started at the crash.

Other governments have their own rules. Harris County, the State and METRO are generally entitled to written notice within six months (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 101.101), and the Texas Tort Claims Act caps what can be recovered: $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence for the State and for cities like Houston, and $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence for Harris County and most other local governments (§ 101.023). The law excuses formal notice when the government already knew of the death, but a family should never count on that. If there is any chance a public vehicle or public road was involved, we find out in the first week, and we prepare and send every notice ourselves. More in hit by a city, county or state vehicle.

Who investigates a fatal crash in Houston?

It depends on exactly where it happened. Inside city limits, fatal crashes go to the Houston Police Department’s Vehicular Crimes Division, which handles crashes with a possible criminal side, including deaths and hit-and-runs. In unincorporated Harris County, the Sheriff’s Office vehicular crimes investigators or a constable precinct take the case; suburbs such as Pasadena and Baytown have their own police; and DPS works many crashes on state highways. In 2025, TxDOT counted 293 people killed in crashes inside the City of Houston and 503 across Harris County; of the county’s deaths, 198 were on city streets and 134 on interstates.

The officer has ten days to file the crash report with TxDOT (Transportation Code § 550.062), but when charges are possible the criminal investigation can go on well after that. We get the report and follow the investigation with whichever agency has it. The one thing that helps most is the report or case number, if anyone in the family was given one. See how to get a Houston crash report.

How does a family get the autopsy report?

When someone dies suddenly or from an injury in Harris County, the death is investigated by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, the county’s medical examiner, which determines the cause and manner of death. A completed autopsy report can be requested in writing, by email or by mail to the Institute on Old Spanish Trail, with the deceased’s name, date of death and case number if known. The fee is $25 per report, and it is not charged until the Institute says the report is ready. In a death case the report matters: it records the cause of death and the injuries in detail. Once you hire us, we request it along with the hospital, EMS and police records, so you do not have to chase any of them.

When your loved one lived for days in the hospital

Houston has two adult Level I trauma centers, Ben Taub Hospital and Memorial Hermann–Texas Medical Center, and many people with devastating injuries survive for hours or days before they die. That matters legally. Besides the family’s own claim, the injured person’s claim survives (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 71.021) and covers what he or she went through: conscious pain, the medical bills from those days and funeral costs. After several days in intensive care, that part of the case can be substantial, and it is exactly the part that gets lost when no one asserts it.

Do we need to go to probate court?

Sometimes. The family’s wrongful death claim does not require an estate. The survival claim belongs to the estate, and depending on the family, it can be brought by an administrator or, when no administration is needed, by the heirs. When an estate does have to be opened for someone who lived in Harris County, it goes to one of the county’s five probate courts — Probate Courts 1 through 4 at 201 Caroline and Probate Court No. 5 at 1115 Congress. If the person who died did not live in Texas and died here, Texas law allows the estate to be opened in the county where the death occurred (Estates Code § 33.001). We work out which path fits your family and coordinate any probate filing, so the death case is not held up waiting for it.

Where is a Houston wrongful death case filed?

Wrongful death suits in Harris County are usually filed in the civil district courts, whose clerk’s civil intake is at the civil courthouse, 201 Caroline, downtown. Which court a case lands in affects its pace and how mediation is handled. An out-of-state trucking or railroad company will sometimes try to move the case to federal court a few blocks away. Planning for that is part of the work from the start.

Deaths at Houston plants, refineries and job sites

When someone is killed at a refinery, a chemical plant, a construction site or a warehouse, the first question is whether the employer carried workers’ compensation. If it did, comp is generally the family’s only remedy against the employer, with one exception: the surviving spouse and the worker’s children and their descendants can recover exemplary damages when the death was caused by the employer’s gross negligence or an intentional act (Labor Code § 408.001(b)). If the employer was a non-subscriber, the family can sue it for negligence directly. Either way, the plant owner, a general contractor or an equipment maker may be fully responsible. We explain both in a family member died at work and a contract worker hurt at a plant. Before anyone signs a “benefit plan” paper from the employer, talk to Jimmy.

Railroad and truck deaths in Houston

Houston is a freight rail hub, with Union Pacific, BNSF, CPKC and the Port Terminal Railroad Association running trains through neighborhoods and across city streets. A death at a crossing is usually a claim against the railroad, a driver or both; we explain the crossing rules in train and railroad crossing accidents in Houston. A railroad worker killed on the job is different: the claim runs under the federal Employers’ Liability Act, which makes the railroad responsible if its negligence caused the death “in whole or in part,” is brought by the estate’s representative for the spouse and children (then parents, then dependent relatives), and must be filed within three years (45 U.S.C. §§ 51, 56). A METRORail death is a claim against METRO, with the six-month notice above.

Truck deaths come off the port and plant corridors, I-10, I-45, the 610 Loop and Beltway 8. Those cases turn on federal trucking records that companies only have to keep for months, which is why we move on them in the first days. See our Houston 18-wheeler accident page.

The Texas law, in two minutes

A Texas wrongful death claim belongs only to the surviving spouse, children and parents (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 71.004). Brothers and sisters are not on the list; a 2025 bill to add them passed the Texas House but never passed the Senate. If none of the family members files within three calendar months of the death, the executor or administrator must bring the claim unless all of them ask that it not be brought. Suit generally must be filed within two years of the death (§ 16.003). Most cases include both the family’s claim and the survival claim, and a settlement has to account for both. The full explanation is on our Texas wrongful death page, and the details of who qualifies are in who can file a wrongful death claim in Texas.

Families in Houston, in Mexico or anywhere else

Many Houston families have a spouse, children or parents in another country. The right to bring a wrongful death claim in Texas does not depend on immigration status, and we never ask about it to help a family. Relatives abroad can be part of the case; see families who are undocumented or live abroad, and for bringing a loved one home, which consulates in Houston can help.

There is nothing to pay up front, and no fee unless we recover for the family. We work by phone, text, email and video call, and in person when needed, anywhere in Texas, at whatever pace the family can manage. Once you hire us, every conversation with the insurers, the employer, the railroad and the government goes through us. Call Jimmy.