Accidental Death in Texas Law

Accidental Injury and Death in Texas Law

There are many state and federal regulations designed to keep workers safe. On-the-job injuries have serious ramifications causing employees to miss time from work and sometimes incur large medical bills.

Many on-the-job injuries can involve defective products or negligence. You may be able to seek legal damages even if your employer is subscribed to workers compensation.

Each year about 6,000 children die from accidental injuries. Although it is impossible to truly compensate parents or guardians for the wrongful death of a child it is sometimes possible to seek recovery from the courts for financial and emotional losses.

In Texas, there are two different types of actions that can be taken when somebody is wrongfully killed. The first is called a wrongful death action, and the second a survival action.

A wrongful death has occurred whenever a person is killed because of the negligence or liability of a person or entity. The Texas wrongful death statute originally codified in 1860 provides exclusive remedy for wrongful death in the state of Texas, compensating the decedent's spouse parents and/or children for any losses sustained as a result of the injury or death.

A survival action which is separate and distinct from a wrongful death action arises when a person is liable for damages for injury that causes an individual's death if the injury was caused by the persons wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness or default and where the individual injured would have been entitled to bring an action for the injury if he or she had lived.