Houston Wrongful Death Lawyer

Attorney Michael Grossman Can Help You Seek Justice for Your Loved One’s Loss

When an accident occurs resulting in a fatality, and that accident has been caused by the negligent behavior of a person or entity, the victim’s family members can seek compensation and justice for their loss through a wrongful death lawsuit.

However, pursuing such legal action against a negligent party can prove challenging without the help of an experienced Houston wrongful death lawyer like Michael Grossman. With twenty years of experience in helping families just like yours, Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices are ready to come alongside you during this difficult time so that you can stand to be fairly compensated for the financial losses you’ve incurred as a result of losing a loved one due to another person’s or entity’s negligence. By pursuing a wrongful death claim against a negligent party or parties, a victim’s family will also be working to ensure that a future fatal accident does not have to occur to another family due to the party’s continued negligent behavior. While we work to earn full and fair compensation for our clients, we also want to help prevent further fatal accidents from occurring as well, so that other families do not have to also suffer.

Wrongful death lawsuits work to hold negligent parties accountable for their actions, regardless of if these actions were criminal in nature. In other words, civil legal action can be pursued against a negligent party, even if criminal action is already being pursued against a negligent party. Furthermore, wrongful deaths can occur as the result of multiple liable parties, which means that multiple, unique cases may have to be built against each unique defendant. In these instances, such liable parties are often only discovered through an exhaustive investigation process. With twenty years of investigative experience into wrongful death accidents, the Houston wrongful death law firm of Grossman Law Offices is well-prepared to help you identify all liable parties so that they can be held accountable for their role in your loved one’s loss.

Wrongful Death Cases in Houston Texas

The main issue at stake in any wrongful death case is whether or not a defendant owed a legal duty to a victim and subsequently violated that legal duty, resulting in the death of the victim. Legal duties are highly dependent on the circumstances of an accident, as well as the relationship of the people or entities involved in the accident. As an example, a surgeon violates their legal duty toward you if they slice you with a knife while you’re both in line at a restaurant. However, no such legal duty is violated if the same surgery slices you with a knife while you’re undergoing voluntary surgery at their hospital. While the sustained injury is identical in each instance, the circumstances surrounding the accident are wholly different, thus resulting in the difference as to whether or not a legal duty was owed and violated. Such a duty and its violation must both be proven in order for a wrongful death case to result in a favorable outcome for the plaintiff. In other words, it must be shown how the defendant’s negligence resulted in or contributed to the death of the plaintiff’s loved one. Houston wrongful death lawyer Michael Grossman has two decades of experience in proving such cases.

Furthermore, a family member that has lost a loved one must pursue legal action against a negligent party, as opposed to waiting for compensation to be awarded to them by the negligent party. In other words, the burden of proof rests on the plaintiff’s shoulders, which means that the plaintiff’s legal representation must be able to show that the defendant caused, or contributed to, the fatal accident. Since a decedent is unable to speak for themselves, a wrongful death claim must often be substantiated by a robust case created from relevant evidence and key witness testimony. Houston wrongful death lawyer Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices can conduct thorough investigations into fatal accident sites so that all liable parties are identified and held accountable so that you can stand to be fairly compensated by all parties whose negligence contributed to the fatal accident.

Texas Wrongful Death Damages

Damages is a legal term that simply refers to financial losses sustained by a victim. For instance, damages does not refer to an actual injury, but to the costs associated with that injury. In Texas wrongful death claims, there are two types of damages that can be sought, known as survival damages and wrongful death damages. Survival damages relate to the damages that a decedent would have incurred had they survived the fatal accident. Wrongful death damages relate to the damages incurred by the family members that have lost a loved one. Both types of damages can be sought in wrongful death claims, although only certain family members can seek each type.

Survival Damages in Texas Wrongful Death Cases

Survival damages can only be sought by a decedent’s closest living family member, in descending order from spouse, to child, to parents, to siblings. Survival damages can be sought for the decedent’s:

• Medical bills
• Property damage bills
• Lost wages
• Lost future wages
• Emotional or mental distress
• Pain and suffering

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Justifying survival damages can be challenging for lesser experienced lawyers since the amount sought can be somewhat subjective. For example, it can be quite challenging to prove what a decedent would have incurred in terms of pain and suffering had they survived an accident. However, with 20 years of experience in being able to calculate survival damages in Texas wrongful death cases, Houston Texas wrongful death lawyer Michael Grossman will work to ensure that these damages are faithfully calculated so that an aggrieved family can be rightfully compensated for their loss.

Wrongful Death Damages in Texas Wrongful Death Cases

Wrongful death damages can only be sought by certain family members, including a spouse, a child, a parent, or, in rare instances, a sibling. Wrongful death damages can be sought on behalf of the family members that have lost a loved one for:

• Medical bills that occurred before the victim’s death
• Funeral costs
• Loss of financial support
• Mental or emotional distress caused by their loss

Proving both types of damages is a vital step in any Texas wrongful death case since the amount of damages calculated and proven equals the amount of compensation that the plaintiff is seeking from a negligent party. If such damages are not correctly calculated, a grieving family may not be fully compensated for their loss. This can be especially detrimental to the financial stability of a family who has lost a loved one that was the primary wage-earner for the household.

Challenges in Texas Wrongful Death Cases

Seeking compensation and justice for your loved one’s wrongful death can present certain challenges, but these challenges should not prevent you from seeking restitution for your loved one’s loss. With the capable help of an experienced Houston wrongful death lawyer like Michael Grossman, who is familiar with the seeming challenges of wrongful death cases and the technicalities often involved in workers’ compensation claims, you will have a knowledgeable legal ally on your side that will defend your rights so that you can stand to be fully and fairly compensated for your loss.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance Status

One of the first issues that must be addressed in a Texas wrongful death lawsuit is the workers’ comp status of the employer at fault. The answer to this question, whether or not an employer is a subscriber or a non-subscriber to workers compensation insurance, is foundational to the pursuit of compensation for a wrongful death. If an employer is a subscriber, i.e. they are covered by workers’ compensation insurance, then an aggrieved family cannot bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the employer, unless the employer was grossly negligent. However, if a liable employer is a non-subscriber, i.e. they are not covered by worker’s compensation insurance, then an aggrieved family can bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the negligent company, regardless of the type of negligence exercised by the employer.

Gross Negligence by a Workers’ Comp Employer

If a subscribing employer was grossly negligent in their actions and such behavior led to a worker’s death, the one exception to worker’s comp law comes into play in regards to when an aggrieved party can sue a subscribing employer. However, proving gross negligence requires a high standard of proof since a plaintiff’s legal representation must be able to prove that an employer had previous knowledge that a fatal accident had a high probability of occurring and yet did little to nothing to prevent such an accident from happening. For instance, if a safety harness was known to have previously malfunctioned resulting in the serious injury of a worker and the employer did nothing to fix or replace the harness and another worker was killed while using the same harness, an argument for gross negligence could be made. However, proving gross negligence can be quite challenging for those unfamiliar with the concept or without previous experience in similar cases. Houston TX wrongful death lawyer Michael Grossman has 20 such years of experience in wrongful death cases against grossly negligent employers.

Standard Negligence by a Workers’ Comp Employer

On the other hand, if a worker dies due to standard negligence, like a moment of distraction, and works for a subscribing employer, then the aggrieved family can only seek restitution for their loss through the workers’ compensation insurance policy. Unfortunately, the compensation often awarded through such a policy is often much less than what can adequately cover the damages that a family has incurred due to their loss. However, the shortfall between compensation received through a workers’ comp policy and your incurred damages can often be made up by identifying other liable parties that are not covered by such a policy. For example, industrial accidents and Houston on-the-job accidents can often have multiple liable parties, such as co-workers or other people or entities, and these parties will not be covered by a workers’ comp policy, which means that some compensation, based on that person’s or entity’s percentage of liability for the accident, can be sought from them through a wrongful death lawsuit. When Grossman Law Offices is hired for a work-related wrongful death, we make sure to conduct a thorough investigation into an accident site so that all liable parties are properly identified so that they can be held proportionately accountable for their negligent behavior leading to a wrongful death.

Negligence by a Non-subscribing Employer

Texas does not mandate that all companies must be covered by workers’ compensation insurance. However, the laws are written in such a way that the companies that do not choose to be covered by workers’ comp often must pay a heavy price when it comes to a wrongful death occurring at their work sites. For example, non-subscribers are only offered one specific defensive measure, known as the sole proximate cause defense, when a wrongful death lawsuit is brought against them. This defensive measure means that the legal representation for the defense must pin 100 percent of the liability for the accident onto the victim. Such an inquest can be quite disheartening for a family that has recently lost a loved one, since the defense will attempt to call into question the worker’s ability to competently perform his or her job. However, proving sole proximate cause is often difficult because it requires a high standard of proof on behalf of the defense team. As a result, the burden of proof on behalf of the plaintiff is often low in wrongful death cases against non-subscribers in Texas. However, the help of an experienced Texas wrongful death attorney is often still necessary in order to ensure that the burden of proof is met and that a strong case has been built on behalf of yourself and your lost loved one.

Aggressive Defense Teams and Insurance Adjusters

Insurance polices that are involved in wrongful death cases can often be quite expensive, resulting in a stout defensive team being put together to represent the insurance company’s best interests. Additionally, highly trained insurance adjusters will likely work the claim, and they will do so with an eye toward getting the claim denied, thus saving their company the most amount possible. If the claim cannot be denied, i.e. if blame cannot be placed onto any other parties for the accident, then they will work to have the claim amount severely lessened. Furthermore, defense attorneys in wrongful death cases will likely be just as experienced with many years of prior, similar casework. In other words, they’ll know more than a few ways to see your case dismissed or your compensation package severely decreased. Ensure that this doesn’t have the likelihood of happening to you by enlisting the help of Houston wrongful death lawyer Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices. With 20 years of prior experience in Texas wrongful death cases, Mr. Grossman is ready to come alongside you during this difficult time in order to ensure that you’re compensated for your incurred damages and to see to it that all liable parties are brought to justice for their negligent behavior resulting in your loss.

Contact Houston Wrongful Death Lawyer Michael Grossman for Help With Your Texas Wrongful Death Case

If you’ve lost a loved one due to the negligent behavior of another person or entity, don’t hesitate to contact our law offices today at 1-855-392-0000 (toll free) for a free, private legal consultation. We’ll listen to you and answer any questions you might have about the legal process to seek justice and to seek compensation for your loss. We’ll also provide you with possible legal options in regards to the specifics of your case. Furthermore, contacting us quickly in the aftermath of a fatal accident can often prove to be vitally important toward the successful outcome of a wrongful death case. For instance, pertinent evidence can go missing as the days pass. Some evidence can even be manipulated or deleted by those that would rather not be implicated in your loved one’s death. Key witnesses can become difficult to track down as time passes too. When Grossman Law Offices is hired to look into a wrongful death, we’ll investigate the accident site in order to gather such evidence and talk to such witnesses. Since the decedent cannot speak for themselves, it’s important that relevant evidence is acquired so that a robust case can speak for them.

With 20 years of practical work in Texas wrongful death cases, Houston fatality attorney Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices stand ready to serve you through defending your rights against even the toughest of opponents. We understand that this is likely a difficult, emotional, and trying time for you, but waiting any longer to contact us could ultimately prove detrimental to your case. Ensure that those who were negligent in your loved one’s death don’t have the opportunity to exercise the same kind of negligence which could lead to another family’s suffering. Contact Grossman Law Offices today so that you can stand to be compensated for hospital bills, funeral expenses, your pain and suffering, and other incurred damages, and so that justice can be served in light of your personal loss.