What a Wrongful Death Attorney in San Antonio Does for a Family

The firm and its founding attorney

Michael Uvalle founded LAWBOSS – Harris, Nelsen & Uvalle, PLLC. Before he became a lawyer he worked for several of the largest insurance companies in Texas, where he saw from the inside how injury and death claims are evaluated and defended. He started the firm to put that knowledge to work for injured people and their families instead. Several of the firm’s attorneys also came from the insurance side, as adjusters or as lawyers who defended claims.

The firm’s motto is “Work hard and do right”. For a grieving family that means plain answers, regular updates and no pressure. Our San Antonio office is in Fountainhead Tower on I-10 and is open 24 hours, and the firm also has offices in Houston and Dallas. The San Antonio office is rated 4.8 from 701 Google reviews, as read in October 2026.

Who in the family has a claim, in short

Section 71.004 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives the wrongful death claim to the surviving spouse, children and parents of the person who died, and to no one else. Adopted children and adoptive parents are included. There is no order of priority, and one of them can bring the claim for all of them. Brothers and sisters, grandparents and stepchildren are not on the list, though some may share in the separate survival action as heirs of the estate. Our wrongful death lawyer San Antonio page explains both claims in full, with a side-by-side table.

When to speak with a wrongful death attorney

There is no rule that a family must call a lawyer in the first days, and we never press anyone to. Texas gives two years from the date of death to file a wrongful death suit (Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003(b)). Still, some things move faster than grief does, and it helps to know them:

• Evidence fades quickly. Damaged vehicles are sold for salvage, video from businesses and traffic cameras is recorded over, and a trucking company is only required to keep a driver’s hours records for six months.
• Some deadlines are short. A claim against a city, a county or the state usually needs written notice within six months of the incident (section 101.101).
• The other side starts early. Insurance adjusters often call families within days and ask for a recorded statement. You are not required to give one.
• The estate may need a decision. If no family member has begun the claim within three calendar months, section 71.004(c) says the executor or administrator shall bring it, unless all of the family ask them not to.

What we do in the first weeks

Most of the early work happens without the family having to do anything. Here is what it usually involves.

1. We listen. We ask what happened, who the person was and who they leave behind. We answer your questions about Texas law in plain words, and we tell you honestly whether we think there is a claim.
2. We confirm who has the claim. Under section 71.004 the wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving spouse, children and parents. We also work out who the heirs of the estate are for the separate survival action, and whether the estate needs a representative.
3. We ask for evidence to be kept. We write to the people and companies involved and ask them to preserve vehicles, vehicle data, video, phone records, logs and maintenance files.
4. We gather the official records. The TxDOT crash report, which section 550.065 of the Transportation Code allows a person who may sue because of the death to obtain; the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s report, which the office says usually takes at least 12 weeks; police files; medical and ambulance records.
5. We find the insurance. The other driver’s or company’s liability policy, umbrella policies, an employer’s policy, and the family’s own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
6. We take over the insurance calls. Once you hire us, adjusters speak to us and not to you.

Finding everyone who is responsible

A death is rarely the fault of one person alone, and the person who was most careless is often not the one with the means to answer for it. Texas law reaches beyond the driver or the worker who made the mistake. Section 71.002 makes a person liable for a death caused by their own or their “agent’s or servant’s” wrongful act or neglect, so an employer can answer for an employee on the job. Depending on what happened, the people responsible may include:

• the driver, and the employer the driver was working for;
• the owner of the vehicle, and a trucking company and the company that loaded its cargo;
• a bar or store that kept serving someone who was obviously intoxicated (Alcoholic Beverage Code 2.02);
• the owner of a property or workplace where an unsafe condition was left in place;
• a city, county or state body whose employee was driving, under the limits of the Texas Tort Claims Act.

We look for all of them early, because the defence will look too. Under section 33.004 a defendant can ask the court to name a responsible third party and have the jury give part of the fault to that person. A family that has not investigated that person can be caught short.

Documenting what the family has lost

The law asks a family to prove its loss, and that is painful work. We do as much of it as we can for you. We gather pay and tax records, records of the help the person gave at home, and accounts from the people who knew them: how they spent their time with their children, what they did for their parents, what the family has lost day to day. Where it helps, professionals such as economists and grief counsellors explain these losses to the insurers and, if it comes to it, to a jury.

We never put a figure on a family’s loss in advance, and nobody honest can. Section 71.010 says only that a jury may award damages “in an amount proportionate to the injury resulting from the death”. What we can promise is that the claim will describe the person and the family fully. Our wrongful death lawyer San Antonio page lists each kind of damages Texas allows, and the survival action that runs beside the family’s claim.

What a family can recover, in brief

Texas courts allow the spouse, children and parents to claim for the support, care and guidance the person would have given, for loss of companionship, for their mental anguish and for the inheritance the person would probably have left. The estate’s survival action covers the person’s own losses before death: medical bills, pain and suffering, earnings lost and funeral and burial costs. When a death is caused by gross negligence or a wilful act, section 71.009 also allows exemplary damages, which must be proved by clear and convincing evidence and found by a unanimous jury (section 41.003).

If the other side says the person who died was partly to blame, Chapter 33 reduces the damages by that person’s percentage of fault and bars recovery above 50 percent (sections 33.012 and 33.001). Answering that argument with evidence is a large part of our work.

The deaths we handle

• Car crashes, including drunk driver crashes: see fatal car accident lawyer San Antonio.
• 18-wheeler and commercial truck crashes: see fatal truck accident lawyer San Antonio.
• Motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle and rideshare deaths.
• Deaths at work, where the rules depend on whether the employer carries workers’ compensation.
• Deaths caused by a property owner’s neglect, and deaths involving a city, county or state vehicle.

Our wrongful death law firm San Antonio page explains the rules for each of these.

Fatal crashes in Bexar County

TxDOT’s crash records for 2024 count 215 people killed in 205 fatal crashes in Bexar County: 64 on interstate highways, 90 on city streets and 49 on US and state highways. Many of those crashes happen on roads every San Antonio driver knows: I-35 and I-10 through the city, Loop 410, Loop 1604 and US 281. People hurt in the worst crashes are usually taken to one of the city’s two Level I trauma centres, University Hospital in the South Texas Medical Center or Brooke Army Medical Center. When someone dies, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office investigates, and a suit is usually heard in one of the county’s civil district courts. We also serve families in New Braunfels, Schertz, Converse, Universal City, Live Oak, Leon Valley, Helotes, Boerne and Seguin; our areas served page explains how the county affects a claim.

Negotiation, a lawsuit and trial in Bexar County

When the investigation is complete, we set out the family’s claim in writing to the insurers and negotiate. You decide whether any offer is accepted. If the claim does not resolve fairly, we file suit. A lawsuit is generally brought in the county where all or most of the events happened (section 15.002), so a death in San Antonio usually leads to one of the civil district courts at the Bexar County Courthouse on Dolorosa Street.

After a suit is filed, both sides exchange documents and take sworn testimony. Courts often send cases to mediation, where a neutral person helps the two sides look for an agreement. Many cases end there. If the case goes to trial, the jury decides who was at fault and in what percentage, what the damages are, and how they are shared among the spouse, children and parents (section 71.010). Exemplary damages can be awarded only by a unanimous jury (section 41.003).

How long a wrongful death case takes

We will not give you a date we cannot keep. A claim with clear fault and enough insurance may resolve within months of the investigation. A claim against a trucking company, a claim where fault is disputed, or one that goes to trial can take years. Medical examiner reports alone usually take at least 12 weeks. We tell you where your case stands at every step, and we explain what each choice would mean for the time it takes.

How the money is shared and paid

Wrongful death damages go directly to the spouse, children and parents, and section 71.011 says they are not subject to the debts of the person who died. When a case settles, the family members agree how it is shared; at trial, the jury finds the shares. Money from the survival action is different: it goes into the estate and passes to the heirs or under the will, and creditors of the estate may be paid from it. When a beneficiary is a child, extra protections apply to how the child’s share is approved and held, and we explain them before anything is signed.

How the fee works

The consultation is free. No Fees or Costs Unless We Win. If we take the case, we work on a contingency fee: our fee is a percentage of what is recovered for the family, and there is no attorney’s fee if there is no recovery. The firm’s published terms are that we advance the costs of investigating and pursuing the claim, such as filing fees, records and the fees of the professionals who examine the evidence, and that you owe no attorney’s fee and no case costs unless money is recovered. Your written fee agreement states the percentage and exactly how costs are handled, and we go through it with you before you sign.

Questions worth asking any attorney before you hire one

A family should feel free to ask these of us or of any firm. Good answers are plain and written down.

• Who will work on our case day to day, and who do we call with a question?
• How often will you update us, and how?
• What is the fee percentage, and how are case costs handled if there is no recovery? Can we see it in writing?
• Have you handled the kind of death this was: a truck crash, a workplace death, a claim against a government body?
• Will our case stay with your firm, or could it be passed to another firm?
• What do you need from us, and what will you do without us?

For who we are and the kinds of deaths we handle, see our wrongful death law firm San Antonio page. If the death happened in a crash, our pages on a fatal car accident lawyer San Antonio and a fatal truck accident lawyer San Antonio cover the records and rules for those cases. The firm’s main website is lawboss.com.

This page is general information about Texas law, not legal advice for any particular death. Responsible attorney: Michael Uvalle, LAWBOSS – Harris, Nelsen & Uvalle, PLLC. Our family checklist and questions page cover the practical side, and you can reach us through the contact page.

Questions people ask