Wrongful Death of a Child in Texas
The wrongful death of a child represents the most devastating loss parents can experience. When negligence takes a child’s life, Texas law allows parents to pursue compensation for their profound losses. Wrongful death of a child claims recognize that while no money can replace a lost child, the responsible parties should bear financial accountability for the harm they caused. Contact our Austin Wrongful Death lawyers today!
Wrongful death of a child claims arise from car accidents, medical malpractice, defective products, drownings, and numerous other preventable incidents. Children are particularly vulnerable to dangers that adults might avoid or survive. When someone’s negligence kills a child, parents deserve both compensation and the accountability that wrongful death claims provide.
The Texas Wrongful Death Act specifically authorizes parents to bring wrongful death claims for the death of their children. Both biological and adoptive parents have standing. When parents are divorced, each parent may file separately, or both may join in a single personal injury lawsuit.
Who Can File for a Child’s Wrongful Death
Wrongful death of a child claims may be brought by the deceased child’s parents under Texas law.
Biological parents have automatic standing to file wrongful death claims for their children regardless of custody arrangements or the nature of their relationship with the child.
Adoptive parents have the same rights as biological parents. Legal adoption creates full parental standing for wrongful death claims.
Stepparents generally cannot file wrongful death claims unless they legally adopted the deceased child. The stepparent relationship alone does not create standing.
Grandparents and other relatives lack standing to file wrongful death claims for a child’s death in Texas, even if they served as primary caregivers.
When both parents are living and wish to pursue claims, they may file jointly or separately. Coordination between parents’ claims helps maximize total recovery and avoid conflicting litigation.
Damages in Child Wrongful Death Cases
Wrongful death of a child claims seek damages that differ somewhat from claims involving adult deaths because children typically do not provide financial support to their parents.
Loss of companionship and society represents the primary damage category in child death cases. The parent-child relationship has profound value that deserves substantial compensation. Every moment of the child’s remaining life was stolen from parents.
Mental anguish damages recognize the devastating grief parents experience when their children die. The death of a child produces psychological trauma that often lasts a lifetime. Parents may require extensive counseling and still never fully recover.
Loss of services addresses the contributions children make to households and would have made as they grew. Children help with chores, provide comfort to parents, and often care for aging parents later in life.
Loss of inheritance in child cases projects what the child would have accumulated and potentially left to their parents. While speculative, this damage category recognizes real economic loss.
Funeral and burial expenses for children, while typically lower than adult funerals, are recovered as wrongful death damages.
Common Causes of Child Wrongful Deaths
The wrongful death of a child results from various types of negligence that prove fatal to vulnerable young victims.
Motor vehicle accidents kill children as passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Negligent drivers bear responsibility when their conduct kills children.
Drowning claims the lives of more children ages 1-4 than any other cause except birth defects. Property owners with pools and those supervising children near water may face liability.
Medical malpractice kills children through birth injuries, diagnostic failures, medication errors, and surgical mistakes. Healthcare providers owe children the same duties they owe adult patients.
Defective products, including toys with choking hazards, unsafe cribs, and dangerous children’s products, cause child deaths that support product liability wrongful death claims.
Premises hazards at schools, daycare centers, playgrounds, and other locations where children gather may cause fatal accidents when property owners neglect safety.
Challenges in Child Death Cases
The wrongful death of a child presents unique challenges that require sensitive and skilled handling.
Emotional difficulty affects parents’ ability to participate in litigation. Depositions, document review, and trial testimony require reliving the worst experience of a parent’s life.
Valuing damages without economic losses creates challenges. Unlike adult deaths, where lost earnings provide concrete numbers, child deaths involve entirely non-economic damages that are harder to calculate.
Defendant tactics sometimes include blaming parents or minimizing the relationship. Experienced attorneys anticipate and counter these approaches.
Get Help After Losing a Child
The wrongful death attorneys at Shaw Cowart handle child death cases with the compassion and sensitivity these devastating losses require. We protect grieving parents from litigation stress while aggressively pursuing accountability and compensation. If negligence killed your child, contact Shaw Cowart today for a free consultation.