As a leading Houston lawyer in negligent death, Alejandro Padua responds to each client with compassion and support. With a thorough knowledge of the legal system of Houston and the State of Texas, Mr. Padua has been representing victims of negligence since 2007. After moving to Houston from Mexico City, he has a particular sensitivity to the difficult situation of members of the cross-cultural community as they navigate the state’s legal system.

What is Unfair Death?

Under Texas law, a person or company can be sued for wrongful death if they caused the death of someone as a result of “an unlawful act, negligence, carelessness, lack of skill or failure.”

Accidents at work, exposure to harmful products, driving while intoxicated … are just some of the scenarios that can lead to a death by negligence. It happens more than we could imagine and it happens in many ways:

• In 2016, there was not a single day free of deaths from a fatal car accident in Texas.
• 915 people died that year as a result of DUI drivers.
• An average of 95 children under the age of 5 die each year due to child care products.
• Between 2014 and 2016, 431 people died as a result of furniture or household appliances overturned on them.

Cases of wrongful death can take many forms. For example, a design defect case in the State of Texas requires the plaintiff to present the burden of proof:

1. That there was a safer design that could have been used for the product
2. That the alternative design would have significantly reduced the risk of unjust death without compromising the utility of the product
3. That it was economically and technologically possible to produce the alternative design
4. That the defect of the product was what caused the victim to lose his life

No matter how negligence (or other responsibility) occurs, when it causes the loss of life, the victims of that negligence have rights and also their families. Malpractice death attorneys make an important relationship for families who have suffered the devastating impact of losing a family member due to the negligence, and sometimes gross negligence of another person or company.

In cases of wrongful death, the attorney will defend the rights of the victim and his or her family under Texas law. They will seek compensation in the form of maximum conciliations or verdicts, depending on whether the case goes to trial or an agreement is reached outside the courtroom.

Compensation for Survivor Relatives

Losing someone close to you as a result of someone else’s negligence or recklessness is devastating. It can also leave you emotional and financial long-term damages for which you deserve compensation.

In such cases, families who have suffered such a profound loss can benefit from legal representation to guide them through a difficult time and help them with their legal problems so they can focus on their grief, their health and most importantly, their family. The legal actions will not return the loved one of the family, but they can help an afflicted family to deal with its loss and its financial consequences after a tragedy occurs.

For that, a case of negligent death serves to help spouses, children and surviving parents with legal issues and to seek justice and compensation while they are grieving and recovering.

Types of Reasonable Wrongful Death Damages in Texas

There are three main types of damages that can be sought in cases of negligent death in the State of Texas:

1. Economic damages
2. Non-Economic Damages
3. Punitive damages

Economic damages

When a family member is tragically and abruptly removed from their loved ones, the immediate feelings of emotional distress are overwhelming and encompass everything. It may be that there is no place to consider the long-term practical effects of losing that family member, such as the income that they could have contributed.

The wrongful death lawyers have the experience of having helped other families in similar situations and know that later, those families begin to suffer another type of loss: financial loss. This is one of the reasons to seek economic damages in cases of death by negligence.

This includes:

• Earnings that would have been obtained if the family member had not been a victim of negligence. This allocation of income may be granted for the duration of the “useful” life expected of the victim.
• Medical expenses that the victim may have incurred before his / her death-families need help with these costs.
• Funeral expenses may be granted, as well as other funeral expenses related to the premature death of the victim.
• Services that the victim would have carried out for family members if he had not died. For example, a monetary value is assigned to services such as care, professional support, counseling or home maintenance.
• Gifts or benefits that the victim may have provided to his family, may also be assigned a monetary value to the economic damages to give to the survivors.
• Inheritance that would have been accumulated by the victim and left to the surviving family members can also be calculated and granted.

Non-Economic Damages

Families that experience the tragic and unjust death of a loved one can suffer in countless ways. There is mental and emotional anguish. There is emotional suffering. There is the emotional pain of knowing that you have lost the love, protection, assistance, comfort and guidance of an important member of the family. For the spouses, there is another dimension of their suffering: loss of companionship and intimacy.

All of these instances of loss can represent valid claims for damages under Texas law. Additional non-economic damages can also be included in a case of negligent death if the relatives were unlucky enough to have witnessed the fatal accident that happened to their loved one.

While the value of economic damages is relatively easy to calculate, assigning a value to non-economic damages is much more complex. Negligent death lawyers like Alejandro Padua have experience in explaining emotional loss to a jury and are experts in showing the court the value of this type of loss.