What damages can be recovered in an Austin wrongful death case?

Texas Wrongful Death Law Compensates the Family’s Losses — Not Just the Financial Ones

Texas wrongful death law under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §71.002 compensates surviving beneficiaries for the full range of losses their loved one’s death caused them — financial support, companionship, parental guidance, and the profound emotional harm of losing someone irreplaceable. The survival claim under §71.021 compensates separately for what the deceased themselves suffered from the moment of injury through death. Both claims are almost always filed simultaneously in Austin wrongful death cases. Texas has no cap on wrongful death damages outside of government entity cases.

Wrongful Death Damages — The Family’s Losses

Each eligible beneficiary — surviving spouse, children, and parents — recovers for their own specific losses. The damages are personal to each beneficiary and are not capped:

Financial Support — Loss of Pecuniary Benefits

The present value of the financial contributions the deceased would have made to the family over their expected lifetime:

• Lost wages and salary the deceased would have earned and contributed to the household
• Lost retirement benefits, pension contributions, and investment income
• Lost Social Security benefits the surviving spouse would have received
• The present value of these future contributions is calculated by an economist using actuarial life expectancy tables, wage growth projections, and discount rates to produce a single lump-sum present value

For high-earning professionals in Austin’s tech, legal, and medical sectors, the lost financial support calculation frequently reaches seven figures over a working lifetime.

Loss of Inheritance

The value of the estate the deceased would have accumulated and passed to beneficiaries — the savings, investments, property, and retirement assets they would have built over their remaining years but never did because of the wrongful death. This is separate from and in addition to lost income contributions.

Loss of Companionship and Society

The surviving spouse and children can recover for the loss of the love, comfort, companionship, and consortium that the deceased would have provided throughout the rest of their lives:

• Surviving spouse: Loss of marital companionship, loss of consortium (the physical and emotional intimacy of the marital relationship), and the loss of a life partner at every stage of the future that now will not be shared
• Minor children: Loss of parental companionship, supervision, affection, and the irreplaceable relationship with a parent during their formative years — typically valued very highly by Travis County juries
• Adult children: Loss of the ongoing relationship with a parent — support, guidance, shared experiences, and the companionship of a family bond that extended into adult life
• Parents of deceased: Loss of the companionship of a child — the relationship, presence, and bond that parents expect to maintain throughout their own lifetimes

Mental Anguish

The profound psychological suffering caused by the death of a loved one — the grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, and ongoing emotional pain of bereavement. Mental anguish is recoverable by every eligible beneficiary class and is often the largest non-economic component of Austin wrongful death awards:

• The acute grief and trauma of learning about and experiencing the death
• The ongoing depression, anxiety, and PTSD resulting from the traumatic loss
• The long-term psychological consequences of living without the deceased — documented through mental health treatment records and expert psychological testimony
• Mental anguish damages are not capped in Texas wrongful death cases (outside government entity claims) and have produced substantial jury awards in Travis County

Loss of Parental Guidance, Care, and Nurturing

For minor children who lost a parent, Texas courts recognize damages for the loss of parental guidance, education, training, and nurturing that the parent would have provided through childhood and into adulthood. This is one of the most significant damage categories in wrongful death cases involving young parents with minor children — the compounded lifetime loss of parental involvement produces substantial awards when the deceased was a young parent.

Punitive (Exemplary) Damages — When Gross Negligence Killed Your Family Member

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §41.003 authorizes punitive damages when the defendant acted with gross negligence — defined as an act or omission involving objective indifference to the rights, safety, or welfare of others. In wrongful death cases, gross negligence is available against:

• Drunk drivers with prior DWI convictions who chose to drive impaired again — the prior record establishes the conscious indifference required for gross negligence
• Commercial trucking companies that knowingly deployed fatigued drivers, ignored drug test failures, or deferred documented brake defects
• Employers who ignored cited OSHA violations, removed safety equipment, or pressured workers to bypass safety procedures under production deadlines
• Product manufacturers who sold products with known defects that the company had internally documented and chosen not to recall
• Premises owners who knew of dangerous conditions, received repeated complaints, and chose not to correct them

Texas punitive damages are capped at the greater of $200,000 or two times economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000 — but uncapped punitive damages are available when the defendant committed fraud, malice, or a felony. Wayne Wright investigates gross negligence evidence in every Austin wrongful death case.

Government Entity Death Cases — Damage Caps Apply

When a government entity is liable — the City of Austin, TxDOT, CapMetro, or Travis County — the Texas Tort Claims Act caps total damages at $250,000 per claimant and $500,000 per occurrence for personal injury and death claims (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §101.023(b)). Punitive damages are not available against government entities. These caps apply even when the family’s full economic and non-economic damages far exceed the statutory limits.

Funeral and Burial Expenses

Reasonable funeral and burial expenses are recoverable as economic damages in Texas wrongful death cases. Wayne Wright documents these expenses from the initial estate administration and includes them in the formal damages demand.

Call 512-543-4397 for a confidential case evaluation. Wayne Wright retains economic experts to calculate the present value of financial support and inheritance losses, forensic accountants to document the deceased’s earning trajectory, and mental health experts to document and quantify the psychological harm suffered by each surviving beneficiary — building the complete damages picture before any settlement demand is made.