Losing someone you love in a car crash changes everything. One phone call, and life is never the same. If you’re looking for a fatal car accident lawyer in El Paso, you’re probably dealing with more than grief right now.
There are questions no one can answer yet, bills showing up in the mail, and maybe the worry of how you’ll get by without the income that person brought in. At Omega Law Group Injury & Accident Attorneys, we help families get answers and hold the right people responsible so that you can put your energy into healing.
Our El Paso car accident lawyers have decades of combined experience. We built this firm on one idea: our clients come first, every time. We work on contingency, so you don’t pay unless we win. Let our family take care of yours.
What a Wrongful Death Claim Actually Is
When a car accident takes a life, the law gives the family a way to seek justice. It’s called a wrongful death claim. Put simply, it’s a case you bring when someone dies because another person was careless or reckless.
This isn’t about putting a price on your loved one. Nothing could ever do that. It’s about accountability, and about giving your family some financial footing to stand on while you figure out what comes next.
A wrongful death claim is separate from any criminal case. The at-fault driver might face criminal charges, or they might not. Either way, you can still bring your own claim for what your family lost. The two are handled separately, with different rules and different goals. Our El Paso personal injury lawyers can walk you through both sides so nothing catches you off guard.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in Texas
Texas law (Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 71.004) is specific about who can file.
The law starts with the people closest to the person who died:
- Spouse: A surviving husband or wife can file
- Children: Sons and daughters, including adopted children, have the right to file
- Parents: The parents of the person who died can bring a claim
Any of these family members can file on their own, or they can file together. If none of them files within three months of the death, the representative of the estate can step in, unless the family asks them not to.
If you’re not sure where you fit into all this, that’s okay. These rules are hard to sort through when you’re grieving, and helping you make sense of them is part of our job.
What Causes Fatal Car Accidents in El Paso
Every crash has a story behind it. Figuring out what caused it matters, because it tells us who’s responsible, and that’s where your claim starts.
Motor vehicle collisions turn deadly for a lot of reasons, but a few show up again and again in El Paso County traffic fatalities:
- Distracted driving: Texting, eating, messing with the radio. A couple of seconds at highway speed is all it takes.
- Drunk or impaired driving: Alcohol and drugs slow a driver down and cloud their judgment, and the results are often deadly.
- Speeding: The faster a car is going, the harder it hits, and the less time anyone has to react.
- Reckless driving: Running red lights, blowing through stop signs, weaving through traffic, tailgating. Choices that put everyone around them in danger.
- Drowsy driving: Being exhausted behind the wheel can be as dangerous as being drunk, especially on long stretches like I-10.
- Bad roads or weather: Sometimes the blame traces back to a driver who ignored the conditions, or even a government agency that let a road fall into disrepair.
Figuring out the real cause of an auto accident isn’t always simple. That’s why we investigate: pulling evidence, reading the accident report, and sometimes bringing in accident reconstruction experts to piece together exactly what happened.
What Your Family May Be Able to Recover
“Damages” is just the legal word for the losses you can be paid back for. In a fatal car accident case, damages cover a lot more than medical bills.
Economic Damages
These are losses with a clear dollar amount, such as:
- Medical expenses: Any care your loved one received before they passed
- Funeral expenses and burial costs: The cost of laying your loved one to rest
- Lost wages and benefits: The paycheck, retirement, and support your loved one would have kept providing
- Loss of inheritance: What they likely would have saved and passed down
Non-Economic Damages
These losses are just as real, even without a receipt.
General damages in a wrongful death case can include:
- Loss of companionship: The missing presence of a husband, wife, parent, or child
- Mental anguish: The grief and pain your family is left carrying
- Loss of guidance: The advice, care, and support your loved one gave
Putting a fair number on these losses takes real experience. Insurance companies will try to shrink them down to as little as they can get away with, which brings us to the real problem in most of these cases.
How Insurance Companies Protect Their Profits
After a fatal accident, the insurance company is not on your side. They might sound kind. They might even seem eager to help. But their business is built on paying out as little as possible, and every dollar they keep from your family is a dollar they get to keep.
It doesn’t matter how much insurance coverage the at-fault driver carried; the insurer’s goal is still to hand over as little of it as they can.
This is what to look out for:
- The fast settlement offer: They reach out quickly with a number that sounds big, until you realize it doesn’t come close to covering what your family actually lost.
- The recorded statement: They ask you to make a statement, then dig through it for anything they can use to blame your loved one or pay you less.
- The waiting game: Sometimes they just drag it out, hoping the financial strain pushes you to take whatever they offer.
- Blaming your loved one: They may argue your loved one was partly at fault, using Texas comparative negligence rules to lower what they owe.
None of it is personal. It’s just how they operate. And knowing how they operate is the first step to protecting your family from it. When a fatal car accident attorney in El Paso handles these conversations, the insurer knows the usual tricks won’t work, and that changes everything.
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in an accident?
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Contact an El Paso Car Accident Law Firm for a Free Consultation
No one should have to deal with the legal system while they’re grieving. If you’ve lost someone you love in a car accident, you deserve real answers and someone willing to stand with you. The days ahead are hard enough without taking on an insurance company by yourself.
Let us handle that part. At Omega Law Group, we treat every client like family, because that’s how people should be treated. We’ll listen to your story, walk you through your options, and take care of the rest.
There’s no cost to talk and no pressure, just a conversation. Reach out to our El Paso fatal car accident attorneys today, and let our family take care of yours.
