Wrongful Death Lawyer Baytown, TX
If you’ve lost a loved one in Baytown to someone else’s negligence, nothing about this moment is simple.You are grieving, trying to figure out how your family will pay the bills without your spouse or parent’s income, and wondering whether you should even be thinking about legal action right now.
At Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers, we handle wrongful death files with the care they require and the trial readiness the defendants will respect. Every case is on contingency. No retainer, no hourly billing, no fee unless we recover.
If you need a Baytown, TX wrongful death lawyer whom families can trust to carry a case with both skill and compassion, we are ready to listen.
Why Choose Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers for Wrongful Death Cases in Baytown, TX?
Trial Experience in Fatal-Incident Cases
Co-founder Matt Greenberg has practiced personal injury law in Baytown, TX for 12 years and has served as lead trial counsel in multiple wrongful death cases that produced record-setting outcomes. Those include a $37.5 million verdict in Dallas County for the family of a truck driver killed by an Oncor electric delivery driver, and a $35 million settlement against Ben E. Keith for an 18-wheeler crash that killed a young woman, which was the largest Tarrant County settlement at the time. He earned his J.D. at Baylor Law School and has been recognized by Super Lawyers, Lawdragon, and the National Trial Lawyers.
Mike Streich has handled fatal injury cases for 13 years. He graduated cum laude from the Houston Law Center and is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. Before moving to the plaintiff side, Mike spent close to a decade defending corporations and insurance syndicates, including members of Lloyd’s of London, in catastrophic injury and death claims. That background gives him a working knowledge of how defendants investigate, value, and defend wrongful death matters from the moment a loss occurs.
Results That Hold Companies Accountable
Our attorneys have recovered over $375 million for clients across Texas, including multiple eight-figure outcomes in fatal-incident cases. Among those results are an $11 million mid-trial settlement for the family of a worker who died at the Port of Freeport when a crane outrigger fell on him, an $11 million wrongful death settlement for a family whose mother died in a vehicle fire after being rear-ended by a construction company 18-wheeler, a $7.5 million settlement for the parents of an oilfield worker killed by a rig accident, and a $6 million wrongful death settlement for a widow whose motorcycle-riding husband was killed by a company driver high on marijuana.
Contingency Fee Representation
Families dealing with the death of a loved one should not have to worry about retainer checks. Our firm advances investigation costs, accident reconstruction, life care planning, and economic analysis, and our attorney fees come out of the recovery only if we win.
Client Feedback
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “What really sets Matt and Mike apart is how they treat their clients. They listen. They communicate. They make sure you understand what’s going on, and they never make you feel rushed or ignored. They fight for you like your case matters-because to them, it does.”
Kristy Sims
Read more reviews on our Google Business Profile.
Types of Wrongful Death Cases We Handle in Baytown
Fatal incidents in the Baytown area occur along traffic corridors, at industrial facilities, and in the water. Our firm handles the full range of wrongful death matters arising from preventable negligence.
- Truck accidents. Many of our wrongful death files involve an 18-wheeler, a delivery truck, or a company vehicle. Hours-of-service violations, driver fatigue, and inadequate training show up repeatedly in these cases, alongside parallel truck accident investigations.
- Car accidents. A serious car accident caused by a drunk, distracted, or impaired driver can change everything in a single afternoon. Commercial drivers and drivers with multiple prior violations are recurring fact patterns.
- Motorcycle accidents. Riders face dramatically higher fatality rates in collisions. Fatal motorcycle cases often turn on driver inattention and left-turn violations.
- Plant, refinery, and chemical incidents. Fatal explosions, toxic releases, and process-safety failures at petrochemical sites generate refinery and explosion claims alongside wrongful death actions against the operator, contractors, and equipment manufacturers.
- Oilfield accidents. Well blowouts, dropped pipe, fires, and hot oil operations cause worker deaths every year. We handle oilfield fatalities against operators and service companies.
- Construction accidents. Falls, crane collapses, and struck-by incidents end lives on job sites. These cases frequently involve a parallel construction accident claim against a general contractor or subcontractor.
- Workplace injuries. Outside the specific industries above, on-the-job fatalities still require careful analysis under Texas’s unusual workers’ compensation framework, which often makes a workplace injury claim central to the file.
- Defective product deaths. Vehicle defects, industrial equipment failures, vehicles, and consumer product failures can all cause death.
- Premises liability. When a property owner fails to address known hazards, a premises liability claim may apply, whether the site is a parking lot, store, construction area, or industrial facility.
Texas Legal Requirements for Wrongful Death Claims
Texas wrongful death law sits in its own corner of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. The specifics determine who can file, what they can recover, and how long they have.
Who can bring the claim. Under the Texas Wrongful Death Act, codified at CPRC Chapter 71, only surviving spouses, children, and parents can bring a wrongful death action. Adult and minor children both qualify, and adopted children are included. Siblings do not have standing, and neither do aunts, uncles, or more distant relatives. Any qualifying family member may bring suit on behalf of all qualifying survivors, but coordinated representation across the family usually produces the cleanest result.
Survival claims. Separate from the wrongful death action, the estate of the deceased may bring a survival action for the pain, suffering, and medical expenses the decedent experienced before death. The estate’s personal representative typically files this claim on behalf of the family.
Statute of limitations. Under Section 16.003(b) of the CPRC, wrongful death actions generally must be filed within two years of the date of death. The clock runs from the date of death rather than the date of the underlying incident, which matters when a loved one survives an accident for a period before passing away.
Modified comparative negligence. Texas uses a 51 percent bar rule under CPRC Chapter 33. If the decedent is assigned more than 50 percent of the fault, the family recovers nothing. At 50 percent or less, the recovery is reduced by the assigned share. Defense lawyers almost always try to assign some responsibility to the person who died, because that person cannot testify. A careful investigation of the physical evidence and independent witness accounts is the counter.
Leading fatality causes. CDC injury data shows that unintentional injuries remain a leading cause of death in the United States, with motor vehicle crashes, falls, and poisoning at the top. In Texas’s industrial corridor, occupational fatalities also rank among the highest in the country per BLS fatal injury data.
What Damages Are Recoverable in a Baytown Wrongful Death Case?
Texas wrongful death law permits surviving family members to pursue three broad categories of damages.
Economic damages. These cover the family’s measurable financial losses. They include loss of the decedent’s earning capacity and expected future earnings, loss of household contributions and services, loss of inheritance, medical expenses incurred before death (through the survival claim), and funeral and burial expenses. In cases involving a young primary earner, economic losses can reach into the millions. We typically retain a forensic economist and a vocational analyst to project these numbers accurately, particularly when the decedent suffered a traumatic brain injury or severe burn injury before death that produced significant pre-death medical bills.
Non-economic damages. Texas law permits wrongful death recovery for loss of companionship, loss of consortium, mental anguish, loss of maintenance, loss of advice and counsel, and loss of inheritance where applicable. For surviving spouses, children, and parents, these damages recognize the reality that no amount of money replaces a loved one, but that the legal system still must try to make the family whole in the only way it can. Non-economic damages are frequently the largest component of a wrongful death verdict.
Exemplary (punitive) damages. Under CPRC Chapter 41, a jury may award exemplary damages when the evidence shows gross negligence, fraud, or malice by clear and convincing evidence. In wrongful death cases, gross negligence may be drunk driving, falsified commercial trucking logs, deliberate safety rule violations at a plant, or a company’s decision to ignore a documented hazard. According to NHTSA fatality data, a significant share of highway fatalities involve alcohol impairment, speeding, or distraction, and those conduct categories often support exemplary damages claims.
If the death involved a commercial vehicle, a company car, or a third-party actor, multiple layers of insurance coverage often apply beyond the at-fault party’s personal policy.
Contact Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers
Nothing we do will bring your loved one back. What we can do is pursue accountability, protect your family’s long-term security, and make sure the people and companies responsible answer for what happened. You deserve a firm that takes that charge as seriously as you take the loss. At Greenberg Streich Injury Lawyers, we blend assertive legal advocacy with compassionate client care. We fight for you and your family, helping you get a measure of justice and fair compensation.
Consultations are free. No fee unless we recover money for your family. We will meet with you at our office, in your home, or by phone or video if that is easier. We move at your pace.
Contact us today to speak with a wrongful death lawyer about what happened and what comes next.
