WHY HIRE A PERSONAL INJURY SPECIALIST ATTORNEY IN A TEXAS WRONGFUL DEATH CASE BY ROGER WALTON

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In wrongful death cases, the damages are usually in the millions of dollars. If the plaintiff´s attorney is not a board certified specialist, the insurance carrier for the defendant will have many opportunities to take advantage of the non-specialist. Since the fees charged by the specialist and the non-specialist may be the same, it is difficult to understand why anyone would choose to hire a non-specialist.

A specialist should be able to make a higher recovery than a non-specialist if the amount of insurance coverage is not an issue. Also, the specialist should be able to retain more of the recovery for the clients than the non-specialist.

A wrongful death case in Texas is for the benefit of the surviving spouse, parents, and children. It is not for the benefit of the siblings or other relatives. The wrongful death case is usually combined with a "survivorship claim" for the decedent´s estate which is for damages for conscious physical pain and mental anguish endured by the decedent before death. Without the Wrongful Death Statute, there would be no claim for the survivors in Texas. Since the cause of action is created by statute, the law must be strictly followed.

A wrongful death/survivorship claim can very complex and complicated and needs a specialist to make sure it is prosecuted correctly. In addition, death cases are much more likely to go to trial so the plaintiff´s lawyer needs to be highly qualified in trial, not just good at settling cases.

Since the insurance carrier knows that the non-specialist usually has very little, if any, trial experience, it should be expected that the carrier would offer less money to the non-specialist. The specialist is more likely to thoroughly investigate the claim and to investigate other possible causes of action. For example, maybe the negligent driver was running an errand for his employer, was negligently entrusted with the vehicle, was in a joint enterprise with a passenger, or had gotten intoxicated at a bar or restaurant. Also, maybe the car the decedent was in was not "crashworthy." These would all be possibilities for additional recovery that the non-specialist might miss.

Sometimes the non-specialist plaintiff´s lawyer gets all the way through trial only to learn that he cannot collect the survivorship damages he was awarded by the jury for the physical pain and mental anguish of the decedent only because he failed to put on proof that no probate of the estate was necessary.

Sometimes the non-specialist plaintiff´s lawyer is required to pay a very large hospital lien that probably could have been avoided if he/she had only elected to probate the estate as a dependent administration and had given notice to creditors by publication.

I have been a specialist in personal injury trial law and certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1994. My firm and I are rated AV, the highest peer review rating available in legal ability and ethics. My firm is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, which contains the top 5% of all firms nationwide in all areas of law. My firm has handled numerous wrongful death/survivorship cases and we are familiar with the many issues that can arise in this type of claim. However, our contingency attorney fees are no more than the typical fees of non-specialists, and are based on the amount of recovery.

www.rockywaltoninjurylawyers.com 888-ROCKY-88 rwalton@rockywalton.com