Fatal Workplace Injury Lawyers in Houston, TX | Wrongful Death Accidents

Our Houston Fatal Accident Lawyers have won millions and repeatedly recover some of the largest wrongful death awards for family members across Harris County. We have successfully represented hundreds of workers tragically injured or killed in connection due to the negligent  actions of a company, subcontractor, non-subscriber employer, or other liable third party.

Our team understands the heartbreak and hardship that follows the unexpected loss of life at work. We act quickly to identify who is responsible, preserve key evidence, and pursue maximum compensation for your family. If the case doesn't settle for all that you're entitled to, we'll take the case trial to ensure your loved one's story is fully heard and appreciated.

We Ensure That Your Family Is Able to Provide for Themselves for the Rest of Their Lives

At Sneed & Mitchell LLP, we have built a reputation throughout Texas as a leading law firm for wrongful death and catastrophic injury litigation. Our record includes:

• Multiple Top Verdict Awards in Texas

• Over $100 Million recovered in verdicts and settlements

• Success against many Top 100 and 200 companies

• An 8-figure settlement in a catastrophic worksite death case

• Recognition for excellence in trial advocacy and client service

• An Undefeated team of Trial Attorneys

Fatal accidents are among the most devastating tragedies any family can face. When a hardworking individual dies because of another’s unsafe actions, the emotional, financial, and psychological toll on their loved ones can be overwhelming. During this time, you deserve to have best team of attorneys representing you, as it requires experience, resources, and strategy to fully advocate for your loss.

If your spouse, parent, or child was killed on the job, call (713) 800-6676 to speak directly with a Houston Workplace Fatality Lawyer. At Sneed & Mitchell LLP, we’re experienced, relentless, and committed to delivering justice to families after the worst has occurred.

Understanding Wrongful Death Claims After a Fatal Work Accident

In Texas, families who lose a loved one in a workplace fatality have the legal right to file a wrongful death lawsuit under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 71.002. This statute allows specific relatives to pursue a claim when a person's death is caused by another party’s wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness, or default.

Workplace fatalities may be caused by a variety of factors:

• Unsafe working conditions

• Inadequate training or supervision

• Lack of proper safety equipment

• Faulty or unmaintained machinery

• Violations of OSHA safety regulations

• Exposure to toxic substances

• Failure to respond to known hazards

Under Texas law, surviving family members can also file a survival action through the estate of the deceased. This claim allows recovery for the injuries and suffering the deceased experienced before death, and the compensation becomes part of the estate to be distributed under probate law.

How Fatal Workplace Accidents Happen in Houston

Despite safety regulations and industry standards, fatal workplace accidents remain tragically common in Texas. These incidents are often the result of systemic negligence, overlooked safety procedures, and a lack of oversight by site managers, subcontractors, and non-subscriber employers. Many of these accidents occur because of violations that go unaddressed until it’s too late.

Fatal Accident Deaths

One of the most frequent causes of workplace deaths is falls from height. Whether from scaffolding, ladders, rooftops, or open-sided floors, falls often result from missing safety guards, unanchored harnesses, or poor site planning. Employers and site managers are responsible for implementing fall protection systems under OSHA regulations. When they fail to do so, or when subcontractors ignore required procedures, the consequences can be deadly.

Crush And Pinch Injuries

Crush injuries are another catastrophic risk, particularly in construction, warehousing, and manufacturing settings. Workers may be pinned between forklifts and loading docks, struck by collapsing walls, or caught in machinery that lacks proper guarding. Employers who remove machine safeguards or fail to install them altogether place their workers at serious risk of fatal injury.

Explosions

In industrial environments, fires and explosions continue to claim lives. These events often stem from poor maintenance of pipelines or tanks, combustible dust build-up, or the improper storage of flammable chemicals. A single oversight can ignite a fatal chain reaction. In many of these cases, investigations reveal a failure to comply with basic safety standards and poor emergency response planning.

Electrocution

Electrocution, another leading cause of workplace fatalities, frequently occurs when companies allow untrained workers to perform electrical tasks or fail to de-energize circuits during repairs. Many of these deaths could have been prevented with proper lockout/tagout procedures, basic PPE, or compliance with electrical codes.

Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim In Texas?

The following individuals may file a wrongful death claim under Texas law:

• Spouse (including common-law spouses)

• Children (biological or legally adopted)

• Parents (biological or adoptive)

These individuals may file either individually or together. If no eligible party files within three months of the date of death, the personal representative or executor of the estate may file the claim, unless all statutory beneficiaries request otherwise.

What Is a Survival Action?

A survival action is a legal claim that survives the victim’s death and is brought by the estate. It allows the estate to recover damages that the deceased could have claimed if they had survived, including:

• Physical pain and suffering

• Mental anguish prior to death

• Medical bills incurred before passing

• Funeral and burial costs

• Survival damages are ultimately distributed through probate to the heirs or beneficiaries of the estate.

Damages Available After a Fatal Workplace Accident

Wrongful death and survival claims allow for recovery of both economic and non-economic losses.

Economic damages include:

• Lost future earnings and benefits

• Medical and funeral costs

• Loss of household services

• Loss of inheritance

Non-economic damages include:

• Emotional anguish

• Loss of companionship

• Loss of parental guidance or spousal support

• Loss of consortium

In some cases, exemplary, or "punitive" damages may be awarded by a jury against the defendant. These are intended to punish employers or other parties for gross negligence or willful misconduct, such as knowingly ignoring repeated safety violations. Properly quantifying the value of a loss of life is no easy task, these calculations require trial attorneys with extensive knowledge and insight.

The Frequency of Fatal Work Accidents Is Alarming

Thousands of workers die in preventable workplace accidents each year in the United States. It is a horrifying process that harms countless families and communities.

In Texas, the impact of this phenomenon is especially dire. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 564 workers died in Texas due to work-related incidents in the year 2023, the most out of any state. This figure reflects the hazards present in sectors such as construction, transportation, oil and gas, and warehousing.

Transportation incidents are the leading cause of workplace deaths, with over 240 deaths in Texas last year. Under this category are commercial drivers, delivery workers and other workers travelling for business who were killed while engaged in work-completion activities. Other fatal workplace incidents have occurred due t

Understanding Wrongful Death And Survival Action Claims

Texas law provides attorneys to pursue two distinct legal pathways for families to pursue justice, wrongful death claims and survival actions. While both may arise from the same incident, each serves different legal purposes and compensate your family for different types of losses. Understanding the difference between these two claims is essential to ensuring that all avenues of recovery are fully explored and that the responsible parties are held accountable under the law.

Wrongful Death

A wrongful death claim here in Texas allows certain family members, usually the spouse, children, or parents, to can recover damages after the death of a person who was killed by a wrongful act, negligence, error, or omission of another person. Attorneys file claims for wrongful death are based on the harm suffered by the surviving family members both at the time and moving forward, such as loss of financial support the deceased would have provided, loss of companionship, emotional harm, and more. The purpose of a wrongful death claim is to recover damages for the effect that the death had on family members.

Survival Action

A survival action is much different and is a claim brought under the Texas Survival Statute that permits the decedent's estate to step into the bed of the deceased and bring claims that the deceased could have pursued had they lived. This actually includes recovery for damages sustained after the injury but prior to death for medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and lost wages. A survival action is essentially a continuation of the personal injury claim, and the claim "survives" the decedent's death and inures to the pecuniary estate.

How Do You Handle The Estate Claim After Someone Has Died?

To pursue proper compensation for your family, our attorneys follow certain steps within probate court to ensures every legal detail is handled so the family can focus on healing. The initial step is to open an estate in probate court, regardless of the deceased assets. If the deceased left a will, the court will appoint an executor. If not, the attorney files a petition to have a qualified person appointed as administrator. This court-appointed representative receives Letters of Administration or Letters Testamentary, which give them legal authority to pursue a survival action on behalf of the estate.

How Liability is Determined in Cases of Fatal Workplace Accidents in Houston

In cases of fatal workplace accidents here in Harris County, determining liability involves looking into the legal obligations and duties owed by employees, guests, and others that led directly to causing the worker’s death. At Sneed & Mitchell LLP our attorneys help the family members of a worker killed on the job by filing various types of civil claims under a number of legal theories, each with a different standard of proof and different evidentiary burdens of proof. The legal theories are not mutually exclusive, and they can and often do overlap in fatal workplace accidents, particularly those that occurred on complicated industrial or construction work sites.

Negligence

We file a negligence case in all situations where the failure to comply with a legal duty of care owed to the victim resulted in the death. In the workplace, the failure can be established by a variety of failures of safety training, failure to provide personal protective equipment, and failure to correct or even acknowledge a known hazard. In order for us to be successful we must prove duty, breach, causation, and damages. This four-part analysis is fact specific and likely will require expert testimony.

Gross Negligence

Gross negligence claim are neccessary when we see a greater level of danger, an extreme risk level, with evidence of the defendants realization of the danger and conscious indifference to the welfare of the victim. We must show to the judge and jury that an aggravated form of negligence happend, which also allows for punitive damages in some sitautions. Our trial team looks for multiple safety violations, aconscious disregard for dangerous safety procedures, or repeated inaction after either injuries or warnings were relayed to the employer regarding a dangerous hazard.

Strict Liability

Strict liability is common is actually most common in accident sitautiosn that occur at work. This legal cause of action makes the at-fault company liable regardless of their fault or intent. To be clear, it doesn't matter what precautions the defendant took, they are still legally accountable for the victim's death. Strict liability is commonly assigned for inherently dangerous activities or defective products, such as demolition work or handling unsafe chemical substances.

Product Liability

We file product liability claims when a manufacturer, distributor, or seller liable for a death related to a defective or unreasonably dangerous product used in the workplace. These claims can be based on defective design, defective manufacturing, or failure to warn of dangers. In fatal work accident lawsuits, product liability claims commonly arise from machinery that lacked proper guarding, where there was a defect in the component parts, or circumstances where the product was sold without the required warnings about known risks.

How Companies Are Held Responsible After A Death On The Job

There are only three types of claims classifications that allow families to assert civil actions against the party responsible for the loss of life when it occurs at work, and these are workers' compensation cases involving gross negligence, non-subscriber situations, and third party claims.

Workers' Compensation Gross Negligence Findings

In Texas, employers who carry workers’ compensation are generally shielded from lawsuits after a workplace death, as benefits under the system are the employee’s sole remedy. However, an exception exists if the death was caused by the employer’s gross negligence, a reckless disregard for known dangers. For instance, if an employer ignored repeated warnings about faulty equipment that later caused a fatality, the family may have grounds to file a wrongful death lawsuit despite the workers’ comp coverage.

Non-Subscriber Accident Cases

Non-subscriber accidents are situations in which the workers' own employer is liable for causing his or her injuries and also opted out of the Texas workers’ compensation system. Texas is the only State in America that allows companies to circumvent the government-led program. While non-subscriber status saves employers money, it also strips defendants of certain legal protections and leaves them fully exposed to civil actions when the evidence shows they were at-least 1% at fault for what occurred. In fatal injury claims against non-subscribers, juries are often unforgiving when presented with any evidence of employers cutting corners and putting profits over safety. Our Houston Non-Subscriber Accidents Lawyers regularly secure maximum compensation for local workers injured in this unfortunate predicament.

Third Party Accidents

Third party liability plays a major role in many workplace deaths. This situations involves an entity other than your direct employer being liable. Even if your employer offers their employees workers' compensation benefits the injured person can still offer operates faulty machinery or fails to warn of hazardous conditions, they may be held liable under Texas wrongful death laws. Similarly, a third-party manufacturer could be responsible for a defective component that contributed to a worker’s death.

Ultimately, most fatal work injuries share a common thread, they were preventable. Whether due to missing machine guards, lax enforcement of safety policies, or negligent third-party conduct, these incidents represent a breakdown in responsibility, and under Texas law, those responsible can and should be held accountable for the loss of life they cause.

The Statute of Limitations for Wrongful Death in Texas

Texas imposes a two-year statute of limitations from the date of death to file a wrongful death or survival action. Failing to file within this period may permanently bar recovery. However, certain exceptions may apply, as an or example, if the claimant is a minor or if the wrongful act was fraudulently concealed.

We Handle Wrongful Death Cases On A Contingency Fee Basis

All fatal workplace cases are handled on a contingency fee basis. You don’t pay any attorney fees unless we win your case. We also advance all litigation costs so you and your family can focus on healing while we handle everything else.

More Reason Families Choose Sneed & Mitchell After A Fatal Accidents

At Sneed & Mitchell, we proudly serve clients across Texas and beyond, offering:

• Representation statewide and nationally in serious and fatal injury cases;

• Convenient virtual consultations via Zoom for you and your family;

• Easy smartphone-based sign-up so you can start your case from anywhere;

• Free consultations to evaluate your rights and legal options;

• Contingency fee representation, no attorney fees unless we win your case;

• Hospital and in-home visits to aid you and your family;

• A firm built on principles of honor, integrity, and compassion;

• A trusted reputation as one of Houston’s premier personal injury law firms;

• A team of Texas Bar-licensed attorneys led by our award-winning attorneys Niles Sneed and Brit Mitchell are two of the most respected and nationally recognized trial lawyers in Harris County.

Speak With a Houston Fatal Work Injury Attorney Today

It is completely normal to feel lost and confused about what to do after the unexpected loss of a loved one. We understand that, and that's where our Fatal Accident Lawyers at Sneed & Mitchell LLP come in. We are solely focused on helping your family through the legal process from beginning to end so that you can turn your focus toward healing and moving on with your life.

Our attorneys work with each family to identify their goals and needs, and to make sure their voices are being heard every step of the way. We focus on helping family members get the answers they seek, hold the people who are accountable, and pursue full justice for what happened. Holding the people who are the cause of the loss accountable not only brings peace of mind to the grieving family but also prevents future tragic events from injuring other innocent workers.

With many decades of combined experience, our firm has represented many grieving families in multiple jurisdictions across Texas and we have recovered substantial amounts of compensation on their behalf. We know how to prepare and present strong cases that will hold corporations, contractors, and other negligent parties legally and financially responsible for a death that should have never occurred.

There is no upfront cost for you. We work on a contingency fee basis for all wrongful death cases, meaning we only get paid if we win your case.

We invite you to call us today at (713) 800-6676, for a free and confidential consultation with our Houston Fatal Accident Lawyers.

Our attorneys are also bi-lingual and can help you and your family in Spanish if this more comfortable for you.