Wrongful Death Statute of Limitations in Texas

Your brother left work in Fort Worth on a Tuesday and never made it home. A driver ran a light on Lancaster Ave., and the police report told you everything except what to do next.

Months later, the funeral is behind you, the bills are not, and someone mentions a deadline; now you need to know how much time you actually have.

Texas Wrongful Death Filing Deadline

Texas gives you two years from the date of death to file a wrongful death lawsuit. That clock runs from the death itself, not from the injury that caused it, under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code (CPRC) § 16.003.

When someone lives for weeks or months after a crash, the clock still starts on the day they die. The earlier injury date does not shorten your window to sue.

Miss the deadline and a court will almost certainly dismiss the case, no matter how clearly the other side was at fault. If you file late in Texas, no amount of evidence can fix your wrongful death claim.

Two years sounds generous until you start building the case. Records take weeks to obtain, witnesses move, and investigations run for months, which is why our attorneys and investigators start working right away.

Texas Wrongful Death Discovery Rule

In rare cases, families wonder whether a hidden cause of death buys them more time. Texas courts have closed that door. The Texas Supreme Court held in Moreno v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 787 S.W.2d 348 (Tex. 1990) that a wrongful death claim accrues on the date of death, not on the date the cause becomes known, and the discovery rule does not push that deadline back.

That holds even in the hardest cases: a delayed diagnosis, an undisclosed product defect, or a cause of death that only surfaces during an autopsy. None of those facts move the two-year deadline.

What can shift is a separate, related claim. If your family member lived for a time after the injury before dying, a different discoverability question may apply to that earlier injury, which is one more reason our attorneys and investigators start with the full timeline instead of assuming the two years already ran out.

Minor Beneficiary Filing Deadlines

The two-year deadline does not run against a child. Under Texas CPRC § 16.001, the limitations period pauses while a beneficiary is a minor.

Your child’s own two-year window opens on their 18th birthday. A 10-year-old who lost a parent has until age 20 to file, even though every adult beneficiary’s deadline closed years earlier.

That does not make waiting safe. Evidence still ages at the same rate, and a case built eight years after a death is much harder to prove.

Before you assume a claim is barred, confirm who qualifies as a beneficiary, because a surviving child can keep the case alive.

Who Can File a Texas Wrongful Death Claim

Texas limits wrongful death claims to three groups: the surviving spouse, the children, and the parents of the person who died; siblings are excluded under CPRC § 71.004.

If none of those family members files within 90 days of the death, the executor or administrator of the estate can file for them, unless a beneficiary objects in writing.

Wrongful Death Claims vs. Survival Claims

Two separate claims can come out of one death. The wrongful death claim compensates you for your own losses, such as lost financial support and companionship.

A survival claim belongs to the estate under CPRC § 71.021. It recovers what your family member could have claimed for their own pain and expenses had they lived.

If your family member lived for a time after the injury, a separate personal injury deadline may already be running. Check Texas injury filing deadlines separately, so that claim does not lapse while you focus on the other one.

Texas Tort Claims Act Notice Deadlines

When a city, county, or state agency is involved, you have far less than two years to act. You must generally give written notice to the governmental unit within six months of the incident under CPRC § 101.101.

That notice is a separate requirement from the lawsuit itself. Miss it, and a court can throw out the claim even though you are well inside the two-year window.

Home rule cities can shorten that window by charter or ordinance, and some have cut it sharply.

• City of Houston: You must submit the city’s written claim notice within 90 days of the incident.
• City of Austin: The charter cuts the window to 45 days for claims against the city.

Your real deadline depends on which government body was involved, so identifying the right one comes first. That work belongs in the first weeks after a death, not the first year.

Work with a Texas Wrongful Death Attorney

If you are inside your deadline, the next questions are procedural: how to file a wrongful death lawsuit and what a court needs from you. You will also want to know what damages you can recover before an insurer starts talking numbers.

Angel Reyes & Associates has guided Texas families through wrongful death claims for over 30 years, with more than $1 billion recovered for clients. We serve families across the state with more than 20 offices, and we can handle the majority of your case remotely.

Our team answers calls 24 hours a day, and se habla español. Schedule a free consultation so you know exactly how much time you have left.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.