Your Son Is Gone — and the Fraternity That Killed Him Had Already Been Shut Down Once
You are reading this in the hours or days after the worst moment of your life. Your son went away to college — Kansas State, a freshman, just starting — and he did not come home. He died from a fall at a fraternity house. And now you have learned something that makes the grief turn to fury: the same national fraternity organization had already been shut down at the University of Kansas in 2022. The national organization knew its chapters were dangerous. It had already closed one in the same state. And it let the chapter at K-State keep operating — keep recruiting freshmen like your son — until the foreseeable happened.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm. We are a trial firm that takes hazing wrongful death cases in Kansas and nationwide, working with local counsel where required. Our managing partner, Ralph Manginello, has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court, and is lead counsel in an active $10 million hazing lawsuit against a national fraternity and a major university. We know how these organizations are structured, how their insurance works, and what their lawyers are already doing to protect themselves — not your family.
This page is the truth about what happened to your son, who is responsible, and what you need to do before the evidence disappears. Everything here is written for one person: you, at this moment, needing to know what to do next.
What Happened — and Why the Prior Shutdown Changes Everything
Your son died from a fall. In the context of a fraternity, a fall is almost never a random accident. Falls in fraternity houses happen because of a combination of forces that the fraternity itself created: alcohol provided to a underage pledge, a dangerous environment (a balcony, a stairwell, a roof, a window), a hazing activity that put him in that location, and a culture that discouraged anyone from calling 911 until it was too late.
The single most powerful fact in your case is this: the national fraternity organization had already shut down its chapter at the University of Kansas in 2022. That shutdown is not a rumor or a suspicion. It is a documented, public action by the national organization — proof that it knew its chapters in Kansas were engaging in conduct serious enough to warrant closure.
A national fraternity that has shut down one chapter for dangerous conduct and then allows the same conduct to continue at another chapter has made a choice. The law calls that choice foreseeability, and foreseeability is the foundation of liability.
That prior shutdown is what separates your son’s death from a “tragic accident.” It establishes:
- Notice: The national organization knew its chapters were dangerous.
- Control: The national organization had the power to shut down chapters — it proved that at KU.
- Pattern: The dangerous conduct was not isolated to one campus.
- Foreseeability: A death at K-State was a foreseeable consequence of failing to act after KU.
- Punitive exposure: The choice to let K-State keep operating despite what happened at KU is the kind of conscious decision that supports punishment damages.
The national fraternity cannot say “we had no idea this could happen.” It shut down a chapter 90 minutes down the highway for the same kind of conduct. It knew. And it did nothing sufficient to stop it from happening again.
Who Can Be Held Responsible: The Full Defendant Map
A hazing wrongful death case is almost never one defendant. It is a stack — and the stack is designed to confuse you. Each layer points at the others. Here is who we pursue and why:
The National Fraternity Organization. This is the deepest pocket and the defendant that matters most. The national org collects dues from every chapter, sets the risk management policies, publishes the anti-hazing rules, requires insurance, and — as it proved at KU — has the power to shut down chapters that endanger students. Its defense is always the same: “the local chapter is independent; we don’t control their day-to-day operations.” The KU shutdown demolishes that defense. You cannot claim you do not control your chapters when you have already shut one down for the exact kind of conduct that killed this student.
The Local Chapter. The chapter is the entity that directly hazed your son. It is typically organized as a separate legal entity — sometimes a non-profit corporation, sometimes an unincorporated association. It may carry insurance through the national organization’s group policy. It probably has limited assets on its own. But its conduct is the direct cause of your son’s death, and its members are the ones who carried out the hazing.
Individual Chapter Members and Officers. The young men who planned the hazing, who provided the alcohol, who pushed your son into the dangerous situation, and who failed to call 911 are individually liable. Some may face criminal charges. Their personal insurance — homeowners policies carried by their parents, umbrella policies — may provide coverage, though many policies exclude intentional acts. The president, pledge educator, risk management chair, and social chair of the chapter are the individuals most likely to bear direct responsibility.
The University. Kansas State University had a duty to protect your son. Universities regulate fraternity life, conduct risk management reviews, maintain disciplinary records, and have the power to suspend or derecognize chapters. If K-State had received prior complaints about this fraternity — and if the KU shutdown was known to K-State administrators, which it almost certainly was — the university’s failure to act is its own negligence. University liability in hazing cases turns on what the university knew, what it did with that knowledge, and whether its inaction made the harm foreseeable.
The Fraternity’s Insurance Carriers. Behind every defendant is an insurance policy. The national fraternity carries liability insurance — often through fraternal insurance pools or commercial carriers. That policy may have a hazing exclusion, an assault-and-battery exclusion, or both. The coverage fight is often the first battle in a hazing wrongful death case, and it is where an attorney who used to work inside the insurance industry becomes your most valuable asset.
Kansas Hazing Law and Your Family’s Rights
Kansas has an anti-hazing statute that makes hazing a criminal offense. Hazing is not a “tradition” or a “prank.” It is a crime, and the fact that it is a crime matters in your civil case: a violation of the anti-hazing statute can be powerful evidence of negligence — and in some jurisdictions, negligence per se — because the fraternity and its members violated a law written specifically to protect students like your son.
Kansas’s wrongful death statute gives the family two years from the date of death to file a lawsuit. That deadline is firm. It does not extend because you are grieving. It does not extend because the fraternity is “investigating.” Two years from the day your son died, the courthouse door closes — and the fraternity’s lawyers know it.
Under Kansas’s wrongful death statute, the claim is brought by the personal representative of the deceased’s estate, for the benefit of the statutory beneficiaries — typically the parents of an unmarried student with no children. The damages available include the full economic loss (lost earning capacity, medical expenses, funeral costs) and the human losses (pain and suffering before death, loss of companionship and guidance, the value of the life itself).
Kansas follows a comparative-fault rule, which means your own share of fault reduces your recovery. In a hazing case, the defense will try to pin fault on the victim — “he chose to drink,” “he chose to participate.” The answer is straightforward: hazing is illegal, you cannot consent to an illegal act, and the power dynamic between active members and pledges means the “choice” to participate was coerced. The defense will still try, because every percentage point of fault they pin on your son reduces what they owe. Every point is money.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
The Evidence That Dies Fast — and the Letter That Freezes It
The evidence that proves your son’s death was caused by hazing is being destroyed right now. Not in months or weeks — in some cases, in hours. Here is what exists, who holds it, and how fast it legally disappears:
Group Chats and Text Messages. This is the most important evidence in any hazing case. Group chats among fraternity members show the planning of hazing activities, the coordination of alcohol supply, the instructions to pledges, and — after the fact — the panicked messages telling everyone to delete everything. These messages are being deleted right now. Members are clearing their phones. The preservation letter that freezes them has to go out in days, not weeks — and it has to reach not just the fraternity and its national organization but the individual members, their parents, and the social media platforms themselves. Text messages can be subpoenaed from carriers, but carrier retention windows vary and are short.
Security Camera Footage. Many fraternity houses have exterior security cameras. The university may have cameras pointed at fraternity row. Neighbors may have doorbell cameras. This footage shows who entered the house, when, and in what condition. It overwrites itself on a rolling cycle — commonly 30 days, sometimes less. If no one demands it be saved, it records over itself and the truth is gone.
Social Media Posts. Photos and videos from the night of the hasing — on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok — may have captured the event itself. Snapchat disappears by design. Instagram stories vanish in 24 hours. If a single person at that party took a video, it exists somewhere — but it will not exist for long unless someone acts to preserve it.
The Autopsy and Toxicology Report. The autopsy will establish the cause of death — blunt force head trauma, cervical spine fracture, internal bleeding, or whatever the mechanism was. The toxicology report will show your son’s blood alcohol concentration and any other substances in his system. This is critical evidence: a high BAC proves the fraternity supplied alcohol to a underage student and that his impairment contributed to the fall. The defense will try to use the BAC against you (“he was drunk, it’s his fault”). We use it the other way: the fraternity created the intoxication, the intoxication caused the fall, and the fall killed him.
Witness Statements. The fraternity’s members are being talked to right now — by the chapter president, by alumni advisors, by the national organization’s representatives, and by the fraternity’s lawyers. They are being told what to say and, more importantly, what not to say. The “brotherhood code” of silence is real, and it is being enforced at this moment. Witnesses need to be interviewed before their stories align and before the fraternity’s lawyers coach them. Pledges who survived the same hazing are your most important witnesses — and they are the most terrified.
University Records. K-State may have prior complaints about this fraternity. The university’s disciplinary file, its risk management reviews, its communications with the national organization — all of these are evidence. But university records are protected by FERPA and other privacy laws, and the university will not hand them over voluntarily. They must be subpoenaed, and the subpoena has to be served before the university’s own retention schedule lets them disappear.
Fraternity Records. The national organization keeps risk management files, incident reports, chapter inspection reports, and communications with the local chapter. These records may show that the national org knew about problems at K-State before your son died. The national org’s file on the KU shutdown is itself evidence of notice. These records must be demanded in writing immediately.
The preservation letter — the spoliation demand — is the single most important thing a lawyer does in the first 72 hours. It is a written notice to every potential defendant and every third party that holds evidence: do not destroy anything. If they destroy it after receiving that letter, a judge can tell the jury to assume the worst about what was lost. That letter goes out the day you call us.
The Medicine of a Fatal Fall: What the Records Will Show
A fall that kills a college freshman is not a simple injury. It is a cascade of physical destruction, and the medical records tell the story.
The Mechanism. When a person falls from a height — a second-floor balcony, a stairwell, a window — the body accelerates under gravity. The energy at impact depends on the height and the mass. When the head strikes a hard surface — concrete, wood, tile — the skull stops but the brain keeps moving inside it, slamming against the interior of the skull. That is the coup-contrecoup mechanism, and it is how a fall causes a traumatic brain injury. The brain’s white-matter tracts — the wiring that connects its regions — stretch and shear under rotational forces. That is diffuse axonal injury, and it is often invisible on a standard CT scan.
The Role of Alcohol. Alcohol is the accelerant in almost every fraternity hazing fall. It does three things that turn a survivable stumble into a fatal event:
- It kills protective reflexes. A sober person who trips throws their hands out, tucks their chin, and braces. A heavily intoxicated person does none of those things — they fall like a dropped object, and the head takes the full force.
- It thins the blood. Alcohol impairs clotting, which means a subdural hematoma — bleeding between the brain and the skull — grows faster and larger than it would in a sober person.
- It delays the response. A drunk person who falls is assumed by bystanders to be “just drunk.” The 911 call does not get made until someone realizes the person is not breathing — and by then, the brain has been starved of oxygen for minutes that cannot be recovered.
The Autopsy Findings. The autopsy will document the cause of death: blunt force head trauma with subdural hematoma, or cervical spine fracture with spinal cord transection, or internal organ rupture with hemorrhage. It will include the toxicology panel showing the BAC and any other substances. It will document the injuries to the body — not just the fatal blow but the signs of the hazing itself: bruises, abrasions, signs of physical endurance activities. Every finding on that autopsy report is evidence.
The Defense’s Proof Problem. The defense will argue that your son was drunk and fell on his own — that the fall was his fault, not the fraternity’s. The answer is in the mechanism: the fraternity provided the alcohol to a underage student, created the dangerous environment, put him in that location through hazing, and then delayed the emergency response. A person who is furnished alcohol illegally and then falls from a height the fraternity controlled did not “fall on his own.” He was pushed — maybe not by hands, but by a system designed to produce exactly that outcome.
For the families of a student who survived a fall but suffered catastrophic brain injury, the brain injury resource on our site covers the long-term medical reality in detail — the neuropsychological testing, the lost cognition, the lifetime care costs that follow a “mild” TBI that was never mild at all.
What the Fraternity’s Insurance Will Try — and How We Answer
The fraternity’s insurance company has already been notified. The adjuster has already opened a file. And within days, someone friendly will reach out to your family — a “victim advocate” from the national fraternity, a “concerned” alumni representative, or an insurance adjuster who sounds sympathetic and is not. Here are the plays they will run and how we counter each one:
Play 1: The “Independent Chapter” Defense. The national fraternity will say the local chapter is an independent entity and the national org is not responsible for what happened. This is their primary shield.
Our counter: The KU shutdown. The national organization proved it has control by exercising it — it closed the KU chapter. It sets the bylaws, collects the dues, requires the insurance, and conducts the chapter inspections. You do not get to claim powerlessness when you have already demonstrated power. The KU shutdown is the single fact that breaks this defense open.
Play 2: The Hazing Exclusion. The fraternity’s liability insurance policy likely contains a hazing exclusion or an assault-and-battery exclusion. The insurer will deny coverage, saying “hazing is excluded.”
Our counter: We do not have to win under the hazing coverage. We pursue the national organization’s negligent supervision, negligent retention of the chapter, and failure to act after the KU shutdown — claims that may be covered even if the hazing itself is excluded. The coverage fight is its own litigation, and it is where having a lawyer who used to work inside insurance defense — like Lupe Peña, who spent years at a national defense firm before joining our side — changes the calculus entirely.
Play 3: The “He Consent” Defense. The defense will argue your son voluntarily participated in the fraternity’s activities and assumed the risk.
Our counter: Hazing is a crime under Kansas law. You cannot consent to an illegal act. More fundamentally, a pledge does not “consent” to hazing — he submits to it under the coercive power dynamic between actives and pledges, where refusal means rejection, humiliation, or worse treatment. “He chose to be there” is not a defense to furnishing alcohol to a minor and creating the conditions that killed him.
Play 4: The Quick Sympathy Check. Within weeks, a representative of the fraternity or its insurer may approach your family with a “gesture of goodwill” — a check for funeral expenses, maybe more, accompanied by a release that, if signed, waives your right to sue forever. It will arrive before you have hired a lawyer, before the autopsy is complete, and before you know what the case is actually worth.
Our counter: Do not sign it. Do not cash it. A check for $25,000 or $50,000 with a release on the back is worth a fraction of what this case is worth — and the insurance company knows it. That is why they are sending it now, while you are grieving and before you have counsel. Every dollar you accept before talking to a lawyer is a dollar they are spending to make the rest of the case go away cheaply.
Play 5: The Delay. The fraternity’s lawyers will file motions, request extensions, dispute discovery, and drag the case out month after month — betting that your family will give up, settle for less, or run out of patience.
Our counter: We work through delay by building the case so thoroughly that the insurance company’s own math tells them to settle. Every deposition, every document, every expert report tightens the noose. We do not rush, but we do not stall — and the wrongful death experience on our team means we know how to move these cases forward through the grief and the legal complexity.
What a Young Life Is Worth: Building the Number
The value of a hazing wrongful death case is built from several streams of loss, each of which must be documented and proved:
Lost Earning Capacity. Your son was a college freshman. He had 40-plus years of working life ahead of him. A forensic economist projects what he would have earned — based on his age, education trajectory, career interests, and the statistical earnings data for college graduates — and reduces that to present value. For a young person with a full career ahead, this number alone can run into the millions. The defense will argue that future earnings are speculative. The counter is that the government’s own labor data makes these projections reliable, and the Supreme Court itself has approved the methodology.
Pain and Suffering Before Death. If your son survived for any period after the fall — minutes, hours, days — he experienced conscious pain and suffering. The fear, the pain, the awareness of what was happening. This is a separate damage category, and it can be substantial in a case where the victim lingered.
Wrongful Death Damages. The family’s losses: the loss of companionship, guidance, support, and the relationship with a child who was taken before his life really began. Kansas’s wrongful death statute defines who can recover and what is recoverable, and the value of a parent’s loss of a child is among the most profound losses the law recognizes.
Punitive Damages. This is where the KU shutdown matters most. Punitive damages are awarded to punish the defendant for conduct that was willful, wanton, or recklessly indifferent to the consequences. A national fraternity that shut down one chapter for dangerous conduct and then allowed the same conduct to continue at another chapter — without adequate supervision or intervention — has made a choice that a jury can punish. Punitive damages in hazing cases can dwarf the compensatory damages, and that is exactly why the insurance company will fight to settle before the pattern evidence comes out.
Medical and Funeral Costs. The emergency medical bills, the hospital costs if your son survived briefly, and the funeral and burial expenses. These are the baseline economic damages, and they are fully recoverable.
The total value of a hazing wrongful death case involving a college freshman — with a national fraternity defendant that had prior notice of dangerous conduct — can reach well into the millions. Our firm has filed a $10 million hazing lawsuit in an active case, which reflects the scale of these claims when the facts support it. That figure is not a promise about your case; it is an illustration of what the legal system recognizes as the value of a young life destroyed by a culture of hazing.
The First 72 Hours: A Roadmap for Families
If your son just died, you are in the hardest 72 hours of your life. Here is what to do — and what not to do:
Do NOT sign anything. Not from the fraternity. Not from the university. Not from an insurance company. Not from the national fraternity’s “victim advocate.” Not a release, not a sympathy card with a check inside, not a “memorial agreement.” If someone hands you paper, read nothing and sign nothing until you have a lawyer.
Do NOT give a recorded statement. An insurance adjuster or a fraternity representative may call and ask you to “just tell us what happened” on a recording. This is designed to lock you into a statement before you know the facts — and to create material they can use against your family later. Decline. Politely. Firmly. Every time.
Do NOT post on social media. Not about the fraternity. Not about the hazing. Not about your grief. Everything you post can be screenshot, saved, and used by the defense. Grieve privately. Let your lawyer speak publicly.
Do NOT talk to the fraternity’s representatives. Alumni, national organization staff, and “concerned brothers” may reach out to express sympathy. Their sympathy may be genuine, but their conversations are not privileged, and anything you say can and will be used to build the fraternity’s defense. Be civil. Do not discuss the facts.
DO demand preservation of evidence. Through a lawyer, send written preservation demands to the national fraternity, the local chapter, the university, and the fraternity’s insurance carrier — demanding that all group chats, text messages, social media posts, security footage, incident reports, risk management files, university disciplinary records, and the KU shutdown file be preserved. This letter is what creates legal consequences if evidence is later destroyed.
DO obtain the autopsy and toxicology report. Make sure the medical examiner knows this death occurred in the context of a fraternity event. The autopsy and toxicology findings are the medical foundation of the entire case. If the medical examiner has not been told about the fraternity context, that information needs to reach them — through law enforcement or through your lawyer, not through the family.
DO contact a lawyer who knows hazing cases. Not a general personal injury lawyer. Hazing wrongful death is a specialized practice — it requires understanding the fraternity corporate structure, the insurance coverage fights, the evidence preservation timeline, and the specific dynamics of hazing culture. Our firm handles hazing cases and is currently litigating one of the most watched hazing lawsuits in the country. The call is free, it is 24/7, and it costs you nothing to learn whether we are the right fit for your family.
How We Build the Proof Story
Here is how a hazing wrongful death case is actually built, from the day you call to the day the number is on the table:
Week One: The Freeze. The preservation letter goes out — to the national fraternity, the local chapter, the university, the individual officers, and every insurance carrier. This letter demands that all evidence be preserved and creates the legal consequence if it is destroyed. We also send preservation demands to social media platforms and phone carriers for group chat and message data before it cycles out of their retention windows.
Weeks One Through Four: The Records Sweep. We demand the fraternity’s risk management file, the national organization’s communications with the K-State chapter, the KU shutdown file, the university’s disciplinary records and prior complaints about this fraternity, the autopsy and toxicology report, the 911 call records, the EMS run sheets, and the emergency room records. Every document is a piece of the timeline.
Weeks Four Through Twelve: The Investigation. We identify and interview witnesses — pledges who were there, former members who have left the fraternity, neighbors, first responders. We work with a forensic reconstruction expert to determine the height of the fall, the forces involved, and the mechanism of injury. We consult with a forensic toxicologist to analyze the BAC and its role in the fall. We pull the national fraternity’s own anti-hazing policies and risk management materials — the rules it published and failed to enforce.
Months Three Through Six: The Depositions. We depose the chapter officers under oath. We depose the national fraternity’s risk management director. We depose the university’s Greek life administrator. Under oath, the “independent chapter” defense falls apart when the national org’s own witnesses admit they set the policies, collected the dues, inspected the chapter, and — as at KU — had the power to shut it down.
Months Six Through Twelve: The Number. A life-care planner and forensic economist build the damages model — the lost earning capacity, the pain and suffering, the wrongful death losses, the punitive exposure. The number is not invented; it is built from government labor data, medical records, expert projections, and the law’s own framework for valuing a life. Then it is presented — in a demand, in mediation, or to a jury.
This is not a fast process. But the evidence dies fast, which is why the first call matters more than anything that happens later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue the national fraternity organization, or just the local chapter?
You can sue both — and you should. The national fraternity organization is the defendant with the deepest pockets and the most insurance. Its defense — that the local chapter is independent — is undermined by its own conduct: it shut down the chapter at KU, proving it has control. The local chapter is directly liable for the hazing. Individual members who planned and carried out the hazing are also liable. And the university may be liable if it knew about prior problems with this fraternity and failed to act.
How long do I have to file a lawsuit?
Kansas’s wrongful death statute of limitations gives the family two years from the date of death to file. That deadline is absolute. It does not extend because you are grieving, because the fraternity is “investigating,” or because you have not hired a lawyer. Two years. The evidence, however, dies much faster — group chats are being deleted now, security footage overwrites in weeks, and witness memories fade under pressure from the fraternity’s representatives. The two-year clock and the evidence clock run in opposite directions.
The fraternity’s insurance company already called and offered money. Should I take it?
No. Not before you talk to a lawyer who handles hazing cases. The first offer from an insurance company is always a fraction of what the case is worth. It arrives before the autopsy is complete, before the evidence is preserved, and before anyone has determined what really happened. If the offer comes with a release — and it will — signing it gives up your right to sue forever, for an amount the insurance company calculated to be cheap. Take the phone number. Call us. Then decide.
My son was drinking when he fell. Does that mean we can’t recover?
No. It means the defense will try to use his intoxication against him — but the intoxication is evidence against the fraternity, not against your son. The fraternity furnished alcohol to a underage student, which is a crime. The alcohol impaired his balance and judgment, which is why he fell. And the fraternity’s culture of hazing created the coercive environment in which the drinking happened. Under Kansas’s comparative-fault rule, any fault assigned to your son reduces the recovery — but it does not eliminate it, and a jury that hears the full story of how the intoxication was manufactured by the fraternity is unlikely to assign much fault to a teenager who was being hazed.
What if the fraternity says it was “just a party” and not hazing?
The pattern tells the truth. The group chats, the witness statements, the structure of the event, the presence of pledges, the prior KU shutdown — all of these distinguish a hazing event from an ordinary party. The fraternity will try to recharacterize the event because “hazing” triggers insurance exclusions and punitive damages. We prove it was hazing through the evidence: the organization of the event, the role of pledges, the power dynamic, the traditions involved, and the testimony of the survivors.
Does the fact that the same fraternity was shut down at KU help our case?
It is the most powerful single fact in your case. The KU shutdown proves the national organization knew its chapters in Kansas were dangerous, had the power to act, and failed to act at K-State. That is notice. That is foreseeability. That is the foundation for punitive damages — the argument that the national org’s choice to let K-State keep operating, despite what it knew from KU, was a conscious decision that made your son’s death foreseeable. The KU shutdown is not a footnote. It is the spine of the case.
What is a hazing wrongful death case worth?
There is no fixed number. The value is built from the specific losses: a young person’s lost earning capacity over a full career (often in the millions), the pain and suffering before death, the family’s wrongful death losses, and — where the conduct supports it — punitive damages. Our firm has filed a $10 million hazing lawsuit in an active case, which reflects the scale these cases can reach when the facts support it. The actual value of your case depends on your son’s age, his career trajectory, the specifics of the hazing, the defendant’s conduct, and the jurisdiction. We build the number from real data, not guesses.
Do I need a lawyer who specifically handles hazing cases?
Yes. Hazing wrongful death is not a general personal injury practice. It requires understanding the fraternity’s corporate structure, the insurance coverage fights (including hazing exclusions), the evidence preservation timeline for group chats and social media, the dynamics of the brotherhood code of silence, and the specific anti-hazing laws of the state where the death occurred. A lawyer without this experience will miss the KU shutdown’s legal significance, fail to preserve the right evidence in time, and accept a settlement that is a fraction of what the case is worth. Our firm handles hazing cases and is currently litigating one of the most significant hazing lawsuits in the country. Call us first.
What does it cost to hire your firm?
Nothing upfront. We work on contingency — we do not get paid unless we win your case. Our fee is 33.33% of the recovery before trial and 40% if the case goes to trial. The consultation is free, it is 24/7, and you will talk to a real person, not an answering service. If we are not the right fit for your family, we will tell you — and we will point you to someone who is.
Why This Firm — and What the First Call Costs
Ralph P. Manginello is our managing partner. He has been licensed since November 6, 1998 — 27-plus years of trial practice, including federal court. He is admitted to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer, which means he knows how to find the story the evidence tells. And he is lead counsel in the active $10 million hazing lawsuit against a national fraternity and a major university — a case that is shaping how courts think about fraternity liability right now. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He does not lose cases because he did not prepare enough.
Lupe Peña is our associate attorney. He was licensed in December 2012 and is also admitted to federal court. Before he joined our side, he spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the kind of firm the fraternity’s insurance company hires. He sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. He knows how claim valuation software works, how IME doctors are selected, how surveillance is deployed, and how the delay tactics are engineered. Now he uses that knowledge for injured families. And he is fluent in Spanish — he conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter.
We are based in Houston, Texas, and we take hazing wrongful death cases in Kansas and nationwide, working with local counsel and through pro hac vice admission where required. We do not claim an office in Kansas, and we are honest about that. What we bring is the specific expertise in hazing litigation that few firms in the country have — and the active case that proves it.
The call is free. It is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You will talk to a live person, not a machine. We will listen to what happened, tell you honestly whether we can help, and if we can, the preservation letter goes out the day you hire us — because the evidence is dying while you read this.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911). Or call our direct line at (713) 528-9070. Or our cell at (713) 443-4781. Email ralph@atty911.com or lupe@atty911.com.
Hablamos Español. Lupe conducts full consultations in Spanish. Your family does not need an interpreter to understand your rights.
We do not get paid unless we win your case. Free consultation. 24/7. The evidence will not wait. Neither should you.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. Contacting the firm is free and confidential.