The Call No Family Should Ever Get
It was just after 8:30 on a Friday evening. A woman in her mid-70s was inside her own home on the 21,300 block of Rose Hollow Lane in Katy — the same home where she had lived for years, where her family gathered for holidays, where she should have been safest. A Tesla came down the street. The driver told Harris County Precinct 5 investigators he had the car on Autopilot. The vehicle left the roadway, crossed the yard, and drove into the house. The woman was Lifeflighted to Memorial Hermann in Houston. She was pronounced dead.
If you are reading this, you are likely one of the people who got the call that night. A daughter. A son. A husband. A grandchild. You may still be at the hospital. You may be standing in the room where the wall is now missing, looking at the car that drove into your mother’s life. You may be answering a phone that is already ringing with an adjuster who says he is “just checking in.” That adjuster is not your friend. He works for someone who has something to lose.
This page is for you. It explains — in plain English, with the actual Texas statutes and the actual evidence that is disappearing right now — what the law gives you, who you can hold accountable, what the deadline is, and what to do before the other side’s lawyers start shaping the story. Reading this does not make you our client. Calling us does. But you should know what you are dealing with before you call anyone — including us.
What We Know About the June 19, 2026 Katy Crash
The Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office are investigating. From what has been publicly reported: a Tesla struck a residence in the 21,300 block of Rose Hollow Lane near Park Brush Lane at approximately 8:30 p.m. on Friday, June 19, 2026. The driver told investigators the vehicle was on Autopilot. The driver was transported by ambulance to a hospital. The resident of the home, a woman in her mid-70s, was transported by Lifeflight to Memorial Hermann in the Texas Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The investigation is open. The Tesla has not been publicly described as a “Model S,” “Model 3,” “Model X,” or “Model Y” — that detail matters and we will demand it. Autopilot is a feature available on Teslas sold since 2015. The NTSB is not the lead federal investigative agency here — the NTSB investigates aviation crashes and major transportation disasters; a single-vehicle residential crash in unincorporated Harris County is led by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, and Harris County Precinct 5, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) having parallel authority over any defect investigation. NHTSA already has an open Autopilot investigation docket and a Standing General Order requiring Tesla to report every crash involving Autopilot or Full Self-Driving engagement. We will demand that report.
What the public reporting does not say is also part of the case. We do not yet know: the driver’s identity, his level of attention, his intoxication status, his phone use, his prior crashes, whether he had hands on the wheel, whether the cabin camera showed his face, the speed of the vehicle, whether Autopilot had been engaged and disengaged multiple times in the minutes before the crash, whether the vehicle had any prior service complaints, and whether the home’s smoke detectors and security cameras were working. Every one of those facts is in a record somewhere. The question is who gets to it first.
The Tesla Autopilot Question — What the System Is, What It Isn’t, and Why It Matters
Tesla markets Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) as advanced driver-assistance systems. The owner’s manual and Tesla’s own website say Autopilot requires an “attentive driver” who is prepared to take over at any moment. The cabin camera, on vehicles equipped with it, is designed to monitor the driver’s head and eye position. The steering wheel is supposed to feel torque from the driver’s hands. If the system detects inattention, it is designed to issue warnings and ultimately disengage.
Every one of those design features is discoverable evidence. The question in a case like this is not whether Autopilot is “good” or “bad” — it is whether it performed as designed on the night of June 19, 2026, and whether Tesla’s design itself is reasonable. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating Tesla Autopilot crashes for years. The agency opened a defect investigation in 2021 covering approximately 830,000 vehicles. In 2023, Tesla recalled more than 2 million vehicles to add additional driver-monitoring safeguards. The fact pattern that NHTSA has been examining is precisely the one that played out in Katy: a Tesla operating under Autopilot strikes a stationary object, or a pedestrian, or leaves the roadway.
There are two distinct theories of liability against Tesla, and we pursue both in parallel.
The first is driver error compounded by inadequate driver monitoring. If the driver was not paying attention — asleep, impaired, looking at his phone, or simply trusting the marketing too much — Tesla’s defense will be that the driver, not the car, caused the crash. Our counter: Tesla designed, marketed, and sold a system whose name — “Autopilot” — and whose on-screen visuals have been shown by NHTSA to invite exactly that over-trust. If the system requires constant human supervision, the supervision it requires is part of the product, and the product failed. Tesla is also a defendant because its driver-monitoring system, as designed and as updated through the 2023 recall, was not adequate to prevent the foreseeable misuse.
The second is product defect. If the system itself malfunctioned — failed to detect the edge of the roadway, failed to apply the brakes, accelerated unexpectedly, or disengaged at the wrong moment — that is a defect. Under Texas products-liability law, a manufacturer is strictly liable for a manufacturing defect, liable for a design defect under a risk-utility test, and liable for failure to warn of a known danger. We sue the design and the warnings together.
Texas recognizes strict products liability for manufacturers under the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A. The plaintiff does not need to prove the manufacturer was negligent — only that the product was defective when it left the manufacturer’s control and the defect caused the injury. That rule exists for a reason. A 70-year-old woman in her own home cannot protect herself against a defect in a 4,000-pound machine that drives itself. The law puts the burden on the company that built the machine.
Who Can Be Held Liable
In a case like this, the defendant list is built in layers. We name every party whose conduct contributed, because each one is a separate insurance tower, a separate set of records, and a separate source of pressure.
The driver. He is the obvious first defendant. He made the choice to engage Autopilot, the choice to pay attention or not, the choice to override the system or not. His negligence — if any — is the most direct cause. His auto liability policy will be the first insurance check the family sees. For a 70-year-old woman killed, that policy limit (in Texas, minimum coverage is 30/60/25 — $30,000 per person bodily injury, $60,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage, under Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072) is not justice. A single night in intensive care can exceed $30,000. We pursue the driver personally for any judgment in excess of his policy limits and we look hard at whether the driver has separate umbrella coverage.
Tesla, Inc. Tesla is the deeper pocket and the more important defendant. Even if the driver was negligent, Tesla is independently liable for designing, marketing, and selling a system whose foreseeable misuse caused this death. The cabin camera and steering-wheel torque data are the keys to that case. If they show the driver was inattentive, that supports the product-liability theory that the monitoring system was inadequate. If they show the driver was attentive and the system still failed, that supports the design-defect theory directly. Either way, Tesla is in the case.
The Tesla service center or mobile technician who last touched the vehicle. If the car had been serviced and a service bulletin was not followed, or a defect was identified and not corrected, that entity and Tesla itself are exposed.
The homeowner’s insurance carrier for the residential property. This is the property-damage layer. The homeowner (which may be the victim’s spouse, or may be the estate) has a separate first-party claim for the structural damage to the home under the homeowner’s policy. The wrongful death claim is against the driver and Tesla. The property claim is against the homeowner’s own insurance. They are not the same case and we pursue them in parallel.
Umbrella/excess carriers. Drivers in Katy’s residential subdivisions frequently carry umbrella policies in the $1 million to $5 million range. We pursue every layer.
The Tesla owners’ purchase agreement arbitration clause. Tesla includes a mandatory arbitration provision in its purchase agreements. The driver’s first defense will be to point the case into arbitration. Our response: the woman who died was not a party to the purchase agreement. She did not sign anything with Tesla. The arbitration clause, in Texas, generally does not bind non-signatories. The tort occurred on her property, not in connection with the vehicle’s operation in a way the clause was designed to cover. We will fight the arbitration motion and, in most cases, defeat it.
Texas Wrongful Death Law — Who Can File and What They Can Recover
Texas has a specific wrongful death statute. It is Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.002, and it is the only door through which the family of a person killed by another’s negligence can recover. The statute identifies who has the right to file (the beneficiaries), what damages they can recover, and the order in which the right descends.
Under § 71.004, the beneficiaries in order are: (1) the surviving spouse, (2) the surviving children, and (3) the surviving parents. If there is a surviving spouse, she or he brings the action. If there is no spouse but there are children, they bring it. If there are no spouse and no children, the parents bring it. The statute is rigid. Step-children, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives do not have a wrongful death claim in Texas unless they fit one of those three categories.
What the family can recover under § 71.002 includes:
- Mental anguish suffered by the beneficiaries as a result of the death. The Texas Supreme Court has long recognized that this is the family’s own grief — not a derivative claim — and the family is entitled to be fully compensated for the loss of the person they loved. Whaley v. Catlett, 1993, and its progeny make clear that a surviving spouse’s mental anguish damages for the loss of a partner of decades are real and substantial, regardless of the decedent’s earnings.
- Loss of companionship and society. The everyday presence of a parent, spouse, or grandparent — the Sunday phone call, the holiday table, the small conversations that make up a life — has compensable value in Texas.
- Loss of services and support. If the decedent provided household services, financial support, or care to the beneficiaries, the value of those services is recoverable. For a 70-year-old woman, this is often the heart of the case — the cooking, the childcare help, the household management, the financial stewardship.
- Loss of inheritance. What the beneficiaries would have received had the decedent lived a normal lifespan, calculated by an economist using actuarial tables and the decedent’s estate plan (or presumed estate plan).
- Funeral and burial expenses.
- Medical expenses incurred between the time of injury and death (overlaps with the survival action, below).
- Parental guidance, where minor children are involved.
Texas does not cap wrongful death non-economic damages in a general negligence or products liability case. Caps exist for medical malpractice cases, and the punitive damages cap (discussed below) is separate. For an elderly decedent, the loss-of-earnings component is limited — the actuarial table does not credit a 75-year-old with another 40 years of work. But the loss-of-services, loss-of-companionship, and mental-anguish components are not limited by age. A grandmother who is the emotional center of a family has a value to that family that does not depreciate with her years.
The Survival Action — The Decedent’s Own Claim for Her Pain and Suffering
Texas also has a separate claim called the survival action, under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.021. The survival action is the claim the decedent would have had if she had lived. It is brought by the personal representative of her estate, not by the wrongful death beneficiaries. The damages belong to the estate.
The survival action matters here for one specific reason: the woman was Lifeflighted to Memorial Hermann and pronounced dead. Between the moment of impact and the moment of pronouncement, she was a living person. If she experienced conscious pain and suffering — the terror of being struck, the hours of emergency treatment, the fear — that conscious pain and suffering has a separate dollar value in Texas. It is not the family’s grief. It is her suffering, and it is hers alone.
For the survival action, the family needs to appoint a personal representative of the estate. In Texas, that is done through the probate court in the county of the decedent’s residence. If the family wants to pursue both the wrongful death and the survival action, the personal representative is the one who files the survival claim. We handle the appointment and the coordination. The cost of an attorney is recoverable from the estate if the case is successful.
Damages in a survival action can include the decedent’s pre-death:
- Physical pain and mental anguish
- Medical and hospital expenses
- Lost wages and earning capacity from the time of injury to death
- Funeral and burial expenses (often recovered in both the WD and survival claim, then split by agreement or by the court)
Conscious pre-death pain and suffering in a Texas case of this severity typically ranges from a low-six-figure recovery, in cases of very brief conscious suffering, to several million dollars where the decedent endured extended pain before death. The Lifeflight to Memorial Hermann — the helicopter ride, the resuscitation efforts, the hours of intensive care before pronouncement — is the kind of duration that supports a meaningful survival recovery.
The Two-Year Deadline — Texas Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003
You have two years. That is the statute of limitations for both a wrongful death action and a survival action in Texas. The clock starts on the date of death, not the date of the crash. If the woman was pronounced dead at Memorial Hermann on the night of June 19, 2026, the two-year clock runs until June 19, 2028.
Two years sounds like a long time. It is not. By the time the family has grieved, settled the estate, dealt with the home, and started asking the right questions, six to nine months has typically passed. Then the investigation takes another three to six months. Then the case is filed with a year to eighteen months already on the clock. And if the case is filed one day late, it is dead. The statute of limitations is the only deadline in a wrongful death case that cannot be extended for “good cause.” It runs, and it does not stop.
The bigger danger is the evidence deadline, which is much shorter. We cover that in its own section below.
There are narrow exceptions to the two-year rule. If the death was not immediately discoverable as a wrongful act, the discovery rule may apply. If a defendant concealed the cause of death, equitable tolling may apply. If a party is a minor or under legal disability, the deadline is extended. These are technical issues for a Texas wrongful death attorney to evaluate, and they are not excuses to wait.
Texas Modified Comparative Negligence — The 51% Bar
Texas is a modified comparative negligence state, not a pure comparative negligence state. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001, if the plaintiff (the person bringing the claim) is found to be 51% or more at fault, the recovery is zero. The 1% makes the difference.
In a Tesla Autopilot case, the comparative fault question is real. The defense will argue: the driver was inattentive, but the woman was inside her home, and the homeowner’s insurance inspector should have noticed the property’s proximity to the road, and the family should have installed a bollard, and so on. Each one of these arguments is a percentage point. Texas juries in Harris County are not as conservative on damages as some counties, but they are skeptical of plaintiffs who appear to share blame.
Our job is to make the comparative fault question simple. The driver was on Autopilot. The driver chose not to pay attention. Tesla designed and sold a system that made the driver’s inattention foreseeable. The home is a home. The woman did not drive the car. The woman’s own conduct was not a cause of this crash. The defense wants to blur the lines so that the jury can shave off 10% or 20% and the verdict shrinks. We draw the lines cleanly.
The Evidence That Disappears First
This is the section that decides whether you have a case. A Texas wrongful death case is won or lost on evidence. And in a Tesla crash, the evidence is disappearing by the hour.
Tesla’s vehicle data log. Modern Teslas record a detailed event log that includes: vehicle speed, accelerator pedal position, brake pedal position, steering wheel angle, steering wheel torque (the key driver-attention metric), Autopilot engagement and disengagement times, lane-keeping inputs, cabin camera images (if equipped), GPS coordinates, and crash sensor data (inertial measurement unit). This is the black box. Tesla transmits much of this data wirelessly to its servers. Tesla has the ability to retrieve and preserve the data, but it also has the ability to let it be overwritten. The preservation letter goes out the day you call us. We demand Tesla preserve the entire event log, the cabin camera footage for the 60 seconds before and after impact, and all telemetry for the 24 hours before the crash.
NHTSA’s Standing General Order data. Since 2021, NHTSA has required Tesla to report every crash in which Autopilot or Full Self-Driving (Supervised) was engaged within 30 seconds of the crash. We will request that report under FOIA and use it in the case.
Home security cameras. The home that was struck may have a Ring doorbell, a Nest camera, an Arlo system, or an Eufy camera. So may the neighbors. The footage from those cameras — showing the Tesla’s approach, the moment of impact, the immediate aftermath — is perishable. Ring retains footage for up to 60 days, Nest for up to 30 days. We send preservation requests to Amazon (Ring), Google (Nest), and any other identified provider within 24 hours of being retained. If we wait a week, the footage is gone.
Driver’s cell phone records. The driver’s phone holds the key to whether he was texting, on a call, watching video, or asleep. We subpoena the cell carrier for call detail records, text message metadata (not the content of the messages, but who was contacted and when), and app usage data. We also demand the phone itself for forensic examination. A Texas judge will sign a search warrant or a preservation order if the case supports it.
Driver’s toxicology. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office will have drawn blood from the driver as part of the crash investigation. We demand the toxicology report. If the driver was impaired, the case gets dramatically stronger.
The Tesla itself. The Tesla is sitting in a tow yard in Harris County. We send a preservation letter to the tow company and to Tesla demanding that the vehicle not be moved, serviced, modified, or destroyed. The vehicle’s physical condition — the steering wheel, the brake pedal, the accelerator, the front-end structure, the camera lenses — is evidence. Tesla has been known to send a mobile technician to “inspect” crashed vehicles. We do not let that happen without a court order or our expert present.
Witnesses on Rose Hollow Lane. Residential streets in Katy at 8:30 p.m. on a Friday in June have people outside. Joggers, dog walkers, families in their driveways. The witnesses to this crash are our evidence too. We identify and interview them within days, not months. Memories fade.
Memorial Hermann medical records. The woman’s medical record from Memorial Hermann is evidence of her injuries, the duration of her conscious suffering, and the cause and time of death. The hospital lien against any recovery is governed by Texas law, and we negotiate that lien down to maximize the net recovery to the family.
Every one of these evidence categories has a clock. The cabin camera footage is the most time-sensitive. The cell phone records are next. The Ring and Nest footage is next. The Tesla telemetry has a longer shelf life but Tesla’s willingness to preserve it does not.
What Tesla and Its Insurer Will Do — The Playbook, Named
Tesla is not the first defendant any family has ever faced. The playbook runs the same way every time, and naming the play is how you defeat it.
Play 1: The friendly call. Within 48 to 72 hours, a representative of Tesla’s claims operation — sometimes calling from a generic “Customer Experience” number — will reach out to the family. The voice will be warm, concerned, and well-trained. The call is being recorded. The representative will say things like “we just want to understand what happened” and “we want to make sure the family is taken care of.” The actual purpose of the call is to get a recorded statement from a grieving family member, get the family to characterize the crash in a way that minimizes Tesla’s exposure, and get the family to say things that will be used against them later. The counter: refer the call to your attorney. Do not give a recorded statement. Do not speculate about what happened. Do not say “my mother was hard of hearing” or “my mother was in the back of the house” or any other fact that could be used to argue comparative fault. Say “my attorney will be in touch” and end the call.
Play 2: The quick policy-limits offer from the driver’s insurer. Within 30 to 60 days, the driver’s auto liability carrier will offer the policy limits — $30,000, $100,000, or $250,000, depending on the limits the driver purchased. The offer will come with a release that closes the claim against the driver forever. The adjuster will frame it as “closure” and imply that fighting will be expensive. The counter: $30,000 is not justice for a 70-year-old woman killed in her own home. We evaluate the offer against the full value of the case, including the Tesla exposure, and we advise the family accordingly. We do not sign a release that closes claims against Tesla.
Play 3: The arbitration motion. Tesla’s first legal move will be to file a motion to compel arbitration, citing the arbitration clause in the driver’s purchase agreement. The argument is that the entire case must be heard by an arbitrator in California, not a jury in Harris County. The counter: the woman who died was not a party to that agreement. The arbitration clause, under Texas law and the FAA’s savings clause, does not bind non-signatories as a general rule. The tort occurred on her property, in her home. We file a strong response to the arbitration motion and, in the large majority of cases, we win the right to keep the case in front of a Harris County jury.
Play 4: The “Autopilot is just a driver assistance feature” defense. Tesla will argue, in deposition, in summary judgment, and at trial, that Autopilot requires the driver to remain attentive and that the crash was caused by the driver’s inattention, not by Autopilot. The counter: if the system requires constant attention and the foreseeable result of inattentive use is death, the system is defective. The cabin camera and steering wheel torque data show exactly what the driver was doing. The Texas pattern-jury instructions on design defect and failure to warn do not let Tesla off the hook simply because the driver was imperfect.
Play 5: The “contributing cause” defense. Tesla will point to the homeowner’s proximity to the road, the lighting in the neighborhood, the absence of a fence, the speed limit on Rose Hollow Lane, the time of night, and any other environmental factor that can be characterized as a contributing cause. The counter: Texas comparative fault is a percentage game, and Texas juries in Harris County are sophisticated enough to see this for what it is — a desperate attempt to dilute a death that was caused by a car driving into a home.
Play 6: The social media dig. Tesla and its insurer will pull the social media of every member of the family. The grandmother’s old Facebook page, the daughter’s Instagram, the son’s Twitter. Anything that can be characterized as inconsistent with grief, or as suggesting a pre-existing family conflict, or as showing the decedent in poor health, will be used. The counter: the family goes dark on social media for the duration of the case. We advise the family on what to post, what not to post, and what to delete. The best social media strategy is silence.
What Your Case May Be Worth
Case value in a Texas wrongful death case is built from four components: the wrongful death claim, the survival action, the homeowner’s property claim, and (where the facts support it) punitive damages. We give honest ranges, not guarantees, because past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
For a 70-year-old decedent, the wrongful death component of the case is constrained by the actuarial reality that her remaining life expectancy — and therefore her remaining earning capacity and ability to leave an inheritance — is shorter than it would be for a younger person. The Texas wrongful death statute does not, however, treat the elderly as worthless. The mental anguish of losing a mother of forty years is not less than the mental anguish of losing a wife of ten. The loss of household services, the loss of companionship, the loss of the family’s center of gravity — none of those have a number on a table. They are evaluated by the jury, in their community, in their county.
Conservative range (no punitive, no Tesla exposure accepted): $500,000 to $1.5 million, mostly the driver’s policy limits plus modest wrongful death damages.
Mid-range (Tesla admits some exposure, no punitive): $1.5 million to $4 million, with the bulk coming from the wrongful death claim and the homeowner’s property claim.
Strong range (gross negligence shown, punitive certified, full Tesla exposure): $4 million to $12 million or more, with punitive damages on top of compensatory damages. Texas caps punitive damages at the greater of $200,000 or two times the compensatory damages, under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.008 — but the cap does not apply in cases involving certain felonies, and certain product-liability fact patterns push toward the un-capped tier.
Highest tier (egregious facts, comparative fault defeated, sympathetic jury): $10 million to $20 million+ in the right Harris County venire, with the right jury charge, on the right facts.
These are ranges, not promises. We will not tell you what your case is worth before we have the Tesla data, the cabin camera footage, the toxicology, the medical records, and a clear picture of how the crash happened. Anyone who tells you a number in the first 30 days is guessing. We do not guess. We build.
How We Build a Case Like This
The proof story is what separates the firms that talk from the firms that deliver. Here is how we build a Tesla Autopilot case from the first day to verdict or settlement.
Week one. The preservation letter goes to Tesla the same day. The NHTSA voluntary submission request goes to NHTSA the same week. The preservation requests go to Amazon (Ring), Google (Nest), and any other identified security camera provider within 24 hours. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office records request is filed. The driver’s cell carrier is identified and a preservation subpoena is drafted. The Memorial Hermann medical records are requested by the family.
Weeks two through four. The Tesla event data is downloaded — either by Tesla’s own technical team under preservation order, or by a neutral court-appointed expert. The cabin camera footage is extracted. The driver’s cell phone is forensically examined. Accident reconstruction engineers measure the scene, photograph the wall penetration, and calculate the vehicle’s speed and trajectory from physical evidence. A human factors expert begins analyzing the Autopilot system’s design against the state of the art.
Months two through six. The wrongful death petition is filed in Harris County, naming the driver and Tesla as defendants. Tesla files its motion to compel arbitration. We file a strong response. The judge hears the motion. If the motion is granted (it usually is not, in our experience), we proceed in arbitration. If the motion is denied (the more common outcome), we proceed in Harris County. Discovery opens. We take the depositions of the driver, the Tesla regional service manager, the Tesla “customer experience” representative, and the marketing executives responsible for the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving branding.
Months six through twelve. Expert reports are exchanged. We retain a biomechanical engineer, a forensic economist, a forensic pathologist (for the conscious-pain-and-suffering testimony), and a Tesla Autopilot human-factors specialist. Tesla’s experts file their reports. We take their depositions. Mediation is set. The mediation is preceded by a Stowers demand — a written offer to settle within the policy limits that exposes the carrier to excess-verdict exposure if it is rejected unreasonably. This is the leverage that moves the case.
Months twelve through twenty-four. Trial setting. Voir dire in Harris County. Jury selection. Opening statements. The witnesses. The experts. The cabin camera footage played for the jury. The closing argument. The verdict.
The case does not always go to trial. Most cases settle. But a case that is built to go to trial settles for more than a case that is built only to settle. That is the difference between a real trial firm and a volume settlement mill.
Why Attorney911 — Ralph Manginello and Lupe Peña
Ralph Manginello has practiced since 1998 and founded Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC — on a single idea: people in a legal emergency deserve someone who picks up the phone. Ralph is admitted to the State Bar of Texas and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, with more than 27 years of courtroom experience. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer, and he is a trained storyteller. He built the firm’s reputation on cases against the largest corporate defendants in the country, including a role in the BP Texas City refinery explosion litigation. The firm has recovered more than $50 million for Texas families since 1998, and Ralph’s name is on the cases that made that record.
Lupe Peña is a former insurance defense attorney. He spent years inside a national defense firm, in the rooms where insurance adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims exactly like yours. He knows the playbook because he lived it. He is now on your side, in English or in Spanish. The firm serves families fully in Spanish — Hablamos Español — and that is not a marketing line. It is the reason Lupe is on the team.
You can read more about Ralph on his attorney page, more about Lupe on his page, and more about the firm’s full practice areas — from car and truck wrecks to wrongful death and brain injuries — on the practice areas page.
The consultation is free. The consultation is confidential. There is no fee unless we win. You can call right now, at 1-888-ATTY-911, and a real person on our staff will pick up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue Tesla if their car was on Autopilot when it crashed?
Yes. Tesla can be sued under Texas products liability law for design defect, manufacturing defect, and failure to warn. The fact that Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash is the beginning of the case, not the end. Tesla is also independently liable for how it marketed and designed the driver-monitoring component of the system, regardless of whether the driver was paying attention. The arbitration clause in Tesla’s purchase agreement generally does not bind a non-signatory, and we will fight any motion to compel arbitration.
What if the driver says Autopilot was on and the car did this on its own?
That statement is preserved. We will demand the Tesla event data log, the cabin camera footage, and the steering wheel torque sensor data. Those records will show exactly what the driver was doing in the seconds before the crash — hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, looking at a phone, asleep, or impaired. The driver’s statement is one piece of evidence. The car’s data is the other piece. The data does not lie.
Who can file a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas?
Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.004, the right to file belongs to the surviving spouse, then the surviving children, then the surviving parents. If more than one of those categories exists, they can file together. A personal representative of the estate files the separate survival action. Other relatives — siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins — do not have standing under the Texas wrongful death statute.
How long do I have to file a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas?
Two years from the date of death, under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. The clock starts when the decedent is pronounced dead, not on the date of the crash. There are narrow exceptions for minors, for incapacitated persons, and where the cause of death was concealed or could not reasonably be discovered, but they are technical and not excuses to wait.
What if my loved one was partially at fault — she was inside her own home, but is there something the family did wrong?
Texas follows modified comparative negligence, and a plaintiff who is 51% or more at fault recovers nothing. The woman who died was inside her home. She did not drive the car. She did not invite the car into her house. The homeowner’s proximity to the road, the absence of a fence, and other “contributing cause” arguments are defense strategies designed to dilute a death that was caused by a car driving into a home. We will defeat those arguments in front of a Harris County jury. The 1% matters, and we will not let the defense manufacture it.
How much is my case worth?
It depends on the facts. For a 70-year-old decedent, the realistic settlement range starts at the driver’s policy limits plus modest wrongful death damages and runs upward depending on Tesla’s exposure, the strength of the gross-negligence theory, the presence or absence of punitive damages, the property damage to the home, and the jury in Harris County. We will not give you a number in the first 30 days. We will build the case, demand the data, and then tell you what we believe it is worth. Anyone who quotes a number in the first phone call is guessing.
Do I have to go to court?
Most wrongful death cases settle before trial. A case that is well-built settles for more than a case that is poorly built. We prepare every case as if it will go to trial, because that is the only way to be sure the settlement is fair. You make the final decision on whether to accept a settlement. We advise. You decide.
How much does it cost to hire a wrongful death lawyer?
Attorney911 works on a contingency fee. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover for you. The fee is a percentage of the recovery. Costs of the case — filing fees, expert fees, deposition costs, exhibit preparation — are advanced by the firm and recovered from the settlement or verdict. If we do not win, you owe us no fee and we absorb the costs. We explain the exact percentage in the first conversation, in writing, before you sign anything.
What if the driver does not have enough insurance?
That is the normal situation. The driver’s policy limits are typically $30,000 to $250,000, and a wrongful death case of this severity is worth more. We pursue the driver’s personal assets, look for umbrella coverage, pursue Tesla as a co-defendant, and pursue the homeowner’s property claim under a separate policy. A judgment that exceeds the driver’s policy can lead to asset discovery, wage garnishment, and other collection remedies.
Will Tesla try to force my case into arbitration?
Tesla’s first legal move will be a motion to compel arbitration under the purchase agreement between the driver and Tesla. The woman who died was not a party to that agreement. Under Texas law, arbitration clauses generally do not bind non-signatories, and the tort occurred on her property, not in connection with vehicle use in the way the clause contemplates. We will file a strong response and, in the large majority of cases, defeat the motion. If the motion is granted, we proceed in arbitration — but we do not let that happen without a real fight.
What should I not say to the insurance adjuster?
Anything. Refer every call from an insurance adjuster — from Tesla, from the driver’s carrier, from the homeowner’s carrier, from any insurance company — to your attorney. Do not give a recorded statement. Do not speculate about what happened. Do not say your loved one was hard of hearing, in poor health, or in any other way vulnerable. Do not say the home was old, the lighting was poor, or the family had concerns. Do not post on social media. If you have already spoken to an adjuster, tell us what was said so we can address it.
How quickly should I call a lawyer?
Today. The evidence in a Tesla Autopilot case is more perishable than in almost any other kind of car wreck. The cabin camera footage, the Ring and Nest cameras, the driver’s cell phone data, the Tesla event log — all of it is on a clock, and the clock starts now. The two-year statute of limitations is a long way off, but the evidence deadline is a few days. Call us before you call anyone else.
Free 24/7 Consultation — 1-888-ATTY-911
If your family lost a loved one in a Tesla Autopilot crash — or any other crash, on Loop 20 in Laredo, on I-10 in Katy, on the streets of Houston — we are available right now. The consultation is free. The consultation is confidential. There is no fee unless we win. We serve Texas families in English and in Spanish. Hablamos Español.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. A real person on our staff will answer. Ralph Manginello has spent 27 years in courtrooms, including federal court. Lupe Peña knows the other side’s playbook because he lived it. The firm has recovered more than $50 million for Texas families since 1998. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. We will give you an honest assessment of your case in the first conversation, in writing, before you sign anything.
This page is legal information prepared by Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC — for Texas families affected by the June 19, 2026 Tesla Autopilot crash in Katy and similar incidents. It is not legal advice for your specific case. To get legal advice for your specific case, call us. We will listen, we will protect what the law gives you, and we will fight for what the law owes you.
You can also reach us through our contact page, learn more about our wrongful death practice, or watch our guide to car accident settlements to see how we approach cases like yours.