Case Results

Outcome: Appraisal award of almost $500,000, plus $125,000 in interest

Our client owns an elevated beach house in Crystal Beach, on the Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County. A water heater on the third floor burst and sent water down into the second floor and then into the first, saturating the subflooring between the levels along the way. The carrier’s offer came in at less than $20,000, so the homeowner retained the experts needed to document the real scope of the damage, and the claim went to appraisal under the policy’s appraisal clause. The appraisal award was almost $500,000, and the homeowner recovered an additional $125,000 in interest.

Outcome: Appraisal award, $175,000 above the carrier’s initial offer

Hurricane Beryl came ashore on the Texas coast in July 2024 as a Category 1 hurricane, and Galveston County took a harder hit than the forecasts had suggested. On our client’s property on the Bolivar Peninsula, the wind removed shingles from the roof, and with the roof opened up, wind-driven rain got inside and caused the interior losses. The carrier put a number on the claim that did not reflect what had happened inside the building, and the claim went back and forth for years before it was resolved. It was finally resolved through the appraisal process written into the policy, and the appraisal award came in $175,000 above the carrier’s initial offer.

Outcome: Over $160,000 before depreciation, after the carrier valued the loss at about $25,000

A February ice storm froze and burst the water pipes running up out of the concrete slab foundation of our client’s home in Beaumont, in Jefferson County. The carrier accepted the claim and agreed the damage was covered, but its own evaluation put the covered loss at about $25,000. The homeowner hired an attorney, who retained an independent loss estimator and a public adjuster to re-measure the house and document what the repair actually required, including the work of opening the slab to reach the broken pipes and replacing the flooring above them. The claim was ultimately paid at over $160,000 before depreciation, and then the carrier went into receivership and years passed before the family was actually paid.

Outcome: Resolved

Our client walked out to a tow truck that was removing her vehicle and approached the driver to ask for her belongings before it was taken. According to the petition, the driver pulled away as she reached the vehicle, and she was dragged, pulled under the vehicle, and run over. She suffered serious, disabling injuries and has faced multiple surgeries. Our firm represents her and has filed a personal-injury suit against the recovery company and its driver.

Outcome: Ongoing — in litigation

Our client was driving on a four-lane boulevard when, according to the petition, a commercial delivery truck pulled out of an industrial driveway directly across her path, leaving her no way to avoid the collision. Her vehicle was forced across the roadway and came to rest in a ditch, and she had to be extracted by emergency responders. She was seriously injured in the crash and continues to treat for those injuries today. Our firm represents her and has filed a personal-injury suit against the driver and the company responsible for the truck.

Outcome: Ongoing (pre-suit)

A young child in the care of a licensed child-care center in The Woodlands fell from elevated playground equipment and fractured her elbow. According to the petition, the center’s staff saw a large, visible lump on her elbow and could not calm her, yet did nothing more than apply ice and never summoned medical care. Her mother took her for emergency treatment, where doctors found the elbow was broken and would require surgery. Our firm represents the family and has sent a formal demand, with suit anticipated in Montgomery County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A Kountze family’s two-year-old son was struck on the collarbone with a plastic toy by another child while in the care of a licensed child-care center in Kountze. According to the petition, the daycare left a single early-morning voicemail and did nothing else: no further attempt to reach a parent and no medical care for the child. By pickup, it was obvious the boy could not lift or move his arm; he turned out to have a fractured collarbone and had been in pain all day. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Hardin County.

Outcome: Ongoing

Within days of starting at a licensed child-care center in Nacogdoches, an infant began coming home with bite marks: first on her nose and leg, and within the same week on her shoulder and the inside of her lip. According to the family, when the mother first raised the bites, the daycare had no record of anything happening and no incident report had been done. The family reports the center later suggested spiders in the classroom, an explanation the mother rejects, and that the center has no cameras in the room. A report has been made to child-care licensing, the child has been seen at the hospital, and our firm is investigating.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

An eleven-month-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in New Braunfels was allowed to sit outdoors unsupervised long enough to swallow a dangerous quantity of rocks. The center never told the child’s parents what had happened. They discovered it only days later, while changing his diapers, and rushed him to the emergency room to make sure the rocks could pass safely. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Comal County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A four-year-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in Dallas had his arm pulled out of socket by a caregiver. According to the petition, the daycare never reported the injury to the boy’s mother. She realized something was wrong only that evening at home, when her son could not move his left arm, and she had to get him medical care to have it put back into place. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Dallas County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A family entrusted their 16-month-old to a licensed child-care center in Houston. The toddler walked out of the building, down a flight of stairs, through the parking lot, and into the roadway. A passing good Samaritan found the child in the street and carried him back inside, and the daycare had no idea he had ever left. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Harris County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A three-year-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in Houston was struck on the face by a caregiver. According to the petition, the blow left a handprint-shaped mark and a painful welt that the child’s mother discovered when she picked him up that day. The petition alleges the center never reported the incident to the mother and kept the caregiver employed afterward. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Harris County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A Beaumont family’s young son was on the playground at a licensed child-care center when he fell and hit his mouth, busting his lip and chipping a tooth. According to the petition, the center’s staff did nothing more than wipe his mouth with a cold towel, and they did not call for medical help or alert his parents to how serious the injury was. The parents later took him to a dentist, who sent them to a specialist; the specialist determined the child would need surgery. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Jefferson County.

Outcome: Settlement (confidential)

A family entrusted their toddler to a licensed child-care center in The Colony. The family alleges that during nap time a worker tried to force the young child to lie down, and that the center’s negligence caused the child both physical and psychological harm. Our firm represented the family and filed suit in Denton County. The case resolved by a confidential settlement.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A Laredo family’s two-year-old son was left to sit outdoors unsupervised in the care of a licensed child-care center long enough to swallow a dangerous quantity of small rocks. According to the petition, no one at the center noticed, and his parents were never told anything had happened. That night the toddler awoke choking and vomiting as the rocks worked their way back up, and his parents rushed him to the emergency room, where imaging showed more than twenty rocks still lodged in his small body. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Webb County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A three-year-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in Texas City suffered a severe laceration to his tongue that was deep enough to require stitches. According to the petition, the center’s staff did nothing to care for him and never summoned medical attention. His mother did not learn the truth until she happened to call the daycare later that day about something else and was told her son had bitten his tongue. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Galveston County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A Dallas mother had two of her children enrolled at a licensed child-care center in Dallas. Within about a year, both were seriously hurt while in the center’s care: one suffered a head wound that required staples, and the other was picked up with a fractured elbow, his arm hanging at his side. According to the petition, the center could not explain how either injury happened and, in the second instance, did not get the child medical care or properly notify his mother. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Dallas County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A child in the care of a licensed child-care center in Whitehouse suffered a head injury and an arm injury serious enough to require a trip to the emergency room. According to the petition, the center’s own employees could not explain how the injuries happened. The petition alleges the child was not adequately supervised and points to caregiver inattention, too few caregivers for the number of children, or both. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Smith County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A child in the care of a licensed child-care center in Crosby was left unsupervised during mealtime and choked on his food. According to the petition, caregivers did not notice or step in until the child turned a bluish color from lack of oxygen. The petition further alleges that rather than telling the boy’s mother the truth, the center reported that he had suffered a seizure, and that the staff responsible for him could not explain how the incident happened. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Harris County, where the case is in active litigation.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A child in the care of a licensed child-care center in Cedar Hill was bitten on the face multiple times by another child, severely enough to break the skin, leave a laceration, and cause bruising and bleeding. According to the petition, the bites required immediate medical attention. The petition alleges this was not the first time the child had been bitten while in the center’s care, pointing to inadequate supervision. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Dallas County.

Outcome: Resolved (Settled)

A child was injured while in the care of a licensed child-care center in the Hidalgo County area of the Rio Grande Valley. The family brought a claim against the center on the child’s behalf. Our firm represented the family, and the matter has been resolved through a settlement that was submitted to the court for approval for the child’s benefit.

Outcome: Resolved (Settled)

While in the care of a licensed child-care center in Houston, a three-year-old was hurt during a playground “foam party” where the foam was piled several feet high and completely opaque. With the foam hiding the children and the playground equipment underneath it, the boy suffered a deep gash to his face near his eye and needed stitches to close the wound. Our firm represented the family and brought claims against the center in Harris County. The matter has been resolved.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

While in the care of a licensed child-care center in Seguin, a young child was struck by an adult caregiver so forcefully that he fell backward to the floor. According to the petition, the caregiver did not pick him up or render aid and simply walked away. The incident was reported internally by another employee and reviewed by management, but the center never told the child’s mother and kept the caregiver on staff. Our firm represents the family, has filed suit in Guadalupe County, and has obtained sworn testimony from a former employee who witnessed what happened.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A child in the care of a licensed child-care center in Houston suffered a severe head laceration after striking his head on a concrete bench in the center’s playground area. The injury was serious enough to require an emergency-room visit and staples to close the wound. According to the petition, the staff responsible for the child could not explain how the injury happened, which points to a lack of adequate supervision. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Harris County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A young child in the care of a licensed child-care center in Arlington suffered visible injuries to his head and arm, including a black eye. According to the petition, the staff who were responsible for the child could not explain how the injuries happened. The petition alleges that this points to inadequate supervision, whether from caregiver inattention, too few staff for the number of children, or both. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Tarrant County.

Outcome: Ongoing

A four-year-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in Princeton was pinched, scratched, and aggressively grabbed by a caregiver, and came home with scratches on his neck. According to the family, the same caregiver also committed a serious supervision and boundary violation: making the boy use the bathroom with her and another child inside, behind a closed door, for several minutes. The family says they learned what happened after the mother viewed a video clip of it at the center, and that the daycare never reported the incident to the family or to child-care licensing. Our firm represents the family, has put the center on formal notice, and is pursuing the claim.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A one-year-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in Manor walked out of the building through an emergency exit door and was left wandering, alone, in the daycare’s parking lot. According to the petition, the center’s staff did not know the child had left the building at all. The toddler was found by two passing parents, who picked her up in the parking lot and brought her back inside. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Travis County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A three-year-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in San Antonio was struck by an adult caregiver as a form of discipline while the child was being changed. According to the petition, the caregiver hit the child on her bare skin and caused her pain, using a form of punishment that Texas child-care rules prohibit. The petition alleges the center never reported the incident to the child’s family or to child-care licensing and kept the caregiver employed, even though the incident was captured on video. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Bexar County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A three-year-old in the care of a licensed San Antonio child-care center walked out of the building, through three separate doorways, without a single staff member noticing. According to the petition, the child made it all the way into a busy roadway, where good Samaritans found him and called 911. The petition alleges the center had no idea the three-year-old had even left the building. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Bexar County.

Outcome: Ongoing (pre-suit)

A young child in the care of a licensed child-care center in Wichita Falls broke her left femur, one of the strongest bones in the body, while she was supposed to be supervised. She was found on the ground unable to bear weight and was taken by ambulance for emergency treatment. According to the demand letter, the daycare could not explain what happened to her. Our firm represents the family and has sent a formal demand and an evidence-preservation notice, with suit anticipated in Wichita County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A Sugar Land mother’s four-year-old son was injured while in the care of a licensed child-care center. According to the petition, the injury happened in the center’s care, and the center never told his mother it had occurred and never reported it to child-care licensing. The petition further alleges the center continued to employ the caregiver responsible for the classroom. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Fort Bend County.

Outcome: Ongoing

While in the care of a licensed child-care center in Grand Prairie, a young girl had a braid forcibly torn from her scalp by another child, an injury her family says required medical attention. According to the family, no staff member saw it happen, the center first described it as a haircut, and the child was sent back into the same classroom afterward. The family also says they were given shifting answers about whether video of the incident still exists. Our firm represents the family, has put the center on formal notice, and is pursuing the claim.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A Houston family’s one-year-old son was left alone outside in the play area at a licensed child-care center while in the center’s care. According to the petition, staff were unaware where the child was, and his absence came to light only when his mother arrived to pick him up and employees could not find him. After a frantic search of the building, he was found outside by himself, with scratches and in distress. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Harris County; a Texas state inspection separately cited the center for a high-risk supervision deficiency.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A two-year-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in Hurst was put onto a Dallas ISD school bus and sent to an elementary school in Dallas, in a different city and a different county from his daycare. The daycare did not realize the toddler had left the building on the wrong bus; the situation came to light only when a school district employee called to say the child was in their custody. According to the petition, no one at the center knew a two-year-old was missing until the district reached out. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Tarrant County.

Outcome: Ongoing

While in the care of a licensed child-care center in The Woodlands, a young child suffered a severe head injury. According to the family, the injury was serious enough to require emergency medical intervention and sutures to close the wound. The family contends the harm happened because the center failed to properly supervise the child. Our firm represents the family, has put the center on formal notice, and is pursuing the claim.

Outcome: Ongoing

A teenager was stopped in a turn lane on his way to school when, according to the petition, another driver failed to yield at an intersection and crashed into him. The impact sent his vehicle spinning across the highway and into a ditch, and bystanders rushed in to get him out of the car. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital with serious injuries. Our firm represents the family in a lawsuit against the at-fault driver in Orange County.

Outcome: Ongoing (pre-suit)

A man riding his motorcycle home from work was seriously hurt when, according to his account, a truck pulled out and crossed directly into his path. He was unable to avoid the collision and was taken from the scene by ambulance to the emergency room. He suffered significant orthopedic injuries that have kept him off his feet and unable to work. Our firm represents him and is pursuing a claim against the at-fault driver.

Outcome: Ongoing (investigation)

Our client was helping unload and set up furnishings at a hotel construction site when a forklift that had been parked nearby rolled backward and pinned his foot against the concrete. He was wearing steel-toe boots, but the weight of the machine still crushed through to his foot and he was taken to the hospital. He has been unable to work since the injury and continues to receive treatment. Our firm represents him and is investigating how the forklift came to roll and who is responsible for keeping the site and its equipment safe.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

Our client was a passenger in a Lyft when, according to the petition, the rideshare driver caused a collision. The petition alleges the driver failed to keep a proper lookout, drove too fast for the circumstances, failed to brake or yield, and lost control of the vehicle. As a passenger who had no control over the driving, our client was injured in the crash, with the vehicle’s airbags deploying. Our firm represents the injured passenger and has filed suit against the rideshare company and its driver in Harris County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

Our client was driving down a Harris County road when an 18-wheeler owned by Enterprise Products Company maneuvered out of a private driveway and back across the roadway. According to the petition, the truck driver pulled out too wide, tried to turn back in, crossed into our client’s lane, and collided with his vehicle after failing to yield the right of way. Our client was injured in the crash and required medical treatment. Our firm represents him in a lawsuit against the trucking company and its driver in Harris County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A Houston mother had come to a full stop and was backing into her own driveway, with her child in the vehicle, when another driver came down the same road behind her. According to the petition, that driver failed to control his speed and crashed into her vehicle. Both the mother and her child were injured and needed medical treatment. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Harris County.

Outcome: Ongoing (pre-suit)

Our client went to a Beaumont physician for a cosmetic chemical peel and came away with severe facial burns. According to the demand letter, the doctor applied a strong (40%) chemical peel for an extended time without ever obtaining informed consent, securing a signed disclosure, or conducting a proper consultation about her skin type and the risks. She has been left with permanent scarring, discoloration, and disfigurement and has had to seek treatment from other physicians. Our firm represents her and has sent a formal demand to the physician, with suit anticipated.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

Our client was driving on State Highway 105 when another driver pulled out of a private drive without yielding the right of way and crashed into her vehicle. The investigating officer found the other driver at fault and cited him for failing to yield the right of way. Our client was taken from the scene by EMS and treated for a fractured left clavicle and a cervical (neck) fracture, ultimately requiring surgery. Our firm represents her and is pursuing the at-fault driver and his insurer.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A hospital phlebotomist was making her patient rounds when, according to the petition, the elevator she entered suddenly dropped at a high rate of speed. She was thrown against the elevator wall and pinned by her supply cart, suffering a concussion, a back injury, and lasting psychological effects. The petition alleges that the companies responsible for the elevator’s maintenance, repair, and inspection failed to keep it safe and failed to take it out of service. Our firm represents the injured worker and has filed suit in Bexar County, where the case is now in active litigation.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A Southeast Texas pipeline crew was performing welding work on a line when, according to the lawsuit, vapors ignited and set off a flash fire that engulfed the workers. Our client was burned on his face, neck, hands, and midsection and was taken from the scene by ambulance, first to a regional hospital and then to a specialized facility. The fire became the subject of OSHA and Department of Transportation investigations. Our firm represents him in a federal lawsuit against the companies responsible for the project.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A family of three was traveling on Highway 110 when, according to the petition, an 18-wheeler operated by Select Dedicated Solutions struck the rear of their vehicle and pushed it into the median. The truck continued forward, the family’s trailer was torn loose, and their young son was thrown from his car seat. The mother, father, and child were all injured and required medical care, with treatment that has included orthopedic, MRI, neurosurgical, and traumatic-brain evaluation. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Chambers County.

Outcome: Resolved for our client

Our client was stopped in traffic on the East Sam Houston Parkway when, according to the petition, a commercial vehicle operated by a National Works, Inc. driver failed to control its speed and crashed into the back of his car. The petition alleges the driver was not keeping a proper lookout or a safe following distance, and that his employer was responsible both for his conduct and for putting him behind the wheel. Our client suffered personal injuries, property damage, and loss of use of his vehicle. Our firm represented him and resolved the matter on his behalf.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A group of motorcyclists was riding in the left lane of Interstate 10 East when, according to the petition, a Farmer Trans Cargo tractor-trailer and a second vehicle — both in the right lane — made unsafe lane changes to the left and crashed into the riders. The petition alleges the drivers failed to control their speed, failed to stay in a single lane, and changed lanes without yielding. The riders suffered personal injuries, and the petition pleads negligence and gross negligence against the defendants. Our firm represents the riders and has filed suit in Harris County, where the case is now in active litigation.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

Our client was stopped at the intersection of State Highway 105 and Reins Road when, according to the petition, Candy Lynn Gore came up behind her in the same lane and crashed into her vehicle. The petition alleges Ms. Gore failed to control her speed and failed to stop, causing the collision. Our client suffered personal injuries, property damage, and loss of use of her vehicle. Our firm represents her and has filed suit in Jefferson County.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

Two pipeline welders were doing their jobs when, according to the petition, the pipe they were instructed to weld still held gasoline and diesel and had never been cleaned of product. The petition alleges there was no hot work permit and that an on-site inspection company directed the men to seal the fuel-filled line with a makeshift balloon-and-mud method before welding. As they worked, a flash explosion erupted from the pipe, and both welders suffered serious injuries requiring immediate and ongoing medical care. Our firm represents the injured workers and has filed suit in Jefferson County, where the case is now in active litigation.

Outcome: Ongoing (pre-suit)

Our client was driving slowly into a county event when, according to her account, an ambulance ahead of her put its vehicle in reverse and backed toward her at speed. She says she could not move back without endangering children and horses crossing behind her, laid on her horn, and was struck anyway. She was injured in the collision and her vehicle was a total loss. Our firm represents her and is pursuing a claim against the government entity responsible for the ambulance.

Outcome: Settlement, confidential

A Dallas mother arranged a funeral and cremation for her infant son at the funeral home. After the viewing, the funeral home placed the body back in refrigeration, and then sent it out in a bin of dirty linens to a commercial laundry facility in Shreveport, Louisiana, where workers discovered the body a week later. While the body was missing, the mother kept calling the funeral home to ask when the cremains would be ready. The funeral home never told her the body was gone.

A daughter arranged her mother’s cremation through the cremation provider in Lewisville and made one thing clear from the start: she needed to be present to witness the cremation and say her final goodbye. The company assured the family it was all scheduled and that they would be called with a date before anything happened. Instead, after days of silence and unreturned calls, the family learned their mother had already been cremated, days earlier, with no one there. The chance to say goodbye, the one thing the daughter had insisted on, was gone and could never be given back.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A Rains County son trusted the funeral home to bury his mother next to his father in the family’s cemetery plot. The funeral home dug the grave too shallow, and within weeks a corner of her burial container pushed up through the surface of the ground. When the exposure was reported, the funeral home dug his mother back up, obtained a new vault, reburied her deeper, and did all of it without his consent, without notice, and without any chance for him to be present or object. He did not learn his mother had been exhumed and reburied until after it was already done.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A Grayson County mother trusted the funeral home and the crematory to cremate her son and return his ashes to her. Months later she discovered the ashes she had been given were not her son’s at all, they belonged to a complete stranger. By then she had already combined some of those ashes with the cremains of her late daughter on a memorial necklace meant to honor both of her children, and there is no way to separate them. The same funeral home and crematory gave another family the wrong ashes during the same window of time, and that family never received all of their loved one’s remains.

Outcome: Settlement, confidential

A Dallas-area family hired the funeral home for a funeral and cremation. Per the signed agreement, the cremains were to be returned to the family. After the cremation, the funeral home released the cremains to someone with no authority to receive them. The cremains have never been recovered. The family was not notified of the release until they came to pick the ashes up themselves.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

Four siblings hired the funeral home in Orlando to handle their mother’s funeral, from embalming and visitation to the burial. When they came to view her before the scheduled service, they knew at once that the body in front of them was not their mother. They said so plainly, and instead of stopping to figure out what had gone wrong, the funeral home insisted, through both its words and its actions, that the body was hers. The family was left standing over a stranger, told to believe it was the mother they had come to say goodbye to.

Two Dallas siblings hired Golden Gate Funeral Home in 2020 for their father’s memorial service and cremation, asked to be called the moment his cremains were ready, and one daughter bought an urn to bring him home in. Weeks passed with no call — and when the family pressed, the funeral home offered shifting excuses, claimed for weeks it was waiting on a death certificate, and then stopped communicating altogether. The family never received their father’s cremains, and to this day no one can say where they are; we allege the funeral home scattered them into the foliage behind its own building, without the family’s permission or even notice. His urn sits on his daughter’s mantle, empty.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A daughter hired the funeral home in San Antonio to embalm her mother and provide her funeral services. The funeral home never embalmed her. Instead, it transported her mother to be placed in a mausoleum crypt for her final resting place, not embalmed, and not even encased in a container. The daughter trusted the funeral home to prepare her mother with dignity, and it did not do the very thing it was hired to do.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

Three Houston daughters arranged a memorial service with a witnessed cremation for their father through the funeral home, which advertises that families may be present when the body is placed into the cremation chamber. The daughters had a detailed discussion with the funeral home about being there with a spiritual leader so they could say a final goodbye, confirm it was their father, and see that he was cremated as he left home. Instead, the crematory cremated their father with no notice to the family and before they ever had the chance to witness it. When the family asked how this happened, the funeral home called it a “miscommunication.”

After his father passed away in April 2024, an out-of-state son arranged cremation through Carnes Funeral Home, which performs cremations through Cremate Texas on the same Texas City grounds. When the paperwork listed his father’s weight at least one hundred pounds off from his medical records, the son asked for a photo to confirm his father’s identity — and the funeral home refused, wrongly claiming the law would not allow it. The funeral home then confirmed it would return the cremains to the son, who asked in two emails and by phone that they be mailed to him. Instead, it gave his father’s cremains to someone else — without his consent, without notice — and when he pressed, it threatened to file “abandonment” claims against him.

After a Colorado family’s daughter passed away in Tennessee in 2023, a Memphis mortuary embalmed her body and shipped it to a Colorado funeral home for the funeral, in two boxes, one holding the body and one holding her internal organs, neither one labeled. The Colorado funeral home then called the mother, handed her a box, and told her it contained her daughter’s personal effects. At home, expecting her daughter’s clothes and belongings, the mother opened the box and found a plastic bag holding her daughter’s internal organs. When she called the funeral home, horrified, it told her to set the box outside her home “for sanitary purposes”, and her other daughter had to come remove it because she could not bring herself to go near it.

Two Houston sisters buried their mother at the cemetery in 2023 and visited her grave regularly and faithfully for the next year and a half. In February 2025, one of the daughters returned to place a plaque on her mother’s grave, and found the grave disturbed and her mother’s body gone. The cemetery admitted it had moved their mother without seeking authorization, without providing notice, and without even the courtesy of a phone call. The daughters who stood at their mother’s burial learned she had been dug up and moved only because one of them happened to come back.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A San Antonio family buried their young son and nephew at the cemetery in 2018 and have visited his grave constantly ever since, his aunt nearly every day for years. When the cemetery finally set his headstone, it placed the base over the wrong grave, delivered a cracked stone, and then set the replacement in the wrong spot, never correcting it despite the family’s repeated objections. Then the cemetery went further: it claimed the young man was not even buried where his family knows he is, and announced it intended to bury a different person in his plot. The family, certain of where their son lies, strongly objected to anything that would disturb his resting place.

A Dallas mother signed the cremation authorization for her son and was named as the only person to whom his cremains could be released. After the cremation, the crematory released a portion of his ashes to someone else entirely, without her permission and without ever notifying her, even though her name, address, and phone number were on the authorization. Because the remaining cremains were buried in a cemetery, it has been impossible for her to recover and reunite her son’s ashes. A mother who did everything right was left unable to bring all of her son home.

A Weatherford family hired the funeral home to bury their young son and handle his funeral. On the morning of the burial, they arrived to find the grave dug only about eighteen inches deep, far too shallow for a casket, with no tent, no chairs, and nothing set up for the service. The funeral director assured them it would be ready, telling the family, “I have a shovel. I came prepared.” By the time the procession arrived, the grave still wasn’t finished; the child’s casket sat in the open for roughly an hour and a half, and when it was finally lowered, it was placed in the grave facing the wrong direction.

After their father passed away in 2023, his children arranged his cremation with Adams Funeral Home, and one of them signed the cremation authorization as the only person authorized to receive his cremains. Without the family’s permission or knowledge, the funeral home went around them and coordinated with the decedent’s stepsister on his death certificate — which came back incorrect. The funeral home then failed to return all of the father’s cremains to his children, instead releasing some of them, without authorization, to the stepsister. The children never received all of their father’s cremains, and the portion given to the stepsister has allegedly been buried without the family’s consent.

Outcome: Settlement, confidential

A Houston-area daughter hired the funeral home to remove her mother’s body from the Harris County medical examiner’s office and bring her for cremation. On the drive, the gurney wasn’t locked and the side door wasn’t latched. The mother’s body rolled out of the vehicle onto Old Spanish Trail in Houston. A stranger found the body in a ditch and called 911. The funeral home didn’t realize the body was gone, and never told the daughter what happened.

After their loved one passed away in January 2018, a Dallas family arranged his cremation with Golden Gate Funeral Home and asked that his brother be called the moment the cremains were ready to pick up. The call never came — and for the next three years, every time the brother called or visited to ask, the funeral home told him the cremation had not been performed yet and could take months or even more than a year. Then, in April 2021, while at Golden Gate for another family member’s service, the brother asked a manager to check the records — and the records showed his brother had been cremated within a week of his death, that no one had supposedly come to collect him, and that the funeral home had disposed of his cremains under its own six-month policy. A mother learned from her surviving son that the funeral home had cremated her boy years earlier, told the family it hadn’t, and disposed of what remained of him.

Outcome: Ongoing — in litigation

On March 18, 2026, Alyssa Cogar was driving east on Highway 105 when, according to the petition, a concrete transit mixer owned by Baires Ready Mix and driven by Javier Francisco Reyes pulled out in front of her and caused a collision. Alyssa was killed in the crash. The petition alleges the driver failed to yield at a stop sign, failed to keep a proper lookout, and was operating the commercial truck carelessly and distractedly. Our firm represents Alyssa’s mother, Katie Brammer, and has filed a wrongful-death suit in Jefferson County.

A Dallas daughter hired the funeral home to cremate her mother and return her ashes. For weeks, the funeral home gave shifting reasons for the delay, first telling the family it was waiting on the coroner’s signature. When the family called the coroner directly, they were told the funeral home had never sent the paperwork at all. After weeks of conflicting answers, the family was left without their mother’s ashes and without a straight account of what had happened to her.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A Livingston woman bought a cemetery plot in full from the cemetery in 2019, in the space right next to her late husband, so that one day she could be laid to rest beside him. In January 2021, her family visited the cemetery and discovered that her plot was already occupied, an unrelated stranger had been buried in the space she owned. The cemetery had buried someone else’s loved one in the wrong plot and never caught the mistake. Now the woman faces the anguish of knowing her chosen resting place beside her husband was given away, and that fixing it may mean disturbing a grave that should never have been there.

A Houston family buried their loved one at the cemetery in 2021 and visited his marked grave for more than a year to mourn. Then the cemetery called to say the headstone had been on the wrong plot the entire time, the family had been grieving at a grave that was not their loved one’s. Worse, when the cemetery moved the headstone, it admitted it could not say for certain that he was even buried in the new location. To this day, the family cannot be sure where their loved one actually rests.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A daughter hired the funeral home to handle her mother’s funeral and cremation, and the funeral home coordinated the cremation with the crematory. The funeral home gave her a box and told her it held her mother’s cremains, which she kept on a shelf. More than a year later, while moving, she looked closely and saw the box was labeled with another person’s name, and inside, the identification tag bore a different cremation number still. To this day she does not know whose remains she was given, or whether she will ever get her mother’s back.

A Texarkana family hired the mortuary to care for their mother and wife and to hold a traditional open-casket service. Instead, the funeral home, which has no refrigeration at its facility, kept her in a body bag and drove her across state lines to Arkansas for embalming, without the family’s approval and without the burial transit permit the law requires. By the time she was embalmed, roughly thirty-nine hours after her death, her body had badly deteriorated, and the funeral home tried to talk the family into cremation to avoid an open casket. The family refused, was forced into a closed-casket service, and ultimately had to bury their mother in nothing but a hospital gown.

A Texas family hired the funeral home to handle their mother’s graveside and burial services after she passed away in January 2024. The burial was set for February 3, canceled by the funeral home for rain, and rescheduled for the afternoon of February 10. On the morning of February 10, with the family already on the road to witness their mother’s burial, the funeral home told them she had already been buried. To this day, the funeral home has not told the family where their mother’s body is buried.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A Dallas County widow paid the funeral home in full to handle her husband’s funeral and burial. When the family processed from the church to the cemetery for the final committal, they arrived to find an empty hole of mud and water with two wooden slats laid across the opening, no canopy, no chairs, no tarp, nothing prepared for the graveside service. The funeral home had not even delivered the burial vault the widow had purchased, so the cemetery had to provide one of its own. The family stood and watched heavy equipment open the grave and lower a concrete liner into the muddy hole.

A Fayette County mother hired the funeral home to embalm her son’s body and bury him at a cemetery near West Point, in a plot the family already owned. On the day of the burial, after the funeral home had confirmed the night before that everything was ready, mourners arrived from the church service to find no open grave, no tent, and no chairs, and waited two hours in the hot sun for a graveside service that never happened. The funeral home rescheduled the burial for three days later at 11:00 a.m., then the family learned, from another funeral home, that their son was being buried at 10:00 that morning with no service at all. The family rushed to the cemetery, where there was no tent, no chairs, and no lowering device, and the grave digger and the mother’s husband lowered her son’s casket into the grave with straps.

A Round Rock daughter trusted the funeral home to cremate her mother and return her ashes. Weeks later, the funeral home handed her an urn it said held her mother, placed in a purple bag with her mother’s pearls on top. Something felt wrong, and when she looked closer she found another woman’s name on the container: the funeral home had given her a stranger’s ashes. When she called, the owner first insisted she had the right ashes in the wrong box, until another representative admitted the funeral home had delivered the wrong ashes all along and never corrected it.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A daughter hired the funeral home in Arlington to embalm her mother and transfer her to Mississippi for the funeral, and signed the authorization to embalm the same day her mother died. Instead of embalming promptly, Texas requires a body to be embalmed or refrigerated within 24 hours, the funeral home waited 192 hours, eight full days. By then the body had decayed and become disfigured, and the daughter was forced to cancel the scheduled service and change it from an open casket to a closed one. What looks like a local, family-run funeral home is in fact one of roughly 1,900 locations owned by the funeral conglomerate the funeral home.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A daughter hired the funeral home to cremate her mother and paid in full, and the death certificate she received stated her mother had been cremated in April 2024. When the daughter could not get a straight answer about where her mother’s remains were, she contacted the crematory directly, and was told it had never received her mother for cremation at all. The body had never left the funeral home; it had been left there to deteriorate for more than a month, even as the daughter’s requests to see her mother were repeatedly denied. The cremation the death certificate certified had simply never happened.

A Houston family bought a six-space family plot at the cemetery years before they ever needed it, one space for each member of the family. When one of the sisters passed away in April 2024, the family arranged her burial there. On the morning of the graveside service, they arrived to find that a stranger had been buried that same morning in the very space where their sister was supposed to be laid to rest. The family could not bury her that day; her body was held for more than a week before she was finally buried in a different grave in their own plot.

A mother trusted the funeral home in Baytown to embalm her son and prepare him for an open-casket visitation and funeral. When she and her family arrived for the visitation, they found his body had not been preserved, maggots were coming from his nose, and she was forced to close the casket. The funeral home assured her the next morning that the problem had been fixed, but when she saw her son again his face was disfigured and his body was surrounded by flies and a foul odor. She had to bury her son in a closed casket, despite paying for and arranging an open-casket service.

A Houston family bought a six-space family plot at the cemetery years before they ever needed it, one space for each member of the family. When one of the sisters passed away in April 2024, the family arranged her burial there. On the morning of the graveside service, they arrived to find that a stranger had been buried that same morning in the very space where their sister was supposed to be laid to rest. The family could not bury her that day; her body was held for more than a week before she was finally buried in a different grave in their own plot.

A San Antonio family hired the mortuary to cremate their father and return his cremains to them. The mortuary was authorized to release his ashes to the family alone, and instead gave them to an unauthorized person. To this day, the family has never received their father’s cremains, and they do not know where his ashes are. What should have been a simple, sacred trust became an open wound that the mortuary has never made right.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A Houston mother buried her young daughter at the cemetery in 2018 and visited her grave regularly for years. On a visit in August 2024, she found the grave disturbed: her daughter’s burial marker was gone, and a fresh grave had been opened and covered over with new dirt in the exact spot where her daughter had been laid to rest. The cemetery, a perpetual-care cemetery paid to protect and maintain that grave, never warned her and never explained what had happened. She is left with severe anxiety and complicated grief, and without the certainty that her daughter still rests where she was buried.

A Vidor family buried their mother at the cemetery in 2016, in a plot the family had owned for years, part of a row of family plots where her granddaughter already rested. Six years later, a granddaughter went to visit the grave and found it freshly disturbed: the body had been dug up and moved to a different plot without the family’s permission, consent, or even a phone call. When the family confronted the cemetery, it first insisted the body had never been moved. Only after the family demanded the plots be probed did the truth come out, the original grave was empty.

Outcome: Settlement, confidential

A Dallas family chose a different funeral home to handle their mother’s burial and named it on her death certificate. The funeral home nonetheless removed her body from the hospital without authority and embalmed her without the family’s consent. When the funeral home the family had actually chosen came to collect her, the funeral home could not even locate the body. By the time it surfaced, she had been improperly stored, her face had been disfigured, and her burial was delayed for weeks.

A Harris County daughter contracted with the funeral home for $8,000 to prepare her mother’s body and handle her funeral after she passed away in April 2023. While the funeral home had her mother’s body, it refused the daughter’s repeated requests to see her, and when it finally allowed access the day before the funeral, the body was wrapped in plastic in places, in poor condition, and emitting a foul smell. At the funeral the next day, the funeral home roped off the casket and stationed two bodyguards beside it, keeping the daughter, her family, and friends from getting anywhere near her mother, she never got to say goodbye. Then the funeral home charged $20,000, more than twice the contracted amount.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A Fort Worth family lost their baby shortly after birth and entrusted the funeral home with the infant’s cremation. Because the baby was so small, the cremation was only going to cost about $180, and the family was ready and willing to pay it. Instead the funeral home stalled for months, first insisting they were waiting on the state to cover the cost and refusing to simply let the family pay the $180 themselves, then later claiming they were waiting on a death certificate to be signed. Months on, the family still does not have their baby’s cremains, and still cannot begin to find closure.

A Tatum family arranged a graveside burial for their young daughter through the funeral home, with the grave to be opened by the cemetery. When the family arrived at the cemetery, the grave was visibly too small and the casket would not fit. The family was assured the hole was big enough, but it was not, and after repeated failed attempts, the family members themselves had to take up shovels and dig their own child’s grave larger so she could be buried. What should have been the family’s last moment of closure became a scene they will never forget.

A widow hired the funeral home to handle her husband’s final disposition, including his cremation. For months afterward, she tried again and again to reach the funeral home to retrieve his cremains, and could not get an answer. When the funeral home finally responded, it admitted the truth: her husband had never been cremated, and had instead been kept in a freezer the entire time. To this day she still has not received his cremains and does not even know whether he has been cremated.

A Texarkana family came early to the funeral home to see their mother one last time before her visitation. When the funeral home walked them to the casket, a stranger’s body was lying inside, dressed in the clothes the family had picked out for their mother. The funeral home argued with the family and insisted the woman in the casket was their mother, until a search turned up their mother’s body in the back, still unprepared. With the visitation about to begin, the staff stripped the family’s belongings off the stranger and rushed to ready their mother, who was left with a caked-on face of makeup she never wore in life and a wig out of place.

Outcome: Litigation ongoing

A Dallas family hired the funeral home to handle their father’s funeral and cremation and asked to be called when his cremains were ready. The funeral home said the ashes would be ready in a couple of weeks at most, then went silent for months, repeatedly deflecting the family’s questions with the excuse that it was waiting on a death certificate. The family did not get the cremains until November, and later learned the funeral home didn’t actually obtain a death certificate until the following April, long after it claimed to be waiting on one. With the required cremation-authorization and identification paperwork missing, the family is left unable to know whether the ashes they were handed are even their father’s.

Outcome: Ongoing (in litigation)

A two-year-old in the care of a licensed child-care center in Fort Worth walked out of the building alone and undetected, crossed the parking lot, and entered a busy multi-lane road during rush hour, where drivers had to brake to avoid hitting him. The daycare did not know he was gone; the danger was discovered only when a passing good Samaritan found the toddler and got him to safety at a store across the street. According to a witness who was there, a daycare staff member arrived about fifteen minutes later, took the child, and left without identifying herself; the center never told the boy’s mother what had happened. Our firm represents the family and has filed suit in Tarrant County.

While the child’s mother was at work, she logged into the daycare’s live camera feed and, according to her account, watched a worker at the center strike her infant as the child played on the floor. She recorded what she saw on her screen and confronted the worker at pickup, who denied it. The family reports this was not the first time: they say they have separate video of the same worker behaving aggressively toward another child, and a report has been made to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The matter is ongoing, and our firm is investigating.

Outcome: Ongoing (pre-suit)

A Prosper family’s 21-month-old daughter suffered a serious eye injury at a licensed child-care center in Prosper when, according to the petition, the center had placed command hooks at the eye level of a child not yet two years old. The injury bled severely enough that staff called 911, and the toddler was taken by ambulance to a children’s emergency room. According to the petition, the hook gouged and scraped her eye, and doctors treated her for injuries to the eye area. Our firm represents the family and has sent a formal demand, with suit anticipated in Collin County.

A Houston family entrusted the funeral home with embalming their mother and preparing her for an open-casket visitation and funeral. They brought the funeral home her dress and a photograph so staff could prepare her hair and makeup, and they paid for open-casket services. When family members arrived early for private time with their mother before the visitation, they found her unrecognizable, her face swollen and distorted, fluid leaking from her ears, and her pillow and dress soaked through. They were forced to close the casket they had paid to keep open, and when they later asked the funeral home for a refund, it refused.

A Dallas woman hired the funeral home to cremate her father. She was his sole biological child, he had no surviving spouse, and she completed all of the paperwork, the funeral home knew she alone had the right to his cremains. Despite that, an employee released her father’s ashes to his girlfriend, an unauthorized person, and that person then handed the ashes off to yet another unauthorized person. The daughter has asked again and again for her father’s cremains to be returned, and that request has been refused.

A Houston daughter entrusted the funeral home with her mother’s funeral and was assured her mother’s body would remain intact, hair included. The family never asked for, wanted, or authorized any change to her appearance. After the service, the daughter was informed that the funeral home had cut her mother’s hair anyway, and the funeral home’s own coordinator admitted the mistake. A family’s last image of their mother was altered without their consent, and they learned about it only after the funeral was over.