Montgomery County Wrongful Death Lawyer

A family in Clarksville or anywhere else in Montgomery County who has just lost someone to a crash, a fall, or a dangerous workplace is facing a legal clock that started running on the day of the injury, not on the day of the funeral. Fox, Farley, Willis & Burnette represents families in wrongful death cases across Tennessee, including Montgomery County wrongful death matters that come out of highway collisions, trucking crashes, unsafe properties, and preventable deaths at work.

Tennessee’s rules for these cases are specific and unforgiving. There is no separate wrongful death deadline in the statute. Courts apply the one-year limit that governs personal injury claims, and that year runs from the date of the injury that caused the death. If someone is hurt in a wreck and dies weeks later, the clock began at the wreck. The state also decides who may file, how fault is divided, and how much of a family’s loss a jury is allowed to put a number on. Getting those pieces right early shapes everything that follows.

How Wrongful Death Claims Move Through Montgomery County

Montgomery County sits in Tennessee’s 19th Judicial District, which it shares with Robertson County. A wrongful death lawsuit seeking significant damages is a civil case in the circuit court of general jurisdiction, and the circuit court is where a jury hears it. General Sessions Court handles smaller civil disputes within monetary limits and is not where a death case of this size belongs. If the death involved a federal question or parties from different states, a case may land in the federal system instead, but most Tennessee wrongful death claims stay in state circuit court.

Here is how these cases typically unfold. First comes the investigation: police and crash reports, medical records, witness statements, and physical evidence. In a commercial truck case, driver logs, maintenance files, and electronic data have to be preserved before they are lost. Then comes the insurance phase, where adjusters evaluate the claim and often make early offers that reflect how little they hope to pay. If the case does not resolve, a lawsuit is filed inside the one-year window, followed by discovery, depositions, mediation, and, when the defendant will not pay fairly, a jury trial. Many cases resolve before trial, but the ones that do are usually the ones where the defense knows the plaintiff’s lawyers are ready to try them.

When criminal charges follow a fatal crash, such as a DUI-related death, the timeline can change. Tennessee extends the filing period to two years when prosecution of the person who caused the injury begins within one year of the injury and the family then sues that same person. That extension is narrow, and no family should plan around it. The safest course is to treat the one-year anniversary of the injury as the deadline.

Who Can Bring the Claim and What Tennessee Lets a Family Recover

The right to sue belongs first to the surviving spouse. If there is no spouse, it passes to the children or next of kin, or the case can be brought by the deceased person’s personal representative. A spouse can lose that right if the children or next of kin prove the spouse abandoned the deceased or willfully stayed away for two years. Disputes inside families about who controls the case are more common than people expect, and they are worth sorting out before filing.

Recoverable losses include the medical and funeral expenses, the income and support the person would have provided, and the value of the life that was taken. Economic damages are not capped in Tennessee. Noneconomic damages, the human side of the loss, are generally limited to $750,000, and that limit rises to $1 million when the person who died was a parent of a minor child. The jury is not told about the cap; the judge applies it afterward. The cap does not apply when the defendant intentionally caused the harm, was intoxicated at a level that substantially impaired judgment, destroyed evidence, or was convicted of a related felony. Punitive damages, where the facts support them, are limited to the greater of two times the compensatory award or $500,000.

Tennessee also uses modified comparative fault. If the person who died is found 50 percent or more at fault, the claim is barred. Below 50 percent, the award is reduced by that person’s share. Defendants can also point at nonparties to reduce what they owe, because joint and several liability has been largely eliminated. Expect the defense to look for any way to assign blame to the person who died.

Common Ways Fatal Injuries Happen in and Around Montgomery County

• Highway and Interstate Crashes: Clarksville sits on the Interstate 24 corridor, where high-speed collisions, lane-change wrecks, and multi-vehicle pileups can turn fatal quickly. Fault often depends on speed, following distance, and what the other driver was doing in the seconds before impact.
• Commercial Truck Collisions: Tractor-trailers moving freight along the interstate and through the county create cases that involve the driver, the carrier, and sometimes a maintenance or loading company. The firm’s partners with insurer and trucking-company defense backgrounds know how those defenses are built.
• Drunk and Impaired Driving Deaths: The per se alcohol limit is 0.08 percent, but impairment can also come from prescription drugs, where no set number applies. Intoxication can lift the noneconomic damages cap, and a fatal crash investigation may also look at where the driver was served alcohol.
• Distracted Driving Deaths: Tennessee’s Hands Free law bars holding a phone, reading or sending texts, and watching or recording video while driving. Phone records and the violation itself can be powerful evidence of negligence.
• Motorcycle, Pedestrian, and Bicycle Deaths: Riders and walkers have no protection when a driver fails to see them or fails to yield. These cases often turn on witness accounts and reconstruction of the scene.
• Premises and Property Hazards: Fatal falls, drownings, and carbon monoxide deaths trace back to owners who knew or should have known about a hazard and did nothing. Maintenance and inspection records usually decide who is responsible.
• Workplace Deaths and Third-Party Claims: Workers’ compensation is generally the only remedy against an employer, so claims against outside parties such as equipment makers, negligent drivers, and other contractors matter. Those claims can reach damages that workers’ compensation does not.
• Deaths Involving Government Vehicles or Property: Claims under the Governmental Tort Liability Act must be filed within 12 months, and damages are capped at $300,000 per person and $700,000 per occurrence.

What Families Should Do in the Days After a Fatal Injury

Start by writing down the date of the injury, because that is the date the one-year clock keys off of. Then gather what you can: the crash report number, the name of the investigating agency, photographs, the names of witnesses, and the medical providers who treated your loved one. Do not delete texts, social media posts, or voicemails, and ask others involved to keep what they have.

Be careful with insurance companies. An adjuster for the at-fault driver may call within days, sound sympathetic, and ask for a recorded statement. You are not required to give one, and anything said casually about the other driver, the weather, or what your loved one was doing can be used to argue comparative fault. Do not sign releases or accept an early payment before you know the full value of the claim. Tennessee’s minimum liability coverage is only $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, so many fatal cases also involve uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, and your own policy may matter.

Estate matters usually run through the county’s Chancery Court, and someone may need to be appointed to act for the estate. Because the right to sue belongs to specific family members in a set order, it helps to talk with a lawyer before anyone files anything. For a death in the county, the claim itself is typically filed in the circuit court for Montgomery County. If the death occurred elsewhere in Tennessee, the case may belong in the court of that county instead, and we can sort that out with you. If your loved one was a minor, the one-year period is paused until the minor would have turned 18 in a personal injury claim, but wrongful death rules differ and should be checked right away rather than assumed.

Why Choose Fox, Farley, Willis & Burnette for a Wrongful Death Case

Fox, Farley, Willis & Burnette is a Tennessee personal injury firm that handles serious injury and wrongful death cases for families in Montgomery County and across the state. The firm’s attorneys bring more than 170 years of combined experience, have recovered over $100 million for clients, and try cases before juries when insurers will not pay what a loss is worth. Two of the firm’s partners spent the early part of their careers defending insurance companies, trucking companies, and businesses, so they know how a wrongful death defense is assembled and where it tends to break down.

The results speak to the kind of case families bring. The firm recovered $3.4 million for the family of a man killed in a Morgan County rear-end collision caused by a construction company driver, and $1.9 million after a mother was killed and her daughter seriously injured by a driver who failed to yield on Dolly Parton Parkway in Sevier County. It also recovered $1.6 million for an Anderson County man struck head-on by a commercial delivery truck on his way to work. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome in any other case.

Co-founder Bruce D. Fox has tried more than 125 jury trials in state and federal court, is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and is a past president of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association, which gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025. Partner Brad C. Burnette holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell and serves on the association’s Board of Governors, as does partner John Willis. The firm’s attorneys are regularly voted among Knoxville’s Top Attorneys by CityView Magazine. Michael C. Beehan is fluent in Spanish, and the firm speaks with Spanish-speaking families in their own language. Consultations are free, there are no attorney fees in a personal injury or wrongful death case unless compensation is recovered, and the firm can meet you at home or in the hospital when travel is hard.

Serving Montgomery County Families and Neighboring Communities

The firm represents families throughout Montgomery County, from Clarksville and the neighborhoods around it to Woodlawn, Cunningham, Southside, Sango, and the rural communities along the Cumberland and Red Rivers. The firm’s practice also reaches neighboring Robertson County, which shares Montgomery County’s judicial district, as well as Cheatham, Dickson, Stewart, and Houston counties nearby.

Across the rest of Tennessee, the firm serves clients from Nashville and Memphis to Knoxville, Johnson City, Clinton, Maryville, Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and LaFollette, and in Knox, Sevier, Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Roane, Claiborne, Morgan, Jefferson, and Monroe counties throughout East Tennessee. Wherever a fatal crash or unsafe property took someone from your family, the firm can review the facts, explain your options, and travel to you.

Talk With a Montgomery County Wrongful Death Attorney

The one-year deadline does not pause for grief, and evidence can disappear in the weeks after a death. If you need a Montgomery County wrongful death attorney, Fox, Farley, Willis & Burnette will listen to what happened, tell you honestly whether the claim is viable, and explain who has the right to file. Call to schedule a free consultation. There is no fee unless the firm recovers compensation for your family.

Wrongful Death Questions Montgomery County Families Ask

How long do we have to file a wrongful death lawsuit in Tennessee?

Tennessee has no stand-alone wrongful death deadline. Courts apply the one-year personal injury limit, and it runs from the date of the injury, not the date of death. The deadline arrives on the one-year anniversary of that injury.

Who is allowed to file the lawsuit?

The surviving spouse has the first right to bring the claim. If there is no spouse, the children or next of kin may file, or the personal representative of the estate can bring it. A spouse who abandoned the deceased or stayed away for two years can lose the right to bring or collect on the claim.

What compensation can a family recover?

Families can seek medical and funeral expenses, the income and support the person would have provided, and the value of the life lost. Economic damages have no cap. Noneconomic damages are generally limited, though exceptions apply, including when the defendant was substantially impaired by alcohol or drugs.

Is there a cap on what a jury can award?

Noneconomic damages are generally capped at $750,000, rising to $1 million when the person who died was a parent of a minor child. The jury never hears about the cap; the judge applies it after the verdict. Punitive damages, where available, are limited to the greater of two times compensatory damages or $500,000.

What if my loved one was partly at fault for the crash?

Tennessee follows modified comparative fault. If your loved one is found less than 50 percent at fault, the family can still recover, with the award reduced by that percentage. At 50 percent or more, the claim is barred, which is why insurers often try to shift blame onto the person who cannot respond.

Does a criminal case against the driver change our deadline?

It can. If the driver is prosecuted within one year of the injury and the family sues that same driver, the filing period extends to two years. Do not count on it, because the extension is narrow and a municipal traffic citation generally does not qualify.

The at-fault driver only carried minimum insurance. What happens then?

Tennessee’s minimum liability coverage is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, which rarely covers a death. Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may add recovery, and other responsible parties, such as an employer or a trucking company, may carry more insurance.

Can a wrongful death claim be filed if the death happened at work?

Workers’ compensation is generally the only remedy against the employer. But if someone else contributed, such as a negligent driver, an equipment manufacturer, or another contractor, the family may have a third-party claim that reaches damages workers’ compensation does not cover.

What if the death involved a government vehicle or a public employee?

Claims under the Governmental Tort Liability Act must be filed within 12 months, and damages are capped at $300,000 per person and $700,000 per occurrence. Notice and procedural rules are strict, so these cases need quick attention.

Should we talk to the insurance company before hiring a lawyer?

Be cautious. Adjusters often ask for recorded statements and offer early payments that close the claim for good. You are not required to give a statement, and what you say can be used to argue fault. Talk to a lawyer first.

How long does a wrongful death case usually take?

It depends on how clear fault is, how many parties are involved, and whether the insurer will negotiate fairly. Cases that settle can resolve in months, while cases that go to a jury take longer. The firm will tell you honestly what to expect once it has reviewed the facts.

What does it cost to hire the firm?

Nothing up front. Consultations are free, and the firm is paid only if it recovers compensation for your family.

Can the firm meet us if we cannot travel?

Yes. The firm can meet you at home or in the hospital, and it speaks with Spanish-speaking families in Spanish through attorney Michael C. Beehan.