Houston Personal Injury Lawyers Fighting for Maximum Compensation

The person who was injured, and — where an injury causes death — a defined group of family members plus the estate. The wrongful death claim under § 71.002 is for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse, children and parents (§ 71.004(a)); siblings are not included. The survival claim under § 71.021 belongs to the estate and covers what the person endured before death. For a minor, a parent or guardian brings the claim, and settlements involving minors often require court approval. Those distinctions matter early, because bringing the wrong claim in the wrong name wastes time against a two-year deadline.

Not the at-fault party, usually. Their liability insurer normally pays once, at settlement, rather than as bills arrive. In the meantime the sources are your health insurance, any personal injury protection or medical payments cover on your own auto policy, and sometimes a letter of protection under which a provider treats you and waits to be paid from the recovery. Keep every bill and explanation of benefits, because your health insurer or Medicare may assert a lien against the settlement. Negotiating those liens is part of the case and is the reason the settlement figure and the cheque differ.

Everything on this site sits under it: vehicle collisions of every kind, commercial truck and bus crashes, motorcycle and pedestrian injuries, rideshare claims, drunk and distracted driving, hit-and-run, workplace and industrial injuries including Texas non-subscriber claims, maritime and Jones Act injuries out of the Ship Channel and the Gulf, defective products, premises injuries, and wrongful death. The rules in the table above apply across all of them; what changes from one to the next is which additional statute governs and which deadline arrives first.

Nobody can tell you before reading your medical records, and a figure offered earlier is a sales tactic rather than an assessment. Value is driven by the medical evidence and whether treatment has concluded, documented lost income and future earning capacity, the permanence of any impairment, the insurance actually available on the other side, and your own percentage of responsibility under § 33.001, which reduces recovery point for point and eliminates it above 50 percent. Available insurance is the ceiling people most often overlook: a catastrophic injury caused by a driver carrying the $30,000 statutory minimum is limited by that policy unless another defendant or your own UM/UIM cover applies.

These cases are handled on a contingency fee, which means the fee is a percentage of the recovery rather than an hourly charge, and there is no fee if there is no recovery. Case expenses — records, filing fees, expert reports, depositions — are handled separately and should be explained to you in writing at the outset. The consultation itself is free. What you should expect from any firm is a written agreement that states the percentage, how expenses are treated, and what happens if the case does not succeed, before you sign anything.

Ordinarily Harris County, where the civil district courts sit at the Harris County Civil Courthouse, 201 Caroline Street, Houston, TX 77002. Which court within the county depends on the amount in controversy — county civil courts at law handle claims up to their statutory limit and district courts take larger matters. Cases arising on the western edge of the metro can fall in Fort Bend or Waller County; Sugar Land matters are normally Fort Bend County at 1422 Eugene Heimann Circle in Richmond. Most claims resolve without a trial, but filing in the right county from the start avoids losing months.

From several places, and starting early makes all of them easier. The crash or incident report comes from the investigating agency — the Houston Police Department inside city limits, the Harris County Sheriff's Office outside — and, for vehicle crashes, from TxDOT's crash records system. Medical records come from each provider and take time. Employment and payroll records establish lost income. Camera footage from businesses near the scene is the most perishable of all and typically overwrites within days, which is why a written preservation request is usually the very first step.

Two years from the day the cause of action accrues under § 16.003(a). If the injury causes death, § 16.003(b) runs two years from the date of death, which is not always the date of the incident. Shorter deadlines override that in specific situations: six months' written notice to a governmental unit under § 101.101, and shorter still where a city charter applies. Products claims have additional timing rules under § 16.012. Contractual deadlines in your own insurance policy can be shorter than any of them.

Not before you reach maximum medical improvement, because a settlement is final and cannot be reopened if the injury turns out worse than expected. That is the single most common irreversible mistake in these cases: an early offer arrives while treatment is ongoing, it looks reasonable against the bills received so far, and it is accepted before anyone knows whether surgery will be needed. The corollary is that the timeline is driven by your treatment rather than by the lawyers, and that a firm promising a fast resolution at the first meeting is promising something outside its control.

Because a statement taken early, before treatment is complete and before your account has settled, is the most useful version they will get. Ordinary polite answers — "I'm fine", "I didn't see them until the last second" — are quoted back later as admissions about injury or attention. You are generally not obliged to give the other side's insurer a statement at all. Your own insurer is different, because your policy contains a cooperation clause. Establishing which company is on the phone before answering questions is the most useful precaution in the first fortnight.

Because § 33.001 makes it decisive rather than merely relevant. A claimant may not recover damages at all if their percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent, and below that threshold every point reduces the award. That gives an adjuster a direct financial incentive to build a percentage against you, which is what the questions about speed, attention, seatbelt use and prior injuries are for. It is answered with evidence rather than argument — scene evidence, camera footage, event data recorders and independent witnesses — and that evidence is perishable.

Check things you can verify rather than things you are told. Every Texas attorney has a State Bar number that resolves to the Bar's own record showing licence status and any disciplinary history — ask for it and look it up. Ask who will actually handle the file day to day, how often you will hear from them, and whether the firm has tried cases of this kind or only settled them. Ask for the fee agreement in writing before you sign. And be wary of any firm that quotes a case value or a timeline before reading a single medical record.

It depends primarily on your medical treatment, not on the legal work. A straightforward claim with completed treatment and clear liability often resolves in a few months. Disputed liability, serious or permanent injury, several defendants, a governmental defendant or a parallel criminal prosecution all extend it, and filing suit in Harris County adds the court's own timetable. Anyone giving you a specific duration at the first meeting is guessing. What can be said honestly at the start is what the next three steps are and roughly how long each takes.

It changes both the deadline and the ceiling. Section 101.101(a) requires written notice to the governmental unit not later than six months after the incident, reasonably describing the injury, the time and place, and the incident — and § 101.101(b) preserves shorter charter and ordinance periods. Immunity is waived only in defined circumstances, and § 101.023 caps damages by the type of unit rather than allowing recovery of the full loss. That combination means a claim involving a City of Houston vehicle, a Harris County vehicle or a METRO bus is time-critical from the first week.