Texas Car Accident Lawyer

A serious crash can leave you trying to manage medical care, missed work, vehicle damage, and calls from insurance adjusters at the same time. A Texas car accident lawyer can help you understand how a claim works, what evidence matters, and which Texas laws may affect your ability to recover compensation.

Hartley Law represents people injured in car crashes across the DFW Metroplex and throughout Texas. Our attorneys investigate what happened, identify the parties and insurance coverage involved, negotiate with insurers, and prepare cases for litigation when necessary. Contact our team for a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your potential case.

Texas Car Accident Claims at a Glance

• Texas generally gives injured people two years to file a lawsuit, though minors, wrongful-death claims, and government claims can involve different deadlines.
• Under Texas proportionate-responsibility law, partial fault can reduce a recovery, but it does not bar one unless the injured person is more than 50 percent responsible.
• A crash claim may involve the driver, an employer, a vehicle owner, a manufacturer, or another party with separate insurance coverage.
• Texas law places timing requirements on certain insurance claims and provides remedies when an insurer fails to meet its legal duties.
• Most car accident cases resolve without a verdict, but insurers evaluate settlement decisions partly through the risk of a well-prepared case going to trial.

How a Texas Car Accident Claim Works, Step by Step

A car accident claim moves through a predictable sequence, even though the details and timeline vary from case to case. Understanding the stages helps an injured person see where a claim stands and what still lies ahead.

1. The crash report: When law enforcement investigates a reportable collision, the officer prepares a CR-3 Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report, which usually records the vehicles, drivers, witnesses, roadway conditions, reported injuries, and the officer’s account of contributing factors. It is an important early document, though it is not the final word on fault.
2. Independent investigation: The police investigation is only a starting point. An attorney may locate witnesses, review nearby video, examine vehicle damage, obtain dispatch recordings, and preserve evidence before it disappears, sometimes uncovering facts that were not available to the responding officer in the minutes after a crash.
3. Medical treatment and MMI: Treatment continues until the medical picture is clear. Reaching maximum medical improvement, often called MMI, means a doctor has a clearer basis to assess whether further recovery is expected, whether additional care is needed, and whether an injury will create lasting limitations.
4. The demand package: Once liability and damages can be documented, the claim is presented to the insurance carrier in a demand package that organizes the evidence of fault, medical records and bills, wage information, photographs, and an explanation of how the crash changed the injured person’s life.
5. Negotiation: An adjuster may dispute fault, question the connection between the crash and an injury, or argue that the claimed losses are not fully supported, and the parties work toward a resolution from there.
6. Filing suit and discovery: If negotiation stalls, the next step may be filing a lawsuit in the appropriate Texas court. Both sides then enter discovery, exchanging documents, submitting written questions, and taking depositions to learn what evidence and testimony the other side may present.
7. Mediation and trial: Most Texas injury cases go through mediation, where a neutral mediator helps the parties explore resolution. If that does not resolve the claim, the case proceeds toward a trial where a judge or jury decides the disputed issues.

One point deserves emphasis because it shapes the entire timeline: settling too soon can close a claim before future treatment costs or long-term impairment are known. An early offer may cover current bills while leaving no room for the care, wage loss, or physical limitations that only become clear later, which is why the medical picture usually needs to be understood before a claim is resolved.

That same logic explains why litigation readiness matters even when a case never reaches a courtroom. Most claims resolve before a jury reaches a verdict, but an insurer’s settlement evaluation is influenced by the cost and risk of trial, so a claim developed with trial in mind is often the one that resolves fairly.

Who Can Be Held Liable in a Texas Car Accident

A successful negligence claim requires more than showing that a crash occurred. The evidence must show that someone owed a duty to act with reasonable care, breached that duty, caused the collision, and caused legally recognized damages. Each part matters because a serious injury alone does not establish who is legally responsible for it.

Depending on the facts, responsibility may extend beyond the driver who made the immediate mistake:

• The at-fault driver: A driver may be directly negligent for speeding, distracted driving, failing to yield, following too closely, driving while impaired, or violating another traffic rule. The evidence must connect that conduct to the collision and resulting losses.
• The vehicle owner: An owner may face a negligent-entrustment claim when they allow an unfit, unlicensed, impaired, or otherwise unsafe person to use their vehicle. Ownership alone does not automatically create liability, so the facts surrounding permission and the driver’s known condition matter.
• Employers: A business may be responsible for an employee’s crash when the employee was acting within the scope of work. A claim may also examine whether the company negligently hired, trained, supervised, or retained a driver.
• Vehicle or parts manufacturers: A defective tire, brake system, airbag, steering component, or other vehicle part can create a product-liability claim. These cases often require technical inspection and expert analysis to determine whether a defect contributed to the crash or injury.
• Government entities: Unsafe roadway design, missing signage, defective traffic control, or negligent maintenance can sometimes lead to a claim against a public entity. These claims have special procedural rules, including a notice requirement that is addressed later on this page.
• Commercial defendants: Delivery companies, contractors, rideshare-related businesses, and other companies may have responsibility when a crash involves a business vehicle or business operation. The available evidence can include driving records, maintenance files, dispatch information, and company policies.

Identifying every responsible party matters because each may have separate insurance coverage or assets relevant to the claim. It also affects how fault is allocated under Texas law.

Texas Comparative Fault: How the 51% Rule Really Works

Texas uses a proportionate-responsibility system under Chapter 33 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Under Section 33.001, an injured person cannot recover damages if a jury finds that person more than 50 percent responsible for the harm. If the person is 50 percent or less responsible, the recovery is reduced by that percentage.

Fault percentages are not fixed facts simply because an insurance adjuster says they are. The drivers, passengers, employers, insurers, and other parties can each argue about what happened and how responsibility should be divided. An insurer may try to increase an injured person’s share of fault because every percentage point reduces the amount it may have to pay.

Evidence can change that analysis. Accident reconstruction, signal-timing records, witness testimony, vehicle damage patterns, scene measurements, and available video can all help establish how a collision occurred. A driver accused of speeding, for example, may not be able to rely on that allegation if the physical evidence and data tell a different story.

Here is a simple illustration: If total damages are $100,000 and an injured person is found 20 percent responsible, the recoverable amount would be reduced to $80,000. If the fault finding changes to 55 percent, Texas law bars recovery from the other defendants. The numbers are only an illustration, but they show why the evidence supporting fault matters so much.

What Your Texas Car Accident Claim May Be Worth

The value of a car accident claim is built through evidence, not a preset formula. The losses must be identified, documented, and connected to the collision, while the available insurance coverage and the strength of the liability evidence shape the practical path to resolution.

Economic Damages and How They’re Proven

Economic damages are financial losses that can be documented through records. Medical bills, treatment records, pharmacy receipts, repair estimates, pay stubs, tax records, and employer statements can establish past expenses and income loss caused by the crash.

Future losses require a different level of proof. If an injury requires future treatment or limits a person’s ability to work, doctors, life-care planners, vocational specialists, or economists may help explain the expected care needs and earning impact. The point is not to guess at future costs, but to support them with medical and financial evidence.

Non-Economic Damages

Some consequences of a crash do not arrive with an invoice. Physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, impairment, and loss of enjoyment of life may be part of a claim when the evidence shows how an injury affected a person’s daily activities, relationships, independence, and ability to function.

Texas does not use a fixed formula for these losses. If a case reaches trial, a jury decides a fair amount based on the evidence, including the severity and duration of the injury, the permanence of any condition, medical testimony, and the practical effect on the injured person’s life.

Punitive (Exemplary) Damages and Texas Caps

Exemplary damages, sometimes called punitive damages, are not available in every car accident case. They may be considered when the evidence supports gross negligence or certain serious misconduct, including some drunk-driving cases, and they are generally determined by a jury at trial.

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 41.008 generally caps exemplary damages at the greater of $200,000 or two times the amount of economic damages plus an amount equal to non-economic damages up to $750,000. For illustration only, if economic damages were $300,000 and non-economic damages were $500,000, the second calculation would be $1.1 million. The statute’s cap is subject to exceptions and case-specific legal analysis.

No single number predicts an individual case. Its value depends on the severity of the injury, clarity of liability, available coverage, medical and financial documentation, and the facts unique to the people involved.

When You Do (and Don’t) Need a Lawyer After a Texas Car Accident

Not every collision requires an attorney. A low-speed crash with no injury, clear fault, and straightforward vehicle damage may be manageable through the insurance process without legal representation. The key is whether the claim involves unresolved medical, factual, or legal issues that could affect the outcome.

Legal guidance becomes more important when injuries are serious, treatment may continue, fault is disputed, an insurer denies the claim, or multiple parties are involved. Those circumstances can require evidence preservation, medical analysis, expert input, and an understanding of which insurance policies may apply.

Insurance carriers evaluate claims in part by considering how the evidence might hold up if the dispute proceeds to court. Representation does not guarantee a particular outcome, but a lawyer can develop the factual and legal record an insurer must consider when evaluating the claim.

How Car Insurance Works After a Texas Crash

Texas is an at-fault state. In general, the driver or party that caused the crash is responsible for the resulting damages, and that person’s liability insurance is often the first source of payment. The applicable coverage can become complicated quickly when injuries are significant, multiple vehicles are involved, or the at-fault driver has little insurance.

Several types of coverage may matter after a Texas crash:

• Liability coverage: Texas drivers must carry financial responsibility of at least $30,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $60,000 for bodily injury or death per accident, and $25,000 for property damage under Texas Transportation Code Section 601.072. Those limits can be exhausted quickly in a serious injury claim.
• Personal Injury Protection: PIP coverage pays certain medical and related expenses under the injured person’s own policy, regardless of fault. Texas insurers must offer PIP coverage unless the insured rejects it in writing, under Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.151.
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage: UM and UIM coverage may apply when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough insurance to cover the legally recoverable damages. Whether limits can be combined across vehicles or policies depends on the policy language and the facts of the claim.

Beyond the coverage itself, Texas law regulates how insurers must handle certain claims. The Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act sets specific deadlines for an insurer to acknowledge a claim, request the information it needs, accept or reject the claim after receiving that information, and pay a claim it has accepted. These timing rules are particularly relevant when an injured person is dealing with their own PIP or UM and UIM carrier.

When an insurer falls short of those duties, the conduct can rise to bad faith. Depending on the situation, that may include a failure to reasonably investigate a claim, misrepresentation of policy benefits, or an unfair refusal to pay a covered claim, and a violation may allow a claimant to seek statutory interest, attorney’s fees, or other remedies. The remedy that applies depends on the policy, the insurer’s conduct, and the claim involved.

Evidence in a Texas Car Accident Case and How It’s Preserved

A car accident case is often decided by evidence that is available only briefly. Vehicles are repaired or salvaged, video systems overwrite recordings, weather changes the scene, and witnesses become harder to locate, so prompt action gives an injured person a better chance to preserve what is needed to show what happened.

The CR-3 crash report is one early source. It can include identifying details for drivers and vehicles, a diagram, officer observations, witness information, and contributing-factor notes, and eligible people may request it through TxDOT’s Crash Records Information System, known as CRIS.

Other evidence needs faster attention because it disappears on its own. The types most often at risk include:

• Video footage: Surveillance cameras at nearby businesses, traffic cameras, and dashcam recordings are frequently overwritten within days.
• Scene evidence: Skid marks, debris patterns, and roadway conditions change or are cleared soon after a crash.
• Time-sensitive records: 911 audio and signal-timing data may only be retained for limited periods.
• Vehicle data: The electronic data recorder, sometimes called a black box, can hold information about speed, braking, steering, or seatbelt use before impact, but it can be lost once a vehicle is repaired or salvaged.

An attorney can send preservation letters that place another party on notice to retain vehicles, electronic data, video, and other materials. Those letters do not create evidence that does not exist, but they help prevent important evidence from being discarded, overwritten, or destroyed before the claim can be investigated.

The Texas Statute of Limitations and Filing Deadlines

For most personal injury claims arising from a car accident, Texas law provides a two-year period to file suit, and the clock generally begins on the date of the crash. That two-year deadline is the rule most people encounter, but several situations change how it applies:

• The discovery rule: Texas courts apply this narrowly. It may delay the start of the limitations period in limited cases where an injury was inherently undiscoverable and objectively verifiable, but it should never be assumed to apply after a car crash.
• Minors: The limitations period may be tolled while an injured child is legally under a disability, so the deadline for a child’s claim can run differently than an adult’s.
• Wrongful death: A wrongful-death action has its own two-year period that generally runs from the date of death rather than the date of the crash.
• Government claims: When a government vehicle or entity is involved, formal notice is generally required well before the usual lawsuit deadline, sometimes within only months, and some local governments impose even shorter notice periods.

The government-notice deadline is the one that catches people off guard, because it can require action long before the two-year lawsuit deadline most people expect. Deadlines are case-specific, and missing the applicable one can permanently end a claim, which is why the timing is worth reviewing early rather than assuming an exception will apply.

What Litigation Involves If Your Case Doesn’t Settle

If settlement discussions do not resolve the case, the legal process begins with a petition filed in court. 

• Petition: The petition identifies the parties, explains the basis of the claim, and states the relief being sought. The defendant then has an opportunity to answer and raise defenses.
• Discovery: The next major phase is discovery. Interrogatories are written questions that must be answered under oath. Requests for production seek documents and electronic records such as insurance information, photographs, medical records, repair documents, and communications. Depositions are sworn, recorded question-and-answer sessions where attorneys examine parties, witnesses, doctors, and experts before trial.
• Mediation: Mediation usually occurs after the parties have exchanged enough information to evaluate the case. A neutral mediator does not decide who is right, but helps both sides assess risk and explore settlement. If mediation does not resolve the claim, the case may proceed toward a trial where a judge or jury decides disputed issues.

A litigated case can take a year or longer, depending on the court, complexity of the evidence, medical issues, and number of parties. Preparing the case properly can support meaningful settlement discussions even when the case never reaches a courtroom, and most claims still resolve before a verdict.

How to Choose a Texas Car Accident Lawyer

A contingency-fee arrangement means the attorney’s fee is generally tied to a recovery, rather than paid in advance. Before hiring a firm, ask how the fee is calculated, whether the firm advances case costs, how litigation expenses are handled, and what happens to those costs if the case does not result in a recovery.

It is also reasonable to ask about trial experience, current caseload, experience with cases involving similar injuries, and the resources available for expert-heavy litigation. Serious collision cases can require accident reconstruction, medical specialists, economists, and investigators, so a firm’s ability to prepare the evidence matters.

The right lawyer should explain the process in clear terms, return questions, and be direct about the strengths and challenges of the claim. At Hartley Law, clients work with an attorney who can review the facts, explain the legal options, and help them make informed decisions about the next step.

Texas Car Accident Statistics

Texas experienced a meaningful decline in traffic deaths in 2025, even as driving exposure reached a record level. TxDOT reported 3,769 traffic deaths in 2025, down 9.38 percent from the 4,159 reported for 2024 in the same comparison file. The 2025 fatality rate was 1.20 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, while Texans drove 314.006 billion miles that year. TxDOT’s 2003 to 2025 comparison shows the lowest rate in that series despite the highest recorded travel total.

The improvement is important context, but it does not make serious crashes rare. In 2024, TxDOT reported 251,977 people injured statewide, including 18,218 people seriously injured in 14,905 serious-injury crashes. A reportable crash occurred about every 57 seconds, and rural crashes accounted for 2,080 deaths, or 50.12 percent of all traffic deaths that year. TxDOT’s 2024 Crash Facts provides the full statewide figures.

The 2024 data also shows how severe certain crash patterns remain. TxDOT recorded 1,050 deaths in intersection-related crashes, 1,053 deaths in crashes involving a driver under the influence of alcohol, and 380 deaths in distracted-driving crashes. These figures do not define any one person’s case, but they underscore why prompt medical care, evidence preservation, and an early review of legal options matter after a serious collision.

Areas We Serve

Hartley Law represents car accident victims across the DFW Metroplex and surrounding Texas communities. For local information about a crash claim in your area, visit our city-specific pages: 

• Dallas
• Arlington
• Carrollton
• Denton
• Flower Mound
• Fort Worth
• Frisco
• Garland
• Grapevine
• Lewisville
• Plano
• Richardson
• Southlake

Talk to a Texas Car Accident Attorney About Your Situation

Understanding the process, deadlines, insurance coverage, and evidence involved in a crash claim can help protect important options after an accident. If you want to speak with a Texas car accident lawyer about your specific situation, contact Hartley Law for a free consultation. We can review what happened, explain the next steps and deadlines that may apply, and answer your questions.

Frequently Asked Questions About Texas Car Accident Claims

How is fault decided if the other driver blames me?

Fault is based on the available evidence, not simply on what the other driver or insurer says. Reconstruction evidence, witness accounts, vehicle damage, video, and roadway information can help challenge an unsupported fault claim. 

What happens if more than one party was at fault for my crash?

Texas law can allow claims against multiple negligent parties when the evidence supports their responsibility. Identifying those parties may also reveal additional insurance coverage relevant to the losses caused by the crash. 

How long do I have to file if a government vehicle or entity was involved?

A claim involving a government vehicle or entity may require formal notice much sooner than the usual two-year filing deadline, sometimes within only months. Missing the applicable notice deadline can prevent a claim, so it is important to seek legal guidance promptly. 

Does PIP affect what I can recover from the at-fault driver?

PIP can pay certain medical and related costs through your own policy regardless of fault. Using PIP does not automatically prevent a claim against the at-fault driver for other covered losses. 

What can I do if the insurer misses Texas’s claim-payment deadlines?

Texas law sets deadlines for certain insurers to acknowledge, investigate, decide, and pay claims. If an insurer violates those requirements, the policyholder may have additional legal remedies depending on the facts and coverage involved. 

Can I still recover if the at-fault driver was uninsured and I don’t have UM coverage?

Recovery can be more difficult without UM or UIM coverage, but it may still be possible through a claim against the driver personally or another liable party. Whether that path is practical depends on available assets, insurance, and the facts of the crash. 

When should I talk to a lawyer versus handling the claim myself?

A straightforward, no-injury collision with clear fault may be manageable without legal representation. Injuries, disputed fault, multiple parties, or a denied or inadequate insurance offer are strong reasons to speak with an attorney.