Blog
Nobody can tell you honestly in week one, and anyone who names a figure then is guessing. A Texas claim is worth your medical costs and lost earnings, plus the human cost of the injury, capped in practice by how much insurance exists.
It is the first question almost everybody asks, and the honest answer is unsatisfying: not yet. Not because the information is being withheld, but because the largest variable — what your recovery actually looks like — has not happened.
What can be explained is how the number is built.
Past medical expenses, future medical care, lost earnings, and lost earning capacity. These are documented rather than argued.
One Texas rule catches people out. Recoverable medical expenses are limited to amounts actually paid or incurred, not the full billed charge. A hospital bills $60,000, insurance adjusts it to $18,000, and the recoverable figure is the adjusted one. That single rule moves case values more than any other.
Physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, and loss of consortium. Texas does not cap these in ordinary injury claims — the caps apply to medical malpractice and to claims against governmental units.
There is no formula. The multiplier arithmetic circulating online is not how Texas juries are instructed, and adjusters do not use it either. What actually moves this figure is how thoroughly the injury’s effect on your life is documented, which is a matter of medical records and consistent treatment rather than of description.
Your share of fault. Texas apportions responsibility by percentage; your damages drop by your share and vanish above fifty-one percent.
Gaps in treatment. A three-week gap between the crash and your first appointment, or a run of missed visits, becomes the argument that you were not badly hurt or that something else caused it. This is the single most common self-inflicted wound in a genuine claim.
A claim is worth what can actually be collected. Texas requires only $30,000 of liability coverage per injured person. A case worth $200,000 against a driver with minimum limits and no assets is not a $200,000 recovery.
This is why finding every layer of coverage matters as much as proving the injury: the at-fault driver’s policy, any employer’s commercial policy, an umbrella policy, and your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage — which is on your policy unless you rejected it in writing, and which most people do not know they have.
It arrives before maximum medical improvement, which is the point at which your doctors can say where your recovery has landed. Before that, valuing the claim means guessing at your future care, and the guess belongs to whoever makes the offer.
A release is permanent. There is no reopening it when a revision surgery arrives in year three.
Nobody can say honestly until maximum medical improvement. The figure is built from medical costs and lost earnings, plus the human cost of the injury, and limited by the insurance available.
Because the largest input — the extent and permanence of your injury — is not known in the first weeks. A number offered then is a guess.
An internet rule of thumb that multiplies medical bills by a factor. Texas juries are not instructed that way and adjusters do not value files that way.
Yes. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault and barred entirely above 51%.
Consultations are free and there is no fee unless the firm wins.
Car AccidentsGet a free case reviewAutomated intake assistant. It does not give legal advice and using it does not create an attorney–client relationship.