What do most people want to know before they call a lawyer?

Do I actually have a case?

Four things have to be true. Someone owed you care, they fell short of it, that failure caused your injury, and the injury cost you something.

Most people who call are unsure about the second one, and it is usually the easiest to answer. A driver who rear-ends you, a shop that left a spill for an hour, a carrier that ran a driver past his hours — those are not close questions.

The harder one is normally causation, particularly where you had a prior condition. A pre-existing injury does not defeat a claim; Texas law takes you as you were, and an aggravation of an existing condition is compensable. It does change what the medical evidence has to show.

How long do I have?

Two years from the date of injury for most claims, and two years from the date of death in a wrongful death case.

The exceptions are the ones that catch people. A claim against a governmental unit — a city vehicle, a public hospital, VIA, a school district — requires formal written notice long before that, sometimes within six months and under some city charters within ninety days. Medical malpractice adds a sixty-day pre-suit notice and a ten-year outside limit. Product claims are generally barred fifteen years after the sale.

A minor’s deadline is different again: it does not begin to run until they turn eighteen, except in health care liability claims.

The deadline is rarely what loses a case. Evidence is. Surveillance footage is overwritten in days, vehicles are repaired or scrapped, and witnesses move. The case you have in week one is usually stronger than the same case in month six.

What is my case worth?

Nobody can say honestly in the first weeks, and anyone who names a figure then is guessing.

The claim is built from medical costs and lost earnings, plus the human cost of the injury — pain, mental anguish, impairment, disfigurement. Texas does not cap that second category outside medical malpractice and claims against governmental units.

Two things reduce it. Your share of fault, which cuts the recovery by your percentage. And Texas’s paid-or-incurred rule, which limits recoverable medical expenses to amounts actually paid rather than the full billed charge.

The practical ceiling is usually insurance rather than damages. Texas requires only $30,000 of liability coverage per injured person, so a real part of the work is finding every policy that might apply — including your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which most people do not know they carry.

What does it cost to hire a lawyer?

Nothing up front, and nothing at all unless there is a recovery. The fee is a percentage of what is obtained, and the firm advances the costs of building the case.

If there is no recovery, you owe no fee. You should have that in writing from any firm you speak to, including this one. The fee agreement is where the detail lives and it is worth reading before you sign.

A consultation costs nothing and does not commit you to anything.

Do I have to go to court?

Probably not. Most claims resolve without a trial, and many resolve without a suit ever being filed.

That is not a reason to prepare a case as though it will settle. A file that is visibly ready for trial settles for more, because the other side is pricing the risk of trying it.

Where a minor shares in a recovery, a court still approves the settlement before it is paid, even though nobody goes to trial.

What should I not do?

Do not give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement. You are not required to, and it exists to find something usable against you.

Do not let gaps open in your treatment. A three-week gap becomes the argument that you were not badly hurt.

Do not post about it. An ordinary photograph at a family barbecue gets used out of context.

Do not sign anything, particularly a medical authorization broad enough to open your entire history, or a release attached to a quick check. A release is permanent.

Common questions