The trucking company's investigators were at the crash scene before I left the hospital. Should I be worried?

You should be motivated. Texas carriers and their insurers deploy rapid-response teams within hours precisely because electronic logging data, ECM downloads, driver qualification files, and dispatch records determine these cases — and retention windows are short. A spoliation letter from your lawyer in the first days levels a field that is otherwise tilted before you've hired anyone.

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Texas Personal Injury Attorneys

Texas is the state that wrote the tort-reform playbook — Chapter 74 caps on medical cases, exemplary-damage limits, a Tort Claims Act with notice windows some city charters shrink to 30 days — and it is also the only state where your employer may have legally opted out of workers' compensation altogether.

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A Texas attorney will take a look. Or call 1-833-WELEGAL.

How we match your Texas personal injury case

When you submit a Texas personal injury matter, we route it through a national network of independent partner firms and put it in front of the one that fits best — based on the kind of case it is, what it is likely to involve, where it has to be handled, and who has capacity to take it on now.

Case type

A personal injury matter needs someone who handles personal injury work day to day, not a generalist. Practice area is the first filter.

Size and complexity

Some firms are built for catastrophic injury and multi-party litigation; others resolve straightforward claims quickly. We weigh what your matter is likely to involve against how each firm actually works.

Jurisdiction and licensing

Your matter is decided under Texas law, so it goes to an attorney licensed in Texas who regularly appears where your case would be heard.

Capacity and fit

Availability, conflicts of interest and language all matter. If the best-fit firm cannot take your case, we route it to the next one that can — or tell you plainly when no one in the network is the right answer.

Every partner reviews your case for free. Injury and workers’ compensation matters are handled on contingency — no fee unless you win. Other matters are quoted upfront, before you commit to anything.

Get started How DearLegal works

DearLegal provides marketing and matching services and is not a law firm. Submitting a case does not create an attorney-client relationship. Matches depend on case type, jurisdiction and firm availability.

Exhibit A

What happens with a personal injury claim in Texas

Day 0
It happens.
Get medical care and keep every record — photos, names, the report number. In Texas, what you document now is what your claim is built on.
Within 24 hours
Tell us what happened.
Two minutes on this page. A Texas personal injury attorney reviews it for free and, if it’s a fit, you’re matched within 24 hours.
Weeks 1–4
Your attorney builds the file.
Reports, medical records, witnesses, camera footage, insurance policies. This is the part insurers hope you skip.
Months 1–6
Demand and negotiation.
Your attorney sends a demand and negotiates with the insurer. Texas’s fault rule matters here — Modified comparative fault — proportionate responsibility with a 51% bar (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001); recovery barred if your fault exceeds 50%.
Before the 2-year deadline
Suit is filed if it has to be.
Texas gives 2 years from the date it happened. Filing keeps your leverage; missing it ends the claim.
Resolution
Settlement or verdict.
You pay nothing along the way. The fee — typically 33% — comes only out of what’s recovered. If nothing is recovered, you owe nothing.

Statute of Limitations: 2 years
2 years from the date of injury (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003)
Fault Rule: 51%
Modified comparative fault — proportionate responsibility with a 51% bar (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001); recovery barred if your fault exceeds 50%
Damages Caps: None
None on compensatory damages in standard cases. Chapter 74 medical cases: non-economic capped at $250K against physicians, up to $750K total with institutional caps (§ 74.301). Exemplary damages capped under § 41.008. TTCA: $250K/$500K.
Government-Claim Notice: 6 months
Texas Tort Claims Act notice within 6 months (§ 101.101) — but home-rule city charters routinely shorten it, sometimes to 30–90 days
Joint and Several Liability: 50%
Limited — a defendant is jointly liable only if found more than 50% responsible (§ 33.013); otherwise each pays its own percentage, and defendants may designate responsible third parties
Typical attorney fee: 33%
33%–40% contingency — no fee unless you win

Texas gives you two years under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003 and bars recovery once your fault passes 50% (§ 33.001) — that much resembles other states. What doesn't: defendants can designate "responsible third parties" to soak up fault percentages, joint liability only attaches to a defendant found more than 50% responsible (§ 33.013), and entire categories of cases run on special tracks. Medical claims under Chapter 74 demand a qualifying expert report served within 120 days of each defendant's answer — miss it or botch it and the case is dismissed — with non-economic damages capped at $250,000 against physicians and institutional caps that top out the total at $750,000. Government claims under the Texas Tort Claims Act (§ 101.001 et seq.) carry $250,000/$500,000 limits and a six-month default notice that many home-rule cities cut to 30–90 days by charter. And if your employer is a comp non-subscriber, Texas law strips it of the contributory-negligence and assumption-of-risk defenses in a suit you're fully entitled to bring. Knowing which track you're on, in week one, is the job.

Exhibit B

When to call a personal injury attorney in Texas

Does any of this sound like you? Tap what applies.

0of 7 apply

Tick anything that applies. Even one is reason enough to talk to a Texas personal injury attorney before you talk to an insurer.

Talk to an attorney anyway

Meanwhile, don’t

Blowing the Chapter 74 expert-report deadline, or serving a report a judge finds conclusory — both end the case
Assuming you have six months for a city claim when the charter says 45 days
Signing a non-subscriber employer's benefit-plan paperwork or arbitration agreement before a lawyer reads it
Ignoring responsible-third-party designations until the fault pie is already carved
Letting trucking-company evidence — ELD data, ECM downloads, driver files — age past retention windows without a spoliation letter
Giving the adjuster a recorded statement that becomes the apportionment case against you
Settling before maximum medical improvement in a state where uncapped economic damages reward patience

Exhibit C

Personal Injury cases we take in Texas

Which one is closest to yours?

Truck and 18-wheeler crashes

Texas leads the nation in fatal truck wrecks. Cases turn on FMCSA compliance, hours-of-service data, ECM downloads, and broker/carrier relationships that determine whose insurance answers.

Sound like yours? A Texas attorney reviews it free — no fee unless they win.

Start my free review

Exhibit D

How much do Texas personal injury attorneys cost?

Sample settlement statement

Texas · Personal Injury

Recovery$100,000

Attorney fee · 33%− $33,000

Case costs (advanced by firm)repaid at the end

To you$67,000

Due today$0

Try a different recovery$100,000

$5,000$3,000,000

Illustrative only. Your fee terms are set in a written agreement with your attorney and may include costs and expenses regardless of outcome.

Most Texas personal injury attorneys work on contingency: the fee is a share of what they recover, and nothing if they don’t.

Texas injury attorneys work on contingency — commonly 33% to 40% of the recovery, owed only if the case wins. Texas defendants are guarded by one of the most sophisticated defense bars in the country, and the tort-reform statutes punish procedural missteps without mercy, so the percentage buys experience with Chapter 74 reports, TTCA notice, and responsible-third-party fights. Firms advance the expert and litigation costs and recover them from the result.

A good attorney walks through every number at your free consultation — before you sign anything.

Get startedTakes about two minutes. No obligation.

Exhibit E

What your Texas personal injury compensation can include

A Texas personal injury recovery is built from several parts. Tap one to see what it covers.

Economic Damages

Medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and out-of-pocket losses — uncapped in every case type, including Chapter 74 medical cases.

DearLegal is a legal referral service, not a law firm. We connect individuals with licensed attorneys who can evaluate their case. Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice. Results vary based on individual circumstances.

Exhibit F

Texas personal injury questions, answered

Still unsure? Tell us what happened and a Texas attorney will review it for free.

Start free review

Yes — Texas is the only state where private employers can opt out of workers' compensation entirely. But non-subscribers pay a price that helps you: in a suit against a non-subscribing employer, Texas law strips away the classic defenses of contributory negligence, assumption of risk, and the fellow-servant rule. Prove the employer's negligence played any part in your injury and you can recover full damages, pain and suffering included. Many large Texas retailers and employers run non-subscriber injury-benefit plans with their own deadlines and arbitration clauses — read nothing and sign nothing before counsel reviews it.

Chapter 74 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code is Texas's 2003 medical-liability reform. It requires a detailed expert report served within 120 days after each defendant health-care provider answers the suit — courts dismiss cases over late or inadequate reports — and it caps non-economic damages at $250,000 against physicians, with separate institutional caps bringing the maximum to $750,000. Economic damages remain uncapped, so in catastrophic medical cases the life-care plan and lost-earnings analysis do the heavy lifting.

The headline is two years under § 16.003, for injury and for wrongful death alike. The hidden fuses: TTCA notice within six months under § 101.101, which home-rule city charters often compress to 30–90 days; Chapter 74's pre-suit notice and expert-report machinery; and a 15-year statute of repose for product claims under § 16.012. The two-year number is real, but it's the last deadline, not the first.

Texas lets a defendant designate almost anyone — a settling party, an immune employer, even an unknown criminal — as a responsible third party whose fault the jury can assess. Every percentage point parked on a designated party reduces what the defendant pays, and since joint liability only attaches above 50% responsibility under § 33.013, fragmenting fault is the core Texas defense strategy. Fighting designations and keeping fault concentrated is correspondingly core plaintiff work.

If you stay at 50% or below, yes — your award is just reduced by your percentage. At 51%, you get nothing (§ 33.001). The margin between those outcomes is built from evidence: dash-cam and intersection video, crash reconstruction, phone records, and witnesses who get interviewed before their memories blur.

A narrow path. The TTCA waives immunity only for specific categories — motor-vehicle operation, premises defects, certain conditions or uses of tangible property — and caps recovery at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence. Notice deadlines come first and they are jurisdictional in effect: six months by statute, often far less by city charter. These cases are won at the threshold or not at all.

Only in the right case. Exemplary damages require clear and convincing proof of fraud, malice, or gross negligence under § 41.003, a unanimous jury on the issue, and they're capped by § 41.008 at the greater of $200,000 or two times economic damages plus matching non-economic damages up to $750,000. Drunk-driving wrecks and documented corporate safety failures are where they realistically appear.