Texas car accident claims: deadlines, fault rules and insurance, explained
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Texas Accident Resource
The categories a Texas claim is assembled from, everything that reduces it, why treatment timing drives the timeline, and why no website can tell you what your case is worth.
The short answer
A claim is built from documented losses — medical expenses, lost income, property damage — plus non-economic harm, then reduced by your percentage of fault and capped in practice by the insurance actually available. Anyone quoting you an average settlement figure is guessing.
In this guide
What it is built from
| Category | What it covers | What proves it |
|---|---|---|
| Medical expenses | Treatment to date and, where supported by evidence, future care | Bills, records, and a treating opinion on future needs |
| Lost income | Wages already lost and reduced earning capacity going forward | Payroll records, employer letter, tax records for the self-employed |
| Property damage | Repair or actual cash value, plus related out-of-pocket costs | Estimates, valuation, receipts |
| Non-economic damages | Physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement | The medical record, and contemporaneous notes on daily life |
What reduces it
Damages are cut by your percentage, and eliminated entirely above 50 percent. This is usually the largest single variable.
The court subtracts the dollar amount of settlements already taken from other parties.
The Texas minimum is $30,000 per injured person. A serious injury can exhaust that before anything else is considered, which is when your own underinsured motorist coverage becomes the real question.
Not a legal reduction, but the most common practical one. A delay before the first appointment, or gaps afterwards, is read as evidence the injury was minor.
Health insurers, Medicare, Medicaid and medical providers may have rights against a recovery. What reaches you is what remains after those are resolved.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.012(a), (b); Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072.
Why no averages
Average settlement figures are among the most widely repeated and least useful numbers in legal marketing.
They combine cases with different injuries, fault splits, policy limits and venues. The average of two unrelated things is not a prediction about a third.
Two claims with identical medical bills can settle an order of magnitude apart because one driver carried minimum limits and the other carried a commercial policy.
A 30 percent allocation removes 30 percent. A 51 percent allocation removes all of it. No average accounts for that.
Any evaluation of a legal claim in Texas is performed solely by a licensed attorney, who can see the file. A website cannot, and should not pretend otherwise.
Before you accept
A settlement is normally final. Signing a release almost always ends the claim permanently, including for symptoms that worsen afterwards.
Has treatment reached a stable point? Until it has, the future medical picture is unknown, and future care cannot be valued.
Has every source of coverage been identified? The at-fault liability policy, your own PIP, your own UM/UIM, any other policy that could apply. Settling with one insurer can affect what remains available from another.
The two-year deadline runs whether or not treatment has finished, which is why serious claims are often filed before negotiation concludes.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003.
Common questions
We will not publish one, because it would mislead you. Settlement outcomes are driven by fault percentage, injury severity, treatment documentation and the policy limits actually available. An average across unrelated cases predicts nothing about a specific one.
As long as treatment takes, plus negotiation. A claim is not usually ready to value until treatment reaches a stable point. The two-year limitation period runs throughout, which sometimes forces a filing before negotiation finishes.
From their policy, only up to those limits. Underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy is designed for that gap, and applies unless you rejected it in writing.
Health insurers, government programmes and medical providers may have rights to be reimbursed from a recovery. They are resolved out of the settlement, so the gross figure and what reaches you are different numbers.
Almost always. A release typically ends the claim permanently, including for symptoms that worsen later. That is the main reason to be certain treatment has stabilised first.
Sources
Every Texas rule stated here is taken from the primary source named below. The Texas statutes are published free by the Texas Legislative Council.
Keep reading
Which policy responds, and the deadlines your own insurer must meet.
The first hour, the first week, and what Texas law requires at the scene.
Editorial information
Spotted something wrong or out of date? We correct errors and log the change. See our correction policy and about page.
Next steps
Read the Texas rules that apply, or see how a request for attorney review works. General information only, not legal advice.
Texas-specific information on crash deadlines, fault rules and insurance, with the statute cited on every page. Operated by National Claim Network. Not a law firm, insurer, or government agency.
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