Accident attorney Houston: what your lawyer does at every stage of the claim

Hiring an accident attorney Houston drivers can rely on is easier once you know what the job involves. Below we follow a claim from the first phone call through the file, the insurers, the demand, the negotiation and, when needed, a lawsuit filed before the Texas deadline.

This guide comes from the Houston office of LAWBOSS – Harris, Nelsen & Uvalle, PLLC, on Memorial Drive by Memorial Park. Injury Accident Lawyer Houston is our firm’s own site, and the attorney responsible for it is Jonathan Harris. What follows is how our attorneys handle a crash claim; it is general information, and your own case may move in a different order.

The stages at a glance

1. The first call: what happened, who was hurt and which deadlines apply.
2. Opening the file: the crash report, photos, video, witnesses and medical records.
3. Insurer contact: every insurer is told you have a lawyer, and the calls come to us.
4. The demand: a written package that sets out fault, injuries and losses.
5. Negotiation: offers and answers, with every decision left to you.
6. Filing suit: if the claim does not settle, a lawsuit filed within two years.

The first call

The first conversation is free, and our Houston office answers at any hour. We ask where and when the crash happened, who was driving each vehicle, whether police came, where you went for treatment and whether anyone from an insurance company has already called you. We also ask about the vehicles: if a city bus, a county truck or a police car was involved, the clock is much shorter. Written notice to a government unit is generally due within six months of the incident, and a city charter can set an even earlier date (Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 101.101). Our post on the notice deadline for a government vehicle crash explains what that notice has to say.

Opening the file

When an officer investigates a crash with an injury, a death or apparent property damage of 1,000 dollars or more, the officer must file a Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report with TxDOT within ten days (Transportation Code section 550.062). The people involved, their authorized representatives, the vehicle owners and the insurers may get the full report (section 550.065), and copies are sold for a small fee through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System. We order it for you; our article on how to get a Houston crash report shows the steps if you want your own copy.

The report is only the start. Your attorney gathers your photos, the names of witnesses, any dash camera clips and nearby business video before it is erased, and medical records from the ambulance onward. In a truck case we send the carrier a letter asking it to keep its electronic logs and driver records, which federal rules require it to hold for at least six months (49 CFR 395.8).

Contact with the insurers

Once you hire us, we write to every insurer involved and tell them to deal with your attorney. From then on the adjusters’ calls come to our office. The other driver’s insurer will usually want a recorded statement early, while you are sore, medicated and unsure of the details; our post on giving a recorded statement after a Houston crash explains why we handle that conversation. Several of our attorneys took statements like that for insurance companies, and our page on insurance tactics describes the questions they are built around.

Coverage your attorney looks for

Texas sets minimum liability limits, and two coverages come with most Texas auto policies unless someone turned them down in writing. Your attorney checks each policy that might apply, including your own.

Coverage	What Texas law says	Source
Liability minimums (30/60/25)	30,000 dollars for injury or death of one person, 60,000 dollars for two or more, 25,000 dollars for property damage, per collision	Transportation Code 601.072(a-1)
Personal injury protection (PIP)	Included unless rejected in writing; the law requires no more than 2,500 dollars per person; paid without regard to fault, within 30 days of satisfactory proof	Insurance Code sections 1952.152 to 1952.156
Uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM)	Part of every Texas auto policy unless a named insured turns it down in writing	Insurance Code 1952.101

Those liability figures are floors set by law, not a measure of any claim. When the at-fault driver carries only the minimum, UM/UIM coverage on your own policy may be the next place to look.

Fault rules your attorney plans around

Texas uses proportionate responsibility. You can recover if you are 50 percent or less at fault, and you are barred if your share is greater than 50 percent (Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 33.001), which is why people call it the 51 percent bar. Whatever you do recover is reduced by your own percentage (section 33.012). A defendant found more than 50 percent responsible is jointly and severally liable (section 33.013).

Insurers know these lines well, so the defense often tries to push some blame onto you or onto someone else. A defendant may ask the court to designate a responsible third party, generally at least 60 days before trial (section 33.004), so the jury can give that person a share of the fault. Your attorney’s answer is to find every party that may share responsibility early: the driver’s employer, the vehicle owner, a contractor who left a hazard, a company that loaded cargo badly.

The demand

We usually wait to send a demand until your doctors can say where your recovery is heading, because an early demand can leave out care you still need. The demand is a written package: how the crash happened and why the other side is responsible, what your injuries are, the treatment so far and expected, your medical bills, the work and pay you lost and how the injuries affect daily life. Each statement in it is backed by a record, because the adjuster on the other end will check.

Negotiation

The insurer answers the demand with an offer, a request for more records or a denial. Your attorney responds in writing, corrects anything the adjuster has wrong and pushes back where the offer ignores part of the file. You hear about every offer, and you decide whether to accept one; we explain what each choice means, but the decision is yours. Before money changes hands there is a release to sign and, often, health plan or hospital claims to resolve, and we go through both with you.

Filing suit within the two-year deadline

In Texas, a personal injury suit must be brought no later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues (Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003(a)). In a death case the two years run from the date of death (section 16.003(b)). For a child, the time before age 18 generally does not count (section 16.001). Negotiations do not stop that clock, so if talks are not finished well before the deadline, we file. After filing, the case moves into discovery, depositions and, if it still does not settle, trial, which at our firm is the work of the litigation team led by Jonathan Harris.

Accident attorney Houston questions to ask before you sign

You do not need a firm that calls itself something grand. You need clear answers to a few plain questions, from us or from anyone else you talk to.

• Who will actually work on my file, and who do I call when I have a question?
• Is the attorney licensed in Texas? (The State Bar of Texas lets anyone look up a lawyer’s license and public disciplinary history.)
• Has the attorney taken injury cases to trial, and who handles a case if it goes to court?
• Has anyone on the team worked for insurance companies, and what did they do there?
• How is the fee figured, how are case costs handled and what do I owe if there is no recovery? Is it all in writing?
• How often will I get updates, and will I be asked before any offer is accepted or turned down?

What hiring us costs

Our terms are No Fees or Costs Unless We Win, and here is what that means in practice: LAWBOSS puts up the money needed to investigate and pursue your claim, and if no money comes in for you, you owe neither an attorney’s fee nor those case costs. The fee and how costs are repaid are set out in a written agreement you read before we start, and you can ask us about any line of it. For other common questions, see our Houston injury FAQ, or compare this guide with the page on the accident lawyers Houston team behind it.