Houston Car Accident Lawyer

Within days of your collision, an adjuster will call sounding helpful and offering to “get this resolved quickly.” Behind that call is a file being built to pay you as little as possible — a file our managing partner spent years of his career building for carriers. This page explains what that file contains, and how we take it apart.

What your claim is worth — from someone who used to set the number

Texas law allows recovery of your past and future medical expenses, lost earnings and diminished earning capacity, physical pain and mental anguish, physical impairment, and disfigurement. In cases involving gross negligence — a drunk driver, for instance — exemplary damages may be available on top.

What the adjuster will never tell you is how those numbers actually get set. Early in a claim, the carrier sets a reserve — an internal estimate of what the file should cost — and every negotiation that follows is anchored to it. The reserve moves on evidence: consistent medical treatment, clear liability proof, documented wage loss, and a claimant whose lawyer is visibly prepared to file suit. It does not move on politeness or patience. Having written those evaluations, we build claims to hit every input the carrier’s own model responds to.

Texas’s 51% rule can cut — or kill — your claim

Texas follows proportionate responsibility under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice & Remedies Code. If a jury finds you more than 50% responsible, you recover nothing; at 50% or below, your recovery is reduced by your percentage. Adjusters use this aggressively: a plausible “you were 30% at fault” argument cuts the settlement range, and a plausible 51% argument ends it. Those percentages are negotiable, they are built on evidence, and pushing them back where they belong is a core part of what we do. We wrote a full explainer on how insurers use the 51% rule.

Deadlines: two years — sometimes 90 days

Most Texas car accident claims must be filed within two years of the collision under CPRC § 16.003. But if a governmental vehicle was involved — a METRO bus, a city truck, a police cruiser — formal written notice can be due within six months under the Texas Tort Claims Act, and within 90 days for claims against the City of Houston. And the practical deadline is always sooner: camera footage is overwritten in weeks, vehicles get repaired, and witnesses scatter. More on the two-year rule and its traps.

Where Houston wrecks happen

Harris County logs more serious crashes than any county in Texas, and the same corridors appear in our files again and again: I-45 (the Gulf and North Freeways — repeatedly ranked among the deadliest highways in America), I-10 (Katy Freeway), I-69/US-59 (Southwest Freeway), Loop 610, Beltway 8, and US-290. Where your wreck happened shapes the evidence available — TxDOT and toll cameras, nearby business video, crash-report patterns — and we know where to look on each of them.

We also handle crashes across the suburbs where these corridors run — including Pasadena and the SH-225 corridor and Katy and the Grand Parkway.

What to do in the first 72 hours

1. Get medical attention, even if you feel functional. Adrenaline masks injury, and a gap in treatment is the first thing a carrier uses against you.
2. Photograph vehicle positions, damage, skid marks, road conditions, and your visible injuries.
3. Get names and phone numbers for every witness — police reports frequently omit them.
4. Report the collision to your own insurer, but decline a recorded statement to the other side until you have spoken with a lawyer.
5. Keep everything: bills, receipts, mileage to appointments, missed work.

When the other driver has no insurance — or drove away

Texas requires only modest minimum liability limits, and a meaningful share of Houston drivers carry nothing at all. If the at-fault driver is uninsured, underinsured, or fled the scene, your own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage may be the primary source of recovery. These claims are adversarial even though they are against your own carrier, and we handle them like any other contested claim.

What clients say

“Friendly and professional. I had my first ever car accident last year and Jeff and his team took great care of me!” — Christopher N., car accident client. “Excellent and superb customer service. My calls were returned within 24 hrs.” — Robert C. You can read more on our results page. Testimonials are not a guarantee of any outcome.