Auto Accident?

We advise our clients to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after a car accident. An attorney can advise you on what to do next, help protect your rights, gather evidence, and handle communications with insurance companies. The earlier you involve a lawyer, the better they can build your case.

Our team can be incredibly helpful after a car accident, especially if you've been injured or if there are disputes about who is at fault or the extent of your damages.

The auto accident attorneys at LAWBOSS can assist with evidence collection, scene reconstruction, negotiations with insurance companies, damage calculations, and compliance with legal deadlines, among other helpful tasks.

At our firm, DFW car accident lawyers operate on a no-win, no-fee basis, meaning you only pay if we win your case. It's a straightforward arrangement that eliminates any upfront costs or financial risks for you.

With this guarantee, you can pursue your claim confidently, knowing that our success is directly tied to yours.

In most cases Texas gives you two years from the date of the injury to file suit. Miss that window and the court will almost always throw the case out, no matter how strong it was.

There are exceptions that cut both ways. The clock is paused for a child until their 18th birthday, and wrongful death claims generally run two years from the date of death. But claims against a city, county, or state agency require written notice far sooner — six months under state law, and some city charters shorten that to 45 or 90 days. Because the deadline that applies to you depends on who is at fault, it is worth confirming it early rather than assuming you have two years.

You can still recover. Texas uses proportionate responsibility: as long as you are found 50% or less at fault, you can collect damages, reduced by your share of the blame. If a jury values your claim at $100,000 and assigns you 20% of the fault, you recover $80,000.

Cross 51% and you recover nothing. That is exactly why insurance adjusters push so hard to pin blame on the injured person early — every percentage point they shift onto you comes straight off the settlement. Fault is argued, not decided at the scene.

Not before you have spoken to an attorney. You are under no obligation to give a recorded statement to the other side's insurer, and that adjuster does not work for you.

These calls come early, often within a day or two, while you are still shaken and before the full extent of your injuries is known. A casual "I'm doing okay" or an uncertain answer about how the crash happened gets quoted back months later to reduce or deny your claim. Let your attorney handle the communication.

Get medical attention first — everything else is secondary. Then, if you are able: call the police so there is an official crash report, photograph the vehicles, the roadway, traffic controls, and any visible injuries, and get names and numbers for every driver, passenger, and witness.

Do not apologize or speculate about fault, even to be polite. Do not agree to settle privately at the scene. And see a doctor even if you feel fine — adrenaline masks injuries for hours, and a delay in treatment is the first thing an insurer will point to when arguing your injuries were not serious.

Anyone who quotes you a number before reviewing your file is guessing. The value of a claim turns on the severity and permanence of your injuries, the total of your medical treatment, wages and earning capacity you lost, how clearly liability falls on the other party, and — frequently the ceiling on everything else — the available insurance coverage.

What we can tell you early is what the case needs: the records, the treatment, and the evidence that support the full number rather than the quick one.

Texas recognizes economic damages — medical bills, future medical care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and property damage — and non-economic damages, which cover physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, and disfigurement.

In a narrow set of cases involving fraud, malice, or gross negligence, a jury may also award exemplary (punitive) damages, which are meant to punish rather than compensate and are subject to statutory caps.

Usually not the at-fault driver's insurer, at least not until the case resolves. In the meantime, treatment is typically covered through your own health insurance, through Personal Injury Protection (PIP) or MedPay on your auto policy if you carry it, or through a letter of protection — an agreement under which a provider treats you now and is paid out of the eventual settlement.

Texas PIP is worth knowing about: insurers must offer it, and it pays regardless of who caused the crash, but you may have declined it in writing when you bought the policy. We review your coverage as part of the intake so nothing available to you goes unused.

This is more common in Texas than most people expect, and it is what uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage exists for. It sits on your own auto policy and steps in when the at-fault driver has no coverage or carries too little to cover your injuries. Insurers are required to offer it, so unless you rejected it in writing, you likely have it.

UIM claims in Texas have their own procedural wrinkle: your insurer generally does not have to pay until the other driver's liability and the amount owed have been established. Practically, that means the claim against your own carrier can look adversarial, and it should be handled as a claim, not a phone call.

A straightforward claim with clear liability and a completed course of treatment can resolve in a few months. A disputed-liability case, a serious injury still under active treatment, or one that has to be filed in court can take a year or more.

The main driver is your medical treatment. Settling before you have reached maximum medical improvement means valuing the claim without knowing what your recovery actually looks like — and settlements cannot be reopened when the picture turns out worse than expected.

Most do not. The large majority of personal injury claims settle, whether before a suit is ever filed or during litigation.

That said, cases settle on fair terms when the other side believes you are genuinely prepared to try them. A file built for trial from the beginning negotiates from a stronger position than one built to settle, which is how we prepare every case regardless of where it ends up.

Have it reviewed before you sign anything. Early offers arrive fast for a reason: they land before you know the full cost of your medical care, before you know whether the injury is permanent, and before you have counted lost income.

A settlement release is final. Once signed, you cannot go back for more if the surgery you did not anticipate turns out to be necessary. A review costs you nothing and tells you whether the offer is reasonable or an opening position.

The size of the vehicle is only part of it. Commercial carriers are governed by federal safety regulations covering driver hours of service, licensing, maintenance, inspection, and cargo securement — and a violation of those rules is powerful evidence of negligence that simply has no equivalent in an ordinary car wreck.

There are usually multiple defendants too: the driver, the motor carrier, the trailer owner, a maintenance contractor, a broker, or a shipper. And critical evidence — electronic logging device data, dashcam footage, driver qualification files, maintenance records — sits with the trucking company and is subject to routine retention limits. The trucking company's rapid response team is often on the scene the same day, which is why a preservation letter needs to go out early.

Under the Texas Wrongful Death Act, the claim belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the person who died. They can file individually or together. Siblings cannot bring a wrongful death claim in Texas, whether biological or adopted.

Separately, the estate may bring a survival action for what the deceased person could have recovered themselves — medical bills, conscious pain and suffering before death, and funeral expenses. If the family members do not file within three months of the death, the executor or administrator of the estate is generally required to, unless the family has asked them not to.

Texas is not a strict-liability state for dog bites, so it depends. An owner is liable if they knew or should have known their dog had dangerous propensities — a prior bite, aggressive behavior, or a history of lunging — and failed to control it.

Even without that history, you may still have a claim in ordinary negligence: an owner who lets a dog roam off-leash in violation of a local ordinance, or who fails to secure a gate, can be liable for the resulting injuries. Prior complaints, animal control records, and neighbor accounts often decide these cases.

More than the fact that you fell. As a customer or other invited visitor, you generally have to show that a dangerous condition existed on the property, that the owner knew about it or should have discovered it through reasonable inspection, that they failed to make it safe or warn you, and that the condition caused your injury.

The knowledge element is where most of these claims are won or lost, and it is why timing matters so much. Surveillance video is often overwritten within days or weeks, and inspection and cleaning logs are the records that establish how long a hazard sat there before you encountered it.