Texas Drunk Driving Accident Lawyers

Yes. A criminal conviction punishes the driver; it does not pay your medical bills, replace your lost income, or compensate you for what the injury cost you.

Criminal restitution, where it is ordered at all, is typically limited to narrow out-of-pocket losses and is often uncollectable. The civil claim is the separate proceeding that addresses your damages.

Potentially. Texas allows exemplary damages where the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the harm resulted from fraud, malice, or gross negligence, and driving while intoxicated is among the clearer routes to a gross negligence finding.

Exemplary damages are subject to statutory caps and are awarded on top of, not instead of, compensatory damages.

Sometimes. Under the Texas Dram Shop Act, a licensed provider may be liable if at the time of service it was apparent the recipient was obviously intoxicated to the point of presenting a clear danger to themselves and others, and that intoxication caused the harm.

It is a demanding standard, and it turns on evidence that disappears quickly — tabs and receipts, point-of-sale records, security footage, and server statements. This is one of the strongest reasons to bring a lawyer in early.

Drivers who drive impaired are, unsurprisingly, often underinsured. Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is usually the answer, and a dram shop defendant may add another layer of coverage where the facts support it.

Usually not. The civil statute of limitations runs on its own schedule and does not pause for a criminal prosecution, which can take a year or more.

The two proceedings can and often do run in parallel. There are timing decisions to make — a conviction can be useful evidence — but waiting passively is how deadlines get missed.

Generally yes, against that driver's liability coverage. Whether knowingly riding with an impaired driver reduces your recovery is a comparative-fault question that turns on what you actually knew at the time.

It is a fact-specific issue and not a reason to assume you have no case.

Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, which means our fee is a percentage of what we recover for you and there is no fee at all if we do not recover anything.

The case review is free, and you are not obligated to hire us after it.

In most cases, two years from the date of the injury. Miss that window and the court will almost always dismiss the case regardless of its merits.

The exceptions matter in both directions: the clock is paused for a child until their 18th birthday, while a claim against a city, county, or state agency requires written notice far sooner — six months under state law, and as little as 45 or 90 days under some city charters. Because the deadline depends on who is at fault, it is worth confirming early.

You can still recover. Texas uses proportionate responsibility: as long as you are 50% or less at fault, you collect damages reduced by your share of the blame. At 51% you recover nothing.

That threshold is exactly why adjusters work so hard to pin blame on the injured person early. Fault is argued, not decided at the scene.