Common Questions about
Personal Injury Cases in Texas

Personal injury law covers situations where someone else's carelessness caused you harm. That includes car collisions and 18-wheeler crashes, falls on unsafe property, workplace accidents, dog bites, defective products, boating accidents, and more. Every case is different, so the best way to find out where yours fits is to tell us what happened.

You likely have a personal injury case if someone else's carelessness caused you an injury that cost you something real, like medical bills, missed work, or lasting pain.

Four things generally have to be true. Someone owed you a duty to act carefully. They didn't act carefully. That failure caused your injury. And the injury caused you a real loss.

You don't have to figure out whether all four apply. That's our job. If you're not sure whether what happened to you counts, call and describe it. We'll tell you honestly if we think you have a claim, and we'll tell you just as honestly if we don't.

For most Texas accident cases, the lawsuit must be filed before the second anniversary of the crash. Miss that deadline, called a statute of limitations, and you lose the right to recover anything, no matter how strong your case was.

There are important exceptions in both directions. Claims involving injured children work differently. Claims against a city, county, or public hospital have much shorter deadlines, sometimes as short as 90 days. Because the exceptions are easy to miss, it's worth calling early even if you think you have plenty of time.

Sometimes, but the deadline is short. You generally have to give the government entity written notice within six months, and the City of San Antonio requires written notice within 90 days.

Government entities in Texas have limited immunity from lawsuits, which the Texas Tort Claims Act waives in certain situations, including some vehicle accidents involving government employees and certain injuries caused by government property. The amount you can recover is capped, and the caps are lower than what's available in an ordinary claim.

If a government vehicle, employee, or property was involved in your injury, call immediately. This is the one category where waiting even a couple of months can cost you the case.

Nothing up front. Ali Law Group works on a contingency fee of 33.33% of the total settlement if your case resolves before a lawsuit is filed, and 40% if it resolves after. A contingency fee means our fee comes out of what we recover for you.

Case expenses are separate from the attorney fee and are reimbursed out of the recovery when your case resolves. If we lose, you still do not pay.

If we don't recover anything for you, you don't owe us.

Not always. For a minor accident with no injuries, plenty of people handle the claim themselves. It's still worth knowing what changes when you don't have a lawyer. The insurance company on the other side handles thousands of claims a year. You're handling one. They know what a claim like yours typically settles for, and you don't.

Look for four things: experience with cases like yours, a clear answer about who will actually handle your file day to day, a stated plan for how often you'll hear from them, and a fee agreement in writing.

Then pay attention to how the conversation feels. You may be working with this person for a year or longer, during a hard stretch of your life. If you feel rushed, pressured, or talked past in the first meeting, that's worth noting.

Yes. You have the right to change attorneys. It happens more often than people expect, usually because someone stopped hearing back from the firm they hired.

Switching doesn't normally mean paying two full fees out of pocket. The two firms typically sort out how the single contingency fee gets divided based on the work each one did. If you're unhappy with your current representation, call us, and we'll walk you through how a transfer would work in your situation.

In the first week, we notify the insurance companies that you're represented, which means adjuster calls stop coming to you and start coming to us. We start gathering the accident report, photos, and any video before it's overwritten or lost. We help you get medical care lined up if you haven't already. And we open a file for your bills and expenses so nothing gets lost.

You should hear from our office in the first few days with a clear picture of what happens next.

Most personal injury cases take several months to a year, and cases involving serious injuries or a lawsuit can take longer. The biggest factor is your medical recovery.

Many personal injury cases settle out of court, but if a fair settlement can't be reached, your case may go to trial. We handle every case as if it were going to trial and leave the final option to give you your day in court in your hands. If we believe it is in your best interest to settle, we will explain why. If we feel it's in your best interest to try the case in court, we will present you with a cost/benefit analysis explaining why trial is your best option. We have a fiduciary duty to you as our client, so we will always provide you with a detailed explanation of your individual circumstances to help you make an informed decision, and we will never force you to decide one way or another.

Yes, and most cases do settle before going to trial. Sometimes that happens through direct negotiation with the insurance company or through mediation, where a neutral third party helps both sides find a number they can live with. Settling is often faster and more predictable than going to trial.

A settlement is an agreement. Both sides decide on a number, and the case ends without a trial. A judgment is a decision handed down by a judge or jury after a trial. A settlement is negotiated. A judgment is imposed.

With evidence gathered early. That can mean the crash report, scene photos, damage to the vehicles, surveillance or dashcam video, witness statements, phone records in a distracted driving case, or maintenance and inspection records in a commercial truck case. In more complex cases, we bring in professionals who reconstruct how the crash happened.

The reason we push to start early is simple. Video gets recorded over. Skid marks fade. Vehicles get repaired or scrapped. The sooner we're involved, the more of that evidence still exists.

Usually a few weeks after you accept an offer, once the release is signed and any outstanding bills and liens are resolved.

Here's the sequence. You accept an offer, the insurance company sends a release for you to sign, then it issues the check. The funds go into a trust account. From there, any outstanding medical bills, liens, and case expenses get paid, along with the attorney fee. What's left is yours.

We go over that math with you in writing before anything is disbursed, so you know exactly what you're receiving and where every dollar went.

Yes. Pain does not always show up right after a crash. Adrenaline can dull the symptoms, and injuries such as concussions or internal bleeding may take time to become noticeable.

There is another reason not to put off medical care. A long gap between the accident and your first appointment gives the insurer room to question when the injury happened or whether it was related to the crash. Seeing a doctor early creates a medical record of your symptoms and, more importantly, helps make sure a serious injury is not overlooked.

You can still have a case. Concussions, whiplash, and soft tissue injuries often take days to show up.

See a doctor as soon as symptoms appear, tell them the symptoms started after the accident, and keep going to your appointments. Gaps in treatment are one of the first things an adjuster looks for.

First, find out whether the adjuster works for your insurance company or the other driver’s. Your own policy may require your cooperation, but you usually do not have the same obligation to provide a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer.

These calls can sound informal, but your answers may be reviewed later and compared with your medical records or other evidence. Even a quick response about how you feel could be taken out of context while your injuries are still developing. Before agreeing to be recorded, consider having a lawyer review the request and explain whether you need to participate.

Not before someone reviews it against what your treatment is actually going to cost. Early offers arrive before anyone knows the full extent of your injuries, and once you sign the release, the case is closed for good. If you need surgery six months later, you can't reopen it.

Be especially careful if the offer came quickly. Let us look at it before you sign anything. If the offer is fair, we'll tell you that.

Anything about the accident, your injuries, your treatment, or your case. Insurance companies do look, and posts get taken out of context easily. A photo of you smiling at a family dinner becomes an exhibit arguing you're not really in pain.

The safest approach while your case is open: don't post about the accident, don't post new photos of yourself, don't accept friend requests from people you don't know, and don't delete old posts, which can create its own problems.

Get medical attention and follow through on your treatment. Document everything, including photos, bills, and time missed from work. Notify law enforcement or the person responsible for the property where the accident happened. Be careful what you say to the other side's insurance company and what you post online. And talk to an attorney before you sign anything or accept any offer.

The insurance company does not usually pay your medical bills as you receive treatment. Depending on your situation, those bills may go through health insurance, medical payments coverage, or a letter of protection with the provider. We can help you understand which option may be available and how it could affect your claim.

There are usually options, even with no insurance and no money up front. Check your auto policy for medical payments coverage, which may cover certain treatment costs even when responsibility for the crash is disputed. Some providers will treat you under a letter of protection and wait to be paid from your recovery. In some situations, a provider files a lien against the case instead of billing you directly.

Don't skip treatment because you're worried about the cost. Call us, and we'll help you find a path to care.

Often, yes. If your health insurance paid for your accident-related treatment, the plan may have a right to be reimbursed out of your recovery. Hospitals can also file liens in some situations.

What matters is not only the settlement amount, but what remains after the liens are paid. We check what is being claimed, whether it is accurate, and whether the amount can be reduced.

You can still have a claim. Under Texas law, the person who hurt you takes you as they find you. Your claim may address any additional harm or symptoms caused by the accident, even when the affected condition existed beforehand.

Tell your doctors and your lawyer about any injuries or medical problems you had before the accident. Those records may come up during your case, and knowing about them early gives us a chance to understand what was already there and what changed after you were hurt.

You can still recover, as long as you weren't more than half responsible.

Texas uses what's called modified comparative negligence. A jury assigns each party a percentage of the fault. You may still receive damages when your share of responsibility does not exceed half, although the amount is lowered by that percentage. Once your portion of fault is greater than half, Texas law prevents a recovery.

Here's what that looks like in practice. If your damages are $100,000 and you're found 20% at fault, you recover $80,000. At 50% at fault, you'd recover $50,000. At 51%, you'd recover nothing.

This is exactly why insurance companies work so hard to pin extra blame on injured people, and why we take fault disputes seriously from day one. Don't assume you have no case because someone told you the accident was partly your fault. That's frequently the other side's opening position, not the final answer.

Depending on the facts, a Texas injury claim may account for treatment costs, missed income, reduced earning ability, pain, emotional distress, lasting limitations, scarring, and the effect on a spouse. Additional damages may be considered in certain cases. The losses available in your claim will depend on what happened and how the injury has affected your life.

• Medical expenses. Treatment you've already had, plus the care your doctors expect you'll need going forward.
• Lost wages and lost earning capacity. Income you've already missed, and the difference if your injury limits what you're able to earn in the future.
• Pain and suffering, and mental anguish. Damages may account for how the injury has affected you physically and emotionally.
• Physical impairment and disfigurement. For lasting loss of ability and for visible scarring or disfigurement.
• Loss of consortium. For the effect a serious injury has on your relationship with your spouse or family.
• Punitive damages. These are different from the rest. They're not meant to compensate you but to punish behavior that was especially reckless or egregious. Drunk driving is a common example. They're available in a narrow set of cases, and Texas places limits on them.

Which of these apply, and what they're worth, depends entirely on the facts. Anyone who quotes you a number over the phone before reviewing your medical records is guessing.