Car Accident Attorney in Houston, Texas

In many cases, compensation for pain and suffering is the largest component of a car accident case. It’s helpful to know the legal definition of pain and suffering.

In general, “pain and suffering” refers to non-economic damages associated with a serious personal injury. It can refer to not only physical pain but also to emotional distress.

Determining how much you should be compensated for pain and suffering is highly personal to your case. Two people may experience the same injury, but the effect of that injury on their lives can be vastly different.

For example, if you are a new mother, a back injury may prevent you from picking up your child. If you are a runner, it can prevent you from doing the thing you enjoy. Because pain and suffering is highly personal, it’s important to keep a journal and record each day how the injury has affected you. That journal could be valuable evidence in your case.

Here are some factors in determining how much compensation you deserve for pain and suffering:

• The severity of your injury (ex. Ejected from a car)
• The medical treatment and rehabilitation you were forced to endure
• How long it took you to recover from your injury
• The long-term effects of the injury on your life, if you have suffered a permanent injury

The sooner you contact our attorneys after a car crash, the sooner we can go to work documenting your claim and helping you recover the maximum compensation.

If you were injured in a car accident that occurred on the job, you may be entitled to compensation from both workers’ compensation and the insurance company of the at-fault driver. While you can’t collect twice for the same damages, you can maximize the compensation you receive for the damages you have suffered.

If you were injured in a work-related motor vehicle accident, you are covered by Texas workers’ compensation regardless of who was at fault. That means you could recover workers’ compensation benefits even if you did something wrong to cause the crash.

“Work-related” generally means that you were driving on the job. In most cases, the accident would not be covered by workers’ compensation if it happened while you were commuting to or from work or running a personal errand during lunch.

Workers’ compensation covers medical bills and two-thirds of lost wages up to certain limits. It may also provide benefits if you suffer a permanent injury.

In Texas, you may still be able to recover compensation for an accident even if you were partly responsible for causing the crash. However, your compensation in a car accident case will be reduced by any percentage you were at fault. This area of law is known as comparative negligence. However, you can still recover compensation as long as your fault was not 51 percent or higher.

Since fault is such an important part of your accident case, it is important not to discuss fault with the other driver, the police officer, or any insurance company (yours or other driver’s) before you have discussed your case with an experienced personal injury attorney. You could make admissions that could reduce the amount of compensation you receive for damages such as medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.zzzzzzz

Here is an example. Suppose you are broadsided in an intersection by another driver who ran a stop sign. The other driver was clearly at fault. Unfortunately, a percentage of fault could be assigned to you if you made any of the following admissions:

• You were speeding.
• You failed to look both ways before entering the intersection.
• You were sending or reading a text.
• You were drinking.

Insurance company adjusters are experienced at getting people to make admissions that will reduce the value of their claim. Once you hire our lawyers to represent you, we will speak to the insurance company on your behalf.

Our Houston auto injury attorneys will carefully review the facts of your case and protect your interests at every phase of your case, including determining comparative negligence.

When you are injured in an accident, the insurance company of the at-fault driver will not pay damages such as medical bills and lost wages as you go. Rather, the company will wait until your case is resolved.

This could be several months and in some cases more than a year after the accident happened. As a result, you typically submit health care and disability bills to a secondary payer such as private or group medical insurance, short-term disability or Medicaid. After your case is resolved, the secondary payer may recover payments from your insurance settlement or award through a process known as subrogation.

Subrogation could be an important issue in your accident case, as it determines how much money is left in your pocket after your case is resolved. For this reason, it is important to have an attorney represent you in the subrogation process.

As experienced car accident lawyers, our job goes beyond resolving your case by negotiation or jury verdict. Our lawyers will:

• Evaluate all potential secondary payers to determine which is the most advantageous.
• Negotiate with the secondary payer so you keep as much money as possible. In many cases, secondary payers will accept less than 100 percent.
• Negotiate with the insurance company of the at-fault driver to maximize your recovery. For example, the secondary payer of medical bills may have provided services at a discount. We will seek the full cost of those services.
• Help guide you through difficult situations. Sometimes car accident cases can become complicated. Injuries involving a pedestrian, inclement weather, or accidents at an airport can be the difference in a minor and serious car accident case.

The other driver failed to carry insurance or the insurance isn’t enough. Now what?

You may have options if you are injured and the at-fault party has no insurance or not enough insurance coverage. One example is a Letter of Protection.

Texas has financial responsibility laws that requires all drivers to carry a minimum amount of liability insurance to help cover losses due to their own fault or negligence. In 2011, the minimum amount of liability insurance coverage for bodily injury was increased to $30,000 for one person (up from $25,000).

Often, $25,000 or $30,000 simply isn’t enough coverage to fully compensate persons injured through no fault of their own. Even with mandatory financial responsibility laws, many drivers in Texas simply do not carry insurance at all.

Your attorney can and should investigate the at-fault party’s personal assets to determine the possibility of recovery beyond liability insurance. However, in most cases, people who lack insurance coverage also lack the assets necessary to pay a judgment.

The good news is that there may be other options for recovering compensation. Such as sending a demand letter.

Texas also requires your automobile insurance company to offer you Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage, known as UM/UIM coverage. This law helps protect drivers from devastating consequences of being injured at the hands of an uninsured or underinsured motorist.

Because the law requires your insurance company to offer UM/UIM coverage, you can only reject it in writing. If your agent didn’t obtain your written rejection, then you may have coverage equal to the limits you carry for your own liability protection.

Your insurance company will have certain requirements of you before you can rely on your UM/UIM coverage. Those requirements should be outlined in your policy. Your insurance company may try to take offsets or claim credits against the amount of UM/UIM coverage it should pay you – some of which may not be allowed in Texas.

It is important to let your attorney investigate all available sources of recovery – beginning with liability and UM/UIM coverage – to compensate you for your injuries.

No. Oftentimes an adjuster will attempt to pressure an injured person into giving a statement after a car accident. In Texas, liability is not established on the basis of what information the other driver’s insurance adjuster attempts to secure from you.

You are not required to provide a statement to the other driver’s insurance company’s representative. Remember, if you have serious injury, the adjuster’s job is to try to save the insurance company’s money – not protect your rights!

Rather than try to negotiate with a trained adjuster regarding your serious injuries, you should seek the advice of a qualified personal injury trial lawyer.

Following an auto accident, many people do not know where to start to obtain a copy of the accident report. The first thing you should do is determine which law enforcement agency investigated the car accident.

Usually, the investigating officer will give you a slip of paper indicating their department name and the officer’s name. If the car accident investigator did not give you the information, you should figure out where the accident happened. Generally, a car accident will be investigated by one of three agencies – the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the County Sheriff or a city police officer.

If the accident happened;

• In the city limits of an incorporated city, you can contact the police department of that city and ask about getting a copy of your car accident report.
• Outside the city limits then the County Sheriff probably investigated the matter and a call to the accident division of that department will probably work.
• If the sheriff did not investigate the crash, you should try the DPS office nearest the accident scene.

Some agencies allow you to order an accident report online while others might require a written request be sent in the mail. In all cases, the cost of an accident report is only a few dollars.

Car accident reports issued by law enforcement agencies can be powerful evidence when negotiating with insurance companies about your injuries. The opinions of the investigating officer will be shown in the report regarding the cause of the accident and fault of the parties involved.

However, it is important to remember that the police do not have final say on who is financially responsible for an accident. That is a civil matter and is ultimately up to the courts if the parties cannot reach a settlement.

You do not need to obtain a copy of an accident report yourself before you seek the advice of a personal injury attorney. We always obtain the report for our clients.

If you have any questions about car accident reports or your claim, contact us by email or call us. We always provide a free consultation.

If you didn’t cause the accident, you are not liable for any losses resulting from it. If the other driver was at fault, you could file an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit against the driver to recoup the losses you suffered in the accident. 

It is also worth noting that Texas is a modified comparative negligence state. That means that, as long as you are found to be less than 50 percent at fault for an accident, you can still recover compensation for your losses. However, the amount you can recover would be reduced based on your percentage of fault. For example, if you are found to be 30% at fault for an accident, you can still recover up to 70% of the total value of your losses. 

If you were injured due to another driver’s negligence, you should waste no time filing a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance provider. You could endanger your claim if you wait too long.

If settlement negotiations fail, then you might need to pursue a personal injury lawsuit to recover the money you’re owed. Texas has a two-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits. If you fail to take legal action against the at-fault party within that time window, the courts will likely dismiss your case, and you would lose the chance to obtain financial relief for your losses.

You should contact an attorney right away if you’ve been injured in a car crash. If you are seriously injured, you will likely be preoccupied with your recovery. Depending on your prognosis, it may be challenging for you to devote the necessary time and effort to bring a claim.

A seasoned car accident lawyer can begin working on your claim while you focus on recovering from your injuries. The sooner you secure legal representation, the sooner your attorney can get to work gathering the evidence to prove your case. The longer you delay, the harder it will be for your lawyer to recover this evidence.

Some injury victims express concern about the cost of hiring an attorney. If you are facing steep medical bills and aren’t able to earn an income while you recover, paying a lawyer to represent you might seem like something you cannot afford.

However, this is likely not the case. First, the cost of not hiring an attorney is often higher than the cost of hiring one. Not only can a lawyer help you make informed decisions during a difficult and confusing process, but they can also handle settlement negotiations with the insurance company on your behalf.

If you try to go it alone, you risk making a weak argument that allows the insurance company to deny liability entirely or forces you to walk away with a smaller amount than you deserve. A competent car accident attorney can help you build a strong case that stands up to scrutiny, significantly improving your chances of recovering fair compensation.

At Fleming Law Personal Injury Attorneys, we represent clients on a contingency-fee-basis. That means you won’t owe us anything unless and until we secure compensation for you. Because you won’t have to pay any upfront legal fees, hiring an attorney will not add to your financial burden.

If someone else caused the car accident that injured you, you could be entitled to damages to compensate you for losses like:

• Medical expenses, including hospital stays, physical therapy, prescription medications, surgery costs, in-home care, and doctor’s visits
• Lost income, if you are unable to return to work while you are injured
• Future lost income if the accident leaves you temporarily or permanently disabled and unable to perform your typical vocational duties
• Pain and suffering, emotional distress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and loss of enjoyment of life
• Property damage, such as car repairs or vehicle replacement
• Exemplary or punitive damages in exceptional cases of recklessness

If your vehicle was damaged in the car accident, you might need to get a rental car so you can get to work, run errands, and do other daily activities while your vehicle is being repaired. If the accident wasn’t your fault, you could file a claim against the at-fault driver’s insurance company to obtain coverage for rental car expenses.

You could also turn to your own insurance policy if you pay for rental car reimbursement coverage. You can recoup the cost of a rental car through a rental car policy regardless of who was at fault for the accident. The insurance company can offer you recommendations regarding body shops and rental car companies in the area. Still, you should also do your own research as well, since insurance companies will sometimes recommend auto repair shops with which they have business relationships in order to save money.