Before you call.

Most of the calls I get about car wrecks fall into a handful of patterns. Here is what I would tell you about each one if you reached me, including the ones where the honest answer is that a trial lawyer is not what you need. None of this is advice about your case; it is the law and the pattern, written down so you can read it before you call.

The other driver hit me, the bumper looks fine, and I hurt.

This is the most common call, and it is usually a case. The adjuster will say a small dent cannot cause a real injury. The physics says otherwise: the force that hurts a neck or a back is the change in speed your body absorbed, not the damage to the plastic. What decides it is whether you got checked, kept treating, and can show the injury on the right imaging.

Texas gives you two years from the crash to file suit under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003, and it reduces your recovery by any share of fault a jury puts on you, cutting it off entirely above fifty percent, under Section 33.001. The insurer knows both rules and will use the second one early.

Usually a case. The sooner the medical record starts, the stronger it is.

Read Delta-V and The S-Curve on why the bumper is the wrong thing to look at, then tell me about it.

The other driver had no insurance, and I do not think I have uninsured motorist coverage.

Check before you assume. Texas insurers must offer uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on every auto policy and can only leave it off if you rejected it in writing, so many people carry it without remembering. Personal injury protection works the same way. Ask your agent for the declarations page and the rejection form, if there is one.

The offer-and-rejection rule is Insurance Code Section 1952.101. If the coverage is there, the claim is against your own carrier, which will treat you like any other claimant, and under Brainard v. Trinity Universal it does not owe underinsured benefits until the other driver’s fault and your damages are established.

A case if the coverage exists and the injury is serious. Without coverage, and with an uninsured driver who has nothing, there is often no one to collect from, and I will tell you that.

Read Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist and the permission-to-settle article. A complaint about how your own carrier is handling the claim goes to the Texas Department of Insurance, consumer complaints.

It was a fender bender, nobody was hurt, and the insurer is lowballing the repair.

A property-damage-only claim is real, and it is frustrating, but it is not a case a trial lawyer can take on a contingency fee; the numbers do not support it, and the fee would eat the recovery.

Texas justice courts hear civil claims up to twenty thousand dollars under Government Code Section 27.031, without a lawyer, and the Department of Insurance takes complaints about claim handling.

Not a case for me. It is a case you can handle yourself.

File with the Texas Department of Insurance, consumer complaints if the carrier is stalling, and consider justice court for the difference. TexasLawHelp.org has plain-language guides for small claims.

The crash was more than two years ago.

I hear this more than you would think, usually from someone who tried to work with the adjuster in good faith and ran out the clock. It is the hardest call to take.

The two-year limitations period in Section 16.003 is close to absolute for an adult’s injury claim. A few situations pause it, a minor’s claim being the main one, and an uninsured motorist claim against your own carrier has its own clock, but the crash date is the date to assume.

Usually not a case, and I would rather tell you now than let you hope.

Read Limitations and, in Spanish, Camarón que se duerme. If a minor was in the car, or the claim is against your own policy, tell me the dates anyway.

I was partly at fault, or the police report blames me.

A police report is an officer’s opinion written at the scene, not a verdict. Reports get the direction of travel wrong, credit the driver who talked first, and record the injury as none because nobody was bleeding.

Under Section 33.001 a jury assigns percentages, and you recover as long as your share is fifty percent or less, reduced by that share. Reports are challenged all the time with photos, video, data from the cars, and witnesses.

Often still a case, depending on how the fault actually divides.

Read Comparative Fault and Failed to Control Speed. You can buy the crash report yourself from TxDOT crash report purchase (CR-3).