Practice Areas

Serious Injury.

The cases other firms turn away. Catastrophic, permanent, life-altering. That is the practice.

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Before you call

The situations I hear about most, answered honestly: which are cases I take, which are not, and where to go either way. Read it first → Or see where else to go.

Some injuries do not heal. They redraw the rest of a life, and the cases that follow take years, resources, and a lawyer who means to try them.

A catastrophic injury case is not measured only by what has happened. It is measured by what the injury will cost across a lifetime: the surgeries still to come, the care that will be needed, the career that ended, the future that changed shape. Proving that future is its own discipline, built on medicine, life-care planning, and economics, and it is what separates a settlement that runs out from one that lasts.

The two-year clock

Texas generally gives you two years from the date of the injury to file suit. It sounds like plenty of time, and it is not. Evidence fades, records are lost, and the sooner the case is being built by someone who knows what to preserve, the stronger it stays.

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003 sets a two-year limitations period for personal injury and for wrongful death. Some circumstances shorten the practical deadline, so the earliest possible date is the one to work from.

Comparative fault

Texas reduces a recovery by the injured person's share of fault and bars it entirely if that share exceeds fifty percent. This is why the defense works so hard to move blame onto the injured, and why a serious case is built from the start to meet and defeat that effort.

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 33.001 bars recovery when your percentage of responsibility is greater than fifty percent, and reduces it by your share below that line.

When an injury becomes a death

When a person does not survive, Texas law provides two paths. A wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents for their own losses. A survival claim belongs to the estate for what the person themselves endured before death. Together they hold a wrongdoer to account for the whole of what was taken.

From The Night Docket

The science and the craft of these cases, from my writing desk:

Dispatch: Rolled →
Rollovers were 28 percent of the people killed riding in passenger vehicles in 2023. Why a rollover puts the vehicle on trial: stability, the roof, and whether it kept the people inside.
Dispatch: Stranded →
Two people on foot were killed on Houston freeways the same Saturday night. A driver’s duty to a person on foot does not end where the sidewalk does, and what to do if your car dies on a freeway.
Dispatch: Thrown →
Of the vehicle occupants totally ejected in fatal crashes nationally in 2023, 82 percent were killed. The belt’s first job is keeping you inside; the car has that job too.
Dispatch: The Phone →
Texas tied distracted driving to 86,384 crashes and 299 deaths in 2025. The danger is the eyes, not the phone, and the phone that caused the crash is the record that proves it, if someone moves to preserve it.
Dispatch: The Belt →
Texas counted 965 people killed unbuckled in 2025. Why the belt keeps the body inside the survival space, and why since Nabors v. Romero a jury can score the missing belt against the recovery.
Dispatch: On Foot →
The state counted 772 people killed on foot in 2024. Why the ground is so often the fatal impact, and why the case turns on who owed the yield.
Fog →
Mild traumatic brain injury, and why a clean scan is not the same as no injury.
The Clot →
How immobilization after a serious injury creates its own deadly risk.
The Body at 84 →
The eggshell-plaintiff rule, and why a defendant takes the victim as they find them.
Mitigation →
The duty to limit harm, and how the defense turns it against the injured.
Common Questions
How long do I have to file a personal injury case in Texas?
Generally two years from the date of injury under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003, and the same two-year period applies to wrongful death. Some situations shorten it, so it is best to act well before the deadline.
Can I recover if I was partly at fault?
Often yes. Texas reduces recovery by your share of fault and bars it only if you are found more than fifty percent responsible. Partial fault is not the end of a claim, though the defense will try to exaggerate it.
Who can bring a wrongful death claim in Texas?
The surviving spouse, children, and parents can bring a wrongful death claim for their own losses. The estate can separately bring a survival claim for what the person endured before death. The two together address the full harm.

Tell me what happened.

Free consultation. No fees unless we win. Speak with me directly, not a screener.

Contact Orlando Rodriguez

(713) 239-2300