Texas
Injury claims in Texas
Texas is an at-fault state for car crashes, allows employers to opt out of workers' compensation entirely, and applies a strict two-year deadline to most injury lawsuits.
Key deadlines
Exceptions exist for minors, for injuries that could not reasonably have been discovered right away, for claims against government bodies, and for medical claims. Only a licensed attorney who knows your facts can tell you what applies to you.
Car crashes in Texas
Texas is a traditional at-fault state. The driver responsible for the crash, and their insurer, are responsible for the harm.
Minimum liability coverage is $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage (Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072). Given what emergency care costs, minimum limits are often exhausted quickly, which is why underinsured motorist coverage matters more than people expect.
Check your policy for PIP. Texas insurers must include Personal Injury Protection unless you rejected it in writing (Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152). It pays medical expenses and a share of lost income no matter who caused the crash, and a lot of drivers have it without knowing.
Work injuries in Texas
Texas is the only state where workers' compensation is generally optional for private employers (Tex. Lab. Code § 406.002). An employer that opts out is a non-subscriber.
If your employer is a non-subscriber, you have no workers' compensation benefits, but you may sue the employer for negligence, and under Tex. Lab. Code § 406.033(a) the employer cannot argue that you were contributorily negligent, that you assumed the risk, or that a co-worker was at fault.
You still have to prove the employer was negligent (§ 406.033(d)). And a waiver signed before you were injured is void (§ 406.033(e)).
Whether your employer subscribes is a matter of public record with the Texas Department of Insurance, and it is the first thing to establish.
Fault sharing
Texas bars recovery only if you are found more than 50% responsible (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001). At exactly 50% you still recover, reduced by your share.
Medical claims
Medical liability claims carry a two-year deadline with no discovery rule (§ 74.251(a)), a ten-year outer limit, a 60-day pre-suit notice requirement (§ 74.051), and an expert report that must be served within 120 days of each defendant's answer or the claim is dismissed with prejudice (§ 74.351).
Section 74.251(a) appears to require claims for children under 12 to be filed by the child's 14th birthday. The Texas Supreme Court held the predecessor of that provision unconstitutional as applied to minors. Families should not assume a child's claim has expired based on the statutory text alone; ask an attorney.
Mass torts and Texas
Texas has large firefighter populations in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Fort Worth, extensive military and airport fire training sites, and industrial fire brigades along the Houston Ship Channel and the Beaumont and Port Arthur corridor, all relevant to the PFAS foam and turnout gear litigations. Texas is also a major agricultural state where paraquat was widely applied.
Note that Texas's two-year deadline is among the shorter ones in the country, so timing matters more here than in many states.
This page is not legal advice and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.