You’ve got a police report, a sore neck, and a stack of phone numbers from people who all want something from you: the other driver’s insurer, your own insurer, maybe a tow yard. Sorting out who actually owes you what is the part we take off your plate.
George Salinas Injury Lawyers represents injured drivers across Austin in English or Spanish, and you don’t pay anything unless we win.
Free consultation, no fee unless we win, in English or Spanish.
Call (512) 851-1004 today to talk to an Austin car accident lawyer about your case.
Injured in a car accident?
Call Our Austin Car Accident Lawyer at (210) 225-0909.
Resources On This Page
- Do I Need a Lawyer for My Austin Car Accident Claim?
- What Our Austin Car Accident Lawyers Do for Your Case
- How Does Car Insurance Work After a Texas Accident?
- What If the Driver Who Hit Me Was Drunk?
- What Compensation Can You Recover After a Car Accident?
- What Does an Austin Car Accident Lawyer Cost?
- How Long Do You Have to File in Texas?
- What Evidence Strengthens a Car Accident Claim?
- Why Austin Families Choose George Salinas Injury Lawyers
- Ask George Salinas Injury Lawyers
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Schedule Your Free Consultation
Do I Need a Lawyer for My Austin Car Accident Claim?
If you were injured, missed work, or the other driver is disputing fault, a free conversation with a lawyer is worth having before you accept anything from an insurance company. Texas lets you recover damages as long as the other driver was at least 51% responsible for the crash, under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 33.001, but your own payout gets reduced by whatever percentage of fault is assigned to you.
That second part matters more than people expect. The insurance company isn’t trying to figure out the truth, it’s trying to shift as much blame onto you as it can, because every percentage point of fault it pins on you is a percentage point it doesn’t have to pay.
You only have to prove your case by a “preponderance of the evidence,” meaning it’s more likely than not that the other driver caused your harm, but you still have to prove it, and the adjuster on the other end already knows the law better than you do.
What Our Austin Car Accident Lawyers Do for Your Case
Building a strong claim takes more than a phone call to the other driver’s insurer. Here’s what we handle:
- Investigate the accident scene, take photos, and track down witnesses
- Pull and review the police report for errors or missing details
- Pursue a dram shop claim against a bar or restaurant that overserved a drunk driver
- Track down surveillance, dashcam, or traffic camera footage
- Bring in accident reconstruction specialists when fault is disputed
- Negotiate directly with insurance adjusters, instead of letting you negotiate alone
- Review your medical records to understand the full impact of your injuries
- File an uninsured or underinsured motorist claim when the at-fault driver can’t cover your losses
- Bring in medical, economic, and automotive experts when your case needs their testimony
How Does Car Insurance Work After a Texas Accident?
Texas requires every driver to carry at least 30/60/25 liability coverage: $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 total per accident, and $25,000 for property damage. That’s the minimum a policy has to pay when someone else’s insured driver causes a crash, not a number you’re guaranteed to receive.
The problem is that minimum coverage often isn’t enough. Estimates on how many Texas drivers are uninsured range from roughly 1 in 8 to 1 in 5, depending on the source and year, and even insured drivers often carry only the state minimum.
If the at-fault driver has too little insurance, or none at all, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy can fill the gap, covering medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering up to your own policy’s limits. Texas insurers have to offer this coverage. You only lose it if you turned it down in writing.
If a commercial truck hit you instead of a passenger car, the insurance picture changes. Federal rules can require carriers to hold as much as $750,000, or up to $5 million for certain hazardous cargo, in liability coverage, which is one reason trucking cases often involve far larger numbers than a typical two-car accident.
What If the Driver Who Hit Me Was Drunk?
You may have more than one source of compensation. Beyond the drunk driver’s own insurance, Texas dram shop law can make a bar, restaurant, or club liable if it kept serving someone who was visibly intoxicated and that person then caused your crash.
Our Austin drunk driving accident attorneys investigate where the at-fault driver had been before the crash specifically to find out whether this applies to your case.
What Compensation Can You Recover After a Car Accident?
Texas law aims to make you “whole” after a crash, which means compensation covers both your financial losses and the parts of your life that don’t come with a receipt. Economic damages typically include:
- Past and future medical bills
- Lost wages, including time spent in recovery or at appointments
- Loss of future earning capacity if your injuries affect your ability to work
- Rehabilitation, childcare, and transportation costs tied to your recovery
Non-economic damages, which often make up more than half the value of a serious claim, cover pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, and loss of companionship with the people you love.
In rare cases involving gross negligence, malice, or fraud, you may also be able to seek punitive damages, though Texas requires “clear and convincing evidence” to support that kind of claim, a higher bar than an ordinary injury case.
You should never accept a settlement before you understand the full extent of your injuries. Once you sign, you can’t go back and ask for more if it turns out your recovery takes longer, or costs more, than you expected.
What Does an Austin Car Accident Lawyer Cost?
Nothing upfront. We work on a contingency fee, typically 30% to 40% of your settlement, and you only pay if we win your case. If we lose, you owe us nothing in attorney’s fees. Studies have repeatedly shown that injured people who hire a lawyer end up with larger net recoveries even after fees come out, which is one reason there’s little real downside to getting a free consultation before you decide anything.
How Long Do You Have to File in Texas?
Texas generally gives you two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. Miss that window and you typically lose the right to recover at all, no matter how strong your case would have been.
If your loved one died in the crash, the surviving spouse, children, or parents can file a wrongful death claim, generally within that same two year window from the date of death. If none of them files within the first three months, the estate’s executor can step in and file on the family’s behalf. Our Austin wrongful death lawyers handle these cases separately, with the care they require.
What Evidence Strengthens a Car Accident Claim?
The more documentation you have, the harder it is for an insurance company to dispute what happened. Useful evidence includes:
- Police reports and witness statements
- Medical records and photos of your injuries
- Photos of the accident scene, vehicle damage, and road conditions
- Surveillance, dashcam, or traffic camera footage
- Cell phone and texting records, when distraction is suspected
- Event data recorder data pulled from the at-fault vehicle, showing speed and braking before impact
- Your own pain journal and employment records, to document lost wages and ongoing impact
Even evidence that wouldn’t be admissible at trial, like an informal police narrative, can still help during settlement negotiations.
Why Austin Families Choose George Salinas Injury Lawyers
We prepare every case for trial from Day 1 because it’s the only way to ensure insurance companies take you seriously.
- The Insider’s Advantage: Many of our attorneys previously represented insurance companies. We know exactly how carriers evaluate claims and how they attempt to minimize payouts. We identify their strategies before they do, building a stronger case from the start.
- Proven Results: With over 110 years of combined legal experience and over $100 million recovered for our clients, we don’t accept lowball offers; we build a detailed damage model based on expert testimony.
- Trial-Ready Authority: George Salinas is an ABOTA member—an elite, invitation-only group requiring extensive jury trial experience.
We know the local Austin terrain, from Travis County court procedures to the city’s construction boom. You won’t be handed off to a call center; you work directly with a team available 24/7 to fight for your recovery.
Meet Our Top-Rated Austin Car Accident Attorneys
Ask George Salinas Injury Lawyers
Q: Can I make a claim if I was hit by an Uber or Lyft driver in Austin?
A: Yes. Rideshare accidents involve a different insurance structure depending on whether the driver was logged into the app, en route to a pickup, or carrying a passenger at the time. Our Austin Uber accident lawyers and Austin Lyft accident lawyers evaluate which coverage applies to your specific situation.
Q: What if the other driver left the scene before I got their information?
A: A hit-and-run doesn’t end your options. Your own uninsured motorist coverage typically applies in hit-and-run cases the same way it would if the other driver simply had no insurance, and a police report filed promptly helps preserve that claim.
Q: My car was totaled. What happens next?
A: The at-fault driver’s insurer should pay you the vehicle’s actual cash value, but that number is often negotiable, and you don’t have to accept the first offer. If you disagree with the valuation, you can request the comparable sales the insurer used and push back with your own.
Q: There were multiple cars involved in my accident. How does fault get decided?
A: Texas uses comparative fault, meaning each driver involved can be assigned a percentage of responsibility. An attorney’s job is to make sure the evidence supports the smallest fair share of blame on you and the largest fair share on everyone else who contributed to the crash.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to prove my case “beyond a reasonable doubt”?
No. That’s the standard for criminal cases, like a DUI conviction. A car accident claim only requires proof “by a preponderance of the evidence,” meaning it’s more likely than not that the other driver’s negligence caused your injuries.
What if I was partly at fault for the accident?
You can still recover compensation as long as you were 50% or less at fault, though your payout is reduced by your percentage of responsibility. If you’re found more than 50% at fault, Texas law bars you from recovering anything.
Should I accept the insurance company’s first settlement offer?
Not until you understand the full extent of your injuries and costs. Early offers are usually calculated before your medical treatment is finished, and once you accept and sign, you can’t come back later for more.
Will my car accident case go to trial?
Most car accident claims settle before trial, but we prepare every case as though it’s headed to a jury. That preparation is often exactly what convinces an insurance company to offer a fair settlement instead of risking a verdict.
Schedule Your Free Consultation
You don’t have to figure out the value of your claim on your own, and you don’t have to take the insurance company’s word for what it’s worth. Call George Salinas Injury Lawyers at (512) 851-1004 for a free consultation with an Austin car accident lawyer, in English or Spanish. There’s no fee unless we win.