Texas personal injury laws cover a wide variety of accidents and injuries. Personal injury cases can arise from many situations.
Below are answers to frequently asked questions about San Antonio, Texas personal injury claims.
What Are the Most Common Personal Injury Cases in Texas?
Most personal injury cases arise because of negligence. However, strict liability and intentional acts can also trigger personal injury claims.
Common personal injury cases include, but are not limited to:
- Car accidents, including crashes involving pedestrians, bicyclists, buses, rideshares, scooters, and taxis
- Motorcycle accidents
- Product liability for injuries caused by defective products
- Medical malpractice claims
- Child injuries and accidents
- Premises liability claims, including slip and fall accidents
- Nursing home abuse and neglect
- Workplace accidents and injuries
- Dog bites and animal attacks
- Commercial truck accidents
- Wrongful death claims
When you file a personal injury claim, you can demand compensation for your pain and suffering and other damages. The value of your claim depends on many factors.
How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth?
Determining the value of a personal injury claim can be complicated. Our lawyers analyze several factors to determine how they impact how much your case is worth.
Factors that impact the value of a personal injury case include:
- The type of injuries you sustain
- The severity of your injuries
- If you sustained a permanent disability, impairment, disfigurement, or scarring
- Whether you can return to work
- The duration of your recovery
- The impact your injuries have on your daily activities
- The type of medical treatment you receive
- Future decreases in earning potential
- The parties involved in the personal injury case
- The availability of insurance coverage for your claim
Our legal team will calculate the correct value for your case based on your damages. We work to get you that amount through settlement negotiations with the insurance company for the at-fault party. If necessary, we file a lawsuit and argue the case in court.
What Damages Can You Receive for a Personal Injury Claim?
The damages you can receive are divided into three categories. The first two categories are compensatory damages. They include economic and non-economic damages.
Examples of economic damages include:
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Out of pocket expenses
- Cost of long-term care
- Occupational, physical, and other rehabilitative therapies
- Decrease in future earning capacity
The value of your economic damages is the amount of the financial loss for the specific type of damage. For example, your medical bills are the total of all expenses related to your medical care.
Examples of non-economic damages include:
- Physical discomfort and agony
- Mental anguish
- Disfigurement and scarring
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Impairment and disability
- Decrease in quality of life
- Emotional distress
The value of non-economic damages is based on the extent to which the injuries and damages impact your life. A common way to value pain and suffering damages is the multiplier method.
The last category of damages for personal injury claims is non-compensatory damages. These damages include punitive damages.
Juries award punitive damages in Texas when the defendant’s conduct meets the definition of gross negligence, fraud, or malice. Punitive damages “punish” the at-fault party for their conduct that led to your injury.
Punitive damages are awarded in a small number of cases. However, our lawyers analyze each case to determine if the facts of the case support a claim for punitive damages.
Can You Receive Damages if You’re Partially to Blame for Causing Your Injury?
Texas uses a modified contributory fault standard for personal injury cases. If you are more than 50% at fault for the cause of your injury, you are barred from recovering compensation for damages.
However, if you are less than 51% to blame, you can receive compensation for some of your damages. The amount you receive depends on your level of fault.
For example, suppose your claim is worth $500,000. However, suppose a jury decides you are 10% to blame for causing the accident. Therefore, you would lose $50,000 of your compensation for your conduct that contributed to the cause of your injury.
What Is the Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Lawsuits in Texas?
The Texas statute of limitations for most personal injury cases based on negligence claims is two years from the date of injury. However, exceptions to the statute of limitations can lengthen or shorten the deadline. Also, different types of personal injury cases could have different deadlines.
If you do not file your claim before the deadline, you cannot sue the at-fault party to recover damages. Therefore, protect your legal rights by contacting our San Antonio personal injury attorneys as soon as possible after an injury or accident.
How Does a San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer Help Me After an Accident or Personal Injury?
Personal injury cases can be complicated. You may have to fight large corporations, insurance companies, trucking companies, government entities, and other parties with unlimited resources to fight your claim. Hiring a personal injury lawyer evens the playing field.
Personal injury attorneys help you with your injury claim by:
- Conducting independent investigations to determine how you were injured and who is responsible
- Gathering evidence that proves the legal elements of a claim, including duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages
- File insurance claims and handle all matters related to those claims
- Document damages to determine how much your case is worth
- Hire expert witnesses to assist with your case, including financial professionals, accident reconstructionists, medical specialists, engineers, and others
- Protect you against unfair allegations of blame and contributory fault
- Pursue all claims and sources of compensation
- Handle all aspects of your case from the beginning until the end
Minor personal injury cases might not require a lawyer’s help. However, most personal injury victims benefit from having an experienced personal injury attorney handle their case. Speaking with an attorney during a free consultation is worth the time because it could result in a larger settlement for your personal injury case.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer in San Antonio, TX?
Our attorneys’ fees are based on a contingency fee. With a contingency fee, you do not pay upfront to hire a lawyer. Instead, our attorneys’ fees are paid when we recover compensation for your case.
We deduct our fees from the settlement amount or jury award. Therefore, we are only paid for our legal services if we win your case.
Schedule a Free Consultation with Our San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer
Were you injured in an accident, or did another party negligently cause your injury? If so, our San Antonio personal injury attorneys are ready to fight for your right to fair compensation. Contact our San Antonio law firm or call George Salinas Injury Lawyers at (210) 225-0909 to schedule your free case evaluation to discuss your case.