A crash in Texas leaves you with more than a damaged car. It also starts a set of deadlines and rules, most of them specific to this state, that decide whether you collect anything at all. This guide sticks to what Texas law actually says, with the statute sections and dollar figures you can check yourself. The general mechanics of a lawsuit live on the national hub; below is the Texas version.
The two-year deadline to file
Texas gives you two years from the day of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. That comes from Section 16.003(a) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which sets a two-year limit for personal injury and for damage to your property, both measured from the day the cause of action accrues.1 Miss it, and a judge will almost certainly dismiss the case no matter how clear the other driver's fault was.
A few situations change the clock. A wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death rather than the date of the crash.1 If the injured person was a minor or under a legal disability when the crash happened, the deadline is generally paused until that disability ends. Courts read these exceptions narrowly, so treat two years as the number that governs and give a lawyer room to file well before it.
Property damage falls under the same statute, so a repair or diminished-value claim runs on the same two-year timeline as the injury claim.
Texas is an at-fault state, and the 51 percent rule
Texas is an at-fault, or tort, state. The driver who caused the crash, through their liability insurer, pays for the harm.2 What sets Texas apart is how it handles a crash where both drivers share the blame.
Under the state's proportionate responsibility law, you can recover even if you were partly at fault, but only up to a point. Section 33.001 bars you from recovering anything if your percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent.3 At 50 percent you can still collect; at 51 percent you recover nothing. Lawyers call this the 51 percent bar.
When you are allowed to recover, Section 33.012 reduces your award by your share of the blame.4 If a jury values your damages at $100,000 and assigns you 20 percent of the fault, you take home $80,000. Because a single percentage point can wipe out the entire claim, the fight over fault percentages is usually where a Texas car accident case is won or lost.
What you can recover
Texas does not cap compensatory damages in an ordinary car crash case. Your economic losses (medical bills, lost wages, future care, vehicle damage) and your noneconomic losses (pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, lost earning capacity) are not limited by statute. The medical-malpractice caps people sometimes hear about come from Chapter 74 and do not apply to vehicle collisions.
Punitive damages work differently. Texas calls them exemplary damages, and they are available only where the driver acted with malice or gross negligence, not ordinary carelessness. When they apply, Section 41.008 caps them at the greater of $200,000, or two times your economic damages plus noneconomic damages up to $750,000.5 There is a significant exception: that cap does not apply when the driver's conduct amounts to certain felonies, including intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter.5 That exception carries the most weight in drunk-driving cases, covered below.
The insurance you're dealing with
Every Texas driver has to carry liability coverage of at least 30/60/25: $30,000 for bodily injury per person, $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage. Section 601.072 of the Transportation Code sets those minimums.6 They have not changed since 2011, and they run out quickly in a serious-injury crash, which is why the coverages on your own policy matter so much.
Two of those sit in every Texas policy by default. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects you when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough to cover your injuries. Insurers must include it in every auto policy unless you reject it in writing.72 Personal injury protection, or PIP, pays medical costs and part of your lost income regardless of who was at fault, and it is also built into every policy unless you reject it in writing.2 Texas only requires insurers to offer up to $2,500 per person in PIP, so the built-in amount is modest.8 Neither coverage carries a Texas version of Florida's 14-day treatment rule, so you are not shut out for seeing a doctor a couple of weeks after the crash.
If your vehicle lost market value even after a solid repair, that loss is a separate property claim on the same two-year clock. Diminished value in Texas explains how it works.
Drunk-driving crashes
When a drunk driver hits you, two Texas rules widen what you can pursue. First, the exemplary-damages cap described above falls away when the conduct is a felony such as intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter, so there is no statutory ceiling on punitive damages in those cases.5
Second, the Dram Shop Act can place a bar, restaurant, or store on the hook alongside the driver. Section 2.02 of the Alcoholic Beverage Code lets you sue a seller that served alcohol to someone already obviously intoxicated to the point of being a clear danger, when that sale was a proximate cause of the crash.9 It is a demanding standard to meet. But when the driver had little or no insurance, an establishment's liability can be what makes any real recovery possible.
Proving fault, and the crash report
Because Texas decides these cases on percentages of fault, evidence carries the case. The police crash report (form CR-3) is the usual starting point, and it is held by the Texas Department of Transportation through its Crash Records Information System.10 You can read how to pull yours at crash reports for Texas.
Distracted driving is a frequent fault theme. Texas has banned reading, writing, or sending a text while driving statewide since 2017 under Section 545.4251 of the Transportation Code, and an officer can stop and ticket a driver for it on its own.11 Proof that the other driver was texting can shift the fault percentages that decide how much you recover.
Getting help
Two years is less time than it feels like once medical treatment and insurance adjusters are both in motion. If you are weighing a claim, a Texas attorney can preserve evidence and file suit before the deadline runs. You can start with the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.
This is general information about Texas law, not legal advice.
Sources
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Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003 (two-year limitations period; related wrongful-death and disability provisions in Chapter 16). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.16.htm
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Texas Department of Insurance, "Auto insurance guide" (Consumer Bulletin CB-020). https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb020.html
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Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001 (proportionate responsibility; recovery barred above 50 percent). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.33.htm
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Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.012 (recovery reduced by the claimant's percentage of responsibility). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.33.htm
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Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.008 (limitation on exemplary damages, and the felony exception). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.41.htm
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Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072 (minimum liability coverage amounts). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.601.htm
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Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101 (uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage required). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm
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Tex. Ins. Code §§ 1952.152, 1952.153 (PIP required unless rejected in writing; $2,500 maximum required amount). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm
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Tex. Alco. Bev. Code § 2.02 (Dram Shop Act, causes of action). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/AL/htm/AL.2.htm
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Texas Department of Transportation, Crash Records Information System (CRIS). https://cris.dot.state.tx.us/public/Purchase/
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Tex. Transp. Code § 545.4251 (use of portable wireless device for electronic messaging; offense). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.545.htm