South Texas lawyer helping the injured and the injusticed

PERSONAL INJURY
When you’ve been injured by someone else’s carelessness, it’s important to
take some initial steps toward making sure your injury claim can be settled
fairly and as quickly as possible:

Write down everything you can remember about how the injury
occurred, including the names, addresses and phone numbers of
potential witnesses, police officers, insurance company representatives
( or company or workers’ compensation representatives if it was a work
injury)
Talk to a Texas personal injury lawyer before making any statements,
written or verbal, to insurance company adjusters or representatives
Let anyone you think may be responsible for the injury know right away
that you’re intending to file a claim against them
Take steps to protect any evidence you may need to prove your injury,
such as your totaled car, photographs of an accident or injury scene,
clothing you were wearing, damaged personal belongings, and so forth

How Do I Figure Out Who Is At Fault?
In most cases, in order to collect on an injury claim in Texas, you must prove
the person who caused the injury was “negligent” – careless and neglectful. In
Texas, you must prove:

The person who caused your injury owed you a duty not to injure you,
but didn’t live up to that duty
There was a connection between the other person’s duty to you and
your injury
You suffered damages
If you were careless, and your carelessness contributed to your injury,
the amount you can recover will be reduced in proportion to your
carelessness, under Texas comparative negligence law. If you were
more than 50 percent at fault for your injury, you won’t be able to
collect from the other person.

Texas’s joint and several liability rules also make any person who was more
than 50 percent responsible for your injury liable for the entire amount of your
damages regardless of each other person’s proportion of fault for your injury.

CONSUMER PRODUCT INJURY
If you’ve been injured using a consumer product, the manufacturer of the
product may be responsible under a “strict liability” legal theory if the product
was unreasonably dangerous. Under Texas law, you’d need to prove that:

The seller was in the business of selling the product that caused your
injury
The product was in a defective condition when sold, and unreasonably
dangerous
The product was intended to reach you without substantial change in
the condition in which it was sold
The product wasn’t fit for its intended use or a reasonably foreseeable
use at the time it left the manufacturer
The defect caused your injury
You suffered damages

What Is My Claim Worth?
Under Texas law, the person who injured you will be responsible for:

Past, current and future estimated medical expenses
Time lost from work, including time spent going to medical
appointments or therapy
Any property that was damaged, such as your vehicle
The cost of hiring someone to do household chores when you couldn’t
Any permanent disfigurement or disability
Your emotional distress, including anxiety, depression, and any
interference with your family relationships
Any other costs that were a direct result of your injury

A lawyer will know what type of expert witness to hire to best prove your
damages.

How Long Do I Have To File A Legal Claim?
In Texas, you only have two years to file a lawsuit against the person who
injured you. If your lawyer hasn’t been able to come to an agreement with any
involved insurance companies, you’ll definitely want to file a lawsuit before the
two-year statute of limitations runs out.

Alex R. Hernandez Jr. is licensed by the Texas Supreme Court in State and Federal Courts and a
member of the prestigious College of the State Bar. He is licensed in Southern and Western Districts of
Texas.

Not certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

He speaks Spanish fluently.

HABLA ESPANOL

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