Personal injury laws in Texas or any other state in the US ensure that victims of negligence get adequate compensation for the injuries and mental stress they go through. A person needs to file a lawsuit against the concerned people responsible for the injury to get a compensation. Personal injury laws are complex, and you may need to find a lawyer in Texas to get successfully through the claim. The blog post discusses five essential facts you need to know before filing a personal injury claim in Texas.
1. Timelines or Deadlines
Texas has imposed statutory timelines within which a personal injury victim needs to file a lawsuit in the court. The deadlines may vary depending on the “type” of case a victim is filing, and generally referred as statute of limitations. The Texas Statute of Limitations allows a personal injury victim to file a case in the civil court system, within two years from the actual date of injury. Moreover, the claimant is expected to adhere to the deadlines as once the two year window is lapsed, the civil court system is more likely to deny hearing the plea.
2. Caps on Injury Damages
In Texas, personal injury awards are classified as either compensatory or punitive damages. Compensatory damages can have economic or non-economic implications whereas punitive damages aim to “punish” the defendant. Punitive damages can be twice the amount of compensatory damages, however, cannot be more than $750,000 or $200,000, whichever is greater. Statutory limitations on damages are only applicable to medical malpractice cases. If the medical malpractice resulted in wrongful death, the cap is indexed with the current inflation rate, which is a complex process. For understanding in detail, you can find a lawyer in Texas and learn more about the intricacies.
3. Shared Fault Rules
When filing a personal injury claim, the accused may argue that the plaintiff is also to be blamed for the injuries. If such a situation arises, wherein the plaintiff is equally responsible for the injury, the total amount of entitled compensation is likely to get affected. For dealing with such cases, Texas courts follow “modified comparative negligence rule”. The rule in the simplest terms says, the final amount of compensation a person is entitled to can be reduced by an amount equivalent to their (plaintiff) equivalent percentage of fault. Moreover, the law also dictates that if the plaintiff is found to be 50 percent responsible for their own injuries, they may not receive any compensation at all. The comparative negligence doctrine may turn an injury claim upside down, therefore, you should find a lawyer in Texas to represent the claim.
4. Amount of Liability
Disposing a personal injury claim involving the plaintiff and a single defendant is simple. The scenario changes when there are multiple defendants. To address such cases, Texas uses the doctrine of modified joint and several liability to decide. In such an arrangement, if individual defendants are 50 percent at-fault or less, they are responsible for paying only that share of damage. If the percentage exceeds the 50 percent mark, only they need to pay the entire amount of damages to the injured person and rest of the defendants with lesser fault-rates are not liable to pay anything to the plaintiff.
5. Claims Against the Texas Government
Injuries that involve the Texas government are more complex than other situations, and you are most likely to find a lawyer in Texas for such cases. The deadlines to file a lawsuit are different, unlike the two-year window in the case of other injuries and a person can’t simply go and sue the government. Cases in which there is a role of any government agency such as state owned buildings or police officers have pre-suit and post-suit notice requirements. The claim also needs to be filed within 6 months from the date of injury quoting exact details of the injury, that includes the time, place and what exactly led to the injury.
The Bottom Line
Many people try to go alone around filing and disposing a personal injury claim, which should not be the ideal case. When a person is already enduring the pain of an injury, the entire claim process can be mentally taxing. If a person is injured as a result of negligence, they need to contact a lawyer in Texas to get the justice and compensation they deserve.
