If you were hurt in Texas because of someone else’s negligence, the framework for Texas personal injury claims comes down to a few hard rules: you have two years from the date of injury to file suit, your own share of fault reduces what you can collect and wipes it out entirely if you cross 51 percent, and what finally lands in your pocket depends on damages caps, medical liens, and how the IRS treats each piece of your recovery. Understanding these rules before you negotiate or sign anything is the difference between a settlement that makes you whole and one that disappears into other people’s pockets.
The Two-Year Deadline to File
Texas law gives you two years from the date the injury occurred to file a personal injury lawsuit. Wrongful death claims use the same two-year window, but the clock starts on the date of death rather than the date of the underlying injury.1State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 16.003 – Two-Year Limitations Period Miss the deadline by a single day and the court dismisses your case. No amount of evidence or injury severity overrides it.
The clock can pause in narrow situations. If the injured person is younger than 18 or is mentally incapacitated when the injury happens, the two-year period does not begin until that disability ends. For a minor, the two years start running on their 18th birthday. For someone incapacitated, they start once competency is restored.2State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 16.001 – Effect of Disability A parent or guardian can still file on a child’s behalf before that. One catch worth knowing: a disability that develops after the injury does not pause anything. The incapacity has to exist at the moment the cause of action first arises.
How Fault Reduces or Eliminates Your Recovery
Texas follows a rule called proportionate responsibility. A jury assigns a percentage of fault to every party involved, and your award gets cut by whatever percentage of blame is placed on you.3State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 33.003 – Determination of Percentage of Responsibility A $100,000 verdict with a finding that you were 20 percent responsible pays out $80,000.4State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 33.012 – Amount of Recovery
The harder rule is the 51 percent bar. At exactly 50 percent fault, you still collect (minus that reduction). At 51 percent, you get nothing.5State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 33.001 – Proportionate Responsibility Many Texas cases are won or lost right on that threshold. Defense attorneys know it, and they will push hard to nudge your percentage over the line. Thorough documentation of the other side’s negligence is how you keep it from happening.
Damages You Can Recover
Economic Damages
Economic damages cover losses you can attach a dollar figure to, which Texas law defines as compensation for real pecuniary harm.6State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 41.001 – Definitions The common categories are:
- Medical expenses, including hospital stays, surgeries, physical therapy, prescriptions, and future treatment your doctors say you will need.
- Lost wages, including sick days and vacation time you had to use.
- Reduced earning capacity, which covers the gap between what you used to earn and what you can earn now if your injury permanently limits your work.
- Out-of-pocket costs such as medical equipment, home modifications, and transportation to appointments.
Future economic damages usually require expert testimony. Economists and vocational experts calculate lifetime lost earnings, and life care planners project the ongoing cost of medical treatment. Juries need concrete numbers, not estimates.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages compensate you for harm that has no receipt attached to it. The statute names physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, loss of consortium, loss of companionship, loss of enjoyment of life, and injury to reputation.6State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 41.001 – Definitions In standard personal injury cases, Texas does not cap non-economic damages. Juries have wide discretion based on severity, duration, and how much the injury changed your life.
Medical malpractice is the exception. Non-economic damages in health care liability claims are capped at $250,000 per physician or health care provider. If a hospital is also liable, a separate $250,000 cap applies to each institution, with a combined ceiling of $500,000 across all institutions.7State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 74.301 – Limitation on Noneconomic Damages Those caps make medical malpractice fundamentally different from other injury claims in what you can realistically recover.
When Exemplary Damages Apply
Exemplary damages (also called punitive damages) punish a defendant rather than compensate you. To get them, you have to prove by clear and convincing evidence that your harm came from fraud, malice, or gross negligence.8State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 41.003 – Standards for Recovery of Exemplary Damages That is a higher standard than the ordinary preponderance-of-the-evidence rule. Ordinary negligence, bad faith, and deceptive trade practices do not qualify.
Even when you clear that bar, Texas caps the amount. Exemplary damages cannot exceed the greater of:
- $200,000, or
- Two times your economic damages, plus up to $750,000 of your non-economic damages.
On $300,000 in economic damages and $400,000 in non-economic damages, the ceiling would be $600,000 plus $400,000, or $1,000,000.9State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 41.008 – Limitation on Amount of Recovery Exemplary damages are rare in practice. Most Texas personal injury cases resolve with compensatory damages only.
If the Injury Caused Death
When an injury kills someone, Texas recognizes two separate claims that usually get filed together. They compensate different losses and belong to different parties.
A wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving family. Only the spouse, children, and parents of the deceased may bring it, and any one of them can file on behalf of all eligible beneficiaries.10State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies 71.004 – Who May Bring the Action If none of them file within three calendar months of the death, the executor or administrator of the estate has to step in. Recoverable damages include pecuniary loss, mental anguish, loss of companionship and society, loss of inheritance, and loss of services. A wrongful death claim does not include damages for the deceased person’s own pain and suffering, physical impairment, or disfigurement.11State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Chapter 71 – Wrongful Death and Survival
A survival action preserves the personal injury claim the deceased person would have had if they had lived. It belongs to the estate and recovers what the injured person went through before death: conscious pain and suffering, medical expenses between injury and death, and lost wages during that period.11State of Texas. Texas Code Civil Practice and Remedies Chapter 71 – Wrongful Death and Survival Proceeds go to the estate rather than directly to family, which affects creditors, taxes, and how the money passes under the deceased person’s will.
Filing the Lawsuit
If negotiations stall, litigation begins with an Original Petition filed in a Texas district court, generally in the county where the incident happened or where the defendant lives. The combined statutory filing fees for a new civil case in district court total $350.12Supreme Court of Texas. District Court Civil Filing Fees Some counties tack on small administrative surcharges.
Once the clerk processes the petition, the court issues a citation. A constable or private process server delivers it, along with a copy of the petition, to the defendant. The defendant then has until 10:00 a.m. on the Monday following the expiration of 20 days after service to file a written answer. If they miss that deadline, you may be eligible for a default judgment on the relief you asked for in the petition.13South Texas College of Law Houston. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 99 – Issuance and Form of Citation
What Comes Out of Your Settlement
One of the more unpleasant realities of personal injury cases: a chunk of your settlement often belongs to someone else before you touch it. Several parties can hold legal claims against your recovery.
Hospital Liens
Texas hospitals can put a lien on your personal injury claim for accident-related treatment. The lien is limited to the lesser of the hospital’s charges for the first 100 days of your hospitalization or 50 percent of what you recover through settlement or judgment.14State of Texas. Texas Property Code Chapter 55 – Hospital Liens Emergency physicians can add their charges for the first seven days to the hospital’s lien. These liens get paid before you receive your share, though attorney’s fees usually come out first.
Health Insurance Subrogation
If your health insurer paid for treatment tied to the injury, they will likely demand reimbursement out of your settlement. Plans governed by ERISA (most employer-sponsored plans) have particularly strong recovery rights that generally override state protections. Many ERISA plans include language making their claim a first-priority lien on your recovery. Negotiating those amounts down is possible, but it requires reading the specific plan language and understanding the federal rules that apply.
Medicare and Medicaid
If Medicare paid for injury-related treatment, federal law requires that Medicare be reimbursed from your settlement. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services runs a recovery portal where your attorney can pull the conditional payment amount, dispute charges, and submit settlement information.15Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Portal Distributing settlement funds without properly handling Medicare’s lien creates personal liability for both the attorney and the plaintiff. Medicaid has similar recovery rights under state law. These claims have to be resolved before a case closes.
Taxes on Your Settlement
The IRS does not treat every dollar of your settlement the same, and getting the allocation wrong can cost you the following April. The general rule: damages you receive for physical injuries or physical sickness are excluded from taxable income. That exclusion covers the full amount, including any portion allocated to lost wages, as long as the underlying claim is rooted in a physical injury.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness
The exclusion has hard edges. Damages for emotional distress that is not tied to a physical injury are fully taxable as ordinary income. The narrow exception is emotional distress damages that reimburse medical expenses you actually paid to treat the distress and did not previously deduct.17Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments Punitive damages are always taxable, whether or not the case involved a physical injury.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness
How the settlement agreement allocates money between these categories matters. A lump-sum agreement with no breakdown gives the IRS room to argue that portions are taxable. Spelling out in the settlement documents how much goes to physical injury compensation, how much to emotional distress, and how much to punitive damages protects you when the tax bill arrives. Those paperwork decisions at settlement directly control how much of the money you keep.