General Questions About My Case
Claims can be resolved as fast as 6-9 months, or they can take several years. It often depends on the complexity of your case and the severity of your injuries. There is no clear way to tell you how long it will take. The first step is to get you the treatment you need and get you better, as good as you can get, or know with some certainty what it will cost to get you better. We do not want to resolve your case too early for fear of you having problems later that we can no longer seek recovery for. After you are done receiving care, we must collect bills and records and make a demand for settlement. That process alone can take several months. If we can not resolve your case without filing suit, it can take at best year from the date of filing but most likely will take longer to work through the courts.
If the driver is insured, the money comes from the insurance company who has complete control over the claim. If a driver is insured in Texas, the least amount of coverage they have is $30,000 per person and $60,000.00 per accident. The next step up from there are generally $50,000 and $100,000. Most people will have the minimum and few will have $100,000 or more.
There is no cap on what we can technically ask for. But we will not make an outrageous claim on your behalf. We base demands and amounts on what the case supports.
Generally, the insurance company will require you to release your claims before they will pay out money on their policy for your injury. Most people in Texas do not have sufficient assets to collect a judgment against them above and beyond their insurance policy money. We perform an asset search of the at fault party to try and determine if they could pay a judgment in excess of the insurance policy.
Typically, the claims we can make in a personal injury case are for Medical Bills, Lost Wages, Loss of Earning Capacity, Pain and Suffering and Mental Anguish. We may also need to address your property damage if it is unresolved and make claims for the amount to replace or repair property, tow and storage fees, loss of use of the property (typically the cost of a rental for the time you are without a vehicle), and the diminished value of the vehicle (the difference of the value it was worth before being wrecked and what it is worth after being repaired). Attorneys fees are not recoverable in a personal injury case in Texas.