After an unexpected accident, we can suffer serious losses. We can sustain serious injuries that require extensive medical care, lose weeks or even months of wages, and struggle to cope with the physical and emotional impact of the accident. If someone else is responsible for your accident, however, you can hold him or her responsible for these damages through a personal injury lawsuit.
In these situations, the Brownsville personal injury attorney at the De La Garza Law Firm can help. Our firm can represent you in your claim against the at-fault party and secure the compensation you need to recover, providing you with the support you need from consultation to settlement.
Why Choose Us?
- Our attorney has significant trial and negotiation experience and is dedicated to achieving maximum compensation on behalf of our clients. We will not hesitate to take your case to trial in order to obtain a fair settlement.
- Our lawyer will handle your case from start to finish and will be available to respond to any questions or concerns that you may have. We will maintain a direct line of communication with you throughout your claim.
- Our firm operates on a contingency fee basis for maximum affordability. If we do not recover a settlement in your case, you will not owe legal fees. If your case is successful, we will take an agreed-upon percentage of your final award as payment for our services.
Do You Have a Valid Claim?
The term personal injury refers to any harm that occurs to a person’s body or mind. A personal injury claim relies on the presence of negligence. Negligence refers to a person’s failure to uphold a certain duty of care. The at-fault party involved in a personal injury case must breach his or her duty of care through a negligent act or failure to act, causing harm to the victim in the process.
At the De La Garza Law Firm, we handle multiple types of personal injury claims, including the following.
- Car accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Defective and dangerous products
- Premises liability
- Slip and fall accidents
- Rideshare accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Construction accidents
- Wrongful death
If you are injured due to someone else’s actions, you likely have grounds for a personal injury claim. Speak to an attorney at the De La Garza Law Firm as soon as possible following your accident to discuss your case eligibility and legal options.
Statute of Limitations to File a Personal Injury Claim
Civil lawsuits in Texas are subject to a rule known as the statute of limitations, which establishes filing deadlines for certain claims. For personal injury lawsuits, you have two years from the date of your injury to file your claim or the court will likely dismiss your case. This will prevent you from securing the compensation you need to recover from your injuries and losses.
There are certain exceptions to the statute of limitations. For example, if the person responsible for your injuries leaves the state of Texas after the accident occurs and before you can file a lawsuit, the court will not count his or her period of absence toward your filing window. The two-year clock will stop running when he or she leaves the state and will restart when he or she returns to Texas.
However, these exceptions are not common, and it is important to initiate your case as soon as possible following the accident. A Brownsville personal injury lawyer at the De La Garza Law Firm can evaluate your case, identify your appropriate deadline, and take the first steps toward filing your claim so you can preserve your right to compensation.
How Much Is Your Personal Injury Claim Worth?
Through a personal injury lawsuit, you can recover compensation for the economic and non-economic damages you sustained in the accident. Economic damages involve your tangible financial losses. On the other hand, non-economic damages refer to your intangible pain and suffering damages.
Some of the most common compensatory damages in personal injury cases include the following.
- Past and future medical expenses, such as surgeries, prescription medications, and doctor’s visits
- Lost wages you incurred while you were recovering from your injuries
- Loss of future earnings if you are unable to return to work due to your injuries
- Repairs and replacements for any property damage that you sustained in the accident
- Any long-term treatment that you require for your injuries, such as rehabilitation, physical therapy, and live-in care
- Modifications to your home or vehicle and other types of disability accommodations
- Physical pain and suffering, such as chronic pain, permanent disability, disfigurement, and scarring
- Emotional pain and suffering, such as mental anguish, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the loss of quality of life
In addition to economic and non-economic damages, you may also be eligible for a third category of compensation known as punitive damages. While the purpose of compensatory damages is to reimburse you for the losses you suffered in the accident, punitive damages are intended to punish the at-fault party for especially egregious behavior.
You may be eligible for punitive damages if you can prove that the at-fault party acted in malice or gross negligence, leading to your injuries. For example, you are injured by a driver who was operating his or her vehicle while heavily intoxicated, you could hold him or her liable for punitive damages versus a driver who was momentarily distracted and ran a stop sign.
Texas imposes damage caps, or limits, on certain forms of compensation. For punitive damages, you can recover either $200,000 or two times your economic damages plus the amount of non-economic damages up to $750,000. The court will award the higher amount in these cases.
How Can an Attorney Help with Your Case?
If you want to file a personal injury claim, you need an attorney on your side. A Brownsville personal injury lawyer from the De La Garza Law Firm can provide several benefits to your case, supporting you and your right to recovery from consultation to settlement. Some of the advantages of hiring a lawyer include the following.
- Leveraging Case Experience: Your lawyer will have significant experience representing cases similar to your own. As a result, he will have insight into the litigation process and will be able to guide you through each stage of your claim. Your lawyer will be able to provide you with advice, file the appropriate paperwork, and comply with insurance or court requirements to prevent any unnecessary errors or delays.
- Calculating Damages: You may not know the full extent of your damages after your accident. As a result, you could inadvertently accept an insufficient settlement offer or fail to hold the at-fault party accountable for all of your losses, which can lead to financial hardship later on. A personal injury attorney will be able to identify all possible avenues of compensation and accurately calculate your potential award. Your lawyer will also evaluate any offers you receive to ensure they are sufficient.
- Handling Insurance Processes: Many personal injury cases involve an insurance process. During an insurance claim, you will need to negotiate with a company representative and supply evidence to support your case. Navigating these discussions can be challenging—but a Texas personal injury lawyer can handle insurance negotiations on your behalf, advocating for your right to compensation during each stage of your claim.
- Conducting Investigations: For a personal injury claim to be successful, you will need to conduct an in-depth investigation to prove the other party’s liability and protect yourself from allegations of shared fault. A Texas personal injury attorney will have the tools, resources, and skills necessary to conduct a full-scale investigation into your accident and gather the evidence you need to prove your case.
- Representing You in Legal Proceedings: Many personal injury claims settle during insurance negotiations. In some cases, however, you may need to file a lawsuit in order to secure the compensation you deserve. A Texas personal injury lawyer can represent you in these proceedings and handle all aspects of the litigation process on your behalf, strengthening your claim and ensuring that you pursue your case to the furthest extent possible.
- Connecting You with Expert Witnesses: During your case, you may need to prove unclear liability, identify the cause of your accident, or prove that a professional’s actions deviated from the industry-accepted standard of care. You may also need to calculate complex long-term care costs or establish the scientific basis for a defective product claim. In these situations, you need access to experts who can testify on your behalf and strengthen your case. A personal injury lawyer will have cultivated a network of expert witnesses that he could enlist to testify in your case, providing you with the support you need.
Negligence Laws in Texas
To secure compensation in a Texas personal injury lawsuit, you will need to prove that the at-fault party’s negligence caused your accident and resulting injuries. Specifically, you and your attorney will need to gather enough evidence to prove four crucial elements.
- Duty of care: The at-fault party owed you a duty of care at the time of the accident, which will vary depending on the circumstances surrounding your case. For example, if you are injured in a car accident, the other driver owed you a duty to follow Texas traffic laws and operate his or her vehicle safely. Property owners have a duty to maintain safe premises, and medical providers have a duty to uphold their professional standard of care.
- Breach of duty: The at-fault party breached his or her duty of care through a negligent act or failure to act. Running a red light as a driver, ignoring maintenance requests as a property owner, or misdiagnosing a patient’s symptoms would be examples of breaches of duty.
- Causation: The at-fault party’s breach of duty caused your accident and your resulting injuries. For example, if a driver runs a red light and collides into your vehicle as you are traveling through an intersection, you can likely prove causation. You can use many types of evidence to establish causation, including medical records, witness testimony, police reports, and surveillance footage.
- Damages: You sustained damages in the accident that you can recover in your lawsuit. You can use multiple pieces of evidence to establish your right to damages, including paystubs, medical bills, repair invoices, journal entries, and correspondence.
Although you may be able to establish the at-fault party’s negligence, he or she may claim that you are partially responsible for the accident. According to Texas’s modified comparative fault laws, the court will reduce your award by the percentage of fault you allegedly share. If the court discovers that you are 51 percent or more at fault for the accident, the court will prevent you from recovering compensation.
For example, say that you are injured in an accident where a driver makes an unsafe lane change and collides into your vehicle as you are traveling in that lane. However, traffic footage shows that you are texting and driving at the time of the collision. The at-fault party claims that if you had been paying attention to the road, you would have seen the driver attempting to change lanes and the accident would not have occurred.
In response to these allegations, the court may assign 40 percent of the liability to you. If you are seeking $100,000 in damages, you will only receive $60,000 at the end of your case. If the court had found you 60 percent at fault, you would not receive any compensation. To protect your right to recovery and defend yourself against allegations of fault, it is important to seek help from a Brownsville personal injury lawyer as soon as possible.
Schedule a Free Consultation Today
If you have been injured due to someone else’s negligence, you have the right to file a personal injury lawsuit. In these situations, the De La Garza Law Firm can advocate aggressively for maximum compensation on your behalf. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation with a Brownsville personal injury attorney and strategize your next steps.
