Houston Personal Injury Lawyer

If you’ve been injured Houston, you’ll only have a limited amount of time to demand the money you deserve. If you wait too long, you risk not getting any money at all. However, navigating a contested and complex injury claim is the last thing you have the time or energy for right now. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Our team will handle all aspects of your injury claim. We’ll investigate. We’ll research. We’ll interview and analyze. We’ll negotiate and, if necessary, litigate. This gives you the time you need to focus on what really matters – recovering from your physical and emotional wounds.

Here’s the thing – despite what they say in commercials on TV, insurance companies are not really on your side. They’re all about their bottom line. So, after an accident, adjusters will work feverishly to deny claims and limit payouts. That’s why they might contact you shortly after you get hurt to discuss a settlement. They know that they’re much more likely to get away with paying you less than you deserve (or nothing!) if they can resolve your case before you can get a lawyer involved.

The fact that insurance companies don’t want you to call a personal injury attorney is exactly why you should. Even better, call Brian White & Associates and benefit from attorneys who have years of experience dealing with insurance companies from every angle. Our attorneys have spent years defending and fighting insurers in Houston, so we’re uniquely qualified to help you hold their feet to the fire.

After an accident, no one will want to accept responsibility. Most parties will refuse to acknowledge they played a role. Many will point fingers and try to cast blame elsewhere. They’ll probably even blame you. If these tactics aren’t challenged right away, you might find that you can’t recover much compensation, if any, at all.

This is because Texas has modified comparative fault rules. Basically, you can recover compensation as long as you’re not more than 50% responsible for an accident. If you’re allocated any blame, your financial award will be adjusted to reflect that. So, for example, if you’re allocated 25% of the fault for a car accident, your damages will be reduced by 25%. As a result, you might also be 25% responsible for damages incurred by other parties in the crash.

Our personal injury attorneys know that, many times, these allegations are without merit. There’s nothing to back them up. Even if you are slightly responsible, arguments that you share fault are greatly exaggerated. We know that it’s important to discount and discredit these claims from the beginning. So, our team will work diligently to gather evidence to do just that. The less blame assigned to you, the more money you can ultimately get for your injuries.

Insurance companies will offer you the least amount of money they can for your injuries. They’ll tell you an offer is fair and that it’s based on complicated algorithms. In reality, though, any offers you get when you’re not represented by a lawyer are likely for much less than your case is worth.

So, how do you know what your case is worth?

Our attorneys recognize the impact experts, specialists, and professionals can have on a personal injury case. This is particularly true in the valuation process. That’s why we have worked hard to establish strong relationships with medical doctors, therapists and psychologists, vocational rehabilitation specialists, and other experts in and around Houston. With their help, we can really get to the bottom of what your case is worth. How? By understanding your injuries inside-and-out, as well as recognizing how your accident will likely affect you in the years to come. We’ll put together a strong case, backed by expert testimony and use it to leverage compensation on your behalf.

When you get into an unexpected accident or suffer an unintended injury, you’ll experience certain financial costs and losses. These can include:

• Medical bills
• Property damage
• Lost wages and income
• Disability
• Reduced earning capacity
• Nursing care
• Rehabilitation, and
• Funeral and burial expenses.

Economic damages are paid to make up for these present and future costs. By recovering an economic award, you should be returned to the financial position you were in before you got hurt.

The consequences of an accident or injury aren’t always tangible. They’re not always easy to value in terms of dollars and cents. Examples include:

• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Disfigurement and scarring
• Loss of consortium, and
• Loss of enjoyment of life.

Different people will react to accidents in different ways. These types of intangible consequences are very personal and subjective. This means that they can be quite difficult to value. They can vary significantly from one case to the next. Many times, these non-economic damages are determined by applying a multiplier to your economic award. The more serious the accident and injuries, the higher the multiplier. In turn, the higher the award.

Economic damages and non-economic damages are types of compensatory awards. They’re paid to compensate the plaintiff for their injuries and suffering. Punitive damages are awarded for one purpose – to punish the defendant for their actions. If punitive damages are applicable, they are awarded in addition to and on top of a compensatory award. 

Punitive damages are reserved for situations where the defendant’s conduct was fraudulent, grossly negligent, or malicious. In other words, the defendant’s harmful actions were so shocking or egregious that punishment is necessary to make things right.

When you get into an unexpected accident or suffer an unintended injury, you’ll experience certain financial costs and losses. These can include:

• Medical bills
• Property damage
• Lost wages and income
• Disability
• Reduced earning capacity
• Nursing care
• Rehabilitation, and
• Funeral and burial expenses.

Economic damages are paid to make up for these present and future costs. By recovering an economic award, you should be returned to the financial position you were in before you got hurt.

The consequences of an accident or injury aren’t always tangible. They’re not always easy to value in terms of dollars and cents. Examples include:

• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Disfigurement and scarring
• Loss of consortium, and
• Loss of enjoyment of life.

Different people will react to accidents in different ways. These types of intangible consequences are very personal and subjective. This means that they can be quite difficult to value. They can vary significantly from one case to the next. Many times, these non-economic damages are determined by applying a multiplier to your economic award. The more serious the accident and injuries, the higher the multiplier. In turn, the higher the award.

Economic damages and non-economic damages are types of compensatory awards. They’re paid to compensate the plaintiff for their injuries and suffering. Punitive damages are awarded for one purpose – to punish the defendant for their actions. If punitive damages are applicable, they are awarded in addition to and on top of a compensatory award. 

Punitive damages are reserved for situations where the defendant’s conduct was fraudulent, grossly negligent, or malicious. In other words, the defendant’s harmful actions were so shocking or egregious that punishment is necessary to make things right.

Different states handle personal injury cases in different ways. Some bar victims from recovering compensation if they are even remotely responsible for their injuries (i.e., contributory negligence). Others allow victims to recover compensation, but reduce the amount of money that’s awarded based on the degree of fault they share (i.e., comparative negligence).

Texas law is a sort of hybrid of these two ideas. It’s called modified comparative negligence. Basically, victims can recover compensation for an accident as long as they’re not primarily responsible for their injuries. In other words, you can recover money as long as you share less than 51 percent of the blame for an accident. Any fault that is allocated to you will affect how much money you can take home at the end of the day. If you’re 25 percent to blame, your damages will be reduced by 25 percent. This means that you can also be on the hook for 25 percent of other victims’ damages.

There are two parties in a personal injury lawsuit – the plaintiff and the defendant. The plaintiff is the person who reserves the right to file a lawsuit and demand compensation. In order to have this right, the plaintiff must have been injured because of something the defendant did or did not do.

So, anyone who has been injured or harmed in some way because of another person’s conduct can file an injury claim. If the accident doesn’t survive, the right to file a claim isn’t lost. Rather, it simply shifts to the victim’s close family members (e.g., spouse, child, parent).

There are a lot of different factors that will be important in determining what your injury case is worth. 

• Are your injuries mild, moderate, severe, or catastrophic?
• Will you be temporarily or permanently disabled?
• Will you have to rely on other people to help you perform routine daily tasks?
• Has your injury caused paralysis or disfigurement?
• Will you be able to go back to work in the same capacity?
• Will your ability to earn an income be affected in any way?
• How much of an impact has the trauma had on you?
• How pervasive are your pain and suffering?
• Was there any property damage? If so, how extensive?

The more serious and debilitating your injuries, the more your case will likely be worth. However, don’t think that you can’t recover a substantial award for minor or moderate injuries. Those types of injuries can end up costing you tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a lifetime. And that doesn’t even take into account the emotional distress and suffering you experience. Always consult with an attorney to make sure that your case is valued properly.

It really depends. Some cases, where fault and liability are quite clear, can settle in a matter of weeks. Other cases, where at-fault parties and insurance companies refuse to accept responsibility, can take much longer to resolve. It could take months, or even years, especially if a case proceeds to trial. 

Is there a way to accelerate the timeline? You can put pressure on insurance companies and negligent parties by hiring an attorney with a demonstrated track record of success in the courtroom. Insurance companies know which attorneys in Houston are able to, day in and day out, secure substantial verdicts at trial. Those are the attorneys that insurance companies fear. The last thing they’ll want is a huge loss in court, so they’ll be more inclined to offer a huge settlement to keep a case from getting to that stage.

If you settle, insurance companies have an obligation to act in good faith and issue payment within a reasonable amount of time. Your attorney will not let up until the insurer or negligent parties write a check and pays you the money you need.

If you win at trial, it could take a little bit longer to get money in your hands. The defendant could appeal the loss to a higher court, which would essentially freeze the case. However, your attorney will work diligently to make sure that you are able to receive the monetary award you deserve as quickly as possible after your case is resolved.