The first thing an insurance adjuster does after a Corpus Christi crash is start building a case that you were partly responsible. That is not cynicism about adjusters. It is a rational response to how Texas law works.
Texas uses a system called proportionate responsibility, which includes a cliff. Below a certain level of fault, you recover, reduced by your share. Above it, you recover nothing at all.
How the Rule Works
A jury assigns each party a percentage of responsibility. If your share is fifty percent or less, you recover your damages reduced by that percentage. If your share exceeds fifty percent, you are barred from recovering anything.
The arithmetic is unforgiving at the margin. On a claim worth two hundred thousand dollars, being found fifty percent responsible yields one hundred thousand. Being found fifty-one percent responsible yields nothing.
That single percentage point is why fault is contested so aggressively in Texas injury cases. That difference can decide the entire case, and both sides know it.
What Counts as Your Share
Almost anything can be argued to contribute to fault. Traveling slightly above the limit. Following more closely than was prudent. Being distracted for a moment. Failing to take evasive action a jury believes was available. Not wearing a seatbelt, in circumstances where that affected the injuries.
None of these has to be the main cause. They only have to have contributed, and the argument is that every increment assigned to you moves the case closer to the bar.
You can also assign responsibility to people who are not parties to the lawsuit. Texas allows a defendant to designate a responsible third party, thereby spreading fault across more participants and potentially reducing what any single defendant owes.
Why the First Week Matters Most
Adjusters typically request a recorded statement within days of a crash, while people are medicated, in pain, and inclined to be cooperative.
Ordinary conversational habits become damaging in that setting. Saying you did not see the other vehicle, that you were running late, that you were reaching for something, or simply apologizing, all become material that reappears months later, framed as an admission.
At The Burkett Law Firm, we tell clients this first: you are not obliged to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. Declining until you have advice is not obstruction, and it is one of the few protective steps entirely within your control.
Evidence That Actually Decides Fault
- The crash report, though the officer’s opinion on fault is not binding
- Photographs of vehicle positions, damage patterns, debris and skid marks
- Event data recorder information from the vehicles involved
- Traffic, business and residential camera footage near the scene
- Independent witnesses identified before memories fade
- Cellphone records where distraction is alleged against either driver
- Accident reconstruction where the physical evidence is genuinely contested
Much of this disappears quickly. Business surveillance is overwritten within days or weeks, vehicles get repaired or scrapped with their data intact, and skid marks fade. Early preservation often makes a fault argument winnable.
Damage Caps and What Is Recoverable
Texas allows recovery of economic damages — medical expenses past and future, lost earnings, lost earning capacity, and the cost of care — as well as non-economic damages for physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, and physical impairment.
Exemplary damages are available when the conduct involves fraud, malice, or gross negligence, and Texas caps them by formula.
Medical damages carry a specific rule. Texas limits recovery to amounts actually paid or incurred, not the amount originally billed, which is often much higher. Understanding that distinction early prevents unrealistic expectations about a claim’s value.
Medical Treatment Shapes the Claim
Insurers evaluate injuries through the medical record, and gaps in that record can be read as evidence that nothing serious was wrong.
Getting examined promptly matters even where symptoms seem manageable. Soft tissue injuries, concussions, and internal injuries frequently present days later, and a delay between the crash and the first treatment becomes an argument that something else caused the problem.
Consistency matters just as much. A claimant who attends appointments, follows the treatment plan, and reports symptoms accurately builds a record that supports the claim. One who stops attending because of cost or inconvenience hands the defense its best argument.
When treatment has to pause for financial reasons, telling the provider creates a record of why, which is far better than an unexplained gap.
Letters of Protection and Medical Liens
Many injured people in Texas have no health coverage or cannot afford deductibles while out of work.
Providers sometimes agree to treat under a letter of protection, deferring payment until the claim resolves. Health insurers and government programs that did pay generally assert a right to reimbursement from any recovery.
Those interests arise from the settlement, and negotiating them down is a major factor in what a client actually receives. A gross settlement number means little until you resolve the liens attached to it.
Insurance Limits Are the Practical Ceiling
A claim is only worth what you can actually collect. Texas minimum liability limits are modest, and a serious injury exhausts them immediately.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy fills that gap, and a great many drivers carry it without realizing. Reviewing every policy in the household is worth doing at the outset — coverage may exist on a spouse’s vehicle policy or a resident relative’s policy.
When a commercial vehicle is involved, available coverage is usually much larger, which is one reason identifying an employer or motor carrier defendant early matters.
Seatbelt Evidence and Failure to Mitigate
Texas permits evidence of seatbelt non-use to be considered in apportioning responsibility, which is a meaningful change from the position in many states.
Where a defendant can show that a restraint would have reduced the injuries, that argument feeds directly into the percentage assigned to the claimant, and in a system with a bar at fifty-one percent, that is not a marginal issue.
A related argument concerns failure to mitigate — a claimant who declined recommended surgery, ignored restrictions, or returned to strenuous activity against advice. Whether that argument succeeds usually depends on whether the decision was reasonable in the circumstances, and on whether the reasons were documented.
Settlement Offers That Arrive Early
Serious injury claims frequently attract an offer within weeks, before the medical picture is remotely clear.
Early offers are rarely generous. They are made because the insurer knows a claimant out of work and facing bills is most willing to accept, and because the full cost of the injury is not yet documented.
Once you sign a release, the claim is over. If surgery becomes necessary six months later, or the injury proves permanent, you can’t reopen it. The general rule is not to settle before reaching maximum medical improvement or at least having a reliable prognosis.
The Deadline
Texas generally allows two years from the date of the injury to file suit. Wrongful death claims run from the date of death.
Claims against governmental entities have much shorter notice requirements, sometimes only months, and missing one can end a claim before it begins. Crashes involving a city vehicle, a county truck, or a government employee fall into this category and need immediate attention.
Waiting can also weaken your case, even if you have time. Witnesses relocate, footage is deleted, and physical evidence is repaired away.
If you were hurt in a crash around Corpus Christi and the other side is already suggesting you share the blame, call The Burkett Law Firm before you speak with them again.
