Can I Make A Personal Injury Claim If I Am Partly At Fault?

Yes, in Texas, as long as you are not more than 50% to blame for causing an accident, you can collect damages for personal injury.

How Fault Impacts a Texas Personal Injury Case

Texas has a unique method of apportioning fault between participants to an accident. The statutory method, “comparative responsibility, ” is a relatively fair way of distributing fault after an accident.

Usually, it is up to the jury to decide whether or not someone caused the accident. Typically, a jury question lists all parties and asks the jury to allocate fault between them – with a total of 100%.

If you were in an accident and partly at fault, you can still claim injuries and damages. However, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault. If your percentage of fault is more than one-half, you cannot get compensation.

Types of Personal Injury Cases Where Fault is Apportioned in Texas

• Car Wrecks
• Truck accidents
• Uber crashes
• Wrongful death lawsuits
• Construction accidents
• Other personal injury claims

In effect, the jury usually determines fault based on a percentage of each person’s responsibility for causing the accident. When both parties may share some responsibility for the accident, the jury typically apportions blame by assigning a percentage of fault to each person or entity involved.

The comparative responsibility scheme will not bar them from collecting damages if the personal injury victim is 50% or less at fault for an accident. Notably, an injury victim’s damages will be reduced by their percentage of fault.

Examples of Comparative Fault in Texas

By way of example, if an injury victim were found to have suffered damages of $1 million yet also found to be 10% responsible for the accident, the damages would be reduced by 10% to account for the victim’s fault. Thus, the compensation is reduced by law to $900,000.

However, if the personal injury victim is found to have been 51% or more responsible for the accident, the victim may be precluded from recovering damages under the Texas statutory scheme.

You May Still Recover Damages if You Are Less At Fault.

In short, personal injury victims who are partly responsible in Texas can still recover damages as long as they are not the majority of the cause of the accident.

If you have questions regarding whether or not you can maintain a case or whether a case is worth pursuing on your behalf, contact an experienced and reputable Houston personal injury attorney as early as possible, as certain time limits apply to all claims that can bar a case that is not brought promptly.

Contact The Houston Personal Injury Lawyers at Baumgartner Law Firm for Help

If you have been injured in an accident in Houston, TX, and need help, contact our Houston car accident lawyers at Baumgartner Law Firm by calling (281) 587-1111.

Related posts:

• What Percentage Do Most Personal Injury Lawyers Take in Houston?
• The Difference Between a Wrongful Death Case and a Survival Claim in Texas?
• Contingency Fee
• The Process of a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Texas
• Determining Fault in Texas Car Accidents

About Our Law Firm

Baumgartner Law Firm is a Houston personal injury law firm headed by Greg Baumgartner.

Our firm was established in 1985 and has helped thousands of injury victims get maximum compensation for their cases. If you have been injured in an accident in Houston, TX, contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation.

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Helping these areas around Houston

Houston, Sugar Land, Conroe, The Woodlands, Cypress, Spring, Humble, Katy, Atascocita, Kingwood, and Tomball.