How to file a car accident claim in Houston, from report to release

Filing a car accident claim in Texas is not one form. It is seven stages, each with its own paperwork, and the insurer works them in order. Here is how to file a car accident claim after a Houston wreck, stage by stage, the way the adjuster sees it.

This guide comes from the Houston office of LAWBOSS – Harris, Nelsen & Uvalle, PLLC. Five of the seven attorneys at our firm once worked for insurance companies, so we describe each step as it looks from the adjuster’s side of the desk. The attorney responsible for this site is Jonathan Harris, Board Certified, Personal Injury Trial Law – Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and the Houston office is his primary practice location.

The insurer starts building a file on your wreck within days. Filing well means building yours first.

Before anything is filed: what Texas law asks at the scene

A claim begins before anyone phones an insurer. Under Transportation Code section 550.021, a driver in a crash that hurts or kills someone has to stop, check whether anyone needs help and stay to give information. Section 550.023 spells out the exchange: name, address, vehicle registration number and the name of the liability insurer, with a driver’s license shown if someone asks. Those few details are the raw material of every claim that follows, so write them down or photograph the other driver’s insurance card before you leave.

When someone is hurt or killed, or a car cannot be driven away, section 550.026 says the wreck goes to the city police or, outside a city, the sheriff, right away.

Stage 1, Report: get the wreck on paper

An officer who investigates a crash with injury, death or apparent property damage of $1,000 or more must file the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report, form CR-3, with TxDOT within 10 days (Transportation Code section 550.062). Section 550.065 lets the people involved, their authorized representatives, vehicle owners and the insurers involved get the full report. Copies are sold for a small fee through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System at cris.txdot.gov.

Read your report before you file anything else. Check the names, the policy numbers, the diagram and the officer’s narrative. The adjuster will treat that report as the first version of events, and a wrong lane or a missing witness is far easier to raise now than after the insurer has made up its mind.

Stage 2, Coverage: open the right claims

Most Houston wrecks touch more than one policy. You open a claim with the at-fault driver’s liability insurer, and your own policy may cover part of the loss too. Texas sets minimum liability limits of $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 for two or more people and $25,000 for property damage per crash (Transportation Code section 601.072). Those numbers are legal floors in the statute, not a measure of what any claim is worth.

• Liability claim: filed with the other driver’s insurer for the injuries and damage that driver caused.
• Personal injury protection (PIP): part of every Texas auto policy unless a named insured turned it down in writing (Insurance Code section 1952.152). It is paid regardless of fault, and the insurer has 30 days after satisfactory proof to pay (sections 1952.155 and 1952.156).
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage: also part of the policy unless rejected in writing (section 1952.101). Our article on an uninsured driver claim in Houston covers it.
• Property damage: the repair or total loss of the car and, for many owners, a diminished value claim in Texas.

On the call that opens a claim, give the date, the place, your policy number and the other driver’s details. You are not required to give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement, and nobody should ask you to guess at injuries a doctor has not yet checked.

Stage 3, Records: prove the injury and the loss

This is the longest stage, and the one people underestimate. Insurers pay on documents, so the file needs medical records and bills from every provider, proof of time missed at work, repair estimates, photographs and the names of witnesses. Get medical care soon after the wreck and mention every symptom to every provider. A gap between the wreck and the first visit, or a gap in treatment later, is one of the first things an adjuster looks for.

Stage 4, Demand: put the claim in writing

Once treatment is finished, or the doctors can describe what lies ahead, the claim is presented in a demand. That is a letter, with the records attached, that explains how the wreck happened, why the other driver is responsible and what the wreck cost you. A thin demand invites a thin answer. Our page on a car accident injury claim in Houston goes through the injury side of that file.

Stage 5, Negotiation: answer the adjuster’s arguments

Adjusters answer a demand with arguments, and the usual one in Texas is shared fault. Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 33.001 bars recovery when your share of responsibility is greater than 50 percent, and section 33.012 reduces whatever you recover by your own share. Expect the insurer to look hard for reasons to push your share up. Our page on the car wreck settlement in Houston process shows how offers and counteroffers move from there.

Any share of fault the insurer pins on you comes straight off the claim.

Stage 6, Lawsuit: the two-year deadline

When negotiation stalls, a lawsuit keeps the claim alive. A personal injury suit generally has to be filed within two years of the day the claim arises (Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003). A claim against a government unit, such as a city bus or a police car, needs written notice within six months, and a city charter can set a shorter period (section 101.101). Our article on the statute of limitations for a car accident in Texas has the details. In Harris County, civil suits are heard in the district courts at the Harris County Civil Courthouse, 201 Caroline.

Stage 7, Release: closing the claim

Every claim ends with a signed release, and once it is signed the claim is over. Before signing, look at what the release covers, whether a health insurer or provider has a lien on the money, and how the funds will be paid out. No one should rush you into a release while your treatment picture is still unclear.

Filing on your own, or with us

Plenty of people file a simple property damage claim themselves. Injury claims are harder, because the insurer has trained adjusters and you have one claim. When you hire us, our car accident claims attorney in Houston team takes the calls, gathers the records and writes the demand. Our car accident claim lawyer in Houston page explains that work in more depth.