You already know what happened. The crash, the fall, the moment your life reorganized itself around pain, paperwork, and phone calls from adjusters. What you may not know is what the next two years look like under Texas personal injury law, or how much of your recovery depends on choices made in the first few weeks.
Slingshot Law Injury Attorneys represents people hurt in Austin and across Central Texas in motor vehicle crashes, commercial truck and motorcycle wrecks, pedestrian and rideshare collisions, premises liability claims, traumatic brain injury cases, wrongful death, and workplace injury claims handled outside the workers’ compensation benefits system.
The work an Austin personal injury lawyer actually does splits into two parallel tracks: proving what happened and proving what it cost. Proving what happened means preserving evidence before it disappears, locking down witness accounts before memory fades, obtaining electronic control module data from vehicles, and mapping the sequence of events against the applicable duty of care.
Proving what it costs means building a full picture of medical expenses (current and future), lost income, diminished earning capacity, and non-economic harm like pain and reduced quality of life. Neither track happens on its own.
Slingshot Law holds a 4.9-star rating across 158 client reviews and handles personal injury cases from our office on Lavaca Street in downtown Austin. Call (800) 488-7840 for a free case review, or read on to understand how Texas law shapes what happens next.
When Should You Hire an Austin Personal Injury Lawyer?
Contact an Austin personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after an injury, because Texas gives you two years from the date of the incident to file a lawsuit under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. Insurance adjusters begin building a defense from day one, and the evidence most likely to affect settlement value begins degrading immediately.
Early representation matters because insurers act early. The adjuster on the other side of your claim opened a file within hours of the crash report being written. They already ordered the police report, pulled available surveillance from public sources, and started documenting statements.
When someone calls a personal injury attorney in Austin in the first week or two rather than the first year, several things change:
- Evidence preservation letters go out fast. Trucking companies, rideshare platforms, and property owners must preserve records once they receive a spoliation notice. Without one, dash cam video, driver logs, and maintenance records often get overwritten or destroyed on standard retention cycles.
- Adjuster contact routes through your attorney. Insurers often push injured people into recorded statements before symptoms fully appear or before the full facts come into focus. Your lawyer takes those calls instead.
- Medical treatment gets structured for both healing and documentation. Gaps in care, missed appointments, and unexplained treatment delays remain the single most common reason insurers reduce settlement offers.
Waiting rarely improves a case. Even where the two-year deadline seems far off, the practical window for building the strongest claim usually falls within the first six months.
How Texas Personal Injury Law Shapes Your Case
Texas is a fault-based state, meaning the person or business responsible for causing an injury (or their insurer) pays the damages. Two rules control almost every case: the statute of limitations and the proportionate responsibility framework. Both may sharply limit or entirely block a recovery when handled incorrectly.
What Is the Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury in Texas?
Most personal injury claims in Texas must be filed within two years of the date the injury occurred, under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. The same two-year deadline applies to wrongful death claims, measured from the date of death rather than the underlying event.
A small number of exceptions apply to minors, individuals of unsound mind, and certain government-entity claims, which often carry much shorter notice requirements (as short as six months in some municipal cases). Missing the filing deadline typically ends the case regardless of how strong the underlying facts are.
What Happens If I Was Partly at Fault?
Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule called proportionate responsibility, set out in Chapter 33 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Under this rule, an injured person may recover damages only if their share of fault is 50% or less. Recovery drops by that percentage.
If a jury finds someone 20% at fault and assigns $200,000 in total damages, that person recovers $160,000. If the jury finds them 51% at fault, they recover nothing. Because a single percentage point of fault can erase an entire case, insurers frequently use blame allocation as their primary negotiating lever.
What Damages Are Recoverable Under Texas Law?
Texas allows recovery for both economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, property damage, future care) and non-economic damages (pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of consortium). In limited circumstances involving gross negligence, exemplary (punitive) damages may also apply. Texas law caps certain damage categories by statute, and the Texas Tort Claims Act separately caps damages in claims against state or local government entities.
Types of Personal Injury Cases Our Austin Attorneys Handle
Slingshot Law focuses exclusively on personal injury representation. Our Austin attorneys handle motor vehicle, commercial truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, rideshare, premises liability, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, and non-workers-comp workplace injury cases. Every case type below fits within our practice.
- Motor vehicle crashes. Car accidents involving passenger vehicles, pickups, and SUVs, including multi-vehicle collisions and cases with disputed fault or coverage issues.
- Commercial truck wrecks. 18-wheeler and commercial vehicle collisions, including cases requiring analysis of federal motor carrier safety regulations, driver logs, and corporate policy failures.
- Motorcycle crashes. Rider injury cases where insurers often attempt to blame the rider for helmet use, lane position, or speed without supporting evidence.
- Pedestrian and bicycle collisions. Injuries to people struck in crosswalks, at intersections, and along Austin’s expanding bike infrastructure.
- Rideshare accidents. Uber and Lyft crashes involving both driver-caused injuries and passenger claims, including coverage disputes between the platform, the driver’s personal insurance, and third-party carriers.
- Premises liability. Injuries on commercial or residential property where the owner failed to address a known hazard, including slip and fall, negligent security, and pool incidents.
- Brain injury and catastrophic injury. Traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, severe orthopedic injury, and other cases involving lifelong medical needs.
- Wrongful death. Fatal injury cases brought by surviving family members under Texas wrongful death and survival statutes.
- Workplace injuries (non-subscriber and third-party). Injuries on the job where the employer opted out of workers’ compensation (non-subscriber cases), or where a party other than the employer caused the harm.
Slingshot Law does not handle nursing home abuse, sexual abuse claims, consumer law matters, or mass tort litigation. If a case falls outside our practice, we say so directly and, where possible, point people toward firms that focus on those areas.
What Compensation May Be Available in a Texas Personal Injury Case?
Personal injury compensation in Texas falls into three general categories: economic, non-economic, and (in limited cases) exemplary. What applies in any given case depends on the type of injury, the strength of the evidence, and the available insurance or coverage.
| Damage Category | What It May Cover | How It Gets Documented |
|---|---|---|
| Economic | Medical bills, future medical care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, property damage, out-of-pocket costs | Medical records and bills, wage records, tax returns, vocational and life care expert reports |
| Non-Economic | Physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, loss of consortium | Treatment records, testimony from the injured person and family, day-in-the-life documentation |
| Exemplary (Punitive) | Additional damages available where the defendant’s conduct constituted gross negligence or intentional harm | Evidence of the defendant’s conscious indifference or knowing misconduct; higher burden of proof |
Fair compensation is not a formula. Two injured people with identical medical bills may recover very different amounts based on how the case gets prepared, how the non-economic harm is documented, and what insurance or asset coverage applies. Our attorneys build every claim with the trial file in mind, even when the case settles.
What to Expect When Working with an Austin Injury Attorney
The Austin personal injury process usually moves through six phases. Not every case reaches every phase (most settle before litigation), but the framework stays consistent.
- Free case review. We listen to what happened, review any documents on hand, and give a straight answer about whether the firm takes the case and what the likely path forward looks like.
- Investigation and evidence preservation. Spoliation letters, scene inspection, retrieval of surveillance and dash cam footage, witness interviews, and, where useful, accident reconstruction.
- Medical documentation and treatment coordination. Our team tracks medical progress, coordinates with providers on records requests, and builds a complete picture of both current and future care needs.
- Demand and negotiation. Once treatment stabilizes and damages are documented, we present a demand to the insurer with the full evidentiary record. Most cases resolve during this phase.
- Litigation. When the insurer refuses to make a fair offer, we file suit in the appropriate court, often the Travis County District Courts for cases arising in Austin. Discovery, depositions, and pre-trial motions follow.
- Trial or final resolution. A minority of cases go to jury trial. We prepare the ones that do from day one as if trial is inevitable, which changes how insurers respond during negotiations.
Throughout the process, our attorneys handle communication with insurers, medical liens, subrogation claims, and the procedural work. The client’s job is physical recovery. Ours is building the case around it.
Why Slingshot Law for Your Austin Personal Injury Case?
Slingshot Law is a personal injury firm by choice, not by default. Our attorneys built their careers around trial-ready case preparation, and the firm exists to represent injured people against corporate insurers, commercial defendants, and government entities that often hold more resources than any individual client.
Former Prosecutor Perspective
Drew Gibbs served as a Texas prosecutor before founding Slingshot Law. Prosecutorial experience matters in personal injury work because it teaches how evidence gets built, tested, and challenged in a courtroom. The same discipline used to prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt applies (in a different form) to proving liability and damages by a preponderance of the evidence in civil court.
Military JAG Background
Scott Crivelli served as an active duty Army JAG Corps officer before entering private practice. JAG experience brings a particular kind of legal preparation: complex fact patterns, tight deadlines, and cases with real consequences for real people. That background carries directly into how the firm handles catastrophic injury and wrongful death matters.
Case Preparation Built for Trial
Cases prepared for trial settle for more. Insurers evaluate case files, not press releases. When the file shows a firm that has taken cases through verdict and knows how to try them again, negotiations shift. We build every Slingshot Law file with that possibility front and center.
Contingency Representation With No Upfront Cost
Slingshot Law handles personal injury cases on contingency. Clients pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation, and the firm advances the costs of investigation, expert witnesses, and litigation. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes, and the written engagement agreement fixes all fee terms before any work begins.
Call (800) 488-7840 for a case review.
Austin Personal Injury Lawyer FAQ
Do I really need a lawyer if my injuries seem minor?
Injuries that seem minor in the first few days sometimes turn out to be significant weeks later, particularly soft tissue injuries, concussions, and back or neck injuries. Consulting an Austin injury attorney early costs nothing and protects the option to pursue a full claim if the situation worsens. Talking to an attorney does not obligate anyone to file a lawsuit.
What if the person who caused my injury does not have insurance?
Texas requires drivers to carry liability insurance, but many drivers on the road remain uninsured or underinsured. Uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage on your own auto policy may apply, and the Texas Department of Insurance publishes information on how UM/UIM coverage works.
Other sources of recovery (such as employer coverage in cases involving a driver on the job) may also come into play. Case value often depends on identifying every possible source of coverage, not just the obvious one.
Can I still file a claim if the crash happened outside Austin but I live here?
Yes. What matters legally is where the incident occurred and where the defendants are located, not where the injured person lives. Our attorneys handle personal injury cases across Central Texas from our Austin office.
What if my case involves a government vehicle or a claim against the City of Austin?
Claims against government entities in Texas fall under the Texas Tort Claims Act and often carry much shorter notice deadlines (as short as six months) and lower damage caps than private cases. These cases require early legal review to preserve the claim.
How much does a personal injury lawyer cost in Austin?
Slingshot Law handles personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. No fee applies unless we recover compensation. The percentage gets fixed in writing at the start of representation, and case-related expenses (filing fees, records requests, expert witnesses) come out of any recovery rather than out of pocket during the case.
Do I have a case if the other driver’s insurance already offered a settlement?
Possibly. Early settlement offers almost always come in below what the case may be worth once medical treatment stabilizes and full damages are documented. Signing a release closes the claim permanently, even if new injuries appear later. A free case review before you accept an offer costs nothing and may substantially change the outcome.
What if I was partly at fault for what happened?
You may still recover under Texas proportionate responsibility law, as long as your share of fault stays at 50% or less. Recovery drops by your fault percentage. This is one of the most contested areas in Texas personal injury litigation, and how your attorney documents fault from the beginning often shapes the final result.
How long do personal injury cases take to resolve?
Most cases resolve within 12 to 24 months. Catastrophic injury cases and cases that require full litigation may take longer. Rushing to settle before medical treatment finishes often leaves significant compensation on the table.
Talk to an Austin Personal Injury Lawyer
The first call is free, and nothing about it obligates you to hire us. If Slingshot Law is the right fit, we say so. If it is not, we tell you that too.
Call (800) 488-7840 for a free case review, or come to our downtown Austin office at 1802 Lavaca Street, Austin, TX. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.