Personal Injury FAQ
Common Questions
Straight answers about injury claims in Arizona and Texas, from filing deadlines and fault rules to insurance, settlements, and what a case is worth. This page is general information, not legal advice. For guidance about your situation, call (888) 508-6967 for a free consultation.
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01 · 30 Questions
General Personal Injury & The Firm
What is a personal injury claim?
A personal injury claim is a legal demand for compensation when someone is hurt because another person or company was careless or did something wrong. To recover, you generally must show the other party owed you a duty of care, breached that duty, and that the breach caused your injuries and losses. Silver Key Law handles these claims for clients in both Arizona and Texas. This is general information, not legal advice about your specific situation.
Do I have a case?
You may have a case if someone else's negligence caused you a real injury and measurable losses such as medical bills, lost income, or pain and suffering. The strength of a claim depends on liability (who was at fault), damages (how badly you were hurt), and whether there is insurance or another source of recovery. The only reliable way to know is to have a lawyer review the facts, which Silver Key Law does for free.
Does my immigration status affect my injury case in Texas?
You can pursue an injury claim in Texas regardless of immigration status: the Texas Supreme Court has held status is inadmissible in these cases, civil courts are not immigration enforcement, and Texas courts have allowed undocumented plaintiffs full recovery including lost wages. The fear is the insurance industry's quiet ally; the law is not. Read the full answer →
How long do I have to file a personal injury lawsuit in Texas?
In most Texas car accident cases you have two years from the date of the crash to file suit under Texas law. Important exceptions, including much shorter government notice deadlines, can change that date, so confirm your deadline with a lawyer promptly. Read the full answer →
What happens when my child is injured in Texas?
A child's own claim is protected, with limitations generally paused until eighteen, court approval required for settlements, and funds safeguarded until adulthood. The trap is that the parents' claim for the child's medical expenses runs on the ordinary two-year clock, so waiting because the child's deadline is far away forfeits real money. Read the full answer →
What are the deadlines for claims against the government in Arizona?
Arizona has two special, shorter deadlines for claims against a public entity, public school, or public employee. First, you must serve a written Notice of Claim within 180 days after the claim accrues, and it must include a specific settlement amount and the facts supporting it. Second, the lawsuit itself must be filed within one year. Arizona courts demand strict compliance, so a defective or late notice can permanently bar the claim.
What are the deadlines for claims against the government in Texas?
Texas's tort claims law requires formal written notice to the governmental unit within six months, and many city charters shorten that to ninety days or less, all before the ordinary two-year lawsuit deadline matters. Government cases also carry damages caps and immunity rules that make early legal review essential. Read the full answer →
How do I prove lost income if I'm self-employed or work for cash?
The self-employed prove lost income like any business fact: tax returns, 1099s, invoices, bank deposits, the calendar of jobs that stopped, platform data for gig work, and the cost of substitute labor hired to cover. The legal measure is diminished earning capacity, and where past underreporting complicates the tax returns, the case is built honestly on the other records rather than on numbers that create new problems. Read the full answer →
How long does a personal injury case take?
Straightforward cases often resolve within several months to a year, while cases requiring a lawsuit commonly run one to two years or more, driven mostly by how long your medical treatment takes to stabilize. Rushing a case to settle early almost always means settling at a discount. Read the full answer →
What is maximum medical improvement, and why does my case wait for it?
Maximum medical improvement is the point where your condition has stabilized, as good as treatment will get it, which is not the same as healed. Cases generally wait for it because value can only be measured once the future is known, and the exceptions, policy-limits ceilings and filing deadlines, are strategic calls, not shortcuts. Read the full answer →
What is my case worth?
Case value turns on your total damages, economic and noneconomic, and the strength of the liability evidence, not on a formula or multiplier. Any lawyer who promises a number at the first meeting is guessing; what can be promised is preparing the case so the insurer pays full value. Read the full answer →
What damages can I recover?
Generally you can recover economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, loss of future earning capacity, and out-of-pocket costs), non-economic damages (pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life), and in some cases punitive or exemplary damages meant to punish especially reckless or malicious conduct. Arizona and Texas treat caps on these very differently (see the next questions).
Can I recover for PTSD, anxiety, or depression after an injury?
Yes: Texas compensates the psychological injuries that ride with physical ones, the driving fear, the nightmares, the depression of a changed body, as mental anguish, past and future, proven through diagnosis and treatment records. Texas generally does not recognize a standalone claim for negligently inflicted emotional distress, so the psychological case is built inside the injury case, honestly documented. Read the full answer →
Can I recover for scarring and disfigurement, and how is it valued?
Yes, and separately: Texas treats disfigurement as its own damages element, past and future, apart from pain and impairment, so a scar is claimed on its own line, not folded into suffering. The case is built with a dated photographic timeline, a plastic surgeon's testimony on future revisions, and honest evidence of the mark's effect on a life. Read the full answer →
Can my spouse or family recover for my injuries? What is loss of consortium?
Yes: a spouse can claim loss of consortium, the companionship, affection, and partnership the injury took, plus the household services now lost, and children can recover when a parent is seriously and permanently injured. These are derivative claims that rise and fall with the injured person's case, and they are proven through the family's own testimony. Read the full answer →
How is pain and suffering calculated in Texas?
There is no formula: Texas juries value pain, mental anguish, impairment, and disfigurement from evidence of how the injury actually changed your life, and appellate courts require that evidence to support the amount. These damages are proven, not computed, which is why documentation and credible witnesses drive the number. Read the full answer →
Are damages capped in Arizona?
No. Under Arizona law, caps on compensatory damages are prohibited in personal injury and wrongful death cases. The state constitution provides that no law may be enacted limiting the amount of damages recoverable for causing the death or injury of any person. Arizona is one of only a few states with this protection, and even medical malpractice non-economic damages are not capped.
Are damages capped in Texas?
Compensatory damages in ordinary negligence cases are not capped in Texas; medical malpractice and exemplary damages are the exceptions. Exemplary damages require clear and convincing proof of gross negligence, fraud, or malice and a unanimous jury, and are generally capped at the greater of $200,000 or twice economic damages plus up to $750,000 of noneconomic damages. Read the full answer →
Does a pre-existing condition ruin my injury case?
No: Texas follows the eggshell-plaintiff principle, so the defendant takes you as found and owes for the aggravation the crash caused to any prior condition. The fight is drawing the before-and-after line with medical evidence, which is why full disclosure to your own lawyer and doctors is what protects the claim. Read the full answer →
What is comparative negligence in Arizona?
Arizona follows pure comparative fault. This means even if you were partly to blame, you can still recover, but your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if you are found 30 percent at fault on a 100,000 dollar claim, you recover 70,000 dollars. Even a plaintiff who is 90 percent at fault can recover the remaining 10 percent in Arizona.
What is comparative negligence in Texas?
Texas juries assign fault percentages to everyone connected to an injury, and the numbers carry rules: a plaintiff over fifty percent recovers nothing, a defendant over fifty percent can be jointly liable for the entire judgment, and the defense may designate responsible third parties, even absent or unknown ones, to dilute its share. The percentage fight is the case. Read the full answer →
What should I do right after an injury?
Get to safety, call 911, get medical care the same day, photograph everything, and collect witness information before it disappears. Report the crash, notify your own insurer, and speak with a lawyer before giving anything to the other driver's insurance company. Read the full answer →
What should I NOT do after an injury?
Cases are rarely lost in courtrooms; they are bled early by avoidable mistakes, recorded statements, treatment gaps, quick-check releases, social media posts, blanket medical authorizations, and waiting to get counsel. Each one is a standard insurance play, and each has a simple counter if you know it in time. Read the full answer →
Can I post on social media during my injury case?
You can, but you should not: defense teams mine claimants' accounts routinely, privacy settings do not block legal discovery, and ordinary photos get weaponized out of context. Deleting posts after a claim begins is worse, because Texas courts can treat it as evidence destruction, so the rule is stop posting, delete nothing. Read the full answer →
How should I deal with insurance adjusters?
Know which adjuster is calling: your own carrier is owed prompt notice and reasonable cooperation, while the other driver's carrier is owed nothing at all. Give identifying facts only, decline recordings, never sign blanket medical authorizations or quick-check releases, and keep every exchange in writing. Read the full answer →
Do I have to give a recorded statement?
You have no legal obligation to give the other driver's insurer a recorded statement, and you should not do so without counsel; your own policy may require cooperation with your own carrier, which is a different conversation. Adjusters request recordings to lock in minimized injuries and fault admissions while you are hurting and unprepared. Read the full answer →
Should I accept the first settlement offer?
Almost never without review: first offers are engineered to arrive before your damages are knowable, and the release you sign ends the claim forever, including for injuries diagnosed later. An offer should be measured against the case's full value at maximum medical improvement, not against the pressure of this month's bills. Read the full answer →
Do most cases settle or go to trial?
Probably not, statistically: the large majority of injury cases settle, most often at or after mediation. But settlement value is set by trial risk, so cases prepared by lawyers who genuinely try cases settle higher, and you always keep the final authority to accept or reject any offer. Read the full answer →
What is the litigation process step by step?
A Texas injury suit runs petition and service, answer, months of written discovery and depositions, expert designations, dispositive motions, court-ordered mediation, and trial for the cases that need it. Little of it is visible to the client, but every stage builds or bleeds the leverage that sets the final number. Read the full answer →
How does a contingency fee work?
Nothing upfront: personal injury lawyers work on contingency, commonly one-third of the recovery before suit and forty percent after filing, and no fee is owed if there is no recovery. Case expenses are separate items, typically advanced by the firm and reimbursed from the recovery, all itemized before you sign anything. Read the full answer →
What is no fee unless we win?
It means that if there is no recovery, you owe no attorney's fee. At Silver Key Law, it also means that if there is no recovery, you owe no case costs or expenses either. The free consultation lets you understand your options at no risk.
What costs are involved in a case?
Two separate lines appear on every settlement statement: the attorney's fee, a pre-agreed percentage, and case expenses, the filing fees, records, depositions, and experts the firm advances and recoups from the recovery. The question worth asking any firm in writing is whether the percentage is calculated before or after expenses, because the order moves real money. Read the full answer →
Do I need a lawyer?
For property damage only, often not; for any crash with real injuries, disputed fault, or meaningful money at stake, represented claimants consistently net more even after the fee. The consultation is free, so the honest answer for your specific case costs nothing to get. Read the full answer →
How do I choose a personal injury lawyer?
Ask who will actually work your file, when the firm last tried a case to verdict and what happened, and what the exact fee and expense terms are in writing. Insurers grade firms by trial record and price claims accordingly, so the choice of lawyer is functionally part of the case's value. Read the full answer →
Can I switch lawyers in the middle of my injury case?
Yes, the right to discharge your lawyer is nearly absolute, the new firm handles the transition, and in the typical arrangement your total fee does not increase because the firms divide the same contingency. The real questions are whether the problem is your lawyer or the timeline, and whether the timing of a switch serves your case. Read the full answer →
Can Silver Key Law represent me remotely or virtually?
Yes, and by design: consultations happen by phone or video, documents are signed electronically, and updates arrive by call, text, and secure email, with mediations now routinely remote as well. What still happens in a room is trial, and that is the point, overhead goes into cases and courtroom preparation rather than a lobby. Read the full answer →
What about medical treatment and medical liens?
The at-fault insurer pays nothing until the end, so interim bills run through your health insurance, PIP or MedPay on your own auto policy, or treatment secured against your eventual recovery. The order you use these in affects how much of your settlement you keep, so it should be planned, not improvised. Read the full answer →
What is a letter of protection, and should I treat under one?
A letter of protection is a written promise that the provider will be paid from your recovery instead of upfront, which opens the door to treatment, surgery included, without insurance or cash. It is a financing tool, not free care: the bill is a real obligation, defense lawyers now attack LOP rates aggressively, and it should be used deliberately. Read the full answer →
How do health insurance and subrogation work?
Usually yes, through subrogation, but Texas law caps most insured plans at the lesser of half your gross recovery or what they actually paid, reduced by a share of your attorney's fees. Self-funded employer plans, known as ERISA plans, escape those limits, so identifying the plan type, and negotiating every payback line, is where net recovery is won. Read the full answer →
What is a demand letter?
A demand formally presents liability, injuries, damages, and the number required to settle, on a deadline, and it is the document that most often decides what a case pays. A demand built like a trial preview, sent at the right moment with the right exhibits, produces either the money or the leverage. Read the full answer →
What is mediation?
Mediation is a confidential settlement day where a neutral mediator shuttles offers between the sides, ordered by Texas courts in nearly every case; the mediator decides nothing, the parties do. Most cases that resolve in litigation resolve at or shortly after mediation, and preparation is what sets the number. Read the full answer →
What is a deposition?
A deposition is sworn pretrial testimony taken by the defense lawyer and recorded word for word, carrying the same force as trial testimony and used later to contradict you. It is won by preparation and discipline: listen to the question, answer only it, never guess, and prepare thoroughly with your lawyer first. Read the full answer →
What is an IME, the defense medical exam, and how do I handle it?
In litigation the defense can obtain an examination of you by a doctor it selects and pays, politely called an IME and accurately called a defense medical exam. Texas rules require a court order or agreement, you are entitled to the report, and the exam is handled with preparation and scrupulous honesty, consistent, never minimized, never amplified. Read the full answer →
02 · 10 Questions
Car Accidents
Who is at fault in a car accident?
Both Arizona and Texas are at-fault (tort) states, meaning the driver who caused the crash is responsible for the resulting harm. Fault is determined from evidence such as the police report, witness statements, photos, traffic laws, and sometimes accident reconstruction. Because both states reduce or bar recovery based on your share of fault, how fault is assigned matters a great deal.
What if the driver who hit me was in a borrowed car?
Insurance generally follows the car, so the owner's policy typically responds to a permitted driver's crash, with the driver's own coverage potentially layering on top. The owner can also be personally liable for negligent entrustment, lending to a driver they knew or should have known was unlicensed, incompetent, or reckless, which is proven through driving records and what the owner knew. Read the full answer →
How do I prove the other driver was texting or distracted?
Texas bans reading, writing, or sending messages behind the wheel under a statewide ban, and the civil proof comes from subpoenaed carrier logs, app and infotainment data, and vehicle telematics, matched to the second of impact. Carriers purge those records on short schedules, so preservation letters have to go out immediately. Read the full answer →
What are my rights if I was hit by a drunk driver in Texas?
Beyond the driver, Texas's Dram Shop Act can make the bar or restaurant that served an obviously intoxicated patron share liability, and the conduct can support exemplary damages on top of compensation. The evidence that proves over-service disappears in days, so these cases reward immediate investigation. Read the full answer →
What are the minimum insurance requirements in Arizona?
Arizona requires minimum liability coverage of 25/50/15: 25,000 dollars for bodily injury to one person, 50,000 dollars per accident for bodily injury, and 15,000 dollars for property damage. These minimums are low and often fail to cover serious injuries, which is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is so valuable.
What are the minimum insurance requirements in Texas?
Texas requires 30/60/25 liability coverage: $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage, and a single ER visit with imaging can consume the per-person limit. The minimums protect drivers from tickets, not people from crashes, which is why UM/UIM and PIP on your own policy matter so much. Read the full answer →
Who is at fault in a left-turn or intersection accident?
Texas law requires a left-turning driver to yield to oncoming traffic close enough to be a hazard, making the turning driver presumptively responsible in most of these collisions. The recurring defense, that the oncoming driver was speeding or ran the light, is answered with reconstruction, signal timing data, and cameras, because intersections are the best-documented real estate in the city. Read the full answer →
What is uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage?
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage pays your injury losses when an at-fault driver has no insurance, and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage applies when the at-fault driver's limits are too low to cover your damages. This is coverage on your own policy, and in both Arizona and Texas it can be a critical source of recovery. Reviewing your own policy is one of the first things a lawyer will do.
How do you prove the other driver was drowsy or fell asleep?
There is no breathalyzer for exhaustion, so fatigue is proven circumstantially: the crash with no braking or evasive action, the drift across the centerline, the work schedule that made sleep impossible, and the phone active until 3 a.m. For commercial drivers the hours-of-service records make the case directly, which is why fatigue crashes get investigated like the serious cases they are. Read the full answer →
Can I sue the bar that overserved the driver who hit me?
Yes, when the proof is there: Texas dram shop law holds a provider liable for serving a customer who was obviously intoxicated to the point of clear danger when that intoxication causes the harm, judged by the customer's appearance at the time of service. Receipts, cameras, staff testimony, and toxicology build it, and all of them evaporate fast. Read the full answer →
What are policy limits, and can I ever recover more than them?
Policy limits cap what the insurer must pay, and in practice they cap most recoveries, which is why identifying every policy is step one. Texas's Stowers doctrine is the exception: an insurer that unreasonably rejects a proper time-limited demand within limits can owe the entire excess judgment, which is why a demand is a weapon, not a letter. Read the full answer →
What if the other driver has no insurance?
You may still recover through your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, which Texas insurers must offer in writing and which typically also covers hit-and-run crashes, plus PIP or MedPay regardless of fault. Your own carrier becomes the adversary in that claim, so it deserves the same care as any other insurance fight. Read the full answer →
What if I was partly at fault for the crash?
Usually yes: under Texas law you can recover as long as you are not more than 50 percent responsible, with your recovery reduced by your percentage of fault. Adjusters routinely overstate your share, which is exactly why fault percentages should be contested, not accepted. In Arizona, pure comparative fault applies instead: you can recover even if you were mostly at fault, with your recovery reduced by your percentage. Read the full answer →
Can they use my not wearing a seatbelt against me in Texas?
Since a 2015 Texas Supreme Court decision, yes: evidence of seatbelt use or nonuse is admissible for apportioning responsibility. But the defense must prove with reliable biomechanical testimony that the belt would have changed your specific injuries, apportionment reduces rather than bars recovery below fifty-one percent, and belted plaintiffs should prove their belt use affirmatively. Read the full answer →
Is the rear driver always at fault in a rear-end collision?
Usually but not automatically: Texas requires drivers to maintain an assured clear distance, so the trailing driver is the presumptive story, but fault must still be proven and defenses get raised. The real fight in rear-end cases is usually the injuries, where adjusters use low visible damage to argue you could not be hurt. Read the full answer →
What should I do after a hit-and-run?
Call the police immediately, write down everything you remember about the vehicle, look for witnesses and nearby cameras, and seek medical care. Report it to your own insurer promptly, because uninsured motorist coverage often applies to hit-and-run crashes. Prompt reporting helps protect that coverage.
What are my rights after a road rage or aggressive driving crash?
Road rage cases carry a trap most people never see: liability insurance excludes intentional acts, so how the case is pleaded, around the driver's reckless and grossly negligent choices, decides whether a policy answers at all. Gross negligence opens punitive damages, the criminal case runs parallel as an evidence engine, and your own uninsured motorist coverage may matter more than theirs. Read the full answer →
How do I get the police crash report for my Texas accident?
The CR-3 crash report is purchased online through TxDOT's Crash Records Information System for a small fee, usually about ten days to two weeks after the crash. Review it for errors early, and remember it is an investigative tool, not the final word on fault. Read the full answer →
What if my vehicle is totaled, and what is diminished value?
You are owed the vehicle's actual cash value immediately before the crash, a number built from comparable sales that you can and often should contest, plus loss-of-use damages while you are without it. If the car was repaired, Texas recognizes a diminished value claim against the at-fault driver's carrier for the resale value the accident history destroyed. Read the full answer →
What are common car accident injuries, and when should I see a doctor?
Crash injuries follow the physics, necks and backs take the whip, shoulders and knees the bracing, heads the sudden stop, and adrenaline hides much of it for hours or days. See a doctor immediately for any red-flag symptom and within a day or two after any real impact, and report every symptom, because the record becomes the case. Read the full answer →
What is a hip injury case worth? Fractures, replacements, and the fall cases
Hip cases arrive from crash forces driving the femur through the joint and from falls, where a broken hip can redirect an older person's entire life, and they are priced on the surgery, the hardware or replacement, and the independence at stake. Replacements carry revision timelines and dislocation risks that belong in the case now, through surgeon testimony. Read the full answer →
Is whiplash a real case? The most common injury, and the most denied
Whiplash is a real injury to real structures, the facet joints, ligaments, and discs of the neck, and for a substantial minority it becomes chronic pain that outlasts every prediction, which is why carriers built entire low-offer programs around the diagnosis. The answers are consistent treatment, objective findings where they exist, and a lawyer willing to try the cases the programs undervalue. Read the full answer →
What is a knee injury case worth? ACL, meniscus, and dashboard knees
Knees are hurt two ways in a crash, driven into the dashboard or torn by the brace-and-twist, injuring the PCL, ACL, and meniscus, and the quiet stakes are long-term because lost meniscus and joint damage put the knee on the road to post-traumatic arthritis. That future, through replacement surgery, is compensable now with surgeon testimony, which is why early offers ignore it. Read the full answer →
What is a shoulder injury case worth? Rotator cuff and labrum tears
Shoulders take the bracing in a crash and pay in torn rotator cuffs, labrums, and biceps tendons, injuries the defense calls age-related wear and the case answers with acute imaging findings, the before-and-after record, and the dominant arm's working life. Value climbs the ladder from therapy through arthroscopy to shoulder replacement, and futures are priced at maximum improvement, not at the first repair. Read the full answer →
What is a broken bone case worth? The 'just a fracture' myth
Insurers price fractures as six weeks in a cast, but real fractures involve surgical hardware, months of rehabilitation, and often future surgeries, and breaks that enter a joint carry the quiet certainty of post-traumatic arthritis years later. Those futures are compensable now through surgeon testimony, which is why the cast-off settlement call is always early. Read the full answer →
What is a herniated disc case worth, and how does the defense fight it?
Disc cases are won and lost on causation: every insurer answers a herniation by calling it pre-existing degeneration, and the response is built from objective radicular findings, before-and-after evidence, and Texas's rule that a defendant takes the victim as found and pays for aggravation. Value follows the treatment ladder, and a surgical recommendation changes the number. Read the full answer →
What are my rights if I was injured as a passenger?
Passengers are almost never at fault, so you can pursue whichever driver caused the crash, or both proportionately, including the friend or family member driving you, whose insurer, not wallet, answers the claim. Multiple injured passengers share per-occurrence policy limits, which makes moving early matter. Read the full answer →
How should I deal with the at-fault driver's insurer?
Report the basic facts if required, but do not give a recorded statement, accept a quick payout, or sign medical releases before talking to a lawyer. The at-fault insurer's interest is to pay as little as possible, and early statements are often used against you.
How are motorcycle accident claims different, and how is rider bias beaten?
Motorcycle cases carry an invisible defendant, the assumption that riders are reckless, and it appears in crash reports, adjuster valuations, and jury boxes. It is beaten with reconstruction of the classic left-turn and lane-change collisions, the helmet and gear questions handled under the modern apportionment rules, and injuries documented at the severity riding actually inflicts. Read the full answer →
Who pays after an Uber or Lyft accident in Texas?
Coverage turns on the driver's app status at impact: Texas law requires at least $1 million once a ride is accepted, and 50/100/25 minimums while the driver is logged on waiting for one. The app timeline data decides which tier applies, so preserving it immediately is the case. Read the full answer →
03 · 7 Questions
Truck & 18-Wheeler Collisions
Why are trucking cases different from car accident cases?
Trucking cases involve federal safety regulations, corporate defendants beyond the driver, far larger insurance policies, and electronic evidence that gets overwritten within days or weeks. The defense often has investigators at the scene within hours, so the injured side has to move just as fast. Read the full answer →
What if I was hit by a company vehicle or delivery van?
When a driver on the job causes a crash, Texas holds the employer responsible, which usually means commercial coverage several times a personal policy, plus direct claims for negligent hiring and entrustment. The fights are over whether the driver was working and which company actually stands behind the van, and both are won with records. Read the full answer →
What are the FMCSA regulations and hours-of-service rules?
Federal law wraps trucking in a rulebook, hours-of-service limits of eleven hours driving, fourteen on duty, and seventy in eight days, drug and alcohol testing with a national Clearinghouse, driver qualification files, and systematic maintenance, because eighty thousand pounds demands one. In litigation every violation is powerful evidence of negligence, and patterns become the case against the company itself. Read the full answer →
What are electronic logging devices and black box data?
Modern trucks record their own crashes: engine modules log speed, braking, and throttle, ELDs track driver hours to the minute, and cameras and telematics watch everything. The data usually decides the case, the trucking company controls all of it, and it can be overwritten in weeks unless a preservation demand lands first. Read the full answer →
What is spoliation and an evidence preservation letter?
A spoliation letter is a formal written demand that the other side preserve specific evidence, video, electronic data, logs, personnel files, converting any later destruction from an accident into a choice with consequences. It goes out in week one because retention cycles run in days, and it demands preservation, not surrender. Read the full answer →
Who can be liable in a truck accident?
Rarely just the driver: behind an 18-wheeler stands a motor carrier answerable for its driver and its own hiring and training failures, plus potentially the trailer owner, the shipper who loaded the cargo, the maintenance shop, and the broker who arranged the haul. Serious cases map every link, because that is where coverage and accountability live. Read the full answer →
Why do trucks carry higher insurance limits?
Federal law requires most interstate carriers to maintain at least $750,000 in liability coverage, rising into the millions for hazardous cargo, because the physics of eighty thousand pounds writes catastrophic bills. Serious fleets carry layered primary and excess policies far beyond the minimums, and finding every layer, and the MCS-90 backstop, is deliberate early work. Read the full answer →
Why do I need to act fast after a truck crash?
Critical evidence such as black box data, ELD records, and dashcam footage can disappear within days or weeks, and the trucking company's investigators are working from the first hours. Acting fast lets your lawyer send preservation letters and secure the evidence before it is lost.
04 · 4 Questions
Pedestrian & Bicycle Accidents
What duties do drivers owe pedestrians and cyclists?
Drivers owe pedestrians statutory duties, including crosswalk right-of-way and the general due care obligation state law imposes, and violations are powerful negligence evidence. Your own auto policy's UM/UIM and PIP coverage follows you on foot, which often rescues cases involving uninsured or fleeing drivers. Read the full answer →
What is the crosswalk law?
Texas drivers must yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk who is on the driver's half of the road or approaching closely, and unmarked crosswalks legally exist at nearly every intersection whether painted or not. Even outside any crosswalk, drivers owe every pedestrian a duty of due care, so crossing mid-block does not forfeit a claim. Read the full answer →
What is the blame-the-victim defense?
Nobody comes out of nowhere; the phrase means the driver wasn't looking, and the answer is reconstruction: sightlines, lighting, speed from the physical evidence, standard reaction times, and the phone records that so often explain the appearing act. Texas law also holds drivers to a due-care duty toward every pedestrian, and judges children by a child's standard. Read the full answer →
What injuries and compensation are common in these cases?
Texas law gives cyclists the rights and duties of vehicle operators, so drivers must respect your lane position, and Houston's safe passing ordinance requires clearance when overtaking. Your own auto policy's UM/UIM and PIP coverage follows you onto the bike, and the crash-mode evidence, dooring, right hooks, left crosses, decides fault. Read the full answer →
05 · 5 Questions
Premises Liability & Slip and Fall
What must I prove in a slip and fall or premises case?
Possibly: as a customer you generally must prove the owner knew or should have known about the dangerous condition and failed to make it safe or warn you, which makes notice, not the fall itself, the battleground. Surveillance video and sweep logs get overwritten fast, so preservation demands need to go out immediately. Read the full answer →
What can we do if our child was injured at daycare?
Texas licenses child care around minimum standards, staff-to-child ratios by age, supervision requirements, safe sleep, playground rules, and a facility's inspection history is public record. When a child is hurt because those standards were ignored, the standards become the measure of the negligence, the child's own claim is preserved through minority, and settlements require court approval designed to protect the child. Read the full answer →
I was injured at a hotel. Who is responsible, the brand or the owner?
Hotel guests are invitees owed the law's highest premises duty, and claims run from falls and failed fixtures to pools, shuttles, and security. The twist is the defendant: the brand on the sign, the LLC on the deed, and the management company are usually different parties, and the incident report and video are on short clocks. Read the full answer →
How does my status on the property affect my case?
Both Arizona and Texas classify visitors as invitees, licensees, or trespassers, and the duty owed depends on that status. Invitees, such as customers, are owed the highest duty, including a duty to inspect for and fix or warn of hazards. Licensees, such as social guests, are owed a duty to warn of known dangers, while trespassers are generally owed only a duty not to be injured willfully or through gross negligence.
Who is responsible for injuries in a parking lot?
Parking lots injure people as premises, the pothole, the wheel stop, the unlit corner, and as roadways, the pedestrian struck between parked cars, with both theories sometimes running in one case. The responsible party, owner, tenant, or management company, is allocated by leases and maintenance contracts that discovery obtains, which is why every plausible entity gets noticed early. Read the full answer →
Who is liable for a swimming pool accident or child drowning?
Liability follows control: apartment complexes, hotels, HOAs, and homeowners owe duties built from Texas pool enclosure standards, fences, self-latching gates, compliant drains, and the attractive nuisance doctrine can protect even a child who wandered in uninvited. The gate latch, the fence line, and prior complaints are the case, and they get repaired fast. Read the full answer →
What is the difference between actual and constructive knowledge?
Knowledge decides Texas premises cases: you must show the store actually knew of the hazard, because employees created it or it was reported, or constructively knew because it existed long enough that reasonable inspection would have found it. Time on the floor is proven with details, dried edges, track marks, video, and sweep logs, gathered before they vanish. Read the full answer →
I signed a gym waiver. Can I still sue for my injury?
Often yes: Texas enforces waivers only when they satisfy fair notice, the release of negligence stated in express, conspicuous terms, and courts have held that even a valid waiver does not reach gross negligence. Broken equipment from skipped maintenance, unqualified staff, and hazards far from the workout itself frequently fall outside what the paper you signed can protect. Read the full answer →
Can I still recover if I was partly careless?
Usually yes: you should have seen it is a comparative fault argument, which reduces recovery rather than erasing it unless your share exceeds half. The stronger open-and-obvious defense has real exceptions recognized by the Texas Supreme Court, including hazards a person had no reasonable choice but to cross, and conspicuity itself is a fact fight. Read the full answer →
What evidence matters in premises cases?
Incident reports, surveillance video, photographs of the hazard, witness statements, maintenance and cleaning logs, and prior complaints are all important. Surveillance video in particular can be overwritten quickly, so prompt action and a preservation request can be critical.
What are my rights after a dog bite in Texas? The one-bite rule, explained honestly
Texas's one-bite rule means an owner who knew or should have known the dog was dangerous is strictly liable, and even without prior knowledge, negligent handling, the broken fence, the ignored leash ordinance, supports a claim. Recovery usually comes from homeowner's or renter's insurance rather than the owner personally, and children, the most frequent victims, carry scarring claims that are substantially future claims. Read the full answer →
Can I sue my apartment complex after an injury or an assault?
Tenants and guests can pursue classic premises claims for dangerous conditions like broken stairs and railings, and under Texas law a complex can be liable for a criminal attack that was foreseeable from prior crime it knew or should have known about. Police call records and gate and camera work orders are the proof, and both get purged. Read the full answer →
06 · 3 Questions
Catastrophic Injuries
What is a catastrophic injury?
A catastrophic injury permanently alters how a person lives or works, and the case changes with it: most of the damages sit decades in the future and must be proven through life care planners, vocational experts, and economists. Settling before the lifetime trajectory is professionally mapped means settling for a fraction of the loss. Read the full answer →
How are eye injury and vision loss cases handled?
Vision cases are measured in what the eyes no longer permit, the depth perception that operated machinery, the visual field that made driving safe, the commercial license that cannot be renewed, with airbags, glass, tools, and chemicals the common mechanisms. Even one functioning eye lost is a permanent impairment with lifelong monitoring and real occupational consequences, priced accordingly. Read the full answer →
How are amputation and limb loss cases valued and built?
An amputation case is priced on the lifetime rather than the surgery: prosthetics replaced on cycles measured in a few years, multiples of them for different tasks, residual limb care, phantom pain, and the career redirected, all inventoried in a life care plan and reduced to present value. The recovery is funded once, which is why the futures are never left unpriced. Read the full answer →
How are spinal cord injury cases handled, and what do they require?
A spinal cord injury reorganizes a life around the level and completeness of the damage, and the case is built to the same scale: lifetime attendant care, equipment cycles, home modification, and anticipated complications, proven through a life care plan and an economist because the recovery is funded once. Published registries put lifetime costs in the millions, and every liability source gets examined. Read the full answer →
How do I prove a traumatic brain injury when the scans look normal?
Most concussions never appear on CT, which detects bleeding rather than injured function, so brain injury cases are proven differently: symptoms documented from day one, neuropsychological testing that measures deficits objectively, and before-and-after witnesses. 'Mild' describes the initial classification, not the consequences, and no loss of consciousness is required. Read the full answer →
Why do catastrophic cases need life-care planning and economic experts?
A life care plan is the priced inventory of everything a catastrophic injury will require for life, attendant care, future surgeries, therapies, equipment on replacement cycles, home modifications, built by certified planners on physician foundations and reduced to present value by an economist. It converts an unimaginable future into arithmetic a jury can award, and family-provided care belongs in it at market rates. Read the full answer →
What future damages can be recovered?
Texas law demands reasonable probability rather than certainty: treating physicians establish the future medical care, economists translate lost earning capacity and life care needs into present value, and permanency testimony lets the jury value future pain and impairment. Past damages are receipts; future damages are the projection war, which is why early settlements sell them cheap. Read the full answer →
07 · 4 Questions
Wrongful Death
Who can bring a wrongful death claim in Texas?
Only the surviving spouse, children, and parents may bring the wrongful death claim, by statute; siblings and grandparents are excluded, and any one beneficiary may file for the benefit of all. The estate holds a separate survival claim, and if no beneficiary files within three months, the executor generally must. Read the full answer →
What is the difference between a wrongful death action and a survival action?
Texas creates two claims when negligence takes a life: the wrongful death claim belongs to the spouse, children, and parents for their own losses, while the survival claim is the case the deceased would have had, belonging to the estate and covering their conscious pain, medical bills, and funeral expenses. Different owners, different damages, usually filed together. Read the full answer →
What damages are recoverable in wrongful death cases?
The surviving spouse, children, and parents can recover their own losses, including lost financial support, lost companionship, and mental anguish, while the estate's separate survival claim recovers the deceased's own damages such as pre-death pain and medical and funeral expenses. Two claims, different owners, usually pursued together. Read the full answer →
What is the deadline for a wrongful death claim?
Generally two years from the date of death, not the injury that caused it, but the estate's survival claim rides the deceased's own clock, minor children's claims carry tolling of their own, medical negligence deaths follow a harsher rule, and government defendants impose notice deadlines measured in months. The safe course is an individualized calculation, early. Read the full answer →
08 · 7 Questions
Medical Malpractice
What is medical malpractice and what must I prove?
You must prove through qualified experts that a provider breached the accepted standard of care and that the breach caused real harm, and Texas layers strict procedure on top: 60-day pre-suit notice, an expert report within 120 days of each defendant's answer, a two-year deadline, and caps on noneconomic damages. These cases are screened hard because the statute punishes weak ones. Read the full answer →
How do nursing home neglect and abuse cases work in Texas?
Nursing home cases are recognized by their patterns, falls, pressure injuries, dehydration, medication errors, unexplained decline, and most trace to understaffing a facility chose. In Texas they generally run as health care liability claims through the state's expert-report gates and caps, the facility's state inspection history is public evidence, and photographs plus a records demand preserve what charting will later dispute. Read the full answer →
What expert requirements apply in Arizona?
Arizona requires a preliminary expert opinion affidavit when expert testimony is needed, served with the early initial disclosures, and separate rules set strict qualifications requiring the standard-of-care expert to practice in the same specialty as the defendant. Failure to provide a qualifying affidavit can lead to dismissal, though courts often allow a chance to cure. These rules are technical traps for the unwary.
What expert requirements apply in Texas?
Within 120 days of each defendant's answer, a Texas medical malpractice plaintiff must serve a qualified expert's report detailing the standard of care, the breach, and causation as to that defendant, or face dismissal with prejudice plus the defendant's attorney fees. It is why these cases are physician-screened before filing, not investigated afterward. Read the full answer →
Are medical malpractice damages capped?
Yes: noneconomic damages are capped at $250,000 per claimant against all physicians combined, plus $250,000 per institution up to two, a $750,000 ceiling unchanged since 2003, while economic damages are constitutionally uncapped. Death cases carry a separate overall cap, set at $500,000 in 1977 dollars and indexed for inflation to well above $2 million today. Read the full answer →
Is there a separate cap in a Texas medical malpractice death case?
Yes. In a Texas health-care-liability wrongful death or survival case, a separate all-damages cap applies after the non-economic cap. It was originally set at 500,000 dollars in 1977 dollars and is indexed annually to the Consumer Price Index, so by 2025 to 2026 it has grown to over 2.5 million dollars. Importantly, this cap does not limit past or future medical, hospital, or custodial care expenses, and economic damages generally cannot be capped.
Are the deadlines shorter for medical malpractice?
Effectively yes, and harsher: the clock runs two years from the negligence or the completion of treatment, not from discovery of the harm, with only a narrow constitutional safety valve for injuries impossible to discover in time. A ten-year statute of repose stands behind everything, government hospitals compress notice into months, and the screening a case needs consumes months of the clock. Read the full answer →
Do you handle birth injuries, surgical errors, and misdiagnosis?
Yes: birth injury cases ask whether harm to a baby, oxygen deprivation, a delayed cesarean, a brachial plexus injury, resulted from care below the standard, and they are proven through the monitoring strips, cord gases, and timing records of the delivery itself. Texas preserves the child's own claim into adulthood, but the parents' claim for the child's medical expenses runs on the ordinary two-year clock. Read the full answer →
09 · 4 Questions
Product Liability
What is product liability and strict liability?
Possibly, and without proving carelessness: Texas strict liability holds manufacturers responsible for manufacturing, design, and marketing defects that render a product unreasonably dangerous and cause injury. The product itself is the central evidence, so preserving it untouched, before an insurer scraps it or the manufacturer asks for it back, is the case. Read the full answer →
My airbag didn't deploy, or my seatbelt failed. Do I have a case against the carmaker?
Possibly, under the crashworthiness doctrine: manufacturers must build vehicles that protect occupants in foreseeable crashes, and when an airbag fails to deploy, a belt fails, a seatback collapses, or a roof crushes, the maker can owe for the injuries the failure added. The vehicle is the proof, and the salvage yard is the trap. Read the full answer →
What are the three types of product defects?
Texas recognizes three defect theories: manufacturing, where your unit deviated from its own specifications; design, where the whole product line was unreasonably dangerous and a safer alternative design was economically and technologically feasible; and marketing, where warnings or instructions failed. Theory selection drives the experts, the discovery, and the defenses, and one failure can support more than one. Read the full answer →
Who can be liable in the chain of distribution?
Everyone who placed the product in the stream of commerce is a potential defendant, manufacturer, component maker, assembler, distributor, retailer, though Texas shields nonmanufacturing sellers unless a statutory exception applies, such as participating in design, altering the product, actual knowledge of the defect, or a manufacturer that is insolvent or beyond the court's reach. Naming the chain early and sorting it in discovery is the method. Read the full answer →
What about product recalls?
A recall neither wins your case nor bars it, since defect and causation must still be proven in your incident, but it is powerful evidence of what the manufacturer knew and when. The trap is the remedy itself: recalls want the product back, and the product is your proof, so photograph, document, and consult before participating. Read the full answer →
10 · 7 Questions
Maritime & Offshore Injuries
What is the Jones Act?
Seamen are covered not by workers' comp but by the Jones Act, which allows negligence suits against the employer with a famously light causation burden, plus unseaworthiness claims and no-fault maintenance and cure. Status questions decide everything, and offshore employers move fast with statements and releases, so injured workers should move faster. Read the full answer →
Who qualifies as a seaman?
Seaman status decides which universe of remedies an offshore worker lives in: the test asks whether your work contributed to a vessel's mission and whether your connection to a vessel or fleet was substantial in both duration, roughly thirty percent of your time, and nature, meaning genuinely sea-based work. It is fought with dispatch logs and time-on-vessel evidence, not job titles. Read the full answer →
What are maintenance and cure?
Maintenance and cure is the no-fault duty a maritime employer owes a seaman injured or falling ill in service of the vessel: a daily living allowance, medical care until maximum improvement, and unearned wages, owed regardless of fault with doubts resolved in the seaman's favor. Willful nonpayment exposes the company beyond the benefits themselves. Read the full answer →
What is unseaworthiness?
Unseaworthiness is the vessel owner's duty to furnish a vessel, equipment, and crew reasonably fit for their intended purpose, a claim about condition rather than care: a defective winch or undermanned deck breaches it even if the owner was diligent. It runs alongside Jones Act negligence, sometimes against a different defendant, though punitive damages are not available on it. Read the full answer →
What is the LHWCA?
The Longshore Act is the federal no-fault system for land-based maritime workers, longshoremen, ship repairers, terminal and shipyard workers, paying disability benefits generally around two-thirds of average weekly wages plus medical care without proof of fault. It is not a lawsuit, but the Act preserves a full negligence claim against a vessel whose negligence caused the injury. Read the full answer →
What is the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act?
OCSLA treats fixed platforms on the Outer Continental Shelf as federal islands: federal law governs, the adjacent state's law fills the gaps as surrogate federal law, and injured resource workers receive Longshore Act benefits through the statute. Because a fixed platform is not a vessel while jack-ups and drillships are, the classification fights decide which remedies apply. Read the full answer →
How is maritime law different from ordinary injury and workers' comp claims?
Maritime cases run on federal admiralty law rather than state tort law: pure comparative fault with no 51 percent bar, a general three-year limitations period instead of two, remedies like maintenance and cure and unseaworthiness with no land equivalent, and the saving-to-suitors right to file in state court with a jury. Handling one under land-law assumptions forfeits real money. Read the full answer →
11 · 8 Questions
Other Practice Areas
Do you handle aviation accidents?
Two investigations begin after a crash and only one is yours: the NTSB determines probable cause for safety purposes, but its conclusions cannot decide a civil case and it compensates no one. Family claims against operators, maintenance providers, and manufacturers need independent investigation, and the wreckage, logs, and data will not wait. Read the full answer →
Do you handle burn injuries?
Burn cases pair some of medicine's hardest treatment with damages Texas law takes seriously, disfigurement, impairment, future reconstructive surgery, and their causes, apartment fires, industrial flash fires, defective products, each point to different responsible parties. The origin scene and the failed device are the case, and both disappear fast. Read the full answer →
Do you handle industrial, plant, and refinery injuries?
Yes. Workers at plants, refineries, and industrial sites face serious hazards from explosions, fires, falls, toxic exposure, and equipment failures. Even where workers' compensation applies, third parties such as contractors, equipment manufacturers, or property owners may be liable, which can open up additional recovery beyond comp benefits.
Can I sue if I was injured on the job in Texas?
Often yes: Texas is the only state where workers' comp is optional, and a non-subscriber employer can be sued directly while barred from its best defenses under Texas law. Even with comp, full third-party claims survive against contractors, drivers, and equipment makers, which is where serious plant and refinery cases are usually won. Read the full answer →
Do you handle offshore injuries?
Yes. Offshore injuries on vessels, rigs, and platforms may fall under the Jones Act, unseaworthiness, the LHWCA, or OCSLA depending on the worker's status and location. Because the right legal framework dramatically affects recovery, these cases require careful early analysis.
Do you handle insurance claims and bad faith?
When your own insurer denies or drags a claim it owes, Texas gives you teeth: a common-law duty of good faith plus consumer-protection insurance statutes, whose violations can add statutory interest, attorney's fees, and in knowing cases up to trebled damages. Build the paper trail in writing and get the denial reviewed before accepting it. Read the full answer →
Do you handle commercial litigation?
Yes: broken contracts, fraud, fiduciary breaches, partnership and LLC disputes, and tortious interference are trial cases about money and proof. Texas fee-shifting on contract claims changes the settlement math, damages models must survive expert scrutiny, and the same trial readiness that moves carriers moves corporate defendants. Read the full answer →
Do you handle sexual abuse cases?
A civil claim belongs to the survivor, not the state, and can hold both the abuser and the institutions that enabled the abuse financially accountable. Texas gives survivors of childhood abuse decades to file, recent legislation has extended those windows further, and since 2025 no settlement can lawfully require a survivor's silence. Read the full answer →
Do you handle mishandling of human remains?
Texas law treats this seriously: the next of kin hold the legal right to control a loved one's remains, and the Texas Supreme Court has held families can recover mental anguish damages for negligent mishandling, with no contract required. Recent Texas juries have returned substantial verdicts, and a regulatory complaint can proceed alongside the civil claim. Read the full answer →
12 · 20 Questions
Arizona Injury Claims
How long do I have to file a personal injury lawsuit in Arizona?
Arizona generally allows two years to file an injury suit, but claims against public entities require a formal notice of claim within 180 days and suit within one year, one of the harshest traps in either state. Arizona also runs pure comparative fault with no 51 percent bar, and its constitution forbids caps on injury damages. Read the full answer →
Who can bring a wrongful death claim in Arizona?
Arizona's statute places the claim with the surviving spouse, children, parents or guardian, or the personal representative on their behalf, in a single action for all beneficiaries, with damages constitutionally uncapped and proceeds shielded from the deceased's creditors. The sharpest contrast with Texas: Arizona's survival action excludes the deceased's own pain and suffering. Read the full answer →
How does fault work in an Arizona injury case?
Arizona runs pure comparative fault: an injured person can recover even if they were mostly to blame, with the award reduced by their percentage of fault. There is no 51 percent bar like Texas, and the percentages are ultimately a jury question, not an adjuster's decree. Read the full answer →
What are Arizona's minimum car insurance requirements?
Arizona's legal minimum is 25/50/15: $25,000 per injured person, $50,000 per crash for everyone hurt, and $15,000 for property damage. Insurers must offer uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and you can only turn it down in writing; a serious crash exhausts the minimums quickly, so finding every layer of coverage is part of the job. Read the full answer →
What are my rights after a dog bite in Arizona?
Arizona dog owners are strictly liable for bites that happen in public or while the victim is lawfully on private property, with no need to prove the dog had ever bitten before. The strict-liability claim must be brought within one year, a much shorter window than most injury claims, so early action matters more here than almost anywhere else. Read the full answer →
How do slip and fall cases work in Arizona?
Arizona premises cases turn on notice, but the state's mode-of-operation rule is the difference-maker: when a self-service business model foreseeably creates hazards, like produce on a grocery floor, the victim does not have to prove the store knew about the specific spill. Falls on government property carry the 180-day notice trap. Read the full answer →
Does Arizona cap damages in injury cases?
Arizona's constitution forbids laws capping the damages recoverable for injury or death, so there is no medical malpractice cap and no pain-and-suffering cap. Punitive damages carry a demanding standard rather than a fixed cap. The practical ceilings are policy limits, collectability, and the fault percentage assigned to the victim. Read the full answer →
What should motorcycle riders know about Arizona injury claims?
Arizona riders can recover even when assigned a share of fault, thanks to pure comparative fault. Adults are not required to wear helmets, and lane filtering between stopped cars is legal within strict limits: stopped traffic, a posted limit of 45 or less, rider speed of 15 or less, on roads with two or more lanes the same direction. Splitting moving traffic remains illegal. Read the full answer →
How do medical malpractice cases work in Arizona?
Arizona requires a sworn preliminary opinion from a qualified expert early in a malpractice case, and the expert generally must practice in the same specialty as the defendant, board certified if the defendant is. There is no damage cap, because Arizona's constitution forbids one, which is a major difference from Texas. Read the full answer →
Can I sue if I was hurt at work in Arizona?
Arizona workers' comp is a trade: no-fault benefits from the employer, no lawsuit against the employer. But comp never pays for pain and suffering or full wages, and claims against third parties, negligent drivers, other contractors, property owners, equipment makers, survive in full. The comp carrier's payback lien on that recovery is real and negotiable. Read the full answer →
How do I bring an injury claim against a city, county, or the State of Arizona?
An injury claim against an Arizona city, county, school district, or the state requires a formal notice of claim within 180 days that names a specific settlement dollar amount and is served on the right official, then a lawsuit within one year instead of the usual two. Courts dismiss claims for missing any piece of that checklist. Read the full answer →
Who is liable for a swimming pool accident or child drowning in Arizona?
Arizona requires residential pools to be enclosed by a barrier at least five feet tall that a child cannot climb or slip through, with self-closing, self-latching gates, and most Valley cities impose stricter rules. A violated barrier rule is powerful evidence of negligence against homeowners, apartment complexes, HOAs, and hotels, and young children who wander in are protected, not blamed. Read the full answer →
Can a bar be sued for a drunk driving crash in Arizona?
Arizona law lets injury victims sue licensed bars, restaurants, and liquor stores that served an obviously intoxicated person or a minor who then caused harm. The evidence, receipts, surveillance, toxicology math, disappears fast, and the bar's commercial policy often dwarfs the drunk driver's coverage, which is why these cases get investigated immediately. Read the full answer →
What are my rights after being hit by a car as a pedestrian in Arizona?
Arizona drivers must yield to pedestrians in marked and unmarked crosswalks and must use due care to avoid hitting anyone on foot, anywhere. Because Arizona runs pure comparative fault, a jaywalking argument reduces a claim instead of ending it, and a pedestrian's own auto policy, through UM and UIM coverage, often pays even though they were walking. Read the full answer →
What are my rights after a bicycle accident in Arizona?
Arizona drivers must leave at least three feet when passing a cyclist, and riders keep full injury rights when a driver falls short. The detail most cyclists miss: UM and UIM coverage on your own auto policy typically covers you on your bike, which matters because the drivers who hit cyclists so often carry minimum limits or none. Read the full answer →
How do injury claims for children work in Arizona?
Arizona pauses most injury deadlines during childhood, requires court approval for minors' settlements, and routes larger recoveries into protected accounts until eighteen. But not every deadline waits for a child, government-claim notices run on their own short fuses, and the child's claim and the family's medical-bills claim are separate pieces that both need building. Read the full answer →
How do UM and UIM claims work in Arizona?
UM and UIM claims run against your own insurer, which stands in the at-fault driver's shoes and fights like it. The traps that void coverage are procedural: settling with the at-fault driver without your insurer's written consent, waiting too long, or assuming the friendly logo means a friendly claim. Arizona's strong good-faith law is the counterweight. Read the full answer →
What makes Arizona truck accident cases different?
Truck cases run on different rails: federal safety rules on driver fatigue, maintenance, and qualifications; insurance policies that federal law pushes to $750,000 and often far higher; and electronic evidence, driver logs, dashcams, telematics, that vanishes on a schedule. The preservation letter in the first week is often worth more than anything that happens later. Read the full answer →
What counts as insurance bad faith in Arizona?
Arizona reads a duty of good faith into every policy and enforces it with teeth: an insurer that denies without a reasonable basis, delays without justification, or refuses to fairly investigate can owe damages beyond the policy limits, sometimes including punitive damages. The duty runs from your own insurer to you, which is exactly where UM, UIM, and property claims live. Read the full answer →
Can I sue a business or landlord after being attacked on their property in Arizona?
Arizona businesses and landlords owe reasonable security where crime is foreseeable, and a record of prior incidents, police calls, broken gates, and dead lighting proves both the danger and the neglect. The defense will try to shift all fault onto the criminal; the case is built around the failures that made the attack possible and the insurance that stands behind the property. Read the full answer →
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Submit Your CaseThis page is attorney advertising and is provided for general informational purposes only. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and may not reflect the most current legal developments. Laws, deadlines, and damage caps differ between Arizona and Texas and depend on the specific facts of your case. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. For advice about your situation, contact Silver Key Law for a free consultation. Responsible attorney: Richard Ryder Haag, licensed in Arizona and Texas. Principal office: Houston, Texas. Full disclaimer.