Texas Personal Injury Laws 2026

Texas Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury

Texas gives injured plaintiffs two years to file a personal injury lawsuit under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code (CPRC) §16.003. The limitations period runs from the date the cause of action accrues — typically the date of the injury. Texas is the most populous state in the continental United States and generates an enormous volume of personal injury litigation annually, from freeway crashes on I-10 through San Antonio to petrochemical plant explosions along the Gulf Coast to offshore oilfield accidents in the Permian Basin. Every one of those cases, regardless of the severity of injury or the financial sophistication of the parties, is subject to the same two-year filing clock.

Missing the two-year deadline is nearly always fatal to a claim. Texas courts will grant summary judgment to a defendant who raises limitations as a defense, and there is no discretionary equitable extension. The only exceptions are those recognized in the statute itself or by settled Texas case law — the discovery rule, fraudulent concealment, and statutory tolling provisions for specific classes of plaintiffs.

The Discovery Rule

Texas recognizes a discovery rule that delays the start of the limitations period when the nature of the injury is "inherently undiscoverable" and the evidence of the wrong "objectively verifiable." Both elements must be satisfied; the discovery rule does not apply merely because a plaintiff did not know about the injury. In toxic chemical exposure cases near the Beaumont-Port Arthur industrial corridor, for example, a worker who develops occupational lung disease from years of refinery exposure may argue that the injury was inherently undiscoverable until a physician made the connection. Texas courts scrutinize these claims carefully, and plaintiffs relying on the discovery rule should expect rigorous challenge at the summary judgment stage.

Claims Against Texas Government Entities: The TTCA

The Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA), codified at CPRC §101.001 et seq., governs personal injury and wrongful death claims against the State of Texas, state agencies, counties, municipalities, and other governmental units. The TTCA carves out limited exceptions to government immunity, permitting suits for bodily injury, death, or property damage arising from the use of publicly owned motor vehicles or from a condition or use of real or tangible personal property.

The TTCA also caps recovery against government defendants. Personal injury and death claims against a governmental unit are capped at $250,000 per person and $500,000 per single occurrence. Property damage is capped at $100,000 per occurrence. A family that suffers multiple fatalities in a TxDOT-related crash on I-35 near Austin faces a combined cap of $500,000 regardless of how many family members are killed or how severe the negligence. Punitive damages cannot be recovered from governmental entities under the TTCA.

Tolling for Minors and Incapacity

Under CPRC §16.001, the two-year limitations period is tolled for plaintiffs who were minors or of unsound mind at the time the cause of action accrued. For a minor, the limitations period does not begin until the disability is removed — generally, the plaintiff's 18th birthday — giving the now-adult plaintiff two years from that date to file. A child seriously injured in a Dallas school bus accident at age 12 has until age 20, not age 14, to file. The tolling provision does not extend the TTCA's six-month notice requirement for government claims, however; a parent or guardian should provide notice on behalf of a minor injured by a government entity as promptly as possible.

Modified Comparative Negligence: Texas's 51% Bar

Texas uses modified comparative negligence under CPRC §33.001 through §33.013. If the jury finds the plaintiff 51% or more at fault for the injury, the plaintiff is barred from all recovery. At 50% or less, the plaintiff's award is reduced proportionally by the plaintiff's fault share. A plaintiff found 25% at fault in a $1,000,000 verdict recovers $750,000.

Texas's proportionate responsibility statute also permits — and requires in some circumstances — the allocation of fault to responsible third parties and to settling parties. A defendant who believes that a non-party entity is responsible for part of the harm can designate that entity as a "responsible third party" under CPRC §33.004 with court permission; the jury then apportions fault among all identified responsible parties, including those not at the table. This mechanism is particularly significant in Texas's major trucking and oil-and-gas industries: an oil company defendant in a Permian Basin wellsite injury might designate the drilling contractor, the service company, and an equipment manufacturer as responsible third parties, potentially reducing the remaining defendants' aggregate fault share substantially.

Oilfield and Energy Sector Injuries

Texas is the nation's largest oil and gas producer, and oilfield injuries are a major category of serious personal injury and wrongful death claims in districts stretching from Midland-Odessa in the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast refineries in Harris and Jefferson counties. Oilfield injury cases often involve multiple defendants — the well operator, drilling contractor, completion service company, equipment manufacturer, and sometimes the landowner — each of whom may argue that another party bears primary fault. Federal OSHA regulations applicable to oil and gas operations, API standards, and operator safety programs all become relevant in the liability analysis. Medical helicopter transport from remote Permian Basin drill sites to the trauma centers in Midland or Odessa can itself generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in air transport and treatment costs before any surgical procedures begin.

Trucking and Freight Corridor Claims

Texas sits at the intersection of three of the nation's most heavily traveled commercial freight corridors: I-10 (running east-west from El Paso to Beaumont), I-20 (Dallas to Midland), and I-35 (the NAFTA superhighway running from the Mexican border at Laredo through San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas to the Oklahoma state line). Commercial trucking accidents on these corridors generate substantial personal injury litigation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations — hours-of-service limits, electronic logging device mandates, post-accident drug and alcohol testing — impose additional discovery burdens and potential liability theories on top of standard state-law negligence. A trucking company that fails to preserve electronic logging data after a fatal crash on I-35 near Waco faces spoliation sanctions in Texas state court, which can shift the evidentiary landscape materially.

Texas Tort Reform: Medical Malpractice Caps

Texas enacted landmark civil justice reform in 2003 that fundamentally restructured medical malpractice litigation in the state. The Texas Medical Liability Act (TMLA), codified primarily at CPRC Chapter 74, imposed non-economic damage caps, mandatory expert report requirements, and other procedural changes that dramatically reduced the volume of med mal litigation in the years following enactment.

The $250,000 cap applies separately to each defendant healthcare provider, but the total non-economic recovery per claimant is limited to $500,000 across all defendants. A case involving two negligent physicians and a hospital — in theory $750,000 in per-defendant caps — is still limited to $500,000 in total non-economic damages for a single claimant. Economic damages (medical expenses past and future, lost earnings capacity, cost of future care) carry no statutory ceiling and represent the primary avenue for large recoveries in catastrophic med mal cases involving birth injuries, surgical errors, or anesthesia mistakes at Houston-area hospitals or the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Expert Report Requirement

A Texas medical malpractice plaintiff must serve an expert report on each defendant healthcare provider within 120 days of filing the original petition. The report must provide a fair summary of the expert's opinions on the applicable standard of care, the manner in which the care provided failed to meet that standard, and the causal relationship between that failure and the claimed injury. Failure to serve a compliant report on any defendant within 120 days results in mandatory dismissal of the claim against that defendant with prejudice and an award of attorney's fees. Texas courts strictly enforce this requirement; an expert report that is vague or conclusory can be challenged by a motion to dismiss, and the plaintiff is given only one opportunity to cure deficiencies.

Punitive Damages in Texas

Outside the medical malpractice context, Texas caps punitive damages under CPRC §41.008. The cap is the greater of $200,000 or two times the amount of economic damages awarded plus an amount equal to non-economic damages, up to $750,000. In a case where the jury awards $100,000 in economic damages and $400,000 in non-economic damages, punitive damages cannot exceed $600,000 (2 × $100,000 + $400,000). Texas requires clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with fraud, malice, or gross negligence to recover punitive damages at all.

Auto Insurance and Personal Injury Claims in Texas

Texas is an at-fault (tort) state. The driver who causes a crash bears financial responsibility for the other party's injuries and losses. Texas raised its minimum liability coverage requirements effective 2023 to 30/60/25: $30,000 per person for bodily injury, $60,000 per occurrence for bodily injury, and $25,000 for property damage. These minimums remain relatively low against the medical costs common in serious crash injuries at major Houston trauma centers like Memorial Hermann or Ben Taub Hospital.

PIP and Uninsured Motorist Coverage

Texas requires insurers to offer personal injury protection (PIP) coverage of at least $2,500; policyholders may reject it in writing. PIP pays for medical expenses and certain lost-income costs of the policyholder and passengers regardless of fault — useful for covering immediate post-accident treatment while the third-party claim is evaluated. Uninsured motorist coverage must also be offered but may be rejected. Given the volume of uninsured drivers on Texas roads — particularly in border communities near El Paso and Laredo — and the sheer scale of commercial traffic, carrying adequate UM and UIM limits is a practical imperative for Texas drivers.

Extreme Heat and Summer Injury Patterns

Texas's brutal summer heat creates injury patterns not seen in most other states. Heat-related illness claims arise in construction settings — ironworkers, concrete finishers, and roofers working on Houston and Dallas commercial projects during periods of sustained 100°F+ temperatures. Employers who fail to provide adequate water, shade, and rest breaks may face OSHA liability and common-law negligence claims. Defective vehicle air conditioning that leads to heat stroke for trapped children or elderly passengers generates products liability theories against vehicle manufacturers. A personal injury attorney handling serious heat-related injury claims in Texas must be conversant with OSHA Heat Illness Prevention guidelines and the Texas Workforce Commission's occupational safety standards.

Frequently Asked Questions