What kinds of compensation can I recover in a Texas injury case?
- Texas Attorney
- Yale B.A. · University of Houston Law Center J.D.
- Habla español
- Updated October 1, 2026
Texas law allows recovery for both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include medical bills, future medical care, lost wages, and lost earning capacity. Non-economic damages include physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, and physical impairment. In cases involving especially reckless conduct, exemplary (punitive) damages may also be available. Which apply depends on your facts — we'll walk through them with you.
Tell me what happened
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Two families of damages, past and future
Texas sorts compensation into economic damages — money that has a receipt or a paycheck behind it — and non-economic damages, which compensate harm that is real but has no invoice. Both are recoverable for what has already happened and for what is reasonably probable going forward, and the future half is frequently the larger one.
Economic damages
Past medical expenses. Texas limits this to what was actually paid or incurred, not the sticker price on a hospital statement. A $40,000 billed charge that a health plan settled for $9,000 supports the smaller number. This is why running care through insurance usually helps you rather than hurting you.
Future medical care. Injections, ongoing therapy, a recommended surgery, revision of a hardware implant years out, home modifications, attendant care. Proving it takes a physician willing to state what is reasonably probable and what it costs — not a guess.
Lost wages. Documented income you did not earn: hours missed, shifts covered by someone else, PTO you had to burn.
Lost earning capacity. A different claim, and people leave it on the table. This is the diminished ability to earn going forward, and you can have it even while working. A welder with a permanent overhead-lifting restriction, a nurse who can no longer take floor shifts, a driver who loses a CDL medical card — each has a capacity claim whether or not this month's paycheck changed.
Out-of-pocket costs. Mileage to appointments, prescriptions, braces and equipment, household help you had to hire. Small individually, meaningful in aggregate, and almost always undocumented because nobody kept the receipts.
Property damage — your vehicle, and the belongings in it — is a separate claim that usually settles on its own timeline.
Non-economic damages, as the statute names them
The Texas statute lists them, and the list is broader than most people assume: physical pain and suffering; mental or emotional pain or anguish; loss of consortium; disfigurement; physical impairment; loss of companionship and society; inconvenience; loss of enjoyment of life; injury to reputation; and other non-pecuniary losses.
Two of these are routinely undervalued. Physical impairment is not pain — it is the loss of the ability to do things, and it is compensable separately. Loss of consortium belongs to your spouse, as a claim of their own, for what the injury did to the marriage relationship.
There is no cap on non-economic damages in an ordinary Texas injury case. The $250,000 figure people have heard about comes from the medical malpractice statute and has nothing to do with a car wreck or a work injury.
Exemplary damages, honestly described
Where the conduct was grossly negligent, malicious or fraudulent, exemplary damages may be available. Set expectations correctly: the standard is clear and convincing evidence, the jury must be unanimous on both liability and amount, and the award is capped by formula at the greater of $200,000 or twice economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000. A statutory list of serious felony conduct escapes the cap.
They are uncommon. Anyone valuing your case around them is selling you something.
What comes off the top
Two reductions apply before you see anything.
Your share of fault. Texas reduces the award by your percentage of responsibility, and bars recovery entirely if your share exceeds 50 percent. A 20 percent finding is a 20 percent haircut on every category above.
Claims against the recovery. A hospital lien, a health plan's reimbursement right, providers who treated on a letter of protection. These attach to the settlement itself. Reducing them is ordinary work and it moves the net number more than the last round of haggling usually does.
If someone died, the categories change entirely — Texas wrongful death and survival claims are their own statutory scheme, with their own beneficiaries and their own deadlines.
Authority: Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 41 · Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 33
Your next steps, and ours
Keep receipts and jot notes
Prescriptions, braces, mileage, help you hired, missed shifts. Out-of-pocket costs are usually lost because nobody kept the receipts.
Call Jimmy
713-600-6233Which damages apply depends on your facts. On a free call we walk through them, including ones people leave on the table.
Tell your doctor what you cannot do
Impairment and earning capacity are proved through the chart, not memory. Mention every restriction at work and at home.
We build past and future damages
Future care and earning capacity need a physician's support. We assemble it and account for fault and liens.
If someone else's negligence put you here, we take it from here
Car Accidents
Rear-endings, intersection crashes, uninsured drivers, hit-and-runs — in Houston, El Paso, and everywhere in between.
Truck & 18-Wheeler Crashes
Federal regulations, black-box data, driver logs, multiple insurers. We move fast to preserve evidence before it disappears.
Work Accidents
Hurt on the job for a non-subscriber employer, or injured by a third party at a job site? Texas gives you real options.
Wrongful Death
When the worst happens, we pursue accountability for surviving families with the care and seriousness it deserves.
¿Lastimado en un accidente? Hablemos — en español.
La consulta es gratis y confidencial. No paga nada a menos que ganemos su caso. Jimmy se comunicará con usted en breve. ¿Sin papeles? Usted tiene derechos.
Every day you wait, evidence disappears and the insurer gets ahead. One free call. Straight answers about your case — in English or Spanish. If you need a fighter, you'll have one, from the first call to the last check.