What is my car accident case worth in Texas?

Why nobody can tell you a number on day one

Be skeptical of anyone who does. Until your treatment is far enough along to know whether you will fully recover, whether you will need future care, and whether you can do your job the way you did before, the central input is missing.

What an honest lawyer can tell you early is what the case depends on, and what has to be built to make it worth what it should be.

Economic damages

These are the calculable losses: emergency and hospital care, imaging, surgery, physical therapy, medication, assistive equipment, and mileage to appointments. Lost wages while you could not work. The cost of future medical care, which in a serious case is often the largest single number and requires a physician's opinion to support.

And lost earning capacity — distinct from lost wages. It is the difference between what you could have earned over your working life and what you can earn now. For a young person doing physical work, that number can dwarf the medical bills.

Non-economic damages

Physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. These are real and compensable and there is no formula. Anyone who tells you Texas uses a fixed multiplier of medical bills is describing a rule of thumb some adjusters use internally, not law.

What makes them persuasive is specificity. "Chronic pain" is abstract. Not being able to lift your daughter, giving up the job you trained for, sleeping in a recliner for eight months — those are concrete, and they are why keeping a short daily note early in treatment matters.

The two things that cap real-world value

Available insurance. This is the practical ceiling in most cases. Texas minimum auto liability is low. If the at-fault driver carries a minimum policy and has no meaningful assets, a case worth far more may be collectible only to the policy limit — which is exactly why your own UM/UIM coverage matters so much, and why we look hard for additional policies: an employer's coverage if the driver was working, a commercial policy, an umbrella policy, or another responsible party.

Your share of fault. Under chapter 33, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of responsibility, and you recover nothing above 50%. Insurers know this and push fault onto you for exactly that reason.

What did not change in 2025

There was a substantial effort in the 2025 Texas legislative session to change how damages — particularly medical damages — are proven and recovered in injury cases. Senate Bill 30 did not pass. The framework above is the current law.

What actually raises the number

Complete medical documentation rather than scattered treatment. Evidence that fixes fault instead of leaving it arguable. A properly supported future-care and earning-capacity analysis rather than a guess. Every policy located, not just the obvious one. And a file built so that trial is a credible option — insurers price cases partly on whether they believe the lawyer will actually try it.

Authority: Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 33