In a Texas accident, liability depends on who acted carelessly, whether that carelessness caused your injuries, and how much blame each person carries. That last question often decides what a serious injury claim is worth. While you are still in treatment, the other side’s insurer may already be building a version of the crash that shifts more fault onto you.
At Garcia, Garcia & Mullen Criminal Defense & Injury Lawyers, we answer those fault arguments with evidence from the scene, the vehicles, and the records that follow a collision. If someone is already pointing at you after a crash that left you seriously hurt, our team can review how responsibility is likely to be divided in your case.
Most accident claims rest on negligence, the legal term for failing to use reasonable care. Under the framework the state’s courts apply, the injured person must show the other party had a legal duty, breached that duty, and caused the injury through that breach. For example, every driver has a duty to stop at a red light, and running one breaches that duty.
In Werner Enterprises v. Blake, the state’s highest court held in 2025 that negligence must be a substantial factor in causing an injury. In that case, a pickup lost control on ice, crossed a 42-foot median, and hit an 18-wheeler before its driver could react. Even assuming the truck was going too fast for the ice, the court found the pickup’s loss of control was the sole legal cause.
Defense lawyers use that reasoning to call their client’s mistake mere background. We tie each careless act to the specific injuries it produced.
Fault is rarely all or nothing, and how it is divided controls how much compensation remains available.
Under the state’s proportionate responsibility law, the factfinder, usually a jury, assigns each person who caused or contributed to the harm a whole-number percentage of responsibility. This includes the injured person, each defendant, anyone who has settled, and any responsible third party the court designates. The statute also bars a question about anyone’s conduct without sufficient evidence to support it.
Insurers float fault theories in negotiation that they could never support at trial, and we hold them to that proof.
An injured person cannot recover damages if found more than 50% responsible. At 50% or less, the court reduces the damages by that person’s own percentage and then subtracts any settlement amounts already received.
If a jury values your losses at $200,000 and assigns you 20% of the fault, your recovery drops to $160,000 before settlement credits. An even split still allows recovery of half, but at 51% the same verdict produces nothing.
Collision cases bring their own fault disputes, and our car accident practice page covers how those arguments unfold.
Each defendant usually pays only its own share. A defendant found more than 50% responsible is jointly and severally liable, which means you can collect the full recoverable amount from that one defendant.
In multi-party cases, finding that a trucking company or other business carries more than half the fault can matter more than the other percentages.
The driver who hit you is not always the only party whose conduct counts. Depending on the facts, responsibility may extend to several others:
Identifying each of these parties early matters, because anyone left out of the case can still be blamed later.
If more than one company or driver may share the blame, call (214) 214-1000 so we can identify each of them before the evidence disappears.
Shifting even 10 points of fault onto you can cost thousands of dollars, and defense teams use specific legal tools to do it.
A defendant can ask the court to designate a responsible third party, allowing the jury to assign fault to someone not a party to the lawsuit. That motion generally must be filed at least 60 days before trial. A designation does not, by itself, make that person liable to you.
Its real purpose is to shrink the share left on the defendant in the courtroom. We object to weak designations and, once discovery shows nothing behind one, ask the court to strike it.
The state's highest court has held that relevant evidence of seat belt use or nonuse is admissible when apportioning responsibility in civil lawsuits. The rule reaches conduct before a crash that caused or contributed to the injuries themselves.
That opens the door for insurers to argue an unbelted driver or passenger caused part of their own harm. We answer with medical and engineering evidence about what a belt would and would not have changed.
Fault percentages follow the evidence, and the strongest evidence disappears fastest. Our personal injury team at Garcia, Garcia & Mullen typically works through the following:
Each step feeds the percentage a jury, or an adjuster predicting a jury, will eventually assign.
Timing matters for another reason. A personal injury lawsuit generally must be filed no later than 2 years after the day the cause of action accrues, a legal term for when the claim comes into existence. Waiting also erodes evidence long before that deadline.
No. The report is one piece of evidence, and we test the officer’s conclusions against video, vehicle data, and witness accounts.
Insurers often cite apologies and offhand remarks when arguing about fault. Keep conversations at the scene to safety and contact details.
Video can resolve disputes about lane position, signals, and timing that witnesses remember differently. Send us any footage you have.
Talk with us first. Adjusters use recorded statements to find admissions that increase your percentage of responsibility, and those statements are hard to retract.
No one formally decides it because a settlement is negotiated. Adjusters estimate how a jury would divide responsibility, so the evidence we gather shapes the offer.
Gaps give insurers room to argue that something other than the crash caused your condition. Consistent treatment records help tie each injury to the collision.
Every point of fault shifted onto you reduces your compensation, and those points often shift in the first weeks after a crash.
Garcia, Garcia & Mullen Criminal Defense & Injury Lawyers builds liability cases from the physical evidence outward, so the fault argument starts with what happened rather than what an adjuster assumes. Attorneys Jim Mullen and Courtny Garcia, along with our injury team, handle these claims on a contingency fee basis.
From our Irving office, we represent injured people statewide and move quickly to preserve the evidence that fault disputes turn on. Call (214) 214-1000 or reach us through our contact page to schedule a free case evaluation about liability in your accident.
Phone: (214) 214 1000
Phone: (214) 214 1000
