A Houston truck accident involves more potentially liable parties and a more complicated set of fault rules than an ordinary car accident claim. A Houston truck accident lawyer works to identify every party whose actions may have contributed to the crash, preserve evidence before it disappears, and apply Texas’s proportionate responsibility rules to the claim.
How is a Houston truck accident case different from a car accident claim?
A Houston truck accident case is different from a car accident claim because more than one company or individual can share legal responsibility for the crash, and Texas law requires each one’s share of fault to be determined before anyone can recover damages. A commercial truck is rarely operated by just a driver acting alone. The tractor may be owned by one company, leased to a motor carrier, loaded by a separate freight or logistics company, and maintained by a third-party repair contractor, and each of those parties can potentially be named and assigned a share of responsibility in the same case. A car accident claim usually involves two drivers and their insurers. A truck accident claim can involve the driver, the trucking company that employed or contracted with the driver, the company that owns the trailer, the business that loaded the cargo, and the business responsible for maintaining the vehicle, any one of which may have done something that contributed to the crash.
Who can be held responsible after a Houston truck accident?
More than one party can typically be held responsible after a Houston truck accident, and Texas law requires the fact finder to assign a specific percentage of responsibility to each one. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 33.003(a), the trier of fact determines a percentage of responsibility, stated in whole numbers, for each claimant, each defendant, each person who has already settled, and each responsible third party named in the case. In a truck crash, that list can include the truck driver, the motor carrier or trucking company responsible for the driver and the vehicle, the owner of the truck or trailer if different from the carrier, a cargo loading company if improperly loaded or secured freight contributed to the crash, and a maintenance or repair contractor if a mechanical failure played a role.
What is Texas’s proportionate responsibility rule, and how does it affect my claim?
Texas’s proportionate responsibility rule, found in Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, divides fault among every party connected to a crash and limits or bars a claimant’s recovery based on the claimant’s own share of that fault. Under section 33.001, a claimant cannot recover damages at all if the claimant is found more than 50 percent responsible for the crash. A claimant found exactly 50 percent responsible, or less, is not barred, but the damages are reduced by that percentage under section 33.012(a). This is where the number of defendants in a truck case matters most. Because a truck crash can involve the driver, the trucking company, and other parties, each one is assigned its own percentage, which affects how the total fault is distributed and how much of it, if any, can be attributed to the injured person. Section 33.013 adds one more mechanic specific to multi-defendant cases: ordinarily, each defendant is liable only for its own percentage of the damages, but if one defendant’s percentage of responsibility is found to be greater than 50 percent, that defendant becomes jointly and severally liable, meaning it can be held responsible for the full damages the claimant is allowed to recover, not just its own share.
Worried the trucking company will try to blame you for the crash?
How Texas divides fault here often turns on evidence that only the trucking company controls in the first days after a wreck.
How long do I have to file a truck accident lawsuit in Texas?
Texas law requires a lawsuit for personal injuries from a truck accident to be filed within two years after the day the claim accrues, under Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003(a), which for a crash injury is ordinarily the day of the crash. Missing that deadline usually ends the claim no matter how strong it is. There are narrow exceptions, including for someone who was under 18 when they were hurt, so check your own date instead of assuming it has passed.
That two-year deadline does not cover a truck owned by a city, a county, or a transit agency. The City of Houston’s charter requires written notice, duly verified, within 90 days after the injury, and METRO’s own claim form asks for notice within 180 days of the incident, so get advice in the first weeks rather than wait. Because the proportionate responsibility rules above mean every potentially liable party needs to be identified and investigated before a case can be filed, and because truck accident evidence can be difficult to track down once a carrier’s or driver’s records move or are no longer kept, confirming your exact filing deadline early, rather than close to the two-year mark, gives a case the best chance of being filed with everything it needs.
What are the major highways and freight routes involved in Houston truck accidents?
Houston truck accidents happen on the interstates, loops, and freight corridors that carry commercial traffic through and around the city. Houston truck traffic runs on Interstate 10, Interstate 45, US 59 and Interstate 69, Loop 610, and Beltway 8. Confirming exactly which route a crash happened on, and the direction of travel, is one of the first details worth writing down.
Why does evidence disappear quickly after a truck crash?
Evidence from a truck crash can disappear quickly because much of it is controlled by the trucking company and is not required to be kept indefinitely. A trucking company’s electronic logs, GPS and telematics data, and dash-cam footage can be recorded over or deleted on a routine schedule that has nothing to do with your claim. The truck itself may be repaired, sold, or scrapped, and drivers move on to other routes and other jobs. Once any of that happens, it may not be possible to reconstruct what the truck was doing in the moments before the crash. This is also why it matters whether an official record of the crash exists in the first place: Texas law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in a crash causing injury, death, or disabling damage to give notice of the crash immediately to the appropriate police agency. Because so much of the evidence in a truck case sits outside that record, in files a trucking company controls, getting a lawyer involved early, before that evidence is gone, is one of the most time-sensitive parts of a truck accident claim.
Who are Thanos Simoudis and David Merabi, and how can they help with a Houston truck accident claim?
Thanos Simoudis and David Merabi are the Texas-licensed attorneys who handle Houston truck accident claims for this firm, including identifying every party whose share of responsibility Texas law requires to be determined and working to preserve evidence before it is lost. They review the circumstances of the crash, the parties involved, and the records available, and apply Texas’s proportionate responsibility rules to the facts of each case. If you were hurt in a Houston truck accident and are not sure who can be held responsible or how fault will be divided, that is the kind of question they can walk through with you directly. Because the first weeks after a truck accident are often when evidence is easiest to lose, reaching out as soon as possible gives them the most to work with.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to file a truck accident claim in Texas?
A Houston truck accident claim for personal injuries must generally be filed within two years from the day the claim accrues, under Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003(a). Confirming your specific deadline early is important because identifying every responsible party and gathering evidence in a truck case can take time, and waiting until close to the deadline makes that harder to do well.
Who can be held liable in a Houston truck accident?
More than one party can be held liable in a Houston truck accident, including the driver, the trucking company, and any other business, such as a maintenance contractor or cargo loader, whose actions contributed to the crash. Texas law requires the responsibility of each one to be assigned as a specific percentage. Which parties are actually liable depends on the facts of the specific crash.
Can I still recover damages if I was partly at fault for the crash?
Yes, you can still recover damages if you were partly at fault for the crash, as long as your percentage of responsibility is not greater than 50 percent under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 33.001. If your share of fault is 50 percent or less, your damages are reduced by that percentage rather than eliminated. If you are found more than half responsible, Texas law bars recovery entirely.
What should I do immediately after a truck accident in Houston?
Immediately after a truck accident in Houston, get medical attention, make sure the crash is reported, and document what you can at the scene, including photos of the vehicles, the road, and any visible cargo or damage. Evidence connected to a truck crash, such as electronic and dash-cam records controlled by the trucking company, can disappear quickly, so contacting a lawyer as soon as possible helps make sure that evidence is identified and preserved before it is gone.
What happens if more than one party is at fault for the crash?
If more than one party is at fault for the crash, Texas law requires each one’s percentage of responsibility to be determined separately under Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 33.003. Ordinarily, each liable defendant pays only its own share of the damages under section 33.013(a). But if one defendant is found more than 50 percent responsible, that defendant becomes jointly and severally liable for the full damages the claimant can recover, under section 33.013(b)(1).
A Houston truck accident claim moves fastest when the responsible parties are identified and evidence is preserved early, so do not wait to talk to a lawyer about your case. Thanos Simoudis and David Merabi work on contingency, with no attorney fee unless there is a recovery and no case costs charged if there is no recovery. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and repaid from the recovery. Attorney responsible for this page: Thanos Simoudis, licensed in Texas, primary office Los Angeles, California. There is no fee unless we win. Call (214) 269-1184 for a free case review, or send us the details and we will call you back. More on Houston personal injury claims.
