A Dallas brain injury after a car crash, truck wreck, or fall needs a doctor’s attention first and legal attention soon after, because Texas gives you a limited window to bring a claim. This page covers what counts as a traumatic brain injury, where Dallas treats the most serious of these injuries, and the Texas deadlines that apply if you decide to pursue a claim.
What counts as a traumatic brain injury after an accident in Dallas?
A traumatic brain injury is damage to the brain caused by a sudden blow, jolt, or penetrating wound to the head during a car crash, fall, or other accident. In Dallas, these injuries range from a concussion that resolves in days to a severe injury that changes how someone thinks, moves, or communicates for the rest of their life. A traumatic brain injury can be a closed injury, where the skull is not broken but the brain is jolted or shaken inside it, or a penetrating injury, where an object breaks through the skull and enters brain tissue. The same crash can cause a mix of injuries, and a head injury is sometimes the one that gets the least attention at the scene because broken bones and visible bleeding are easier to see. Only a doctor can diagnose a traumatic brain injury and say how serious it is. What this page can tell you is where Dallas treats the most serious of these injuries, what to watch for afterward, and how Texas law treats the time you have to act.
What are the most common causes of traumatic brain injury in Dallas?
A Dallas brain injury can result from a car accident, a truck crash, a pedestrian or bicycle collision, a fall, or any other accident involving a sudden impact to the head. Each type of accident carries its own rules for fault and insurance. A car accident claim and a truck accident claim each involve different insurance coverage, different parties, and in a truck crash, often a commercial carrier in addition to the driver. A pedestrian or bicycle crash raises its own questions about right of way and visibility. What stays the same across all of them is the injury itself and the legal clock that starts running once it happens. The rest of this page focuses on that: what a Dallas brain injury means for your health, where to get treated, and what Texas law requires if you decide to bring a claim.
Where are Dallas’s Level I trauma centers?
The Texas Department of State Health Services lists five Level I trauma centers inside the City of Dallas, current as of October 28, 2026: Baylor University Medical Center, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Methodist Dallas Medical Center, Parkland Memorial Hospital, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. Dallas sits within the state’s Trauma Service Area E. Which hospital treats a brain injury after a Dallas accident is a decision made by paramedics and emergency physicians based on the injury and the situation, not something a patient or family chooses in the moment.
What brain injury symptoms can show up days or weeks later?
Yes, brain injury symptoms do not always appear right away, and it is possible for them to surface days or weeks after an accident even when the person felt fine immediately afterward and walked away from the scene. Warning signs that can show up late include a headache that keeps getting worse, confusion, memory problems, trouble concentrating, mood or personality changes, sensitivity to light or noise, and trouble sleeping. This page cannot tell you what any of these symptoms mean in your specific case, and nothing here is medical advice. If you were in a Dallas accident and notice any of these signs in the days or weeks afterward, see a doctor, even if you were already examined at the scene or in an emergency room. Getting evaluated matters for your health first. It can also create a medical record that documents when the symptoms appeared, which matters later if you decide to look into a claim.
How long do I have to file a Dallas brain injury lawsuit?
Texas law gives you two years from the day your claim accrues to file a lawsuit over a brain injury, under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a). The statute sets the two-year period but does not spell out, in its own text, exactly which day a brain injury claim accrues in every situation, especially when symptoms did not show up right away. For most Dallas accident claims that day is the day of the accident, so the safe assumption is that your deadline is two years from the accident, and you should work from that date. If your symptoms appeared later, whether anything changes the start date in your situation is a question for a lawyer, and not something to count on. If a brain injury proves fatal, more than one legal deadline can apply, and they do not all start from the same date. Missing the deadline that applies to your situation can end a claim before it is ever filed, which is why confirming the right starting date matters more than memorizing the two-year number itself.
Do you know exactly which day your two-year clock started?
With a brain injury, the day symptoms showed up is not always the day the deadline starts counting.
Does the deadline pause if the injured person is a child or incapacitated?
Yes. Texas law pauses, or tolls, the two-year filing clock while the injured person is under what the statute calls a legal disability, defined under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.001 as being younger than 18 years old, regardless of marriage, or of unsound mind. If the injured person was under that disability at the moment the claim accrued, the time spent under the disability is not counted against the two-year period. A brain injury that leaves the injured person of unsound mind from the moment of the accident is the situation this rule is built for, and the rule can still apply even if the incapacity was not documented until weeks later, because what counts is the person’s condition when the claim accrued and not the date of the diagnosis. Two limits apply. A person cannot tack one legal disability onto another to stretch the deadline further, for example by turning 18 and later being found of unsound mind and expecting both periods to add together. And a disability that first arises after the two-year period has already started does not pause it. Because this depends on exactly when the injury happened and what the injured person’s condition was at that moment, a parent or guardian handling a child’s or incapacitated adult’s brain injury claim should get the accrual date and the disability’s timing confirmed rather than assuming the clock is paused.
What happens if I was partly at fault for the accident?
You can still recover damages after a Dallas brain injury accident as long as your own share of responsibility is not greater than 50 percent, under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001. If a court or jury finds you were more than half responsible for what happened, the law bars you from recovering anything, regardless of how serious the injury is. Fault is not always obvious right after a crash, particularly in a case involving a head injury where the person hurt may not remember the accident clearly. How responsibility gets divided depends on the specific facts of the accident and the evidence collected, and sometimes on expert reconstruction of what happened. This is one of the reasons it helps to have the facts of a Dallas brain injury accident reviewed early, before memories fade and evidence disappears.
Why talk to a Dallas brain injury lawyer at Culver Legal?
Thanos Simoudis and David Merabi are the firm’s two Texas-licensed lawyers, and talking to one of them about a Dallas brain injury is a way to get the deadline, the disability tolling rule, and the fault questions above applied to the actual facts of what happened to you. A brain injury case often involves medical records, hospital treatment, and sometimes a disputed fault determination, all of which take time to gather and review. The earlier those pieces are in hand, the easier it is to confirm the date your claim accrues and whether any tolling rule applies to your situation. Neither lawyer can tell you what your case is worth from a description alone, and nothing on this page is meant to answer that question. What a conversation can do is walk through your specific accident, your medical treatment so far, and the Texas rules that control how long you have to act.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to file a brain injury lawsuit in Texas?
Texas law sets a two-year deadline under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a), running from the day your claim accrues. The statute does not spell out in every case exactly which day that is, especially if symptoms were delayed, so the safer step is to confirm the accrual date early instead of assuming it is the date of the accident. Missing this deadline can end a claim before it starts.
Can traumatic brain injury symptoms appear days or weeks after the accident?
Yes, it is possible for brain injury symptoms to surface in the days or weeks after an accident, even when the person felt fine at the scene. Warning signs that can show up late include worsening headaches, confusion, memory problems, and mood changes. If any of these appear after a Dallas accident, see a doctor, even if you were already examined right after the crash.
Does the two-year deadline pause if the injured person is a child or not able to make decisions for themselves?
Yes, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.001 pauses the clock while the injured person is under a legal disability, meaning younger than 18 or of unsound mind, if that disability existed when the claim accrued. Disabilities cannot be combined to extend the deadline further, and a disability that starts after the clock is already running does not pause it. Because this depends on timing, it is worth confirming how the rule applies to your situation rather than assuming it does.
What happens if I was partly at fault for the Dallas accident that caused my brain injury?
Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001, you can still recover damages as long as your own share of responsibility is 50 percent or less. If you are found more than half responsible, the law bars recovery entirely. Fault is determined by the facts and evidence in your specific case, not assumed from how the accident looked at first.
If you or someone in your family is dealing with a Dallas brain injury after an accident, talking to a Texas-licensed lawyer about the deadlines and the facts of what happened costs you nothing to start. Culver Legal works on contingency, so there is no fee unless we win. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and repaid from the recovery, and if there is no recovery, no case costs are charged. Attorney responsible for this page: Thanos Simoudis, licensed in Texas, primary office Los Angeles, California. Call (214) 269-1184 for a free case review, or send us the details and we will call you back. More on Dallas personal injury claims.
