A Fort Worth personal injury lawyer at Culver Legal represents people hurt in car, truck, bus, and dog bite cases across Fort Worth, including crashes involving a City of Fort Worth vehicle or a Trinity Metro bus. Thanos Simoudis and David Merabi handle these claims from the initial investigation through filing suit in Tarrant County if the case does not settle.
What should I do after a car accident in Fort Worth, and how do I get my crash report?
After a crash in Fort Worth, get medical attention, make sure the crash is reported to the Fort Worth Police Department, and request your crash report once it has been filed.
Texas law requires the driver of a vehicle involved in a crash that causes injury, death, or damage severe enough that a vehicle cannot be driven to report the crash immediately, by the quickest means available, to local police. In Fort Worth, that means the Fort Worth Police Department. If an officer investigates and the crash involved an injury, a death, or apparent property damage of $1,000 or more, that officer’s written report, the CR-3, is filed with TxDOT within 10 days.
Since December 15, 2024, the Fort Worth Police Department has directed people requesting a copy of their crash report to TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System. It can take up to 14 days from the date of the crash for the report to appear there; after that, FWPD’s Records unit can be reached at 817-392-4160. A regular copy of the report costs $6, and a certified copy costs $8.
Does it matter if the City of Fort Worth or Trinity Metro is involved?
Yes. The City of Fort Worth and Trinity Metro are two separate government defendants, and Texas treats them differently when it comes to the deadline for putting them on notice of a claim.
A claim against the City of Fort Worth is not limited to a city vehicle; what matters for the notice deadline below is that the City, or an employee acting for the City, is responsible for the injury. If a Trinity Metro bus or train was involved, you are dealing with a second, separate government entity: Trinity Metro, formally the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, is a public political entity created under the Texas Transportation Code, and Texas law treats it as a governmental unit under the Tort Claims Act, the same framework that covers the City. Both are government defendants, but, as the next section explains, they do not share the same notice deadline.
How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in Fort Worth?
For an adult with an ordinary personal injury claim in Texas, you generally have two years from the date of the accident to file suit, and the count is different for a child. A claim against the City of Fort Worth or against Trinity Metro runs on a separate, much shorter notice deadline that comes first.
If your claim is against the City of Fort Worth, whatever caused the injury, the City’s charter requires written notice to the City Council within 180 days of the injury. That notice has to describe the injury, the date and location, how it happened, the amount of damages, and the amount you would settle for, along with your address and any witnesses you plan to rely on. A late notice can still work if you show good cause for missing the 180 days, and the notice is not required at all if the City already had actual notice of your injury within that same 180-day period.
Trinity Metro does not get the benefit of the City’s charter deadline, because it is a separate government entity created under a different part of Texas law. A claim against Trinity Metro instead follows the state Tort Claims Act’s general notice rule: written notice within six months of the incident, describing the injury or damage, the time and place, and what happened, unless Trinity Metro already had actual notice of it within that same six months.
Both of these notice deadlines can run out long before the two-year deadline that applies to an ordinary injury claim. If the City of Fort Worth or Trinity Metro was involved in your crash, the date to confirm first is whichever of these two notice deadlines applies.
Is your claim against the City of Fort Worth or Trinity Metro?
That claim runs on its own, much shorter notice deadline, and it can expire long before the two-year deadline most people assume they have.
What if I was partly at fault for the accident?
You can still recover damages, as long as you are not found more than 50 percent responsible for the accident.
Under Texas’s proportionate responsibility law, being 50 percent or less at fault does not bar your claim, though your damages are reduced by your own percentage of responsibility. If a jury finds you more than 50 percent responsible, Texas law bars you from recovering anything at all.
What happens if the other driver had no insurance?
If the other driver had no insurance, Texas law normally puts uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy by default, so you may be able to turn to your own insurer instead.
Every auto liability policy issued in Texas must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, unless the named insured rejected that coverage in writing. If you previously rejected UM/UIM coverage in writing on an earlier policy with the same insurer, or an affiliated one, that insurer does not have to offer it again when the policy renews or is reinstated, unless you ask for it in writing. Checking whether anyone on the policy ever signed a rejection is one of the first things worth doing after a crash with an uninsured driver.
Where does a Fort Worth personal injury case actually get filed?
A personal injury lawsuit arising from a crash in Fort Worth is generally filed in the Tarrant County district courts, at the Tom Vandergriff Civil Courts Building, 100 N. Calhoun Street in Fort Worth.
Smaller claims may instead go to one of Tarrant County’s statutory county courts at law, which sit in a different building, the Tarrant County Courthouse at 100 West Weatherford Street. Which court is correct depends on the value and nature of the claim.
Which Fort Worth hospitals treat the most serious injuries?
The Texas Department of State Health Services lists two Level I trauma centers in Fort Worth: John Peter Smith Hospital and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, both in ZIP code 76104, on a list current as of October 28, 2026.
The same DSHS list includes Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth as a Level II trauma center, marked contingent, along with several Level III centers in and around the city. This page does not recommend a hospital or offer medical advice; where you are treated after a crash depends on the severity of your injuries and the decisions of first responders.
Has the City of Fort Worth already flagged the street where I was hurt?
Possibly. The City of Fort Worth’s own Vision Zero Safety Action Plan has already identified a list of corridors, based on crash history, for roadway safety assessments, and some of them may be near where you were hurt.
TxDOT counted 109 fatal crashes and 475 suspected-serious-injury crashes in the City of Fort Worth in 2025. Fort Worth’s Vision Zero plan, presented to the City Council on August 19, 2025 using crash data from 2019 to 2023, found that pedestrian, bicycle, and motorcycle crashes made up only 4 percent of all crashes but 34 percent of crashes resulting in a death or serious injury, and that roads not maintained by TxDOT carried 47 percent of those same serious crashes despite only 16 percent of the miles driven. The plan’s top-ten list of corridors chosen for safety assessment includes S Beach St, Evans Ave, and Mark IV Pkwy, among others. Being on this list does not by itself mean the City is at fault for any particular crash; it is a planning document, not a finding.
Personal injury cases we handle in Fort Worth
Thanos Simoudis and David Merabi represent people hurt in Fort Worth in the following types of cases.
Car accidents
We handle claims for drivers and passengers hurt in car accidents in Fort Worth, including crashes involving a City of Fort Worth vehicle.
Truck accidents
We handle claims arising from crashes with commercial trucks on Fort Worth roads.
Dog bites
We handle claims for people bitten or attacked by a dog in Fort Worth.
Brain injuries
We handle claims for people who suffered a brain injury in a Fort Worth crash.
Uninsured motorist claims
We handle claims against a client’s own insurer when the at-fault driver had no insurance or not enough, including questions about whether UM/UIM coverage was ever rejected in writing.
Wrongful death
We handle wrongful death and survival claims on behalf of a deceased person’s surviving spouse, children, or parents, or their estate.
Do I have to come to your office, and do you handle cases in Spanish?
No, you do not have to come to our office, and yes, we handle cases in both English and Spanish.
Our Fort Worth office, 4500 Mercantile Plaza Dr, Suite 300, Fort Worth, TX 76137, is by appointment only. Our staffed Texas office is in Dallas. You do not need to visit in person: we can communicate by phone or email, and we work in English and Spanish throughout the process.
What should I know before I talk to the insurance company?
Before you talk to the other driver’s insurance company, know that you are not required to give them a recorded statement or sign a medical authorization right away.
An adjuster for the other driver may ask for a recorded statement or a signed authorization to pull your medical records soon after the crash. You can wait until you understand how either one might affect your claim, and a settlement offer made early in a claim is based on what is known at that point, which may be before the full extent of an injury is clear. A claim on your own policy is different, because your own policy sets out what it requires of you.
Can I still bring a claim if someone died in the crash?
Yes. Texas wrongful death law lets the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the person who died bring a claim for the death, and the deceased person’s own injury claim survives separately through the estate.
A wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents; any one of them can bring it, or bring it for the benefit of all. If none of them files suit within three calendar months after the death, the deceased’s executor or administrator must bring and prosecute the claim, unless all of the surviving family members have asked that it not be filed.
Separately, the injured person’s own claim for the crash survives their death: it passes to their heirs, legal representatives, and estate, and can be brought against the responsible party’s estate as if that person were still alive.
The wrongful death claim must be filed within two years of the date of death. The survival claim is the injured person’s own claim, so its two-year clock starts at the crash rather than the death, and a death changes how that clock is counted. If more than two years have passed since the crash, the estate’s claim is not necessarily gone, and the date is worth checking before anyone assumes it is.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a copy of my Fort Worth crash report?
Request it through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System, which Fort Worth police have directed requests to since December 15, 2024. It can take up to 14 days to appear, and a regular copy costs $6, a certified copy $8.
How long do I have to file a personal injury lawsuit in Texas?
Generally two years from the date of the accident. If the claim is against a government entity, such as the City of Fort Worth or Trinity Metro, a separate and much shorter written-notice deadline applies first.
How long do I have to sue the City of Fort Worth or a government entity?
The City of Fort Worth requires written notice within 180 days of the injury under its charter, unless you can show good cause for a late notice or the City already had actual notice. Trinity Metro, a separate government entity, follows the state Tort Claims Act’s six-month notice rule instead.
Can I recover damages if I was partly at fault for the accident?
Yes, as long as you are not found more than 50 percent responsible; your damages are reduced by your own percentage of fault.
What happens if the other driver doesn’t have insurance?
Your own auto policy generally includes uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage by default, unless you or anyone else named on the policy rejected it in writing, so you may be able to make a claim against your own insurer.
If you were hurt in Fort Worth and have questions about a deadline, a government vehicle, or an uninsured driver, talk to Thanos Simoudis or David Merabi before you sign anything from an insurance company. We work on contingency: no fee unless we win, and no case costs charged if there is no recovery. 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 Texas personal injury claims.
