Car Accident Attorney in San Antonio: Texas Insurance, Adjusters and Your Settlement

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After a car accident, the money comes from insurance policies: the other driver’s, your own, and sometimes a policy on the car you were riding in or on a company vehicle. Which policies apply, in what order, and what each one pays decides how a claim is built. This page is LAWBOSS’s explanation of Texas auto insurance from the injured person’s side: the coverages, the people who handle them, the mistakes that cost claims money, and how a settlement is divided once it is reached.

Liability insurance and the 30/60/25 minimum

Texas does not let anyone drive without financial responsibility for the vehicle (Transportation Code 601.051), and for almost everyone that means a liability policy. Section 601.072 sets the minimum limits for policies since January 1, 2011:

Limit	Minimum	What it covers
Bodily injury, one person	$30,000	Everything owed to one injured person in one collision
Bodily injury, one collision	$60,000	Everyone injured in the collision together, with no more than $30,000 to any one person
Property damage	$25,000	Damage to cars and other property in one collision

Those limits are the most the other driver’s insurer has to pay under a minimum policy, not a measure of what an injury is worth. When several people are hurt, the $60,000 for the whole collision is shared between them. That is why the next two coverages matter so much.

Personal injury protection (PIP)

PIP is coverage on your own policy that pays regardless of who caused the accident. Chapter 1952 of the Texas Insurance Code sets the rules.

• Who it covers. The named insured, members of the household, and any authorized driver or passenger in the insured car, including a guest (1952.151).
• What it pays. Reasonable medical, surgical, x-ray, dental, ambulance, hospital, nursing and funeral expenses; lost income for someone who earns one; and, for someone who does not, necessary household services. Expenses must be incurred within three years of the accident (1952.151).
• How much. The law does not require an insurer to offer more than $2,500 per person (1952.153), so many policies carry exactly that, but higher limits are common. Check your declarations page.
• When it is paid. The insurer must pay as claims arise, and no later than 30 days after it receives satisfactory evidence of the claim (1952.156). If it fails to pay benefits when due, you may sue for them and recover reasonable attorney’s fees, a 12 percent penalty and interest (1952.157).
• Without regard to fault. PIP is paid whoever caused the collision, and whatever other medical or wage benefits you have (1952.155).

PIP is included in every Texas auto policy unless a named insured rejected it in writing (1952.152). People often think they turned it down when they did not. Before you decide you have no PIP, ask your insurer for the signed rejection form.

One rule catches passengers. If you were a passenger and you claim against the driver of the car you were in, that driver’s insurer can deduct the PIP it already paid you from what it owes on the liability claim (1952.159).

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM)

UM/UIM coverage protects you when the person who caused the accident has no insurance, too little insurance, or cannot be found. Like PIP, it is part of every Texas auto policy unless a named insured rejected it in writing (Insurance Code 1952.101).

Situation	How the coverage treats it	Section
The at-fault driver had no insurance	Your UM coverage pays what you are legally entitled to recover from that driver, up to your limits	1952.101
The at-fault driver’s insurer is insolvent	The car counts as uninsured	1952.102
The at-fault driver’s limits are lower than your UIM limits	Your UIM pays what you are entitled to, up to its limit, reduced by what the other insurer pays or could pay	1952.103, 1952.106
Hit and run, driver unknown	Covered only if the unknown car made actual physical contact with you or your car	1952.104(3)
Your car was damaged	UM property damage coverage is subject to a $250 deductible	1952.105(b)

A UM or UIM claim is made against your own insurer, but it is not a friendly claim. Your insurer steps into the shoes of the at-fault driver and can argue fault and the value of your injuries just as that driver’s insurer would. Treat it with the same care: give no recorded statement without advice, and keep every record.

Your car, the repair and the rental

The property damage claim usually moves first, while the injury claim waits for treatment to finish. Some rules help you here.

• You choose the shop. When the other driver’s insurer settles your property damage claim, it may not require you to use a particular repair shop or a particular brand or kind of parts (Insurance Code 1952.301). An adjuster also may not tell a policyholder that a preferred shop must be used for the repair to be covered (1952.302).
• A total loss is paid at value. If the repair would cost more than the car is worth, the claim is for the car’s value just before the accident. Purchase papers, service records and listings for similar cars help when the first valuation is low.
• Storage and rental. Ask the adjuster in writing about a rental car while yours is repaired, and get your car out of a tow yard quickly: storage fees grow every day.

Adjusters, recorded statements and early offers

The other driver’s adjuster works for the other driver’s insurer. That is not a criticism; it is the job. The adjuster’s task is to close the claim for as little as the evidence allows, and the first conversations are where most of the evidence against you is gathered.

• The recorded statement. You have no duty to give one to the other driver’s insurer. Questions about your speed, your lane and how you feel are used to argue fault and to argue that the injury is minor.
• The medical authorization. A broad authorization lets the insurer collect your medical history for years back, looking for an old injury to blame. Records should go through your attorney, limited to what the claim needs.
• The quick offer. An early offer often arrives before anyone knows what treatment you will need. A release signed for it ends the claim for good, including injuries that have not yet shown themselves.
• Gaps in treatment. An adjuster reads a missed appointment or a month without treatment as a sign you had recovered. Follow the plan your doctors set, and tell them about every symptom.

Our founder, Michael Uvalle, worked for several of the largest insurance companies in Texas before he became a lawyer, and several of our attorneys came to the firm from adjusting claims or defending insurers. We know how an adjuster builds a file, because many of us used to build them.

How a settlement is divided

A settlement figure is not the amount you take home, and you should understand how it is divided before you accept one. In a case we handle, the money moves like this.

1. The insurer pays the settlement into our trust account. Any hospital lien is dealt with as part of the settlement, because Texas law makes a release invalid unless the lien is paid or the hospital joins the release (Property Code 55.007).
2. The attorney’s fee is paid at the percentage in your written fee agreement.
3. The case expenses we advanced are repaid, such as medical records, the crash report, filing fees and the cost of reports from doctors and other professionals, as the agreement sets out.
4. Liens and repayment claims are paid. A hospital that admitted you within 72 hours of the accident has a lien on the claim if it filed notice with the county clerk (55.002, 55.005). Its lien is limited to the lesser of its charges for the first 100 days, half of what you recover, or the amount a jury awarded for its services less a share of fees and expenses (55.004). Health plans and government programs that paid your bills may also claim repayment, and we negotiate those claims down wherever the rules allow.
5. The remainder is paid to you, with a written settlement statement showing every figure.

Two points often surprise people. First, PIP benefits are usually yours to keep: a PIP insurer has no right to recover them from the at-fault driver unless that driver had no insurance (Insurance Code 1952.155). Second, an ambulance company’s lien under Property Code 55.002(c) applies only in counties of 800,000 people or fewer, so it does not reach care given in Bexar County, but it can apply in neighboring counties.

How our fee works

We work on a contingency fee. You pay no attorney’s fee unless we recover money for you. We advance the case expenses, and if there is no recovery you owe no fee and no case expenses. If there is a recovery, the fee and the expenses are paid from it as your written fee agreement sets out, and the agreement is in writing before we start. The first consultation is free.

If you are still deciding whether you have a claim, our car accident lawyer San Antonio page explains how fault is proved. For hit-and-run wrecks, drunk drivers and government vehicles, see our auto accident lawyer San Antonio page. The firm’s main website is lawboss.com.

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