Questions you should be asking.

Don't discuss your case with an adjuster before you've spoken with a lawyer. If you already have an attorney, give the adjuster your attorney's information - and nothing else.

If you're still deciding, it's enough to say: "I'm thinking about speaking with a lawyer. They'll contact you, or if I decide not to hire one, I'll call you back."

What we recommend is simple: don't talk to an adjuster about the crash before you've at least consulted with a lawyer.

Photograph everything, get medical attention, and keep every document. The first 24 hours matter for preserving and gathering the evidence your claim depends on.

Specifically, we recommend you:

• Take photos and videos of every piece of evidence - the vehicles, the scene, your injuries.
• Photograph any document that looks important: the other driver's insurance, and any bill, medical record or file you're given in the ambulance or at the hospital.
• Seek medical attention, so that any injury that shows up later is documented.

It's also worth contacting an injury lawyer early, so someone can explain the process, what to expect, and what your options are under the law. Every situation is different, and the insurance world is complex.

Talk to a lawyer before you deposit or spend it. Cashing that check can legally count as accepting their offer.

Insurers often send a check as an offer. If you deposit it - and especially if you spend the money - that's treated in many situations as accepting the settlement.

Once you accept an offer, you often can't ask for more later, even if you run up more expenses or injuries appear in the days or weeks after that check arrived. Once it's accepted, there's usually nothing more to be done with your claim.

Consultations with injury lawyers are free. A quick call can save you a serious headache later.

Yes. Insurance companies investigate your claim, and public social media is one of the first places they look for evidence to use against you.

They search for statements about how the crash happened, and for photos of you going about normal life - then use them to argue you weren't as injured as you say.

Because most social profiles are public, insurers have every right to look at them and use them against you in your claim.

Usually not. Unless that first offer is the full policy limit, an adjuster's first number is almost never their best.

When adjusters evaluate your case, they're given a range of authority to make an offer and close the claim - and they generally start at the lowest number in that range.

Even if you don't hire a lawyer and want to negotiate with the adjuster yourself, do exactly that: negotiate. Ask for more money. There's almost always a better offer the second or third time around.

It's worth consulting a lawyer either way. Who was at fault is only the beginning of what an auto claim involves.

There are also questions of coverage and policy exclusions that have nothing to do with fault. Whichever way it went, it's a good idea to consult a car accident lawyer and see what options you actually have.

To be clear: there are situations where a potential client calls us and, after hearing their situation, we tell them hiring a lawyer isn't in their best interest - and we explain why. We advise people based on their specific situation.

Don't worry - you don't need immigration status to make an injury claim in Texas.

Whether you're a citizen, a resident, on a tourist visa, or in the United States without papers, your status doesn't stop you from pursuing a claim after a crash.

We recommend you contact and consult a car accident lawyer about your situation.

Texas isn't all-or-nothing. You can still be compensated even if you were partly at fault - the problem is when most of the fault is yours.

Texas law recognizes that someone can carry a little of the blame for a crash and still recover compensation for their injuries.

For example: if you're hit and your case is worth $100,000 but you're assigned 20% of the fault, you'd be paid $80,000. But if your injuries are worth $100,000 and they assign you 55% or 60% of the fault, you receive $0.

Nothing up front. We work on contingency - we're paid a percentage of whatever is recovered, and if nothing is recovered, there's no attorney's fee.

One way to look at it: you don't run the risk of building up an attorney's fee bill or debt, because the lawyer carries that risk. The attorney is only paid if the case is won.

It depends mainly on two things: how serious your injuries are, and how much insurance coverage is available to recover from.

There are cases with plenty of insurance available, but if there's no medical evidence of the injuries, the value lands below the maximum available.

On the other side are cases with very serious injuries where we're limited by the coverage available. By law, the minimum coverage a driver must carry in Texas is $30,000 in third-party bodily injury. There are many situations where the severity of the injuries goes well past $30,000, but we're capped at that amount because it's all the insurance there is.

No two cases are alike. There's no exact metric or formula to set the value of a claim - especially early on, right after the crash.

While your case is being resolved you're initially responsible - but there are options, and in many cases you won't pay anything until the case resolves.

What applies depends on your situation: whether you have health insurance, whether you have Medicare or Medicaid, whether you took an ambulance to an emergency hospital, whether you've received treatment yet. Those variables change not only who pays, but how much gets paid and when.

This question usually comes up before someone hires an injury lawyer. The reason it matters: an experienced injury lawyer can connect you with doctors who focus on car accident patients and understand how the claim process works. Those doctors agree to provide treatment and hold any billing until the case resolves - so if you're treated by doctors an injury lawyer refers you to, you typically won't pay those medical bills until your case is resolved.

Generally, you have two years from the date of your crash to file a lawsuit in court.

That's the general rule - but there are situations where that deadline changes. That's why it's important to contact a car accident lawyer who can advise you on the deadline that applies to your specific claim.

It varies, but two things drive the timeline: how long your medical treatment takes, and the insurer's first offer.

A lot of it sits outside a lawyer's control - in the hands of insurance companies, courts and government departments. The length of medical treatment depends on each person and the severity of their injuries. In many cases it isn't advisable to close a case before treatment is complete, so the demand package doesn't go to the insurer until then.

The first offer matters because it tells us whether the case will close before filing suit, or whether a lawsuit has to be filed in court.

In our experience, across the cases we've handled: when no lawsuit has to be filed, cases typically resolve two to six months after medical treatment ends. When a lawsuit does have to be filed, they take on average ten to eighteen months to resolve after filing.

They're far more complex and usually involve much more money - so insurers spend even more resources defending those claims.

For one, there can be several responsible parties:

• the driver
• the company
• the broker or shipper
• the cargo itself
• even a city or government entity

Each of these carries different rules and different theories of liability. There are also different insurance policies covering different situations, plus additional or excess liability policies you have to know how to look for and find.

They're also different because these claims play by different rules and different laws. Commercial truck drivers follow professional rules that don't apply to everyone else, and there are federal authorities like the FMCSA that regulate 18-wheelers.

Photograph the stickers on the truck door. Company vehicle claims are far more complicated, and those stickers identify who may be responsible.

As with any crash, gather as much evidence as you can. The stickers on the door and beside the driver's door carry a lot of information about the company and about the parties that could potentially be liable.

Specifically, if it's a Texas truck, it will carry a TXDOT number and a USDOT number, plus a sticker with the company name. Photograph those stickers and make sure the numbers are clearly readable.

Beyond that, same as any other crash: see a doctor if you feel any injury, photograph any document or object related to the case, and consult an injury lawyer as soon as possible.

There may still be options - most often through Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage on your own policy.

Unfortunately, in Texas there are many situations where no recovery is possible if the other person has no insurance. But an experienced lawyer knows to look for other potential options that could cover your situation.

One is looking at your own policy for a coverage called Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Protection - coverage you buy on your own policy for exactly this: being hit by someone with no insurance, or without enough of it. If you don't have that coverage, we look at whether any other option or coverage is available.

If no insurance policy is available at all, technically you could still file a lawsuit against the person at fault. The problem is that in the vast majority of cases you'd technically win the lawsuit, but practically it doesn't work in your favor - winning isn't the hard part. Collecting the money is, and getting to a judgment involves a lot of costs that have to be paid. Usually that process costs more than simply absorbing the loss.

It's a terrible situation, and unfortunately a very common one - but that's the reality of Texas law as it stands today.

Typically the driver - and in less common situations, Uber or Lyft. What matters most is which phase the driver was in.

The important thing to understand is that Uber and Lyft, by law, provide their drivers an insurance policy while they're using the app. That coverage depends on the phase:

• Phase one: the driver is looking for a ride.
• Phase two: the driver is on the way to pick someone up, or has a passenger in an active ride.

In phase two, the policy carries $1,000,000 in third-party liability coverage. Because rideshare crashes typically come with higher policy limits, they can carry greater value.