Defending a Texas Crash Suit You Believe Is Wrong

Attorney Answer

You defend it by making the other driver's conduct the issue: in Texas a jury assigns a percentage of responsibility to everyone involved, and a claimant found more than half responsible takes nothing. Being sued does not mean the suit is right. It means someone has to answer it, and answering it properly is time-sensitive.

Texas runs shared-fault cases through Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Under § 33.003 the trier of fact assigns a whole-number percentage of responsibility to each claimant, each defendant, each settling person, and each responsible third party who has been designated. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001 then does the hard work for a defendant in your position: a claimant may not recover damages if his percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. If the crash really was the other driver's fault, that is the finding you are aiming at, and it ends the case rather than merely reducing it.

If the percentage lands below that bar, § 33.012(a) requires the court to reduce the claimant's damages by a percentage equal to the claimant's own percentage of responsibility. And under § 33.013(a) a liable defendant is responsible only for the percentage of the damages equal to its own percentage of responsibility — Texas is not a joint-and-several state by default. The exception in § 33.013(b) applies where a defendant is more than 50 percent responsible or acted in concert in certain intentional Penal Code conduct. That structure is why two defendants named in one petition are not automatically in the same position.

That is the second thing worth understanding. You and the rental company are separate defendants with separate lawyers, separate insurance, and possibly different defenses. A rental company is usually sued on its own alleged conduct, not simply because it owned the car, and its lawyers will be looking after its interests, not yours. Do not assume its filings protect you.

The part that cannot wait is procedural. A Texas lawsuit carries a short, fixed deadline to file a written answer, counted from service, and a defendant who lets it pass can have a default judgment taken against them even in a case they would have won. I am not going to give you that date from a general page, and you should not calculate it yourself.

What you can do

1. Note the date and the way you were served, and keep the citation and petition exactly as you received them, envelope included.

2. Send the complete suit papers to your auto insurer today, by a method that leaves a record, and ask it in writing to confirm receipt and whether it will provide a defense. Most auto policies obligate the insurer to defend a covered suit, and that is the cheapest lawyer you will ever get.

3. If you rented the vehicle, send the papers to the rental company's claims department as well, and locate your rental agreement and any coverage you bought with it.

4. Preserve what already exists: the crash report, photographs, dashcam footage, texts, the names of witnesses, and any correspondence with the other driver's insurer. Do not alter or discard anything.

5. Do not talk to the other side's lawyer or adjuster about the facts, and do not sign or send any written account of the crash, before your own lawyer reviews it.

6. If your insurer will not appoint counsel, retain a Texas defense lawyer immediately and tell them the service date on the first call.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) gives a claimant two years from the day the cause of action accrues to bring a personal injury or property damage suit, which is the deadline the other party was working against. Your own deadline to answer the petition is far shorter and is set by the court rules, not by that statute. Which dates control depends on your papers, so get them in front of a Texas attorney now rather than after the answer date passes.