Evaluating a Low Injury Settlement Offer in Texas

Attorney Answer

An early offer made before anyone has been examined is not a valuation of an injury — it is a number chosen to close a file, and you are not required to take it. Nothing obliges you to accept, and signing a release in exchange for it ends every claim it covers, including for problems that show up later. The gap you are feeling is real, but the way to close it is evidence, not argument.

A Texas injury claim is worth what can be proved: medical expenses, lost earnings, and physical pain and suffering, supported by records. Without an examination and a diagnosis, an adjuster is looking at a file that records a complaint of neck pain and nothing more, which is exactly the file a small offer is written for. Getting seen is therefore not only medical advice, it is the single step that changes the claim.

There is usually a way to pay for that. Under Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152, personal injury protection must be provided in a Texas auto policy unless a named insured rejects it in writing, so most policies carry it. Under § 1952.155(a) those benefits are payable without regard to the fault or nonfault of the named insured and without regard to any collateral source, and under § 1952.155(b) the insurer generally has no right of subrogation against the recovery, with a narrow exception in (c) for an uninsured driver. In plain terms: PIP pays medical bills now, from your own policy, whether or not fault has been sorted out, and normally without being repaid from the settlement. If the other driver's coverage turns out to be too small, Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101 requires an insurer to provide uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage unless a named insured rejected it in writing.

Two things worth knowing so you aim at the right target. First, no police report does not sink a claim. Tex. Transp. Code § 550.023 required the other driver to give his name, address, registration number, and the name of his liability insurer, and to show his license if asked — the exchange you made is what the law asked for. Photographs, the vehicles' damage, and the accounts of people who were there carry the rest. Second, pressing the other driver's insurer for better treatment has limits: Tex. Ins. Code § 541.060(a) lists unfair settlement practices, but § 541.060(b) says: "Subsection (a) does not provide a cause of action to a third party asserting one or more claims against an insured covered under a liability insurance policy."

The claim for a child is not the same as an adult's. A minor's claim belongs to the child, is brought by an adult with legal authority, and cannot be settled as casually as an adult's — get that one reviewed before anyone signs.

What you can do

1. Get examined. Urgent care or a clinic is fine; say it was a motor vehicle collision so it is documented that way, and follow through on what they recommend.

2. Call your own auto insurer and ask whether your policy has personal injury protection, and how to open it. Ask about uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage in the same call.

3. Keep every bill, discharge instruction, and appointment record together, and note days of work or school missed.

4. Photograph both vehicles and the damage, and write down contact details for everyone who was present.

5. Ask the other driver's insurer in writing to hold the offer open while treatment is documented. You do not have to answer on their timeline.

6. Do not sign a release for yourself or your daughter. Ask a lawyer first — a child's settlement carries requirements an adult's does not.

7. 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) requires a personal injury suit to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. Texas handles that deadline differently for a person who was under 18 when the claim arose, so your daughter's date and yours may not be the same. Neither should be estimated from a calendar — have a Texas attorney review both.