Getting Medical Records When Your Lawyer Goes Quiet

Attorney Answer

You do not need your lawyer's permission to ask for your own records, and you can start that request today. The harder problem in your message is the silence, and there is a way to deal with that too.

Take the records first. A patient in Texas can request their own medical records and billing statements directly from the provider, usually by signing the provider's authorization form and paying a reasonable copying fee. Both Texas law and federal health privacy law set a period within which a provider must respond to a proper written request, and providers may charge for copies. The practical answer to your question is that this is measured in weeks, not months, and that the clock does not start until a complete, properly signed request reaches the right department. Requests sent to a front desk rather than to medical records are the usual reason nothing happens.

There is a reason your lawyer may not have much to report. In an injury case the file usually sits still while treatment finishes and while records and bills are collected from every provider, and that collection is often the slowest part of the case. That explains a quiet stretch. It does not excuse not telling you that is what is happening.

You are entitled to be kept informed about your own case and to ask for a written status update. A lawyer's obligations to communicate with a client, and the process for complaining if that breaks down, are governed by the rules that regulate Texas attorneys rather than by the accident statutes, and general guidance is as far as I can responsibly go here. The State Bar of Texas runs both a client–attorney assistance program, which tries to resolve communication problems short of a complaint, and a grievance process. Either is available to you without cost.

The one thing that will not wait for anyone is the deadline. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) requires suit for personal injury to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues, and in an ordinary collision case that runs from the date of the crash. A lawyer's slow communication does not extend it. Knowing the date your case must be filed by is the single most important thing you can get from your lawyer right now, and it is a fair thing to ask for in writing.

What you can do

1. Contact the medical records department of each provider that treated you, ask for its authorization form, and request both the records and an itemized billing statement. Do this in writing and keep a copy of what you send and the date.

2. Ask each provider what the copying fee is and how it wants to be paid, so the request is not sitting in a queue waiting on payment.

3. Send your lawyer a short written message — email is fine — asking for a written status update, a list of what is still outstanding, and the date by which your case must be filed. Written requests get answered more often than calls.

4. Keep your own copy of everything: records, bills, correspondence and the dates of each request.

5. If communication does not improve after a written request, contact the State Bar of Texas about its client–attorney assistance program.

6. Before changing lawyers, ask a lawyer about how the existing fee agreement and any lien on the case would be affected. That is a decision with financial consequences and it should not be made in frustration.

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) generally requires suit for personal injury to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. When your particular clock started, and whether anything about your case affects it, depends on your facts, and no page can calculate it for you. Ask your lawyer for that date in writing, and if you cannot get it, put the question to another Texas attorney promptly.