Post-Injury Waivers in Texas: What the Law Requires Before Signing

Attorney Answer

Texas law puts hard conditions on a waiver like this one, and a waiver that does not meet them is not enforceable — but whether to sign is a decision to make with a lawyer, not at the clinic.

Start with the question underneath yours: does your employer carry workers' compensation insurance? Texas does not require most private employers to. An employer without it is called a non-subscriber, and that changes what a lawsuit against it looks like. Tex. Lab. Code § 406.033(a) provides that in an action against an employer by an employee who is not covered by workers' compensation insurance, "it is not a defense that: (1) the employee was guilty of contributory negligence; (2) the employee assumed the risk of injury or death; or (3) the injury or death was caused by the negligence of a fellow employee." Those three defenses are the ones an employer would normally lean on hardest.

Now the waiver itself. Tex. Lab. Code § 406.033(f) says a cause of action of that kind may not be waived by an employee after the injury unless all of four things are true: the employee enters the waiver voluntarily and with knowledge of its effect; the waiver is entered into not earlier than the tenth business day after the date of the initial report of injury; the employee has received a medical evaluation from a nonemergency care doctor before signing; and the waiver is in writing, with the true intent of the parties specifically stated in the document. Tex. Lab. Code § 406.033(g) adds that those waiver provisions must be conspicuous — in larger type than the body of the agreement, or in contrasting colors. A waiver signed before the injury is a different matter entirely: under Tex. Lab. Code § 406.033(e), any agreement to waive that cause of action before the injury is void and unenforceable.

So the timing and the medical evaluation are not formalities. They are conditions the statute sets on whether the paper does anything at all.

What you can do

1. Ask your employer, in writing, whether it carries workers' compensation insurance. Keep the answer. Everything else turns on it.

2. Ask for a copy of the waiver to keep, and read it yourself rather than relying on a description of it.

3. Write down the date you first reported the injury to your employer. Section 406.033(f) measures its ten-business-day period from that report.

4. Keep every medical record from the injury forward, including who examined you and when.

5. Take the waiver to a Texas attorney before you sign anything. Ask specifically whether the conditions in § 406.033(f) have been met on your facts. 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) sets the period for a personal injury claim, and the workers' compensation system runs its own separate and much shorter deadlines for reporting an injury and filing a claim. Which of those apply to you depends on whether your employer subscribes, so have a Texas attorney key them to your facts rather than working from this page.