Sued a Year Later After a Mutual-Fault Crash

Attorney Answer

Yes, it makes sense, even if it does not feel fair. In Texas a crash claim is a civil matter between the people involved, and nothing about it depended on the police writing a report. If you both share the blame, that does not end her lawsuit — it reduces what she can collect, and it bars her only if her own share is more than half. The urgent part is not the argument; it is the deadline printed on the papers you were served with.

The officers' advice to handle it yourselves changed nothing legally. Texas does not require a driver to file a crash report of their own; officer reports govern, and an officer's decision not to write one is not a finding about fault and does not release anybody. Her right to sue came from the collision itself, not from paperwork.

She also sued within the period the law allows. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) requires suit for injury to property and for personal injury to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues, subject to the narrow exceptions the section itself names. A suit filed about a year after the crash is ordinarily well inside that window.

What shared fault actually does is set out in chapter 33. Under § 33.003 the trier of fact assigns each claimant and each defendant a whole-number percentage of responsibility. Section 33.001 provides that "in an action to which this chapter applies, a claimant may not recover damages if his percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent." If she is found more than half responsible, she recovers nothing at all. If her share is smaller, § 33.012(a) requires the court to reduce her damages by a percentage equal to her own percentage of responsibility. And § 33.013(a) provides that "Except as provided in Subsection (b), a liable defendant is liable to a claimant only for the percentage of the damages found by the trier of fact equal to that defendant's percentage of responsibility with respect to the personal injury, property damage, death, or other harm for which the damages are allowed." The exception in § 33.013(b), which makes a defendant answerable for the whole judgment, applies only where that defendant is more than 50 percent responsible or acted in concert to commit certain listed intentional crimes.

As for wanting money "without any explanation": a lawsuit does not have to prove its case in the papers that are served. The explanation comes later, through the exchange of evidence and sworn testimony, and that process is exactly where the version you both agreed on at the scene gets tested. It is also the reason not to answer her or her lawyer directly.

What you can do

1. Send the citation and the petition to your own auto insurer today, in writing, and keep proof that you sent them. A liability policy ordinarily obligates the insurer to defend the claims made against you and to pay for the lawyer.

2. Write down the date each of you was served. A served defendant in Texas has a short deadline, measured in days, to file a written answer, and missing it can produce a default judgment. That deadline comes from the citation itself, not from anything on this page, and it is not something to estimate.

3. Gather what already exists: photographs of both vehicles, any repair estimate, any messages between the two of you afterward, and the names of anyone who saw it.

4. Ask your insurer to confirm in writing that it is providing your defense, and ask what it needs from you.

5. Do not call her, message her, or speak with her lawyer. Everything goes through the lawyer defending you.

6. Ask the lawyer defending you whether you have your own claim for the damage to your vehicle, and how the two-year period in Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) applies to it.

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. Two clocks matter here. The deadline to answer the lawsuit is the short one and is set by the citation you were served with, not by statute; treat it as the most urgent thing in the file. Separately, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) allows two years from accrual for a claim of your own. Whether either has run depends on your dates, so take the papers to a Texas attorney now.