Sued After an Insurer Paid: Payment Is Not a Release

Attorney Answer

Yes, she generally can — a payment is not a release. Unless she signed something giving up her claims, the check your insurer sent for the damage does not close out a personal injury claim, and Texas gives her two years to sue. Under most auto policies this is your insurer's to handle rather than yours, which is why telling them right away is the first thing to do.

Start with the clock, because a year has passed and you are wondering whether that mattered. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) requires a person to bring suit for personal injury or for injury to property not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. A year is inside that window. When the period actually started running in a given case is a fact question, and there are situations in which a claim accrues later than the day of the crash, so nobody — including this page — should count the date for you.

Now the point that surprises most people. Paying a property damage claim and settling a claim are different things. A release is a signed document in which the other person gives up specified claims in exchange for the payment. If she signed one, its wording controls what she gave up, and a release of vehicle damage does not necessarily release a bodily injury claim. If she signed nothing, the payment for the scratch simply resolved that bill and left everything else open. That is why the first thing to find is the paperwork, not the check.

Fault still matters even though you were the one who hit her. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.003(a) the trier of fact determines a whole-number percentage of responsibility for each claimant, each defendant, each settling person, and each designated responsible third party. Section 33.001 bars recovery entirely by a claimant whose own percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent, and § 33.012(a) reduces a non-barred claimant's damages by that claimant's own percentage. Section 33.013(a) makes a liable defendant responsible for only its own percentage, subject to the exceptions in (b). And the scale of the collision is itself evidence: what the damage looked like, what was said at the scene, and what the vehicles showed are all facts a defense turns on.

What you can do

1. Notify your auto insurer today, in writing, and send them everything you have received. Most liability policies obligate the insurer to defend a covered suit, and nearly all require prompt notice. Late notice is the usual way that protection gets lost.

2. Ask your insurer for the complete claim file from a year ago, including any release or settlement document she signed and the payment records. That file answers the central question.

3. Do not contact her, her lawyer, or her insurer directly, and do not give a recorded statement to anyone but your own insurer or your own attorney.

4. Preserve what already exists: photographs of both vehicles, any texts or emails with her, the repair estimate, and anything you wrote down at the time. Do not delete anything, including messages that look unhelpful.

5. If you have been served with court papers, get them to your insurer and a Texas attorney immediately. The deadline to respond is short and set by the papers themselves, not by the two-year statute, and missing it can lose the case by default.

*Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — what was signed a year ago and what the papers you received actually say — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.*

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) allows two years from the day the cause of action accrues for personal injury and property damage claims. Whether that period has run here, and when it began, depends on facts this page does not have, and accrual is not always the date of the collision. Have a Texas attorney review the dates rather than counting from a page like this, and treat any response deadline in served papers as the more urgent one.