Texas Two-Year Deadline When a Fault-Undetermined Crash Becomes a Lawsuit

Attorney Answer

Almost two years is still inside the deadline, so yes, they can generally still sue — and the fact that the police could not determine fault does not mean no one is liable. A police officer's inability to assign fault decides nothing in a civil case; a judge or jury does that, using a different standard.

The deadline first, because that is your question. 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. Two years is the outside limit, not a grace period the other driver has already used up. Almost two years means the window is likely still open, and it also means it is about to close — which is exactly why lawsuits appear at this point in the calendar. When your two years actually started running depends on your facts, and no page should count it for you.

Now fault. Texas assigns responsibility by percentage. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.003(a) directs the trier of fact — the jury, or the judge in a bench trial — to determine the percentage of responsibility, stated in whole numbers, for each claimant, each defendant, each settling person, and each designated responsible third party, for causing or contributing to cause the harm. That is the body that decides fault. The investigating officer's report is evidence about the scene; it is not the finding.

Two more sections tell you what those percentages do. Under § 33.001, a claimant may not recover damages if his percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent — Texas is a modified comparative fault state with a hard bar, not a system where everyone recovers something. Under § 33.012(a), if the claimant is not barred, the court reduces the damages by a percentage equal to the claimant's own percentage of responsibility. And under § 33.013(a), a liable defendant is generally responsible only for its own percentage of the damages, with joint and several liability reserved for a defendant found more than 50 percent responsible or for the intentional conduct listed in (b). In plain terms: if the person suing you was substantially at fault, that is a defense with real teeth, and if they were more than half at fault they recover nothing.

What you can do

1. Report the lawsuit or the demand to your auto insurer today, in writing, and send them every paper you have received. Most liability policies obligate the insurer to defend a covered claim, and most also require prompt notice — late notice is the common way people lose that protection.

2. Do not talk to the other driver, their lawyer, or their insurance company, and do not give a recorded statement, until your insurer or your own lawyer tells you to.

3. Gather what already exists: the crash report or its number, photographs, repair estimates, medical records if you were hurt, and any messages exchanged with the other driver.

4. If you have been formally served with court papers, get them to your insurer and to a Texas attorney immediately. The deadline to respond to a lawsuit is short, it is set by the papers you were served with rather than by the two-year statute, and missing it can cost the case by default.

5. Ask a Texas attorney whether you also have a claim of your own arising from the same crash, and how § 16.003(a) applies to it, before the two years run.

*Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — the date of the crash and the date on any papers you were served with — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.*

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) gives two years from the day the cause of action accrues for personal injury and property damage claims. Whether that period has run, and exactly when it started, depends on your dates and can be affected by rules this page does not apply. Have a Texas attorney review the dates now rather than counting from a page like this — and if you have been served, treat the response deadline in the papers as the more urgent clock.