San Antonio Car Accident Lawyer for Serious Injuries

If another driver hit you, you may pursue medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and lost earning capacity. It is a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver, usually paid by that driver’s insurer rather than out of his own pocket.

Serving all of San Antonio and the Hill Country and every stretch of I-35, US-90 and Culebra Road in between. Our aggressive San Antonio car accident attorneys are ready to take your case to trial. A trial-tested team beside you, no matter the size of your claim.

Clients rate us a perfect 5.0 stars across 350+ Google reviews. When you call, you speak with a personal injury attorney, not a call center, in English or Spanish.

Car Accident Case Results from JRE’s partner and of-counsel attorneys

• More than $2 million, from a jury, in an underinsured-motorist claim against the client’s own carrier: Telfort & Nunez v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. (Shaw Cowart, LLP, Ethan L. Shaw, of Counsel to JRE Injury Law).
• A family with three young children, hurt in a collision, settled for the full policy limits of more than $350,000 in Oropeza v. Taylor (Shaw Cowart, LLP, Ethan L. Shaw, of Counsel to JRE Injury Law).
• $2.25 million for a father and son T-boned by a driver who ran a stop sign, after a single deposition dismantled the employer’s claim that its driver was only commuting (Jorge Mares, of Counsel to JRE Injury Law).
• Two people injured in the same auto accident recovered a $150,000 judgment (Shaw Cowart, LLP).
• $125,000, by judgment, in an auto collision brought against a trucking company: Babineaux & Mink v. Trammel Time Trucking, LLC (Shaw Cowart, LLP, Ethan L. Shaw, of Counsel to JRE Injury Law)
• Three separate $100,000 judgments in auto cases, among them Cortez v. Vallejo and Gamez v. Rodriguez, plus a $100,000 resolution of another auto claim (Shaw Cowart, LLP, Ethan L. Shaw, of Counsel to JRE Injury Law)
• A $400,000 judgment in a personal injury case, and a $375,000 verdict that survived appeal (Shaw Cowart, LLP, Ethan L. Shaw, of Counsel to JRE Injury Law).
• Full policy-limits settlements for an injured family, and for two people hurt in one auto collision (Shaw Cowart, LLP, Ethan L. Shaw, of Counsel to JRE Injury Law),

Call our San Antonio office at (210) 272-0101 or use our secure online contact form for a free case review. You Pay Nothing Unless You Win.

Do I need a lawyer, or can I handle the insurance company myself?

You can handle it yourself, and the adjuster is counting on exactly that. The other driver’s carrier has trained adjusters, in-house medical reviewers, and defense lawyers on call, and it makes a first offer before anyone knows whether your neck will need surgery.

Three tactics show up in almost every auto accident claim. The adjuster asks for a recorded statement while you are on pain medication, then quotes your words back months later. A quick check arrives with a release attached, closing your claim for good. Later, a doctor hired by the insurer calls your therapy excessive, or blames a decade-old X-ray for the disc this impact herniated.

Edmundo “Eddie” Leandro III, Of Counsel to JRE Injury Law, is a former Cameron County Assistant District Attorney. He has sat on the other side of the table, so he knows how insurers evaluate, reserve and defend claims, and that shapes how our San Antonio personal injury lawyer team documents yours from the first week.

What does it cost to hire a car accident attorney?

Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, so our fee comes out of the recovery, and you Pay Nothing Unless You Win.

What if I was partly at fault?

You can still recover as long as your share of the blame is 50 percent or less. Proportionate responsibility, in Civil Practice and Remedies Code sections 33.001 and 33.012, bars recovery once your percentage passes 50, then reduces what you win by the percentage a jury assigns you.

What does a car accident lawyer actually do?

A car accident lawyer proves who caused the wreck, documents what it cost you, and makes the insurer pay that amount instead of the number it picked. That starts with evidence: we request the officer’s crash report through the TxDOT crash records system, pull 911 logs, chase down camera video before it is erased, and preserve the event data recorder that stores speed and braking.

Then we build the damages side: your medical records and bills, your wage records, and your doctors’ opinions about what your body will need in five years. When a work vehicle is involved, the file grows to include driver logs, maintenance history, and hiring records, the proof behind commercial truck and 18-wheeler claims.

We also take over what wears injured people down. We arrange chiropractic care, therapy, imaging, and doctor visits, handle the vehicle repair or total-loss payout, and give you a case manager who keeps you updated at every step.

What should I do right after a car crash?

Get medical care first, then protect the proof.

• See a doctor the same day, at University Hospital or any ER, even if you only feel stiff.
• Call 911 so San Antonio Police document the scene, and note the officer’s name and report number.
• Photograph both vehicles, the intersection, skid marks, and debris, and get names and numbers from witnesses.
• Decline the other insurer’s request for a recorded statement.
• Call (210) 272-0101 before you sign a release or cash a check.

Who can be held responsible for your injuries?

Anyone whose carelessness helped cause them. A negligence claim has four parts: a duty to drive with ordinary care, a breach of it, a causal link between the breach and the impact, and damages you can prove. A driver who runs the light on Fredericksburg Road breaches the duty, the T-bone is the causal link, and the shoulder surgery is the damage.

One car accident can produce several defendants, each on a different theory:

• The at-fault driver, under ordinary negligence.
• That driver’s employer, under respondeat superior, the rule that puts a company on the hook for its worker’s driving.
• A business that handed keys to an unfit or unlicensed driver, under negligent entrustment.
• A bar or restaurant that kept serving an obviously drunk customer, under the Texas dram shop law, Alcoholic Beverage Code section 2.02.
• A vehicle or parts maker, under products liability, when a tire, seat belt, or airbag fails.
• A city, county, or transit agency, under the Texas Tort Claims Act, when a government driver is at fault.

Can more than one driver be responsible?

Yes. A jury assigns each person involved a percentage of responsibility, so two or three policies can fund one recovery. That matters most when the at-fault driver carries thin coverage.

When is an employer responsible for its driver?

When the driver was doing the company’s work at the time. That fact changes everything, because a commercial policy carries far higher limits than a personal one, and it is the first thing the employer will deny, as it does in bus collision claims and wrecks caused by fleet vehicles.

Jorge Mares, Of Counsel to JRE Injury Law, with co-counsel David Fuentes, settled a T-bone case for $2.25 million for a father and son after the defense denied liability and argued the driver was only commuting, not working. One deposition of that driver established liability and defeated the employer’s attempt to escape responsibility. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Every case is different and depends on its own facts.

How does JRE Injury Law handle your claim?

We build every file as though it will be tried. Mr. Echavarria has recovered tens of millions of dollars for injured clients, and he began as a Bexar County prosecutor in the criminal courts at the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center. Your case would be heard on the same street, in the Bexar County civil district courts.

Ethan L. Shaw, Of Counsel to JRE Injury Law and a partner at Shaw Cowart, LLP, is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, certified since 1995, which his firm notes fewer than 3% of Texas attorneys are.

Mr. Shaw tried Tate v. Discover Property & Casualty with co-counsel Tom Rhodes in the 225th District Court in Bexar County, one of the civil district courts that hears San Antonio injury cases. The jury returned about $70 million against an insurer that wrongfully denied an injured worker’s benefits, and Lawyers USA ranked the verdict among the most significant litigation results of 2009.

That bench’s car crash results include a policy-limits settlement of more than $350,000 for a family, including three children, hurt in a collision in Oropeza v. Taylor, and a $400,000 judgment in a personal injury case (Shaw Cowart, LLP). Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Every case is different and depends on its own facts.

You get an attorney who returns your calls himself and a case manager you can reach by name, so you know who has your file.

Who arranges my medical care while my case is open?

We do. Our staff schedules any surgical care and PT, chiropractic care, physical therapy, MRIs, and physician visits, etc, as well as handles the medical liens, so providers are paid out of the settlement rather than your pocket.

Talk to an attorney today at (210) 272-0101, or send us your details.

Where in San Antonio do we take these cases?

Everywhere in Bexar County. Much of our work comes off the highway system: the I-10 and Loop 1604 interchange, the I-35 and Loop 410 merge, US-281 through the Basse Road corridor near our office, and Wurzbach Parkway. Arterial streets produce as many injuries, especially Bandera Road, Culebra Road, Military Drive, and Fredericksburg Road through the Medical Center. We also represent people hurt downtown, in Stone Oak and Alamo Heights, and in school zones across the North East and Northside districts, the same footprint our San Antonio injury practice covers.

How much is my car accident case worth?

Your case is worth what you can prove: how badly you were hurt, how long you treated, how fault is divided, and how much insurance exists. No honest lawyer quotes an average, because averages describe other people’s files, not yours.

Available coverage sets the ceiling. Texas requires only 30/60/25 liability insurance under Transportation Code section 601.072: $30,000 for one injured person, $60,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage. One surgery can exhaust that, so we look for employer, umbrella, and your own policies.

What damages can you recover under state law?

Each category of harm has to be proven separately:

• Past and future medical expenses.
• Lost wages and diminished earning capacity.
• Physical pain and mental anguish, past and future.
• Physical impairment, a separate element for activities you can no longer do.
• Disfigurement, including surgical scarring.
• Loss of household services and consortium, plus life-care costs in catastrophic cases.
• Property damage and rental costs.
• Exemplary damages under Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 41.003, when conduct was grossly negligent.

When someone dies, section 71.002 gives the spouse, children, and parents a wrongful death claim, and section 71.021 preserves the claim the person would have had.

Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome; every case depends on its facts.

How long does a settlement take?

Most resolve within a few months after treatment ends, because nobody can value a case before the doctors know whether you need surgery. Serious injuries, disputed fault, or a lawsuit stretch that, and treating physicians project the future care that drives the number.

What if the other driver had no insurance?

Your own carrier will still fight that claim. In Telfort & Nunez v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., Shaw Cowart of-counsel to JRE Injury Law, took an underinsured-motorist claim to a jury and won a verdict of more than $2 million.

How long do I have to file a lawsuit in Texas?

Two years from the date of the car accident, under Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003. A wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death. Children generally get until their eighteenth birthday before the clock starts, and a narrow discovery rule applies to injuries that could not reasonably have been found sooner.

Government vehicles carry much shorter deadlines. The Tort Claims Act requires written notice within six months under section 101.101, and the San Antonio city charter cuts that to 90 days. Evidence disappears long before any of those dates: store video is often overwritten within 30 days, and vehicles are sold for salvage with their data still inside.

What causes most car accidents, and how does that affect your claim?

Driver inattention and failure to control speed are the factors TxDOT records most often through its Crash Records Information System, and Bexar County ranks among the state’s worst for serious injuries. Cause also decides who pays for the car accident.

• Distracted driving in stop-and-go traffic on I-10 and I-35.
• Failure to control speed on the approaches to Loop 410 and Loop 1604.
• Running red lights and stop signs on arterials such as Culebra Road and Military Drive.
• Drunk and drugged driving, concentrated on nights and weekends.
• Turning left across oncoming traffic, which is also how many riders are struck by drivers who never saw them.
• Fatigue among shift workers moving between the JBSA bases, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas, and area distribution centers.

Does the police report decide who was at fault?

No. The report records the investigating officer’s opinion, and it carries weight with adjusters, but it binds nobody. Insurers dispute it when it hurts them, and reports do get the sequence backward.

Is a traffic ticket proof of negligence?

Often, yes. Under negligence per se, breaking a safety statute such as the right-of-way rules establishes the breach part of a negligence claim, which shifts the fight to how badly you were hurt.

What injuries do car accidents cause?

Car accident injuries follow the physics of the impact, which is why the same patterns repeat:

• Whiplash and cervical strain, from the head snapping forward and back.
• Herniated and bulging discs, when the spine compresses and disc material presses nerves.
• Concussions and traumatic brain injuries, when the brain moves inside the skull.
• Spinal cord injuries, causing lasting weakness or paralysis below the injury.
• Fractures of ribs, wrists, hips, and ankles, from contact with belts and the dash.
• Internal bleeding and organ damage, unnoticed for hours, which fills the trauma bays at University Hospital and Brooke Army Medical Center.
• Post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and sleep loss, which surface as the body heals.

Physical impairment is its own category of damage, so an injury that keeps you from lifting your child is compensable beyond the bills. Mental anguish counts too, proven through counseling records.

Why do symptoms show up days later?

Adrenaline masks pain for a day or two, and swelling builds slowly. Get evaluated anyway, because a gap between the injury and your first visit is the first thing an adjuster uses against you.

What if I had a prior injury in the same body part?

You can still recover for what this impact made worse. Insurers lean on pre-existing conditions, so we obtain the earlier records and have your doctor compare them, which usually shows a stable condition that turned surgical.

What kinds of car accident cases do we handle?

These are the collision types we see most across San Antonio:

• Rear-end impacts in stopped or slowing highway traffic.
• Intersection and T-bone wrecks from red light and stop sign violations.
• Left-turn collisions across oncoming lanes.
• Head-on impacts, including wrong-way drivers on divided highways.
• Sideswipes and lane-change collisions on Loop 410 and Loop 1604.
• Chain-reaction pileups on I-35 during rush hour.
• Hit-and-run cases and drunk driving cases.
• Wrecks caused by delivery vans, work trucks, and other company vehicles.

What if the driver who hit me drove off?

Report it to police immediately and open a claim under your own uninsured motorist coverage, which exists for this. We also look for camera footage and partial plate numbers, since these drivers are identified more often than people expect.

What if I was hurt in an Uber or Lyft?

Rideshare coverage changes depending on whether the app was on and whether a passenger was aboard, which is why rideshare collision claims are investigated differently from an ordinary two-vehicle case.

Why hire JRE Injury Law?

Because insurance companies respond to files that look ready for a courtroom, and because you will know the people building your car accident claim. Reviewers describe our team getting carriers to pay claims they had refused, and describe being treated like people rather than file numbers. We work in English and Spanish, with información en español for Spanish-speaking families. You Pay Nothing Unless You Win.

Who will actually handle my case?

Mr. Echavarria and a case manager you can reach by name. Clients describe him returning calls himself, sometimes in the evening, the practical difference between a boutique firm and a volume shop.

Do you take cases to trial?

We prepare every file as if it will be tried, and we bring in board-certified trial counsel when a case calls for it. Insurers track which firms try cases, and that shapes what they offer.

Talk to a San Antonio attorney about your case today

Call (210) 272-0101 or (844) 702-0350 toll-free, any hour, for a free case review, or send us the details. You Pay Nothing Unless You Win, and the two-year deadline runs whether or not anyone told you, so speak with a San Antonio car accident lawyer while the evidence still exists.

JRE Injury Law, 931 Basse Road, San Antonio, TX 78212.