How Long Do I Have To File An Accident Claim In Houston?

Houston’s Filing Deadline for Accident Claims

In Houston (and throughout the state of Texas), you generally have two years to file an accident claim for injuries, property damage or both.

Filing Your Accident Report in Houston

The deadline for filing a car accident lawsuit is not the same as the deadline for reporting the accident to the police. Under Texas law, you must immediately notify the police of any crash that injures or kills a person or disables a vehicle.

This report has to be made by the fastest communication possible. So in most cases, you will call the police using your cell phone. If you do not have a cell phone, you have no service or your phone was lost or destroyed in the collision, you can ask someone else to call or use the phone at a local residence or business.

Once you report the crash, the police must prepare an accident report for any crash that involves the following circumstances:

• Injury or death to any person
• Damage of at least $1,000 to the property of any party
• Impaired driving
• A hit-and-run collision
• A commercial motor vehicle

The police have ten days to complete and file the official crash report. You can go to the Texas crash report portal to learn how to get a police report for a car accident in Houston.

Previously, Texas required drivers to self-report crashes to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). However, the Texas legislature changed the law in 2017 so that drivers are no longer required to file Form CR-2 with TxDOT.

If you receive a CR-2 form from the responding officers at the crash scene, TxDOT advises you to keep it for your records. Keep in mind that if you file it with TxDOT, it will be destroyed.

When the Time Limit Starts Running

In most cases, the time limit starts on the date of the accident. However, if your injury was not immediately noticeable, the time limit might start on the day you realized you were injured. This is known as the “discovery rule.”

Rules for Claims Against the Government

The Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA) is a law establishing guidelines for filing accident and injury claims against the government. As is the case in most states, Texas imposes much shorter deadlines for anyone looking to sue a government entity.

Under the TTCA, claims against the Texas state government must be filed within six months of the accident. However, local governments are allowed to set their own timelines.

The City of Houston’s deadline is shorter than most: you have 90 days from the date of the accident to file.

How Minors & Mental Incapacity Change the Filing Deadline

Some factors may impact the statute of limitations, and two of them are age and mental incapacity.

If you are a minor at the time of your accident and no adult files a lawsuit on your behalf, the statute of limitations is tolled (or paused) until your 18th birthday. This means that for most personal injury lawsuits, you would have two years from your 18th birthday to file.

If you are mentally incapacitated, the statute of limitations is tolled until you regain competence. For example, if you are in a coma after your accident, the countdown would begin once you are awake and functioning normally.

Why Filing Promptly Strengthens Your Claim

How long do you have to report a car accident to your insurance company? There is generally no set deadline, but acting promptly can give your claim credibility for these key reasons:

• Insurance companies might assume your injuries were not severe if you wait.
• Eyewitness memories fade over time.
• Photos and other physical evidence might get lost.
• Delays give the insurer and at-fault driver time to shift the blame to you.

Conversely, if you delayed reporting an accident to your insurer or the at-fault party’s insurer, you still have time until the statute of limitations expires. This means you shouldn’t give up your right to seek compensation simply because some time has elapsed since the accident.

What Happens if You Miss the Deadline for Filing Your Claim?

Unfortunately, some injured people ask, “How long after an accident do you have to file a claim in Houston?” too late. If the statute of limitations has passed, you will likely not be able to recover damages.

When the filing deadline passes, the at-fault party and their insurer are no longer legally liable because your claim is time-barred. As a result, the insurer has no obligation to continue to try to settle your case.

You’ll need to track the deadline and file a lawsuit before it passes. Your personal injury lawyer can help you do this.

Filing a lawsuit satisfies the statute of limitations and allows you to continue negotiating with the insurer. In other words, the entire case does not need to be resolved before the statute of limitations period. Instead, you just need to file your lawsuit before that date.

How Long Do You Have to File an Accident Claim in Houston?

An experienced Houston personal injury lawyer can help you through the claims process and make sure you don’t miss relevant deadlines. Not sure how to find one? Let us help!

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