After a crash, the insurance claim often turns out to be a harder fight than anyone expects. The at-fault driver’s insurance company is not on your side: their job is to resolve your claim for as little as possible. Even your own insurer may have interests that don’t fully align with yours.
This page explains how the insurance process actually unfolds after a Texas accident and where injured people most often lose value in their claims.
Before you accept anything from an insurance company – your own or another driver’s – talk to the lawyers at Hissey Mulderig & Friend to find out about your rights.
You can reach us by calling toll-free at 1-866-806-8117, or send us a message using the free claim submission form on the right side of this page.
Texas Is A Fault State
Texas follows a fault-based system for car accidents. The driver who caused the crash is responsible for paying for the harm they caused through their liability insurance. This can include vehicle damage, medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering.
Every Texas driver is required to carry minimum liability coverage of $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage, though many carry more and some illegally carry none at all.
Because the system is fault-based, everything in the claim ultimately turns on two questions: who was responsible for the crash, and what are the victim’s losses actually worth.
The insurance company will have its own answers to both, and they will rarely favor you.
How The Claim Against The At-Fault Driver Unfolds
A third-party claim (your claim against the other driver’s insurer) follows a predictable arc.
The claim is opened when the crash is reported, and the insurer assigns an adjuster who investigates: reviewing the crash report, inspecting vehicle damage, taking statements, and evaluating medical records. Texas insurance law puts the insurer on a schedule once a claim is submitted, requiring timely acknowledgment and a decision within set deadlines after it receives the documentation it needs.
The substantive negotiation usually begins after your medical treatment has ended or reached a stable point, when the full scope of your losses can be documented in a demand: a package laying out liability, medical bills and records, lost wages, and the compensation sought.
The adjuster responds with an offer, negotiation follows, and the claim ends in one of two ways: a settlement, or a lawsuit when the insurer won’t pay what the claim is worth.
The moment you sign a settlement release, the claim is permanently closed, no matter what your injuries turn out to require later.
What To Expect From The Adjuster
The adjuster handling your claim will likely be friendly, prompt, and professional, but every conversation with them is part of building the insurer’s file.
The adjuster may ask for a recorded statement, which you are under no obligation to give and shouldn’t without counsel. You may be asked to sign a broad medical authorization that opens your entire medical history to the insurer, letting it hunt for prior conditions to blame for your current injuries; a properly limited authorization covering only crash-related treatment is all it needs.
A fast, modest settlement offer may arrive before your treatment is anywhere near complete. This can be attractive when bills are piling up, but the offer will almost always be a fraction of the claim’s value. When a quick resolution fails, some insurers simply slow down, betting that financial pressure will make you take less.
None of these tactics is personal. They are how the business works, and recognizing them is the first defense.
The Comparative Fault Lever
Expect the other driver’s insurer to look for ways to shift some blame onto you by claiming you were speeding, following too closely, or could have avoided the crash.
This is not just posturing: under Texas’s comparative fault rules, a victim’s compensation is reduced by their percentage of responsibility, and a victim found more than half at fault recovers nothing.
Every percentage point the adjuster can pin on you is money off the claim, which is why offhand comments at the scene, in recorded statements, or on social media so often resurface during negotiations.
The full details of how Texas apportions fault are covered on our Texas car accident laws page.
Your Own Insurance Company’s Role
Your own insurer enters the picture in several ways, and dealing with them involves different rules.
You have a contractual duty to report the crash promptly and cooperate with your own company. Failing to do so can jeopardize your coverage.
Depending on your policy, several of your own coverages may apply regardless of fault. Personal injury protection (PIP), which Texas insurers must offer and which is part of your policy unless you rejected it in writing, pays medical bills and a portion of lost wages quickly and without any fault determination. Medical payments coverage works similarly for treatment costs. Collision coverage can repair your vehicle now, with your insurer recovering from the at-fault carrier later.
Most important is uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, which also must be offered under Texas law and rejected in writing to be excluded. It steps in when the at-fault driver has no insurance, too little insurance, or fled the scene, a scenario that is far from rare given how many Texas drivers carry no coverage.
A UM/UIM claim puts you in the strange position of negotiating against your own insurance company, and while your insurer owes you duties of good faith that the other driver’s insurer does not, it still evaluates and resists these claims the way any insurer does. Policyholders are often surprised to find their own company disputing the value of their injuries.
When The Insurance Money Isn’t Enough
Serious injuries regularly exceed the at-fault driver’s policy limits, especially when that driver carries only the state minimum.
When that happens, the claim becomes a search for every available layer of coverage: the driver’s liability policy, your own UM/UIM and PIP benefits, umbrella policies, and — in crashes involving commercial vehicles or drunk drivers over-served by a bar — additional defendants whose insurance can be reached.
Finding and stacking those layers correctly is one of the places experienced counsel most changes the outcome of a claim.
How Legal Representation Helps Change The Negotiation
Insurance companies track which claimants are represented and value claims accordingly, because an unrepresented claimant cannot credibly threaten the one thing insurers price into every file: a trial.
A lawyer takes over all communication with the adjusters, builds the demand with the medical and wage documentation insurers actually respond to, counters the comparative-fault narrative, and files suit when negotiation stalls.
From that point forward, the pressure runs in the other direction.
Don’t Face The Insurance Company Alone
If you or a loved one was injured in a crash caused by another driver, do not let the insurance company decide what your claim is worth.
The car accident attorneys at Hissey Mulderig & Friend deal with these insurers every day, and we know how to push back when they undervalue a claim. There are no upfront costs, and we do not get paid unless we recover compensation for you.
Get help with your claim by calling our office toll-free at 1-866-806-8117 or fill out the contact form at the top of this page for a free case review with an attorney.