Possibly a strong one. Texas is the only state that doesn't require most private employers to carry workers' compensation. Employers who opt out — 'non-subscribers' — can be sued directly for negligence, and they lose key defenses: they generally can't blame your own negligence or argue you accepted the risk.
Jimmy personally reviews every submission — most people hear back the same day.
Texas is the only state that does not require most private employers to carry workers' compensation. Employers who opt out are called non-subscribers. People often assume that leaves them with nothing. Frequently the opposite is true.
When an employer carries comp, that system is generally the exclusive remedy: benefits are capped and there is no recovery for pain and suffering, regardless of how badly the employer behaved. When an employer opts out, it gives up that protection. You can sue it directly, and full tort damages are on the table.
Under Texas Labor Code section 406.033(a), a non-subscribing employer sued by an injured employee may not assert that:
• the employee was contributorily negligent;
• the employee assumed the risk of injury; or
• the injury was caused by the negligence of a fellow employee.
Those three defenses are the backbone of most workplace-injury defenses, and the non-subscriber loses all of them. "He knew the job was dangerous," "he was careless," and "a coworker did it" are simply unavailable.
This is where honest advice differs from marketing. Section 406.033(d) requires the injured employee to prove that negligence of the employer, or of an agent or servant acting within the scope of employment, caused the injury. Non-subscriber status is not strict liability. You do not automatically win because you were hurt at work.
So the case is built around what the employer did or failed to do: unsafe equipment or a removed guard, inadequate training, no safety procedure or one nobody enforced, understaffing a job that needed two people, ignoring a hazard that had already been reported, or pressure to work in an unsafe way to keep a schedule.
Medical expenses and lost wages, yes — but also future medical care, lost earning capacity, physical impairment, disfigurement, and pain and mental anguish. Where the employer's conduct rises to gross negligence, exemplary damages may be available.
Many non-subscribers offer a private plan instead. These are written by the company, and the enrollment or claim paperwork often contains an arbitration agreement, a waiver of your right to sue, or a requirement to report and sign within a short window.
Do not sign anything from such a plan before a lawyer reads it. What looks like a benefits form can be the document that gives away the claim described on this page.
Incident reports, maintenance and inspection logs, training records, prior complaints about the same hazard, and safety-meeting minutes are the proof. They are in the employer's possession, and the employer knows they matter.
Authority: Tex. Labor Code § 406.033
It changes everything about the claim. You are entitled to know, and it is verifiable.
Arbitration clauses and liability waivers hide in benefits paperwork.
A contemporaneous written report is hard to dispute later. Verbal reports get forgotten.
Incident reports, maintenance logs, training files and prior complaints about the same hazard.
Rear-endings, intersection crashes, uninsured drivers, hit-and-runs — in Houston, El Paso, and everywhere in between.
Federal regulations, black-box data, driver logs, multiple insurers. We move fast to preserve evidence before it disappears.
Hurt on the job for a non-subscriber employer, or injured by a third party at a job site? Texas gives you real options.
When the worst happens, we pursue accountability for surviving families with the care and seriousness it deserves.
La consulta es gratis y confidencial. No paga nada a menos que ganemos su caso. Jimmy contesta personalmente, hoy mismo.
Every day you wait, evidence disappears and the insurer gets ahead. One free call. Straight answers about your case — in English or Spanish. If you need a fighter, you'll have one. If you don't, I'll tell you that too.
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