Se habla españolFree consultationNo fee unless we win
Your Case

What if the accident was partly my fault?

Accidents Suck. Lawyer Up.

Texas uses proportionate responsibility: you can still recover as long as you are not more than 50% at fault, with your compensation reduced by your percentage of fault. Insurers routinely exaggerate your share — don't accept their number as final.

No win, no feeEN / ESSame-day reply

Get your free case review

Jimmy personally reviews every submission — most people hear back the same day.

Free · Confidential · No obligation · 713-600-6233
You talk directly to your lawyer
Plain answers, English or Spanish
No fee unless we win
Houston · El Paso · All of Texas

Being partly at fault does not end your claim

Texas uses proportionate responsibility, set out in chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. You can recover as long as your share of the fault is 50% or less. At 51% or more, you recover nothing. People often call it the 51% bar.

Below that line, your recovery is reduced by your percentage. If your damages are $100,000 and you are found 20% responsible, you recover $80,000. That is a real cost — which is exactly why insurers put so much effort into inflating your share.

How insurers use this against you

Because every percentage point has a dollar value, assigning you fault is the cheapest tool an adjuster has. It does not require denying your injuries or disputing your medical bills. It just requires a story in which you contributed.

Common versions: you were speeding, you could have braked sooner, you were not paying attention, you should not have been in that lane, you did not mitigate your injuries by seeking care fast enough. Some of these are raised on nothing more than the adjuster's reading of a police report — and a police officer's opinion about fault is not binding on anyone.

The number an adjuster assigns you early is a negotiating position, not a finding. It carries no legal weight. Only a jury assigns percentages, and that only happens if the case is tried.

What actually determines the split

Physical evidence tends to beat competing stories. Vehicle damage patterns, crush depth and rest positions, event data recorder downloads, dashcam and nearby surveillance footage, scene measurements and signal timing all constrain what could have happened. Independent witnesses matter. In serious cases, an accident reconstructionist can convert that evidence into a defensible account of the sequence.

That is work that has to happen early, because most of that evidence has a short life.

A note on what did not change

During the 2025 legislative session there was a significant push to change how damages — particularly medical damages — are proven and recovered in Texas injury cases. That bill, Senate Bill 30, did not pass. The rules described here are the current rules.

Authority: Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 33

What to do

Your next steps

Do not

Accept their percentage

The fault number an adjuster gives you is an opening offer, not a determination. It is negotiable and often unsupported.

Do not

Explain yourself on a recorded line

Recorded statements exist to capture the sentence that becomes your share of the blame.

Right away

Lock down the physical evidence

Vehicle data, footage and scene evidence constrain the story. They also disappear fastest.

Then

Let the evidence set the number

Once the record is built, the insurer's version has to survive contact with it.

Keep reading

Related questions

Practice Areas

If someone else's negligence put you here, we take it from here

¿Lastimado en un accidente? Hablemos — en español.

La consulta es gratis y confidencial. No paga nada a menos que ganemos su caso. Jimmy contesta personalmente, hoy mismo.

Accidents Suck. Lawyer Up.

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.

Suerken Law
We reply fast — day or night
Hi — I'm here to help. Were you or a loved one injured in an accident?
Car accident 18-wheeler Español Cost? Have Jimmy call me

Free · Confidential · Same-day reply