What a personal injury lawyer actually does, start to finish

A personal injury lawyer investigates your crash, builds the evidence, handles the insurance company, and either negotiates a settlement or takes the case to trial. Here's what that looks like in practice, step by step.

The call

You don't walk into a law firm with a finished case. You call with a story. Your car got rear-ended on I-35 near Rundberg. Your shoulder hurts. The other driver's insurer keeps calling you.

The first conversation is free. Anselmo will ask what happened, whether you got medical care, and whether the police came. He's trying to figure out whether you have a viable claim, not whether to take your money.

If the firm takes your case, you sign a contingency-fee agreement. That means the attorney's fee comes out of whatever is recovered for you, not from your pocket upfront.

Gathering the evidence before it disappears

This is the part most people don't see, and it's where cases are won or lost.

Within days of getting hired, a personal injury lawyer will send preservation letters. If you were hit by an 18-wheeler on Ben White, that letter goes to the trucking company telling them to freeze the driver's electronic logging device data, dashcam footage, and maintenance records. Truck companies are legally allowed to overwrite that data on a schedule. Once it's gone, it's gone.

For a car wreck, the lawyer pulls your Texas crash report (CR-3) and reads it carefully. Officer narratives, diagram, fault codes, witness contact information. Those details matter enormously later.

Photographs, security camera footage from nearby businesses, traffic-signal camera requests through the City of Austin, medical records, billing records. All of it gets organized into a claim file.

Medical treatment and the records process

A lawyer doesn't tell you what doctor to see. But they do coordinate with your providers to make sure liens and billing records are handled correctly.

Texas follows a "paid or incurred" rule for medical damages. What that means for your case is complicated enough that there's a full explainer on how Haygood and § 41.0105 affect your medical bills. The short version: the dollar amount on a hospital bill from Dell Seton is not automatically what you can recover. Your lawyer needs to understand the difference.

While you're treating, the lawyer's job is to stay out of your way medically and stay in the insurer's way legally.

Dealing with the insurance adjuster

The other driver's insurer assigned an adjuster the same day as the wreck. That adjuster's job is to close your claim for as little as possible.

They are not your advocate. They will call early, ask for a recorded statement, and try to get you to describe your injuries before you know their full extent. A lawyer tells them to call the lawyer instead.

What insurance adjusters actually do after your crash is worth reading if you haven't hired anyone yet and those calls are already coming in.

Building the demand package

Once you've finished treatment (or reached maximum medical improvement), the lawyer prepares a demand letter. This isn't a form. It's a document that tells the story of what happened, lays out your medical bills and records, explains the time you lost from work, and argues for damages including pain, suffering, and any permanent limitations.

Texas is a comparative-fault state. If the insurer thinks you were partly responsible for the crash, they'll say so, and it reduces what they'll pay. Under Texas law, if you're found to be 51 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. So the demand package has to anticipate and undercut those arguments before they land.

Negotiation

Most cases settle without a lawsuit. But that doesn't mean the process is quick or easy.

The insurer responds to the demand. Often with a low number. The lawyer counters. This can go back and forth for weeks. Anselmo's approach is direct: if the number isn't fair, the answer is a lawsuit, not a discount.

If you settle, the lawyer prepares a release, handles any medical liens (Medicaid, Medicare, and health insurance often have a right to reimbursement out of your recovery), and distributes the funds after fees and costs.

When it doesn't settle: filing suit

If the insurer won't come to a reasonable number, the lawyer files a lawsuit in Travis County or Williamson County district court, depending on where you live and where the crash happened.

Texas personal injury cases have a two-year statute of limitations. Miss it and you're barred, with very narrow exceptions. That clock starts on the date of the crash for most claims.

Filing suit doesn't mean going to trial the next week. It means entering the discovery phase: depositions, written questions, document exchanges, and often mediation. The majority of cases that get filed still settle before a jury ever hears them. But you need to be willing to go all the way. Insurers know who is and who isn't.

If the case goes to trial

Trial is the last resort, but sometimes it's the right one. A Travis County jury decides liability and damages. The lawyer gives opening and closing arguments, examines witnesses, introduces evidence, and handles objections.

Whether to settle or go to trial is your decision, not the lawyer's. But the lawyer gives you honest odds. If you're weighing that question, this Texas settlement-vs-trial framework lays out how to think through it.

What you can recover

Texas lets injured people recover economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, future care costs) and noneconomic damages (pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment). In cases involving drunk drivers or other conduct that rises to fraud, malice, or gross negligence, Texas law also allows for exemplary damages. That requires clear and convincing evidence of that misconduct, not just negligence.

There's no single formula. It depends on the severity of your injuries, how well the fault is established, and what the defendant's insurance looks like.

One lawyer, not a call center

Boutique practices handle cases differently than high-volume firms. At Jackson & Aguirre, Anselmo Aguirre works a smaller caseload by design, which means you talk to the attorney when you call. Not a paralegal. Not a case manager reading from a screen.

If you'd like to talk through what happened to you, call the firm for a free intake conversation. No pressure, no paperwork. Just an honest answer about whether you have a case worth pursuing.