Evaluating a Texas Car Accident Settlement Offer

An offer is a number attached to a release. Here's how to test both against your evidence, your coverage and the money you'd actually keep.

Short answer

An offer tells you what one insurer will pay this week. It doesn't tell you what the case is worth, and it doesn't tell you what you'd keep.

So when the adjuster emails $18,000 three months after the crash, ask why, in writing. Check what your records prove today. Check who else can pay, including your own PIP and UM/UIM coverage. Get the net figure on paper. The release comes last, and you read every line of it.

For the steps before an offer arrives, see the Texas car accident claims and litigation guide.

Why is the offer lower than you expected?

Each reason for a low offer needs a different answer:

Match the fix to the fight. If the insurer says its policy is tapped out, scar photos won't move it. If it blames your surgery on a fall last summer, another billing printout won't either. Get the disputed item named in writing. For treatment disputes, see medical bills and future care.

Is one missing? Ask your doctor whether more care is likely, possible, or unlikely. Have your lawyer request the limits and look for other drivers, owners, or employers. Request the full chart from each provider, not only the bill.

How do fault and coverage change what an offer is worth?

Four rules set the ceiling and the deductions:

Suppose the other driver has a $30,000 per-person policy, and the insurer tenders all of it. Your medical bills alone come to $34,500. Is $30,000 the end of the road? From this insurer, it may be. Before you accept, check three other places:

• your own policy's UIM settlement terms (some require notice or consent before you release the at-fault driver)
• the driver's job, since an employer may be a separate source of recovery if he was working
• the crash report, for a second vehicle that shared fault and carried its own policy

How do you compare an offer with going to court?

Line up both options the same way:

Accepting carries no risk on the amount. Going forward risks a lower verdict, a fault finding, or a collection problem. For how fees can change by stage, see what a car accident lawyer costs.

Ask your lawyer two things: what would change the advice, and what the next stage would cost you. The written estimate should mark each deduction as firm or a guess.

Then ask whether the other driver owns anything beyond the policy. A judgment over the limits may never be paid.

What should you check in the release?

The release often reaches further than the payment amount suggests. Read it with these questions next to you:

• Who is released: only the driver and the insurer, or all other persons and companies?
• Does it cover future injuries and complications you can't see yet?
• Are you promising to pay liens and indemnify the insurer against them?
• What can you tell family, doctors, or other insurers?
• When must the money arrive, and what happens if it's late?

A final release usually ends the claim it covers. If your treatment later costs more, you generally can't reopen the settlement.

A few situations add a step before you sign:

• your husband hurt in the same crash: his own claim and his own release
• your child's claim: generally a judge's approval
• your own UIM coverage: notice to your insurer, or its consent
• a lawsuit already on file: a Rule 11 agreement in writing and filed, or made in open court

Does a deadline or a policy-limits demand change the decision?

Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003 sets a two-year filing deadline. Talks with an adjuster don't stop the clock. Your lawyer may need to file suit while negotiation continues.

Say your lawyer offers to settle for the full $30,000 limit, and the insurer says no. If a jury later returns $90,000, the Stowers doctrine may put the $60,000 excess on the insurer for turning down a reasonable demand within its limits. Whether it does depends on the demand's terms and the facts.

If the case reaches trial, Tex. R. Evid. 408 generally keeps offers and statements made to settle from being used to prove the claim or its amount.

What if the offer comes before your surgeon decides?

Dana, 41, supervises a warehouse in Lancaster. On a Monday in February, a pickup rear-ends her on I-35E near the Ledbetter exit. The other driver admits he was following too close. Fault isn't the fight.

The offer comes in May. Her surgeon is still weighing a lumbar fusion, and the next MRI is June 12. Nothing forces her to answer before then.

She waits for the surgeon's letter after that scan. Meanwhile her lawyer confirms the pickup driver's limit and pulls her own UIM page. The net estimate she gets lists the health plan's reimbursement claim on its own line. Last, she reads how the release treats a future surgery and her UIM carrier.

Frequently asked questions

Should I turn down the first offer?

It depends on the limit behind it. Thirty thousand on a $30,000 policy is everything that insurer will pay. On a $250,000 policy, it's where talks start. Put it next to your evidence, the coverage, and your net figure, and then decide.

Is my case worth three times my medical bills?

The "three times" idea isn't in any Texas statute or rule. A jury looks at fault, causation, and the losses you prove, and the policy limit caps what's easy to collect.

Can I reopen my claim if my treatment costs more later?

Usually not once you sign a final release. Ask your doctor for a prognosis first whenever one is reasonably available.

Does the insurer have to pay its full policy limit if I ask?

A limits demand can change the insurer's risk in the right circumstances. It doesn't guarantee a check.

Can my lawyer accept an offer without me?

Under Tex. Disciplinary R. Prof'l Conduct 1.02(a)(2), your lawyer must abide by your decision on whether to accept a settlement offer.

Sources

1. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001
2. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.012
3. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.0105
4. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003
5. Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072
6. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101
7. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 11 and 44
8. Texas Rule of Evidence 408
9. Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct 1.02

This article provides general information about Texas law, not legal advice. Every case depends on its facts, evidence, insurance, deadlines and governing law. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.