Health Evidence and Claim Decisions in the First Days
In the first hours after a wreck, concentrate on getting safe and obtaining the medical help you need. Once the emergency is under control, there are some time-sensitive claim tasks: reporting through the appropriate channels, preserving originals and reviewing a proposed release before signing. The injury may take time to understand. A camera or salvage yard may not give you that same time to decide what evidence to keep.
Put safety and care first
Call emergency services when needed and follow responders' lawful directions. Don't stand in traffic for a better photograph or delay treatment to finish documenting the scene. When it is safe, capture the wider roadway as well as the damage: vehicle positions, traffic controls and debris. Get witness contacts and the name of the investigating agency.
Explain to the provider what hurts, when it began and what was different before the collision. Include relevant old conditions. The provider's job is diagnosis and treatment. A low repair estimate cannot rule out an injury, but a symptom appearing after a wreck does not automatically establish that the wreck caused it either.
Save the discharge instructions before they get buried in other paperwork. Keep appointment details, bills and insurer letters with them, along with dates you missed work. For your own notes, name an actual difficulty you had that day. If it later improves, record the improvement. There's no need to embellish it.
Preserve information that cannot easily be recreated
Make a copy before trimming a recording. Keep the original where it is and tell counsel which phone, camera or account holds it and who controls it. The clip you upload may lose metadata or surrounding context. Pass on nearby business-camera locations promptly; the view and overwrite period have to be checked for each source.
Find the vehicle before deciding what should happen to it. Who is storing it, and who is arranging repair or salvage? A serious or disputed collision may justify an inspection before anything changes. Ask counsel while the car, components and records remain available. That does not mean every vehicle needs indefinite storage.
Retain the whole conversation with an insurer, driver, witness or service provider. Include the messages that seem unhelpful. A cropped reply may leave out a deadline, release term or the question it answered. Preserve material you lawfully possess; obtaining more does not permit entering another person's account without authorization.
Distinguish insurance communications
Write down the caller's name, insurer and request. Keep it beside your policy and a copy of whatever you send back. A request from your own insurer may involve contractual notice or cooperation duties. Get advice about that request if needed, rather than refusing all contact with insurers.
The adjuster may call it a payment for the car. The release is what you need to read. Does it also cover injury claims or consequences that appear later? A liability settlement can affect other insurance rights, including UM/UIM coverage. Get those effects reviewed before you agree to the release.
A practitioner intake sequence
Before asking what the case might be worth, tell the office what happened, when and where. Name the agency, witnesses and treating providers. Say who has the car and any original digital evidence. Don't leave a pending offer or disposal date until the end of the conversation. Also mention a child, a death, capacity concerns, government involvement or driving for work.
A preservation assignment needs a responsible person, a custodian and a description of the material and time interval sought. Record the request date, reply and next follow-up. Confirm what was actually retained. Keep collecting medical records, but do not wait for that file to be complete before dealing with evidence at risk.
A salvage notice cannot wait for treatment to finish. Counsel can look into inspection while the prognosis is still unknown. Neither that prognosis nor a dependable case value can be read off the emergency bill.
Questions clients often ask
Should I wait until I finish treatment to call
No need to wait. Call about a deadline or evidence at risk while treatment continues. Before relying on the office to act, confirm it has accepted the case and complete the engagement arrangements. A call by itself does not put a lawyer in charge.
What if I do not have the report yet
Provide the date, location, agency and any report number. The firm can identify the appropriate request process. There may still be urgent work to preserve a recording or inspect the car while the report is being prepared, so a missing report is not a reason to leave those questions unattended.
Can an insurance conversation extend my deadline
No insurance conversation should be assumed to extend a legal deadline. Ask counsel to identify limitations and any separate notice requirements. The claim may still be under negotiation when action is needed to protect the right to sue.
Legal deadlines are different from evidence deadlines
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003 generally supplies a two-year personal-injury limitations period. That is the legal filing question. Separately, find out when recordings are overwritten, when salvage is planned and whether a witness will be available. Calendar service, notices and policy duties as well. It is possible to meet a filing deadline and still lose evidence much earlier.
Check who can actually be sued and when the claim accrued. The name on a truck might not be the employer's legal name; a suit against another entity may leave the claim unprotected. Section 16.001 addresses qualifying disabilities present at accrual, including minority. Possible tolling and the separate rules for parent claims, government notice and policy obligations need prompt review.
Flag possible government involvement at the first interview, including a city truck or school vehicle. Establish the owner, employer and work being done. Chapter 101 requires analysis of immunity, any waiver and notice under section 101.101 or municipal requirements. An adjuster's willingness to discuss the crash establishes none of those requirements by itself.
Assign first-week evidence tasks
Give each first-week task a name and a due date. The client can usually identify treating providers, locate messages and original files, and report where the car is stored. Counsel can work on custodian contacts, authorizations, access and notice dates. A disputed crash or possible defect may also call for an expert's advice about inspection. Whoever receives an assignment should know what it is meant to establish and how completion will be confirmed.
Before ordering a download or hiring an expert, ask what question the work is supposed to answer. Is it disputed? Does a reliable source already answer it? Technical work can be justified even with modest visible damage—for example, where the restraint system or injury mechanism is in question. But some crashes need little of it. The expense should have a reason in this particular file.
Get a definite answer about what was saved. 'We'll call you back' leaves the request open. One camera file leaves the question of other cameras open. An insurer may have replied without reaching the salvage contractor. Follow up with the person who controls the evidence and obtain written confirmation when feasible.
Prepare intake for later testimony
An interviewer should not supply the missing color of a traffic light. Ask where the person was looking and what they remember seeing or hearing. Write down uncertainty as uncertainty. Information someone else supplied afterward belongs in a separate part of the account. There may be video to check later.
Start with the history before the crash: symptoms, medicines, treatment and everyday abilities. Then describe the changes and any intervening event. The interviewer can use this to request records, but cannot turn it into a diagnosis or a declaration of permanence. Personal knowledge and qualified expert opinion are addressed in Texas Rules of Evidence 602 and 702.
Bring records of the shifts you missed and the leave you used. Include restrictions sent to your employer and its response. Future earning effects may have to wait for a prognosis and more analysis before anyone can put a supported figure on them.
Hypothetical first week decision
This is a hypothetical Dallas intersection crash, not a reported firm case. The injured driver is hospitalized; fault is disputed and the report is still being prepared. Storage charges are adding up. A store camera may have recorded the approach. Counsel can contact the agency and seek retention of the recording while locating the vehicle owner and custodian to discuss an agreed inspection. Medical records can be collected alongside that work.
Suppose the camera stops short of showing impact. Say so. What it does show may still help establish approach, position or timing. And if an inspection is arranged, check the owner's permission against the insurer's salvage plan so the car will still be available.
The driver still has a settlement decision to make as the medical picture and investigation develop. Keeping the evidence available makes that later choice better informed. This hypothetical predicts no result, and another crash may warrant different investigative steps.
Questions to ask at the first consultation
You can call with an incomplete file. Bring what you have and ask:
- Which evidence is at risk, who will request it, and how will retention be confirmed?
- Are there notice or filing dates beyond the general personal-injury deadline?
- How should I handle insurer requests while treatment continues?
- Does the vehicle need inspection, and what would that cost?
- What information is still needed before evaluating settlement?
Also ask how the work will fit around treatment and medical appointments.
Start with health safety and preservation
Follow lawful directions from responders and seek the care you need. Leave photos for a safe opportunity and let an insurance call wait if it would interfere with treatment. After the emergency, a relative may be able to help collect the paperwork.
When it is safe to gather information, keep a record of:
- The date, approximate time, and precise location.
- Drivers, vehicle descriptions, and insurance details.
- Witness contact information and the investigating agency.
- Wider photographs showing vehicle positions, lane markings, traffic controls, debris, and obstructions.
- Closer photographs of damage.
A close-up of the damage may not show where the car was or what the driver could see. Include the wider view where it is safe to do so.
Separate what you witnessed from what you inferred. Seeing a vehicle cross a line does not establish that its driver was texting. Tell counsel what you saw, heard or felt, then identify the source of information learned afterward. Both kinds of information can assist the investigation when properly attributed.
A dashcam or witness's phone may hold a recording; a nearby store may have another view. Tell counsel about those possibilities, rideshare-trip information and work-driving records. Report who has the car, especially if sale or dismantling is planned. Identifying the person who controls each source is part of finding a lawful way to preserve it.
Provide the incident date and every communication requiring action by a particular time. Government involvement, a child's age, incapacity or a death may affect the analysis. Include policy notice duties. A vehicle-disposal date can require action well before limitations, so do not send it only with later medical records.
Retain complete letters and envelopes, email threads, messages, estimates, photos and account notices. Forward urgent items with every page. Material that looks routine may contain the policy reference, recipient, release term or deadline needed to interpret the request correctly.
Build a preservation plan that fits the evidence
Make the preservation request specific enough for the recipient to act on. Identify the crash, the material and the relevant time interval. Depending on the case, this might include a vehicle or module, original dashcam files, photographs, repair records or relevant phone and app activity. Explain the connection to the event. Asking for every electronic record ever created gives the custodian little help in finding what matters.
A store can agree to keep a video without agreeing to give it to you. A car can be held without permission for testing. Counsel must deal with access separately, through cooperation, an agreed protocol, subpoena, discovery or a suitable court order. Ownership does not change because a preservation request was sent.
The complete message thread belongs in the file, even when some of it is unfavorable. So does the original video. Before the car is altered, consider inspection. Keeping only selected excerpts risks a later dispute over what was omitted and whether the account can be trusted.
Find out who owns the car, who has it, what storage is costing, which property insurer is involved and where salvage is headed. With those facts, counsel can seek a reasonable inspection or preservation agreement and consider available judicial relief where appropriate. Neither the cost nor the urgency authorizes trespass or taking the vehicle without authority.
Try to get the native video, including relevant footage before and after impact. Note where it came from, how it was exported, what changed, who received it and where it was kept. Preserve that file and work from a copy. A forwarded clip may be compressed or missing part of the recording.
For each evidence source, maintain a short log:
- Custodian and material requested.
- Date sent and delivery confirmation.
- Response and any limits on what was retained or produced.
- Next follow-up and eventual disposition.
Look at the open entries while someone can still act on them. An unanswered request should not sit unnoticed until an expert asks for the material months later. By then, an earlier assumption that someone else completed the task may be impossible to fix.
Protect limitations service and special notice requirements
The usual personal-injury period under section 16.003 is two years from accrual. Counsel still has to check the particular claims, parties and dates, along with exceptions or tolling. Service takes diligence as well as filing. The statute is in Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapter 16.
Give counsel all the insurance correspondence. A string of replies does not necessarily create enforceable tolling. Counsel must assess whether timely filing, a valid agreement or another legally supported option is needed to protect the claim before limitations expires.
For a Texas Tort Claims Act claim, section 101.101 generally calls for notice within six months. Check applicable municipal requirements and statutory exceptions, too. Having an insurer to talk to does not answer whether notice is sufficient, immunity applies or immunity has been waived. See Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapter 101.
Consider the timing and authority issues for each claimant separately where a child, incapacity, death or estate is involved. A parent's claim may have its own deadline. Even if a disability rule could apply to one cause of action, video and physical evidence can still be lost and need prompt preservation.
A referral needs more than an emailed file. Get the receiving lawyer's acceptance and responsibilities confirmed in writing, and establish who handles immediate deadlines until that happens. Include service status, motions, trial settings and the procedural history. Point out expert and government-notice issues rather than leaving the recipient to discover an urgent date later.
Leave time for the work that comes before filing and service. Counsel may have to identify the proper defendant and court, prepare pleadings and arrange service. A disputed business identity, public entity, child or death can make that work more involved. Seeking advice near the anniversary risks leaving questions that cannot be resolved on the last day.
Establish a complete medical chronology
A treatment record can establish that a patient was seen without settling why the condition occurred. Medical causation concerns whether this collision caused or aggravated the condition claimed. To assess it, review the onset, mechanism, prior health, clinical findings, later course and plausible alternative explanations.
Read from the earlier complaints forward. Add first post-crash care, tests, medicines, referrals, therapy, procedures, restrictions and later events to the dated chronology. Note the first appearance of each symptom. Differences in what providers were told need investigation, as do gaps; don't fill them from memory.
Tell counsel whether the older problem was resolved before this crash or was still affecting you. If it came and went, say that. This gives the aggravation inquiry a baseline. Prior back pain needn't account for all present impairment, and hiding it can damage a claim that the full history would support.
Some questions of cause require a qualified medical opinion. Give the physician enough history to address more than the sequence 'wreck, then symptoms.' For instance, degeneration on a scan needs to be considered with the examination, symptoms, earlier function and mechanism. The word on the imaging report does not settle the causal question on its own.
In JLG Trucking LLC v Garza 466 SW3d 157 Tex 2015, the plaintiff had two crashes about three months apart. She attributed her injuries to the first. The trial court excluded evidence of the second, including questions to her expert about it. The Texas Supreme Court found that exclusion harmful and sent the case back for a new trial. Give the medical expert the full material history, including later accidents and other plausible causes. Counsel must assess causation and admissibility with that history, even when it makes the case harder to explain.
Include improvement and resolved symptoms in updates. Temporary injury and aggravation may be legitimate losses. Describe the recovery that occurred without making every condition new or permanent.
How specialized trial preparation can help your claim
Evidence can support an insurer challenge or expose a weakness before release. If settlement fails, it helps counsel identify trial witnesses and the foundations for admissible proof.
Aaron A. Herbert is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. You can read about his substantial jury-trial experience in the firm’s published background and significant recoveries in its case results. Ask how that experience relates to the investigation your case needs. Past outcomes cannot promise yours; facts, evidence, law and available recovery sources differ.
If you are considering hiring counsel after a Texas crash, request a free consultation with The Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert PC or call 214 200 4878. Tell the office about the issue addressed in this article and any approaching deadline. Ask who would handle the case, what work is needed, and how fees and expenses are addressed before signing an agreement.
Attorneys and referral partners may contact the firm for a case or litigation discussion. Provide procedural dates and confirm acceptance before relying on transferred responsibility.
Read the Texas car accident claims and litigation guide or return to the Texas Car Accident Knowledge Hub for related resources.
Related car accident resources
- Texas Crash Reports and Police Evidence
- Preserving Dashcam Video and Vehicle Data After a Texas Crash
- Preexisting Injuries and Medical Causation After a Texas Car Accident
Legal sources
JLG Trucking LLC v Garza 466 SW3d 157 Tex 2015.
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapter 16.
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapter 101.
Texas Rules of Civil Procedure effective October 1 2026.
This article provides general information about Texas law. Application depends on the facts, policy, court orders, and law governing the particular claim. Hypothetical examples are illustrations rather than reported firm cases.
ABOUT THE ATTORNEY
Aaron A. Herbert
Founding Attorney
Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law
Aaron founded The Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert in 2010 to focus on developing each client's case and seeking its maximum value. For over a decade, he has represented people seriously injured in major accidents and industrial catastrophes, pursuing trial verdicts and settlements while working to reduce the stress of litigation.
Education
- Texas A&M University · B.S., Criminal Justice, 1999
- University of Oklahoma College of Law · J.D., 2002; graduated in the top of his class
Trial experience & approach
Aaron earned numerous jury verdicts at boutique personal injury litigation firms. According to his biography, he spent a year as the top-earning litigation attorney at a firm that frequently appeared in verdict searches as having one of the highest numbers of trial wins in Texas. At another Dallas personal injury firm, he moved from managing pre-litigation attorney to managing litigation attorney over seven years as the firm grew into one of Dallas's largest personal injury firms.
His biography describes a reputation as one of America's most aggressive trial lawyers, with noteworthy recoveries from judges and juries and substantial pretrial settlements. Most of those settlements included confidentiality agreements requested by the defense. Aaron has said the recoveries were justified by the injuries and losses involved, which no amount of money could make someone choose to experience.
His approach combines passion, preparation, persistence and courtroom imagination. He believes a well-supported, engaged and motivated team working cooperatively helps deliver strong representation, with the goal of achieving the best possible result for every client.
Dallas roots, military service & publication
Born and raised in Dallas, Aaron enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after high school and later received an Honorable Discharge. He completed his university and law degrees after his military service and became a lifelong Sooners football fan in law school.
Publication: “Litigating Dog Bite Cases,” Texas Dog Law Seminar, Dallas, 2009.
Professional affiliations & recognition
Professional affiliations and recognition listed in Aaron’s biography:
- State Bar of Texas
- American Bar Association
- Association of Trial Lawyers of America (now American Association for Justice)
- Texas Trial Lawyers Association
- Dallas Trial Lawyers Association
- Dallas Bar Association
- Tarrant County Bar Association
- Million Dollar Advocates Forum
- The National Trial Lawyers – Top 100 Trial Lawyers
Trial experience & approach
Aaron earned numerous jury verdicts at boutique personal injury litigation firms. According to his biography, he spent a year as the top-earning litigation attorney at a firm that frequently appeared in verdict searches as having one of the highest numbers of trial wins in Texas. At another Dallas personal injury firm, he moved from managing pre-litigation attorney to managing litigation attorney over seven years as the firm grew into one of Dallas's largest personal injury firms.
His biography describes a reputation as one of America's most aggressive trial lawyers, with noteworthy recoveries from judges and juries and substantial pretrial settlements. Most of those settlements included confidentiality agreements requested by the defense. Aaron has said the recoveries were justified by the injuries and losses involved, which no amount of money could make someone choose to experience.
His approach combines passion, preparation, persistence and courtroom imagination. He believes a well-supported, engaged and motivated team working cooperatively helps deliver strong representation, with the goal of achieving the best possible result for every client.
Dallas roots, military service & publication
Born and raised in Dallas, Aaron enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after high school and later received an Honorable Discharge. He completed his university and law degrees after his military service and became a lifelong Sooners football fan in law school.
Publication: “Litigating Dog Bite Cases,” Texas Dog Law Seminar, Dallas, 2009.
Professional affiliations & recognition
Professional affiliations and recognition listed in Aaron’s biography:
- State Bar of Texas
- American Bar Association
- Association of Trial Lawyers of America (now American Association for Justice)
- Texas Trial Lawyers Association
- Dallas Trial Lawyers Association
- Dallas Bar Association
- Tarrant County Bar Association
- Million Dollar Advocates Forum
- The National Trial Lawyers – Top 100 Trial Lawyers