A serious injury rarely arrives with a calendar reminder. The weeks after a crash or fall tend to fill up with doctor visits, missed shifts, repair estimates and calls from insurance adjusters. Meanwhile, a legal clock has already started running, and in Texas that clock is shorter than many people expect.

Most injured Texans have two years to file a personal injury lawsuit. Some have far less. The steps below explain how that deadline works, where the exceptions are and what injured people can do early to keep a valid claim from being lost on a technicality.

Key Takeaways

  • Most Texas personal injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury, under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003.
  • Claims involving a city, county or state agency can require written notice in as little as six months, and Houston’s charter sets a 90-day notice window.
  • Ongoing talks with an insurance company do not pause the filing deadline.
  • Courts generally dismiss late cases, and not knowing about the deadline is not, by itself, a valid excuse.

Why the Filing Deadline Matters So Much

Texas sees a steady stream of injury claims. According to the Texas Department of Transportation’s 2025 Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Facts report, 244,534 people were injured in traffic crashes in the state in 2025, roughly one person every 2 minutes and 9 seconds. Another 17,420 people sustained serious injuries that year. Each of those injuries started a limitations clock, whether the injured person knew it or not.

The statute of limitations governs most of these cases. In Texas, the general window for a personal injury lawsuit is two years from the date of injury. The León Law Firm’s guide on how long Texans have to file a personal injury claim walks through the statute and its main exceptions in detail.

Missing the deadline usually ends the case. A court can dismiss a lawsuit filed even one day late, regardless of how clear the other party’s fault may be or how serious the injuries are. That is why the deadline deserves attention in the first weeks after an injury, not the last.

Step 1: Pinning Down the Real Deadline

The first step is identifying which deadline actually applies. Two years from the date of injury is the starting assumption, but several situations change the math.

Injured minors. When the injured person is under 18, the limitations period generally does not begin until the 18th birthday. In practice, that usually means a lawsuit can be filed up to age 20. Even so, waiting years to act on a child’s injury carries real risk, because records go missing and witnesses become harder to find.

Wrongful death. When an injury leads to a death, the two-year period runs from the date of death rather than the date of the original accident. Those dates can be weeks or months apart. Families dealing with a loss can review how wrongful death claims work in Texas, including who is eligible to bring one.

Multiple injury dates. Some cases involve an injury that worsens over time or a second incident. When the start date is unclear, it is safest to work from the earliest possible date rather than the latest.

Writing the deadline down, with the exact calendar date, removes guesswork. Families often discover that a deadline they assumed was “about two years away” is actually much closer.

Step 2: Checking Whether a Government Entity Is Involved

Claims against government bodies follow different, shorter rules. Under the Texas Tort Claims Act, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 101.101, written notice of a claim is generally required within six months of the incident.

Some cities set even shorter windows through their charters. For example, the City of Houston requires notice within 90 days. Missing that notice requirement can block a claim even when the two-year lawsuit deadline is still far off.

Government involvement is not always obvious at first. Common examples include:

  • A crash with a city bus, garbage truck or police vehicle
  • An injury caused by a road defect, missing sign or broken traffic signal
  • A fall on public property, such as a government building or public park
  • An accident involving a school district vehicle

If there is any chance a public entity played a role, treat the notice deadline as the controlling date until a lawyer confirms otherwise.

Step 3: Building the Evidence Record Early

A filing deadline is only part of the picture. A claim also needs proof, and proof is easiest to gather right after an injury.

Useful evidence typically includes:

  1. Medical records. Prompt treatment protects health first, and it also creates a dated record linking the injury to the incident.
  2. Crash or incident reports. For traffic crashes, the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report can be requested through TxDOT’s Crash Records Information System.
  3. Photos and video. Pictures of the scene, the vehicles, visible injuries and any hazards help establish what happened.
  4. Witness information. Names and phone numbers collected early are far more useful than attempts to track people down a year later.
  5. Financial records. Pay stubs, medical bills and receipts document lost income and out-of-pocket costs.

Evidence also has its own expiration dates. Surveillance footage is often overwritten within weeks, and memories fade. Starting early protects both the deadline and the strength of the case.

Step 4: Keeping Insurance Talks From Running Out the Clock

Many injury claims begin as conversations with an insurance company. Those conversations can be productive, but they do not stop the statute of limitations. An adjuster can continue negotiating, request more documents or delay a decision while the two-year window keeps closing.

This is one of the most common ways valid claims are lost. An injured person assumes that because talks are ongoing, the case is “open.” Legally, the case is not open until a lawsuit is filed or a settlement is signed.

Understanding the full sequence helps. An overview of the Texas personal injury claim process explains how a case moves from investigation and demand through negotiation, filing and, if needed, trial. Seeing the whole timeline makes it easier to spot when a negotiation is drifting too close to the deadline.

A practical rule of thumb: if a fair settlement is not in place well ahead of the two-year mark, filing a lawsuit protects the claim while negotiations continue. Filing does not end settlement talks; many cases still settle after a lawsuit begins.

Step 5: Getting Legal Advice Well Before the Deadline

A lawyer can confirm the correct deadline, identify every potentially responsible party and handle government notice requirements. Those tasks take time, and they are harder to complete when only a few weeks remain.

Early legal review also helps with questions that are easy to overlook, such as whether a second party shares fault, whether a product defect played a role or whether an employer’s insurance applies. Each of those questions can affect who must be named in a lawsuit and by when.

The León Law Firm’s Texas personal injury attorneys handle cases involving car and truck crashes, workplace accidents, premises liability and wrongful death. The firm works on a contingency-fee basis and serves clients in English and Spanish.

What Happens If the Deadline Has Already Passed

When the limitations period has run, the other side will typically ask the court to dismiss the case, and courts generally grant that request. Texas law does not offer a general exception for people who simply did not know about the deadline.

That said, the true deadline is not always the date someone assumes. The injured person may have been a minor, the date of death may differ from the date of injury, or the facts may support a different start date. A careful review of the timeline is worthwhile before concluding that a claim is gone.

Protecting a Claim Starts Now

Two years can pass quickly during recovery, and six months pass even faster when a government entity is involved. Injured people who protect their claims tend to do three things early: confirm the exact deadline, preserve the evidence, and get legal advice before the final months.

Readers who want to learn more can read more about The León Law Firm and its bilingual practice in Sugar Land.

Carlos A. León is the founding attorney of The León Law Firm, P.C., a bilingual personal injury firm in Sugar Land, Texas. He earned his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1995 and represents injured clients throughout Texas.

The León Law Firm, P.C.

1 Sugar Creek Center Boulevard
Sugar Land
TX
77478
United States

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