Free Injury Consultations 
Most personal injury cases in Texas come down to a single idea: negligence. When a driver, a property owner, or another party fails to act with reasonable care and someone gets hurt, the injured person can hold that party financially responsible. Understanding how negligence works helps you see what a claim requires and where cases are won or lost. If you were injured by someone else’s carelessness, a Dallas personal injury lawyer can review the facts and explain your options.
What Negligence Means Under Texas Law
Negligence is the failure to use the level of care that a reasonably careful person would use in the same situation. Texas courts do not require perfection. They ask whether a person’s conduct fell below what an ordinary, prudent person would have done. A driver who checks a text at 60 miles per hour, a store that leaves a spill on the floor for hours, and a trucking company that skips required maintenance can all be negligent, because each one created a danger that reasonable care would have prevented.
The Four Elements of a Negligence Claim
To recover compensation, an injured person must prove four things:
- Duty. The other party owed you a legal obligation to act with care. Every driver, for example, owes others on the road a duty to follow traffic laws and drive safely.
- Breach. The party failed to meet that duty, whether by speeding, ignoring a known hazard, or breaking a safety rule.
- Causation. The breach actually caused your injury, and the harm was a foreseeable result of the conduct.
- Damages. You suffered real losses, such as medical bills, lost wages, or physical pain.
If any element is missing, the claim fails. That is why careful investigation matters so much, and why insurers work hard to argue that one of these pieces is weak.
Negligence Per Se and Broken Safety Laws
Texas recognizes a shortcut called negligence per se. When a person violates a law designed to protect the public and that violation causes the type of harm the law meant to prevent, the breach element can be established by the violation itself. Many of these rules appear in the Texas Transportation Code, which sets the rules of the road, including the offense of reckless driving. A driver who runs a red light or drives with wilful disregard for the safety of others may be found negligent per se, which can strengthen an injured person’s case.
How Comparative Fault Affects Your Claim
Texas follows a modified comparative fault system under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. You can still recover if you share some blame, but your award is reduced by your percentage of fault, and you recover nothing if you are found more than 50 percent responsible. Insurers know this rule well and often try to shift blame onto the injured person to cut what they pay. Our guide on Texas’s comparative fault law breaks down how fault is divided.
Proving Negligence After a Texas Accident
Strong evidence turns a negligence theory into a provable claim. Police reports, photographs, witness statements, medical records, and video footage all help show what happened and who was at fault. Because much of this evidence disappears quickly, acting early protects your case. You also face a filing deadline: under Section 16.003, most Texas injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury. Our page on the evidence you need covers what to gather and how to preserve it.
Negligence claims arise across many types of cases. Whether you were hurt in an car accident, a slip and fall, or a crash in a nearby community such as Carrollton, the same four elements apply.
Talk to a Texas Personal Injury Lawyer
Since 2012, Kelso Law, PLLC has helped injured Texans hold careless parties accountable and recover what they are owed. If you believe someone’s negligence caused your injuries, we can review your situation, explain how the law applies, and deal with the insurance company for you. Speak with a personal injury lawyer or contact our team for a free consultation.
