Do Texas Courts Allow Hearsay Evidence?
Hearsay: Testimony that is not allowed in court. When you were a kid and a friend of yours made an incredibly unbelievable statement, their usual response to your questioning how they knew it to be true was something like, "My mom said it's true!" This appeal to authority was useful because not only was it...
How Does Priest-Penitent Privilege Work Under Texas Law?
How Priest-Penitent Privilege Works Under Texas Law As we've discussed, the rules of evidence generally allow in whatever evidence might help the jury decide the case. Still, there is more to life than what happens in a court of law---and thankfully, lawyers are empowered to protect certain areas of their clients' lives. One of those...
How Does Attorney-Client Privilege Work In Texas Personal Injury Cases?
How Attorney-Client Privilege Works In Texas Personal Injury Cases In a lawsuit, we're after the truth. And to that end, just about every conversation about the accident and its aftermath is fair game. We want to know especially what the participants in the accident have said. Imagine this scenario: Bob, a defendant in a car...
Can I Be Forced to Testify Against My Spouse in a Texas Personal Injury Lawsuit?
The Husband-and-Wife Privilege Protects All Marital Communications: Most people are at least somewhat familiar with the fact that what they say to their attorney is confidential. You've probably seen movies where a criminal defense lawyer comes into an accused man's jail cell and the perp tells his lawyer he committed the crime. Further, most of...
What Are Affidavits?
Affidavits are a tool to allow testimony into court without the witness being physically present. In our discussion of hearsay, we talked about how courts generally require "testimony" to be live. We want juries to watch how people answer important questions about your case so they can assess for themselves whether to believe it or...
How Do Attorneys Prove Up Evidence in Texas?
How "Proving Up" Evidence Works Under Texas Law Personal injury cases often come down to "he-said-she-said matches" between the plaintiff and defendant. The plaintiff claims the defendant caused him injuries due to the defendant's failure to behave reasonably, while, SURPRISE, the defendant claims he had nothing to do with it. Jurors get to decide issues...
How Is Evidence Used In a Texas Personal Injury Case?
How Evidence Is Used In a Texas Personal Injury Case It's hard to overstate the importance of evidence for personal injury cases. Without it, you literally have no case whatsoever. Injury cases are not based on even the most brilliant lawyer's allegations before a jury, but on hard evidence. This is because what you're asking...
Why Is Selecting the Appropriate Court Venue Important?
How Selecting The Right Court Venue Can Help Your Texas Work Injury Case. Assuming you've established the right to file a lawsuit in a Texas state court, the question becomes which one. After all, Texas has hundreds of counties, each with their own court. Which county is the right one? The Texas rules governing such...
How Does Arbitration Work In Texas?
How Does Arbitration Work In Texas? When people think of legal proceedings, they usually envision a courtroom with a judge and jury. While this is certainly true of most civil cases, and certainly all criminal cases, sometimes civil cases happen outside of the public's view. An "arbitration" occurs when two parties---the person hurt and the...
What Should I Expect When My Texas Personal Injury Lawsuit Goes to Trial?
How Personal Injury Trials Work In Texas After the long road of filing a lawsuit, discovery, depositions, and mediation, it comes down to this: the parties must submit their cases to the jury. The right to a jury trial is recognized in the US Constitution, and it is the last great hope for getting justice...
What Should I Expect from Mediation in My Texas Personal Injury Lawsuit?
How Mediation Works In a Texas Personal Injury Case After the depositions have been taken and the discovery has been exchanged, it's almost time to take the case to trial. But before we go all-in at the courthouse, there's a final step: mediation. Since courts will not allow litigants to go before a jury until...
What Role Do Depositions Play in Personal Injury Cases?
An Overview of The Role Depositions Play in Modern Personal Injury Cases In TV legal dramas, the magic happens in the courtroom. A witness testifies on the stand, and then the other side's lawyer flamboyantly produces a picture or a document that proves the witness was lying the whole time. Cue the murmuring from the...
How Does Discovery Work in a Texas Personal Injury Case?
Discovery: the process of exchanging evidence. After a lawsuit is filed, the plaintiffs' and defendants' next task is usually requesting any relevant documents and information from each other. This process is called "discovery." As its name implies, the point is to illuminate what actually happened. We want cases decided out in the open, with all...
How Do I File a Texas Personal Injury Lawsuit?
How to File a Texas Personal Injury Lawsuit After your lawyer has gathered as much of the facts as are readily available and researched the applicable law, it's time to actually "file a lawsuit." This document, usually called a "complaint" or "petition," is the opening shot of the battle. This document is submitted to the...
How Does the Litigation Process Work in Texas?
How Litigation Works in a Texas Personal Injury Case You've been hurt. The person who caused your accident refuses to admit it was his fault and won't pay for the damages caused. What now? You have two options: 1) do nothing or 2) get the legal system involved. Option 1 is foreign to us, and...
What Is Stowers Doctrine?
An overview of the Stowers doctrine, and how it impacts Texas personal injury cases: When you've been practicing personal injury law for 25 years, you learn a lot about how insurance works. This is because the vast majority of individuals and corporations that we sue simply don't have the assets available to cover the costs...
How Does Comparative Fault Work in Texas?
In some accidents, where only one person is to blame, a jury finds that person 100% at fault for the injuries they caused and forces them to pay for 100% of the victim's losses. However, few situations are really that black and white. In most cases, actually, multiple people—sometimes even the victims themselves—are at least...
How Does Contributory Negligence Work?
How Contributory Negligence Works As we discussed on our main proportionate responsibility page, courts can lower the value of your case based on your contributions to the incident. One type of proportionate responsibility is known as contributory negligence. In this article, we'll explain how a court can potentially dismiss your case entirely based on the...
How Does Comparative Negligence Work in Texas Personal Injury Cases?
How Comparative Negligence Works In this article in our series on proportionate responsibility, we're going to examine how comparative negligence works. Proportionate responsibility is ultimately about how courts address cases where the plaintiff himself is found to have actually contributed to the incident. In states where proportionate responsibility is awarded based on comparative negligence, if...
How Does Joint and Several Liability Work in Texas?
Proportionate responsibility: joint and several liability. In our continuing discussion of what courts term "proportionate responsibility," we'll now examine a key aspect of how the law deals with liability of multiple defendants, "joint and several liability." New to this area of the law? That's why we developed our Explaining The Basics of Personal Injury Law....