Accident & Injury Law in Texas

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A large number of drivers on Texas highways and roads do not have auto insurance.

A 60-day pilot project testing the Texas-Sure program (which allows law enforcement personnel to verify coverage status when they stop a motorist) focused on Travis County.  During the test, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers found 25.5 percent of 5,012 drivers stopped in Travis County and a small portion of Williamson County and Hays County since June 2 did not have auto insurance.

This spring, the minimum amount of liability insurance Texas drivers are required to have increased for the first time in 22 years (from $20,000 to $25,000).

Two things you should take away -

1) Carry uninsured motorist coverage to protect yourself

2) Cary under-insured motorist coverage to protect yourself from the very real possibility of a sky-high medical bill

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Yikes!  I’m not the only one.  Texas families saw their health insurance premiums soar 40 percent in five years - 10 times faster then their incomes increased, according to a report released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, N.J., a national foundation that promotes health care improvement.

The foundations report, “Squeezed: How Costs for Insuring Families are Outpacing Income” was prepared by University of Minnesota researchers, did not study why premiums increase almost 30 percent nationally to an average of $10,728 in 2005.  In Texas, premiums jumped to an average $11,533.

Nationally, Texas ranked third behind Oklahoma and Idaho in premium increases from 2001 to 2005.  At the same time, Texas ranked No. 1 in the percentage of residents without insurance.  In 2005-2006 that figure was 27 percent and the state had 5.5 million of the nation’s 47 million uninsured people.

People without coverage often get expensive emergency room care, and those costs get passed on as higher premiums to people with insurance, says Regina Rogoff, the executive director of People’s Community Clinic which treats uninsured people in the Austin area.

Taxpayers also share the tab when hospitals and governments do more to help the uninsured according to Clarke Heidrick, a member of the Travis County Healthcare District Board.

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Last Friday, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Texas’ “first free bite” rule (allowing a dog owner to escape most legal liability if a previously gentle dog attacks) does not free owners of the responsibility of stopping an attack once it occurs.

The so-called first-free-bite rule penalizes an owner who knows their pet is dangerous, but limits legal liability for those who reasonably believe their dog poses no risk to others.

In its ruling, the court stated that a pet owner “owes a duty to stop the dog from attacking a person after the attack has begun.”  Knowledge of a dog’s nature, whether violent or not, plays no role on this basic duty.

In reversing two lower courts, the court ruled that Genevia Bushnell, who received wounds on her legs, arms, and back in 2001 that took more than two years to heal, could sue Janet Mott, the owner of  the three dogs that attacked her.

According to Bushnell, Mott watched the attack from several feet away but did nothing to help and even scolded Bushnell’s son for trying to calm the dogs so he could rescue his mother.

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Yesterday a new client called me.  After being hit from behind on the freeway on the weekend, he was in severe pain and went to see his family doctor.

The doctor he had always gone to when something was wrong.  The doctor who knew him.  The doctor who took his health insurance.

The doctor who, as soon as he found out the injuries were from an auto accident, told him he had to pay cash.

I told my client to file a complain