You may be entitled to compensation if you’ve been hurt in a construction accident in Texas. However, you won’t have unlimited time to seek damages. Depending on the type of claim you file, you and your Round Rock construction accident attorney might have anywhere between one and two years to formally request compensation from your employer’s insurance company or a liable third party.
Different rules and timelines apply to different types of legal claims. It’s important to understand the specific guidelines that will affect your construction accident claim so that you’re able to recover all of the money you need for your medical bills, lost wages, disability, and other injury-related damages.
Working with a skilled construction accident lawyer can help ensure you don’t miss these critical deadlines.
What’s the Filing Deadline For a Texas Construction Accident Lawsuit?
Generally speaking, Texas imposes a two-year statute of limitations on most construction accident lawsuits.
Pursuant to Texas Code Sec. 16.003, “a person must bring suit for…personal injury…not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues.”
This gives you until the second anniversary of your construction accident to file a complaint with your local Texas state court.
If you miss the filing deadline, you will lose the ability to demand compensation from anyone who contributed to your construction accident, such as a/an:
- Property owner
- Subcontractor
- Engineer
- Architect
- Co-worker
- Motorist
- Transportation service
- Negligent party’s employer
- Employer if you don’t qualify for workers’ compensation benefits
However, some exceptions might apply, which could give you more or less time to file your construction accident lawsuit. A Round Rock construction accident attorney can evaluate your specific situation to help determine the timeline for your case.
Government Tort Claims
When a construction accident happens because a government entity or one of its employees is negligent, you might be able to pursue compensation from the government. However, for government tort claims, a different set of rules and filing deadlines applies.
Under the Texas Tort Claims Act, you must file a Notice of Claim within 180 days of your construction accident. Some Texas cities have even shorter notice periods. For example, the city of Austin requires a Notice of Claim within 45 days of an injury or wrongful death.
If you fail to provide timely notice to the government agency, you’ll lose the right to pursue compensation in court.
As long as you’ve submitted your Notice of Claim on time, you’ll still have up to two years to formally seek damages in a civil construction accident lawsuit if the government rejects your initial claim.
Wrongful Death
If a construction accident is fatal, surviving family members may have the right to seek damages through a wrongful death lawsuit. While Texas imposes a two-year statute of limitations on wrongful death claims, the date that the statute of limitations begins to run isn’t necessarily the date the construction accident happened.
The two-year filing window formally begins to run on the date of the worker’s passing. In some situations, a worker will suffer catastrophic injuries in a construction accident and survive for some time before ultimately passing away. The clock on the statute of limitations does not begin to run until the date of the worker’s death, which can give families more time to take action.
What’s the Filing Deadline For Workers’ Compensation in Texas?
Generally speaking, you have one year from the date you’re injured in a construction accident in Texas to file a claim for workers’ compensation benefits with the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC).
However, to preserve your right to pursue benefits through your employer’s workers’ compensation policy, you must provide notice of your injury to your employer within 30 days of your construction accident.
If you fail to provide notice within that 30-day window, you’ll typically forfeit your right to collect benefits for your medical bills, temporary lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and/or long-term disability.
There are exceptions to these rules, often involving delayed diagnosis of an injury or illness. A construction accident lawyer can help you determine if the statute of limitations and notice requirements can be tolled due to a reasonable delay in discovering your injury or its connection to your occupation.
When Should I File a Construction Accident Claim?
Even though you’ll have a year or two to formally seek benefits or damages for your construction accident injuries, it’s not in your best interest to wait that long to put a claim into motion.
This doesn’t mean you should rush to submit your claim with an insurance carrier or the court. However, it does mean that you should seek out the experienced and knowledgeable assistance of a construction accident attorney near you.
The longer you wait to ask for help and the longer you put off your claim, the more likely it becomes that:
- Valuable evidence is damaged, destroyed, or lost
- It becomes challenging to establish a causal link between the construction accident and your injuries
- Responsible parties can develop strategies and tactics to defend themselves when you seek damages
By calling a Round Rock construction accident lawyer for help right after your accident, you’ll take an important step in protecting your future. The law firm can investigate your construction accident, gather and preserve valuable pieces of evidence, and begin to craft a compelling legal claim to make you whole.
Call Dow Law Firm For Help With Your Construction Accident Claim
Don’t stress about your construction accident claim and filing deadlines. Instead, take this opportunity to invest in your recovery and focus on getting better.
Turn to Dow Law Firm and count on our team of construction accident attorneys in Round Rock to take charge of your fight for compensation and work to leverage the kind of life-changing case results you deserve.
We’re a team of award-winning Texas litigators with decades of collective experience. As loyal advocates for injury victims and families in the Lone Star State, we’ve helped clients win tens of millions of dollars from insurance carriers, construction companies, property owners, and other powerful adversaries.
Discover how we can help you make the most of your construction accident claim by contacting our Round Rock construction accident lawyers today at (512) 240-9951. Your first consultation is free.