Someone else’s bad decision can have consequences that last the rest of your life. If you’ve been hurt by the negligent actions of another person, you have the legal right to seek justice. Texas law allows those injured by negligence to file a personal injury claim against the at-fault party and their insurance company.
Taking civil legal action with the help of a Houston personal injury lawyer can serve to hold wrongdoing accountable. It can also provide you with the financial compensation needed to pay back medical bills, make up for lost income, and recompense your pain and suffering.
Buckingham Barrera Vega’s personal injury law firm serves clients in Houston and throughout Texas. Our Houston injury attorneys understand the effect someone else’s negligence can have on your life. We’re here to help you walk the path to recovery.
When an experienced Houston injury lawyer is fighting for you, you’ll be able to focus on healing while we work to secure you maximum compensation.
Contact Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm today to schedule a free consultation with a Houston personal injury attorney.
How Can a Houston Personal Injury Lawyer Help Me?
Your life changes dramatically after a serious injury. A car accident, medical malpractice, or the wrongful death of a loved one makes even simple, everyday tasks a great challenge. You might no longer be able to go to work, drive a car, do the things you enjoy, or afford to pay the bills. Personal injuries don’t just disappear after they happen—they can dictate the entire trajectory of your future.
If this sounds like your situation, you need a Houston personal injury attorney. A skilled Texas attorney will evaluate the losses you suffered and help you attain recovery: physically, emotionally, and financially.
Our years of legal training and over two decades of personal injury trial law experience right here in Texas make us the best personal injury lawyers to represent injured victims in Houston.
Under the competent legal representation you’ll receive from Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm, you can be confident that your personal injury claim has the best chance of success.
On your behalf, our Houston personal injury lawyers will:
Handle the Insurance Company
Insurance companies can be tricky, aggressive, and difficult to work with. Even under the best conditions, it’s hard to field phone calls, answer questions, and try to remember the details of your accident without unintentionally saying something that damages your claim. At no time is this truer than when you are recovering from significant injuries.
As your legal advocate, your Houston personal injury lawyer will take care of communications with insurance companies for you. Our legal team knows the ins and outs of the insurance industry. When you tell an insurance adjuster that communications are being handled by your personal injury attorneys at Buckingham Barrera Vega, they know you mean business.
Determine Liability
When you’re hurt in an accident, it’s not always immediately apparent why and how it happened. Personal injury cases might even involve factors that occurred months or years before the incident. We often find this to be true in product liability cases, where a mistake in the manufacturing process can cause a consumer to suffer harm much later on.
Car accidents, for example, can also require thorough investigation, especially if the other driver attempts to evade liability for the motor vehicle accident. We sometimes need to search an at-fault driver’s cell phone records, analyze GPS data, or request traffic camera footage from municipal authorities in order to prove your claim.
As a personal injury law firm with connections in the Houston area, this is possible for us to do. But it’s not often feasible for injured victims to acquire this information on their own.
Gather Evidence To Support Your Claim
Taking your personal injury case means doing the legwork to make sure the insurance company can’t deny your claim. We’ll bring together the evidence to prove negligence, your injuries as a result of that negligence, and the full extent of damages. For example, your personal injury lawyer can:
- Analyze police reports and interview eyewitnesses
- Contact your health care providers to obtain medical bills
- Obtain toxicology reports after drunk driving accidents
- Look into employers’ workers’ compensation insurance terms after workplace accidents
Get the Help of Experts
In some cases, the testimony of an expert witness is needed to support your claim. This may mean hiring a neurologist to provide a professional opinion about how a brain injury altered a loved one’s life. Or you may need to partner with a traffic reconstructionist who can analyze the actions that caused your commercial truck crash.
Our Houston truck accident lawyers and the rest of our legal team have strong relationships with experts like these in Texas and nationwide.
Negotiate a Fair Settlement
We know what a fair compensation award looks like, and we don’t settle for anything less. It takes an experienced personal injury attorney to successfully negotiate maximum compensation with a big-business insurance company—and that’s just what we’ve been doing for accident victims since 1999.
Stand Up for You Before a Judge and Jury
Most personal injury cases settle out of court, but a small percentage go to trial. Our strategy in a personal injury lawsuit is to prepare for trial from the very beginning. This builds a stronger case from the get-go, making an insurance company more likely to settle to avoid losing in court.
We’re highly qualified to defend you before a judge if necessary. Our attorneys are national trial lawyers and members of the Houston Trial Lawyers Association, Texas Trial Lawyers Association, and other nationally-recognized professional associations.
We Handle All Types of Houston Personal Injury Claims
We advocate for people who suffer serious injuries through all types of negligence. From Houston car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, and other motor vehicle accidents to bicycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, and fall accidents, we represent those who choose to take legal action to reclaim their lives.
Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm handles personal injury cases such as: Â
- Car Accidents
- Truck Accidents
- Motorcycle Accidents
- Medical Malpractice
- Nursing Home Abuse
- Premises Liability
- Product Liability
- Slip and Fall Accidents
- Wrongful Death
- Dog Bites
- Brain Injuries
If your personal injuries (or the wrongful death of a loved one) were sustained in a type of accident not listed above, we encourage you to reach out to our personal injury law firm. A Texas personal injury attorney on our team will be able to expertly handle your unique case, or recommend a law firm more qualified in that area of legal practice.
Types of Injuries in a Personal Injury Claim
Serious injuries of all kinds can result when a person acts without regard for the wellbeing of others. Depending on the nature of your accident, you or a loved one may have suffered:
- Brain injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Paralysis
- Permanent disability
- Facial disfigurement
- Soft tissue injuries
- Internal organ damage
- Burns
- Broken bones
- Loss of limb
- Wrongful death
Compensation in a Houston Personal Injury Claim
When you sit down for a free consultation with a Houston personal injury lawyer at our firm, one of the things we’ll discuss is the amount of compensation you are eligible to seek.
“Damages” refers to the monetary award owed to you by the at-fault party for the losses you incurred. Damages can be compensatory, in that they compensate for your losses. Compensatory damages are further divided into economic and noneconomic losses.
In the most serious personal injury cases, often those involving wrongful death, punitive damages may also apply. This separate category of damages is used as a punishment for gross negligence.
The following is a brief overview of the types of damages your personal injury attorneys may be able to help you recover through a Houston car accident claim, wrongful death claim, or other type of personal injury claim.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the financial losses you incurred. They usually include:
Medical Expenses
Your hospital expenses, treatment costs, and future medical care and rehabilitation can result in steep medical bills. When you owe this much money, it may seem like you have to choose between health care and paying the rent. We’ll fight to prevent a serious injury from devastating you financially.
Lost Wages and Loss of Future Earnings
After a truck accident, car accident, or other incident resulting in severe injuries, you may not be able to work for a considerable amount of time. In some cases, you may never be able to return to your previous employment.
Your legal counsel will calculate your lost wages, diminished earning capacity, or the loss of earnings if you cannot return to work.
Property Damage
In situations like car accidents or truck accidents, you’ll face bills for repairing or replacing your vehicle. You may have even lost valuable items in the crash. Your Houston personal injury attorney will include these losses in the total amount of economic damages.
Noneconomic Damages
These losses affect your life in other ways. Noneconomic damages often include:Â
Pain and Suffering
The physical pain and extreme distress that accompanies severe injuries needs to be acknowledged in an injury claim. Our law firm believes that recognizing your physical suffering is just as important as recognizing your financial injuries.
Emotional Distress
The emotional anguish many accident victims experience can require years of mental health counseling. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and fear of participating in everyday activities are not uncommon. Many people are afraid to travel by car after suffering a serious car accident or truck accident.
If someone else’s negligence left you with severe, prolonged psychological distress, we will stand up for your legal right to compensation.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Your injuries may have prevented you from attending a wedding, graduation, birth of a child, funeral, reunion, or other important life event. You may have once enjoyed sports, hobbies, exercise, and other activities you can no longer take part in.
These are the things that make life meaningful, and this category of noneconomic damages allows you to seek justice when they are wrongfully taken from you.
Punitive Damages
Under Texas law, you may be entitled to punitive damages if the actions that caused the injury or wrongful death were grossly negligent, or committed with malice or intent to defraud.
If your Houston, TX accident involved this type of wrongdoing, your personal injury lawyers from Buckingham Barrera Vega will advise you of your right to seek punitive damages.
Our Houston Personal Injury Lawyers Are on Your Side When the Insurance Company Isn’t
When you’ve been injured in Texas, you may find that an insurance adjuster calls to offer a settlement immediately after the accident. But an initial settlement offer is almost never a fair amount. Insurance companies are motivated by profit and don’t take the time to understand the true extent of your injuries and losses.
Having a Houston personal injury attorney by your side can be the difference between obtaining fair compensation and being tricked out of thousands or more.
How Will Your Houston Personal Injury Lawyers Fight To Prove Your Claim?
Every case is unique, but there are a few common elements that we’ll need to prove for a successful personal injury case. Through careful investigation and reviewing evidence, your Houston injury attorneys will build a case that shows:
- The other party owed you a duty of care.
- That party failed to meet the duty of care and caused an accident.
- Your injuries were a result of the accident.
- You suffered damages because of your injuries.
Will My Houston Personal Injury Case Go to Trial?
Once these elements are present, we can move toward securing maximum compensation. A settlement can usually be reached through negotiation. But if the insurance company is unwilling to agree to fair terms, your case may go to trial. However, we can confidently say that a very small percentage of the injury cases we handle actually are taken to court.
In the event your case proceeds to court, the experienced national trial lawyers from Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm will be ready to fight for you.
Our track record in the courtroom is well known in the Texas court system. Simply put, we win cases. We aren’t afraid to stand before a judge and argue on your behalf if that’s what it takes to win you maximum compensation.
How Do You Prove Negligence in a Houston Personal Injury Case?
The more thorough and creative your personal injury lawyer can be, the better evidence they can gather to support your Houston, TX personal injury case.
To prove negligence, your injury attorneys may look at:
- Photographs of the accident scene
- Police reports
- Video footage of the accident
- The other driver’s cell phone records
- A history of past incidences at a dangerous property
- Truck driver hour of service records
- Testimony against a negligent medical practitioner
- Physical evidence of abuse committed by nursing home staff
How Much Does It Cost To Hire a Personal Injury Attorney?
When you’ve suffered injuries, legal fees should be the last thing on your mind. That’s why Buckingham Barrera Vega takes most personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. There are several benefits to following this pay structure rather than an hourly or flat-fee rate model.
Firstly, we don’t take fees upfront, so you can use your resources to deal with your more pressing financial needs. We’ll only take a percentage of your award amount if we successfully win your case for you. This motivates us both to reach the most advantageous outcome in the most efficient and effective way possible.
How Much Is a Houston Personal Injury Claim Worth?
We can’t provide an exact number to value your claim without first meeting to discuss your case. That’s why we begin with a free consultation to see if we are the right fit for each other.
The value of your claim will depend on the basic elements of your personal injury accident, such as:
- The type of injuries you suffered
- The prognosis of your injury
- The total of your economic and noneconomic damages, including future costs
- Your previous employment and whether you were able to return to the same position
- The state laws that affect your case
- The actions of the at-fault party and whether punitive damages are applicable
- If you were partly liable for the accident
In Houston, TX, we know people are taken advantage of every day by insurance companies. Insurers are aware that most people don’t know the full extent of their rights, and are eager to settle the matter quickly, get money to pay pressing bills, and move on.
It’s completely understandable that many people feel this way after they’ve suffered injuries. But these people don’t have the representation of a Buckingham Barrera Vega Houston personal injury attorney.
We build a strong attorney-client relationship, founding a basis of mutual trust. When we take your case, you know you will be treated fairly and with respect. We’ll do everything in our power to get you the justice you deserve.
How Long Do Injured Victims Have To File a Personal Injury Claim in Texas?
The statute of limitations is a law that dictates how long you have to file a personal injury lawsuit. In Texas, you have only two years from the date of injury, in most cases. After two years, you no longer have the right to seek compensation for your injuries and losses.
Two years is a relatively short amount of time when it comes to personal injury law. Most personal injury lawsuits take a significant amount of time to prepare and litigate. It’s in your best interest to seek legal help as soon as possible following your injury.
There are also exceptions to the statute of limitations that might give your case more or less time. The sooner you can speak with a personal injury lawyer about the details of your accident, the better your chances of a full financial recovery.
Get the Legal Protection of a Top-Rated Houston Personal Injury Law Firm
When an accident puts your life on hold, Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm is here to help you start moving forward again. Our experienced Houston personal injury lawyers fiercely advocate for your rights. We want to make your healing process as smooth as possible by taking care of the legal matters for you.
We invite you to contact us for an obligation-free case evaluation with one of our personal injury attorneys. We’ll discuss your options and start working on your claim. You can trust us to make sure your voice is heard.
You have nothing to lose and everything to win by sitting down for a conversation with a top Houston personal injury lawyer from Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm.
Houston Office Address
6671 Southwest Fwy, Suite 612
Houston, TX 77074
