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A catastrophic injury case is not a large version of an ordinary injury case. It is a different kind of case, and the difference is time.
An ordinary injury claim is valued over a treatment period that ends. A catastrophic injury claim is valued over a life, and much of the money in it is for care and losses that have not happened yet and will not happen for decades. That single fact changes what has to be proven, who has to prove it, and when the work has to be done.
Not a legal definition, but a practical one. An injury that permanently changes what the person can do: spinal cord injury and paralysis, severe traumatic brain injury, amputation, severe burns, loss of vision or hearing, injuries requiring lifelong attendant care.
The future is most of the value, and the future has to be proven. A life care plan is a formal projection, built by a qualified professional, of every element of care the person will need over a lifetime, priced. Surgeries, equipment, replacement of that equipment on its actual schedule, home modification, attendant care hours, medications, therapy. An economist then reduces it to present value. Without that work, the future is a number a jury is asked to guess at, and juries guess low.
Lost earning capacity is not lost wages. Wages are what was earned. Earning capacity is what the person could have earned over a working life, in the occupations actually available to them, and it usually requires a vocational expert and an economist.
Liability is contested harder. The size of the exposure means the defense investigates more, spends more, and settles later. Cases with modest exposure settle on the adjuster’s authority. Cases with severe exposure go up the chain and are defended.
Coverage is layered. Serious cases frequently involve a primary policy, one or more excess layers, an employer’s policy, and sometimes coverage the injured person did not know existed. Finding every layer is part of the work and it happens early or not at all.
Vehicles get repaired or salvaged. Electronic control module data is overwritten. Surveillance video is purged on a fixed cycle, often within thirty days. Scenes change. Witnesses move.
In the first weeks, while the family’s whole attention is on an intensive care unit, the physical proof of what happened is quietly disappearing. Preservation letters and, where necessary, an inspection before anything is moved, are the part of a catastrophic case that cannot be recovered later if it is missed.
In a catastrophic case the medical record does two jobs. It establishes what happened, and it establishes what the rest of this person’s life looks like. Gaps in treatment, inconsistent histories, and undocumented complaints become the defense’s argument years later. Getting the record complete and coherent is not an administrative task; it is evidence development.
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
A case like this consumes attention in a way an ordinary claim does not. That is the reason this office keeps a deliberately small number of cases open, and it is the reason the lawyer who answers the phone is the lawyer who works the file.
Where a case needs resources beyond what a small firm carries alone, we say so and bring in co-counsel with the client’s written consent. The client’s total attorney’s fee does not increase because a second firm is involved.
Schiffer Law Firm handles catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases in Houston and across Texas.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery. Case expenses are explained in the written fee agreement before anything is signed.
Call 713-521-0059.
This page is general information, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
An injury valued over a lifetime rather than a treatment period. That changes the proof, the experts and the timing.
An expert projection of the care, equipment and services the injury will require for life, priced year by year.
Because the case cannot be valued until the medical picture is stable enough to project, and evidence on the liability side is disappearing the whole time.
Two years under Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
