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Because of the deadlines. A health care liability claim in Texas is governed by Chapter 74 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which imposes requirements an ordinary negligence case usually does not have. The most important one is an expert report due on a fixed schedule.
The step that cannot wait is getting your records. A qualified expert has to review them before a report can be written, and gathering them takes time. The deadline is the reason to call early, not later. Do not assume you have two years. Call 713-521-0059.
Section 74.351 requires the claimant to serve an expert report on each party not later than the 120th day after the date each defendant’s original answer is filed. The parties may extend that date by written agreement, and the statute allows a later date in some cases. If the report is not served in time, the consequences are serious. Subsection (b) provides that on the motion of an affected physician or health care provider, the court shall award that provider reasonable attorney’s fees and costs and shall dismiss the claim against it with prejudice. That dismissal is subject to subsection (c): where a report was served but found deficient, the court may grant one 30-day extension to cure the deficiency.
Dismissal with prejudice generally means the claim cannot be brought again against that provider. That is why these cases cannot be evaluated slowly. A qualified expert has to review the records and produce a compliant report inside a fixed window that starts running once an answer is filed.
No. Medicine carries risk, and a poor result by itself does not usually prove that anyone did something wrong. A qualified expert usually has to explain what the provider should have done and whether the failure caused your injury. That is part of why the records matter so much. A missed diagnosis, a delayed test, a surgical error or a medication mistake can each raise the question, but the facts decide the answer.
The expert usually needs the complete chart from every provider involved, not a summary. That includes office notes, hospital records, imaging, lab results, pharmacy records and nursing notes. Billing records can also help, because they show every visit, test and procedure in the order they happened. Requests for records can take weeks to fill, and some providers send them in pieces. Gathering them before a lawsuit is filed gives the expert time to do the work properly.
A doctor, a nurse, a hospital, a clinic or another health care provider can be responsible for its own care. Each provider is a separate party, and Section 74.351 requires a report to be served on each party. A claim against a nursing home can raise the same requirements, and our page on nursing home neglect covers those cases.
What matters most for you right now is getting the records requested and the timeline preserved while the deadline is still ahead of you. Write a timeline while it is fresh: each visit, each symptom, each call, and what you were told. Keep appointment cards, discharge papers, pill bottles and patient portal messages. Save the names of the doctors, nurses and staff you dealt with, and the dates you saw each of them.
Avoid posting about your care or your injury online. Our page on social media in an injury case explains why. If you are still being treated, keep going to your appointments, and keep the records of any second opinion you receive, including the name of the doctor who gave it.
Chapter 74 claims carry both the expert report deadline above and their own limitations provisions, which differ from the ordinary personal injury period and are applied strictly by the Texas courts. Do not assume you have two years. Where the care led to a death, Section 71.004 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code allows the surviving spouse, children and parents to bring a wrongful death action. The Chapter 74 requirements can still apply to that claim. Call 713-521-0059.
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.
These cases usually turn on the records and on what a qualified expert can say about them. Your own timeline, written early, helps the expert see what happened between visits. A case that starts late loses the time the expert needs. A case that starts early gives the expert room to review every record, ask for what is missing, and write a report that addresses each provider you may have a claim against.
We start with the records and the timeline, because a qualified expert cannot review what has not been gathered. Then we identify every provider involved and every date that controls the deadlines.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people across Texas.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Written by Jacob Schiffer, Attorney, Schiffer Law Firm. State Bar of Texas No. 24105175.
Call 713-521-0059.
Section 74.351 requires the claimant to serve an expert report on each party not later than the 120th day after the date each defendant's original answer is filed. The parties may extend that date by written agreement, and the statute allows a later date in some cases.
If no report is served in time, the consequences are serious. Subsection (b) provides that on the motion of an affected physician or health care provider, the court shall award that provider reasonable attorney's fees and costs and shall dismiss the claim against it with prejudice. That dismissal is subject to subsection (c): where a report was served but found deficient, the court may grant one 30-day extension to cure the deficiency.
Do not assume you have two years. Chapter 74 claims carry their own limitations provisions, which differ from the ordinary personal injury period and are applied strictly by the Texas courts.
Records from every provider involved, including office notes, hospital charts, imaging, lab results, pharmacy records and billing. Request them early, because the expert needs them before a report can be written.
Yes. Write a timeline of each visit, each symptom, each call and what you were told, while it is fresh, and keep your discharge papers and portal messages.
Section 71.004 allows the surviving spouse, children and parents to bring a wrongful death action. The Chapter 74 requirements can still apply to a claim against a health care provider.