Texas Injury Lawyer Blog

Tylers' texting drivers that cause auto accidents are guilty of both negligence and gross negligence. Personal injury attorneys that handle auto accidents need not wait for the passage of new laws specifically addressing texting related auto accidents. Texting falls squarely within the boundaries of existing Texas law.

Studies have concluded that texting while driving is as much as twenty times more dangerous as driving while intoxicated. A credible argument can be made that a texting driver is more deserving of punishment than a drunken driver. An intoxicated driver consumes alcoholic beverages and with judgment impaired by alcohol makes the decision to drive. Contrast the drunken drivers' behavior with that of the texting driver who with a clear mind makes the decision to take their attention off of the roadway and to focus on texting while operating a motor vehicle.

Chapter 545 of the Texas Transportation Code defines reckless driving as willful and wanton conduct. Certainly the texting driver has exhibited a willful and wanton disregard for the safety of the motoring public. There is not a driver on the Texas roadways who has not been warned against texting while driving yet texting continues to be an increasing cause of auto accidents.

My law firm files all texting related auto accident cases as both negligence and gross negligence cases and requests that punitive damages be awarded against the texting driver.

For more information contact a Tyler Auto Accident Attorney today.

I frequently hear people say that in Texas medical malpractice damages are capped at $250,000. This is incorrect. The $250,000 damage cap refers to the cap on noneconomic damages recoverable from a single physician, health care provider, or heath care institution.

Texas medical malpractice damage caps are set forth in Section 74.301 of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code. Section 74.301 limits the amount of noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering, physical impairment, or disfigurement to $250,000 from all doctors and individual health care providers. Section 74.301 further limits noneconomic damages recoverable from each health care institution(hospital) to $250,000 with a cap of $500,000 from all health care institutions. The injured claimants' medical expenses and lost wages are not included in the caps.

Medical malpractice damages often add up to substantially more than $250,000. Take for example the case of a worker who is admitted to the hospital by a private physician and while in the hospital is the victim of malpractice by both the doctor and the hospital resulting in the loss of his leg. Assume that the patients' medical expenses total $180,000 and he will sustain $800,000 in lost wages. His recoverable damages would be a total of $1,480,000. This is not a lot of compensation for losing a leg but it is a lot more than $250,000.

For more information contact a Tyler Medical Malpractice Attorney today.