Plano Car Accident Lawyer
Hit on the Dallas North Tollway, US-75, SH-121 Sam Rayburn, the President George Bush Turnpike, or a Legacy corridor surface street? Patterson Law Group is a Collin County trial firm — we know the §16.003 two-year deadline, §33.001 comparative fault, §41.0105 paid-or-incurred, and the §1952.0511 UM/UIM rules that fund Plano car-crash claims.
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How we serve Plano clients
Patterson Law Group does not maintain a brick-and-mortar office in Plano. We serve our Plano-area clients from our physical offices in Fort Worth (2409 Forest Park Boulevard), Arlington (2310 W Interstate 20 #100), and San Antonio (926 Chulie Drive). The initial case review is by phone or Zoom — at no cost — and our attorneys travel to Plano, McKinney, and the rest of Collin County for depositions, mediations, court hearings, and trial. Signed retainers, medical authorizations, deposition prep, and settlement signings can all be handled remotely. We know Texas car-crash law cold — the §16.003 two-year statute, §33.001 comparative fault, §41.0105 paid-or-incurred, the §1952.151 30/60/25 minimum-limits structure, and the §1952.0511 UM/UIM rules that fund Plano claims. We file cases in Collin County (and Denton or Dallas County where venue allows), work with Plano-area medical providers, and litigate at the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney like any local Plano firm. When your case calls for an in-person attorney at the courthouse or across the mediation table, we are there.
Greater Plano cities we serve
We represent car-accident clients across Collin County and the surrounding north-DFW suburbs — Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, and every fast-growing city north of the Dallas North Tollway.
Additional Collin County and north-DFW cities served: Murphy, Wylie, Sachse, Parker, Fairview, Lucas, Prosper, Celina, The Colony, Little Elm, Anna, and Melissa. Counties covered: Collin, Denton, and northern Dallas.
What to do after a Plano car accident
- Get medical care immediately. Collin County's adult-trauma capacity is concentrated at Medical City Plano (Level II trauma, 3901 W 15th Street), Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano, Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Plano, and Methodist McKinney just north. Children's Medical Center Plano handles pediatric trauma. Even drivers who walk away from a crash should be evaluated within 24 hours — gaps in treatment are the single most common defense argument and the leading reason adjusters undervalue claims.
- Report the crash and obtain the CR-3. Plano PD handles crashes inside the City of Plano; the surrounding cities — Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Richardson, Carrollton, Lewisville, Murphy, Wylie, Sachse, Prosper, Celina, The Colony, and Little Elm — each have their own departments. DPS handles state highways and the toll roads (Dallas North Tollway, PGBT, SH-121 Sam Rayburn Tollway). Texas Transportation Code §550.062 governs the CR-3 official crash report. Hit-and-run cases also implicate §550.021 (duty to stop and render aid) and §550.023 (duty to give information) — felony exposure the carrier has to evaluate.
- Photograph everything. Both vehicles, the scene, sight lines, lane markings, skid marks, debris pattern, traffic controls, road conditions, the other driver's insurance card, and visible injuries. Plano has heavy corporate-campus and retail surveillance along Legacy, Spring Creek, and Preston — photograph anything that might be on someone else's camera before that footage is overwritten.
- Get witness contact info. Independent witnesses make and break liability disputes. Get a name and phone number before the witness leaves the scene. Plano-area witnesses often work at one of the corporate campuses and are easier to track down when you have their name day-of.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver's insurance company. Their adjusters typically call within 24–48 hours. They are trained to get you to say things that limit your recovery — minimizing injury, undercutting fault, locking in low-ball numbers. Refer them to us. You are not legally required to give a recorded statement to a third-party insurer.
- Call a lawyer before you sign anything. Early settlement offers are almost always low. Once you sign a release, you cannot reopen the claim — even if your injuries turn out to be worse than expected. We send preservation-of-evidence letters within hours so dashcam, traffic-cam, business surveillance, Legacy corridor commercial camera networks, and the at-fault vehicle's ECM (event data recorder) are locked down before the carrier or its insured can spoliate them.
Texas car-accident law — what Plano drivers should know
Two-year statute of limitations (§16.003)
Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §16.003 gives you two years from the date of the crash. Claims against the City of Plano, Collin County, DART, or other governmental defendants may have Texas Tort Claims Act notice deadlines as short as six months under §101.101. Many Plano-area cities have charter notice provisions tighter than the TTCA floor — call early.
Modified comparative fault (§33.001)
Under §33.001, Texas follows a 51% bar rule: you can recover damages as long as you are 50% or less at fault. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. We push that percentage down with reconstruction evidence, ECM data, traffic-camera footage, dashcam, and the responding officer's CR-3 contributing-factor codes.
Paid or incurred medicals (§41.0105)
§41.0105 limits medical-bill recovery to amounts actually paid or incurred — particularly important for clients with substantial Medical City Plano or Baylor Plano trauma stays. Documenting both billed and paid amounts protects the recoverable value of medical specials.
Exemplary damages (§41.003 / §41.008)
§41.003 permits exemplary damages on clear and convincing evidence of fraud, malice, or gross negligence. Drunk driving on the Dallas North Tollway, racing on PGBT, knowing distraction, and street racing all support gross-negligence pleadings. §41.008 caps exemplary damages with statutory exceptions including felony DWI.
Minimum auto limits (§1952.151)
Texas requires only 30/60/25 minimum coverage under Tex. Ins. Code §1952.151 — $30,000 per person, $60,000 per crash, $25,000 in property damage. On a serious injury those limits exhaust fast. That is why UM/UIM stacking on your own policy is so important on Plano-area cases.
UM/UIM coverage (§1952.0511)
UM and UIM coverage on your own auto policy fills the gap when the at-fault driver has no insurance or low limits. Under Tex. Ins. Code §1952.0511, insurers must offer UM/UIM unless rejected in writing. A resident relative's policy may also apply — and household stacking is often the funding source on serious Plano cases.
CR-3 crash report (§550.062)
Texas Transportation Code §550.062 requires the investigating officer to file a CR-3 crash report. The CR-3 contributing-factor codes are the single most important defense or offense exhibit at the carrier-evaluation stage — getting the right codes assigned (or contested) on day one is critical.
Hit-and-run duties (§550.021 / §550.023)
§550.021 requires drivers to stop and render aid after a crash involving injury; §550.023 requires drivers to give name, address, registration, and insurance information. Violating these is a serious criminal offense and helps establish liability — and triggers UM/UIM coverage on the victim's own policy.
Wrongful Death Act (Chapter 71)
Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Chapter 71 governs Wrongful Death and Survival Actions. Surviving spouse, children, and parents can recover for loss of love, companionship, financial support, and mental anguish. The Survival Action under §71.021 preserves the driver's own pre-death pain-and-suffering claim for the estate.
Hospital liens (Tex. Prop. Code Ch. 55)
Texas hospitals can attach liens to settlements under the Texas Hospital and Emergency Services Lien Act. Medical City Plano, Texas Health Presbyterian Plano, and Baylor Plano liens are routine in Collin County car-crash cases. We negotiate liens down to maximize the client's net recovery.
Plano's most crash-prone car-accident corridors
- Dallas North Tollway. HOV/express-lane weaving, high posted speeds, and weekend leisure traffic to and from Frisco and The Colony. Lane-change crashes from drivers failing to check blind spots are routine, and the Tollway-PGBT and Tollway-SH-121 interchanges concentrate serious crashes.
- US-75 (Central Expressway). Stop-and-go congestion at every rush hour. The Plano-Allen-McKinney corridor produces a steady volume of rear-end crashes, with frequent secondary crashes when traffic abruptly piles up.
- SH-121 (Sam Rayburn Tollway). High-speed merging into and out of the Dallas North Tollway and US-75 interchanges. Toll-tag-related lane confusion and managed-lane mistakes are recurring fact patterns.
- President George Bush Turnpike (PGBT / SH-190). 70 mph speed limits, frequent toll-plaza weaving, and managed-lane confusion. The PGBT-Tollway interchange and the PGBT-US-75 interchange are crash hotspots.
- Legacy Drive (rush-hour corporate corridor). Toyota, JCPenney, Liberty Mutual, FedEx Office, and Capital One drive heavy weekday commuter volume. Rideshare (Uber/Lyft) pickup-and-drop-off crashes around Legacy West and The Shops at Legacy are a recurring fact pattern.
- Spring Creek Parkway. Major east-west arterial with school-zone speed enforcement and heavy mixed traffic at Coit, Custer, and Preston intersections.
- Coit Road and Custer Road intersections. Left-turn crashes at signalized intersections — particularly Coit & Park, Coit & Spring Creek, Custer & Park, and Custer & Plano Parkway — produce a high volume of side-impact (T-bone) cases.
- Preston Road (SH-289). Retail and dining frontage drives frequent driveway and parking-lot turn crashes. Rear-ends at signalized intersections like Preston & Park and Preston & Legacy are routine.
- Park Boulevard and Plano Parkway. Plano's two main east-west arterials. Heavy left-turn and intersection exposure at Park & Independence, Park & Preston, and Plano Parkway & Coit.
- Distracted-driving cases (texting). The same fact pattern shows up across the Dallas North Tollway, US-75, and the Legacy corridor. We discover the at-fault driver's cell records, app activity, and where applicable in-vehicle telematics.
- DWI/DUI cases — Dallas North Tollway weekends. Late-night Tollway crashes between Plano and Frisco regularly involve impaired drivers. These cases support gross-negligence pleadings under §41.003 and uncapped or higher-cap exemplary damages under §41.008's felony-DWI exception.
- Rideshare and delivery-driver crashes. Uber and Lyft drivers on Legacy and the Dallas Tollway; Amazon, Frito-Lay, and other commercial delivery vehicles around Plano's industrial corridors and the I-635/PGBT distribution footprint. Commercial $1M+ policies are typically in play.
Where Collin County car-accident cases are heard
Collin County
Civil personal injury cases in Collin County are heard at the Collin County Courthouse, 2100 Bloomdale Road, McKinney. Collin County operates a deep civil bench — the 199th, 219th, 296th, 366th, 380th, 416th, 417th, 429th, 469th, 470th, and 471st District Courts handle the county's civil docket, along with statutory county courts at law for smaller-dollar matters.
Denton & Dallas Counties
Denton County cases — the Frisco-Denton side of Frisco, The Colony, Little Elm — are heard at the Denton County Courts Building, 1450 E McKinney Street, Denton. Dallas County overflow or cases with proper venue facts in Dallas County are heard at the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building, 600 Commerce Street, Dallas.
Federal court (E.D. Tex., Sherman Division)
Cases with diversity of citizenship or substantial federal-law issues filed out of Collin County go to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, 101 E Pecan Street, Sherman.
Plano municipal cases and small-dollar matters can also be heard at Plano Municipal Court (4120 W 15th Street, Plano) — but civil personal injury claims are filed at the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney.
Common questions from Plano car-accident clients
What is the deadline to file a Plano car accident lawsuit?
Does Patterson Law Group have an office in Plano?
How much is my Plano car accident case worth?
What if the at-fault driver had no insurance or only the Texas minimum limits?
What if I was partially at fault for the Plano crash?
What about PIP, MedPay, and hospital liens?
What if the crash involved a rideshare driver (Uber/Lyft), a delivery driver, or a commercial truck?
Where will my Plano car accident case be filed?
Hit in a Plano car crash? Talk to a Texas trial lawyer today.
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