Texas Catastrophic Injury Lawyers
A catastrophic injury is a lifetime case. The settlement has to last as long as you do — and we know how to make that happen.
Why Families Across Texas Trust Patterson Law Group
Catastrophic injuries are different. The medical care doesn't end when the case settles — it lasts decades. Future surgeries, equipment, in-home care, prosthetics, vehicle modifications, lost earning capacity. A settlement that looks large at the time of signing can run out long before the medical needs do, and once you settle, you can't come back for more.
Patterson Law Group has spent more than 30 years building catastrophic injury cases the right way: with life-care planners, vocational economists, medical experts who project decades of care, and an aggressive trial-ready approach that forces insurance carriers to value the full future cost — not just yesterday's bills.
We've recovered over $100 million for clients. The consultation is free. We work on a contingency fee.
Offices in Fort Worth, Arlington, and San Antonio. Every case is taken on a contingency fee — no recovery, no fee.
Catastrophic Injuries We Handle
Any injury that permanently changes how you live qualifies as catastrophic. The most common we handle:
Catastrophic Injury Law in Texas
Texas law allows recovery for the full range of damages a catastrophic injury produces — past and future medical expenses, past and future lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, physical impairment, and in appropriate cases, exemplary (punitive) damages.
The keystone of any catastrophic case is the life-care plan — a comprehensive medical and economic projection of every dollar the injured person will need over their lifetime. Done correctly by qualified experts, a life-care plan can transform an ordinary case into a multi-million-dollar recovery. Done poorly, a catastrophic case settles for a fraction of what it's worth.
Statute of limitations is two years under CPRC §16.003. Some product-liability and medical-malpractice claims have shorter or differently-structured deadlines. Move quickly.
How We Work With You
Our process is simple. You focus on your recovery. We handle everything else.
- 1 Call us. Tell us what happened. Free, confidential, no obligation. We'll give you an honest answer about whether you have a case.
- 2 We investigate. Police reports, surveillance footage, medical records, witness statements, expert consultations. We build the case the right way from day one.
- 3 You focus on healing. We handle every insurance call, every demand, every negotiation. If they refuse to pay fairly, we take them to trial.
Where We Serve
Patterson Law Group serves all injured Texans from our physical offices in Fort Worth, Arlington, and San Antonio. We accept cases throughout the state, and we travel for clients when the case calls for it.
- • Fort Worth — Tarrant County and the broader DFW Metroplex
- • Arlington — Mid-cities and east Tarrant County
- • San Antonio — Bexar County and South Texas
How this complements existing sections
The Astro page currently uses the standard 8-H2 template. The sections below are additive and sit between the existing "Texas Catastrophic Injury Law" block and the existing "How We Work" block. No duplication of existing FAQ items.
Tone: confident, plainspoken, Texas-led, compassionate where appropriate. No fabricated case results, testimonials, or statistics. All statutory citations verified.
What Counts as a Catastrophic Injury in Texas
The word "catastrophic" is not a legal term of art in Texas — it is a description of severity. A catastrophic injury is one that permanently and substantially changes the rest of a person's life: ability to work, ability to live independently, ability to participate in family and community, ability to function physically and cognitively. These cases require a different kind of preparation than ordinary personal injury cases because the damages reach decades into the future.
Spinal cord injuries. Complete and incomplete tetraplegia and paraplegia. Even an incomplete cord injury at a high cervical level can require lifelong attendant care, home modifications, and assistive technology. Lower cord injuries still produce permanent loss of function, neurogenic bladder and bowel, and the cascade of secondary medical conditions cord injury survivors live with.
Severe traumatic brain injury. Beyond concussion — diffuse axonal injury, cortical contusion, subdural and epidural hematoma requiring craniectomy, prolonged disorders of consciousness, anoxic injury. Cognitive, behavioral, and physical sequelae that persist for life and require neurological, neuropsychological, behavioral, and rehabilitative support.
Amputations and limb loss. Traumatic amputation at the scene or surgical amputation after failed limb salvage. Each lost limb requires prostheses, lifetime prosthetic replacement (most prosthetic limbs need replacement every 3 to 5 years), rehab, and adaptation.
Severe burns. Third-degree and fourth-degree burns over significant total body surface area. Burn cases bring extended ICU stays, multiple grafting surgeries, scar contracture release procedures, lifelong skin care, and severe disfigurement.
Multi-system polytrauma. Pelvic, abdominal, thoracic, and orthopedic injuries combined. Often the result of high-speed truck and motor vehicle crashes. These clients are often in critical care for weeks and rehab for months.
Vision and hearing loss. Permanent blindness or low vision, and permanent hearing loss, change every aspect of daily living and earning capacity.
Internal organ damage with permanent dysfunction. Traumatic kidney loss, splenectomy with immunological consequences, bowel resection, liver injury, and traumatic injuries that produce permanent endocrine or reproductive dysfunction.
Texas Damages in a Catastrophic Injury Case
Catastrophic cases push the limits of what Texas law allows a plaintiff to recover, and the work of building the damages picture is where these cases are won. Three frameworks apply.
Economic damages. Past and future medical expenses (subject to §41.0105 paid-or-incurred), past and future lost earnings, loss of earning capacity, attendant care, home and vehicle modifications, assistive technology, prosthetic replacement over the life expectancy, household services, and out-of-pocket expenses caused by the injury. In a serious spinal cord or TBI case, the future-care number alone can run into the tens of millions of dollars across a normal life expectancy. A certified life care planner and a forensic economist build the documentation.
Non-economic damages. Pain and mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, loss of consortium (for a spouse, parent, or child where applicable), and loss of enjoyment of life. Texas does not cap non-economic damages in ordinary personal injury cases. The jury can compensate for the permanent loss of physical and cognitive function in whatever amount the evidence supports.
Exemplary damages. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §41.003 and §41.008, exemplary damages are available where the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the harm resulted from fraud, malice, or gross negligence. The §41.008 cap limits exemplary damages to the greater of $200,000 or twice the economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000. In catastrophic cases the economic damages alone can be substantial, which makes the §41.008 multiplier meaningful. Patterns that frequently support gross-negligence findings: drunk driving, falsified commercial trucking logs, ignored maintenance, repeated safety violations on a job site, corporate policy that prioritized cost over known safety risks.
The §41.0105 paid-or-incurred rule limits medical-expense recovery to amounts actually paid or incurred — not full billed charges. Accurate medical-billing proof, including write-offs and adjustments, is necessary in every catastrophic case.
How We Build a Catastrophic Injury Case — The Team
A catastrophic case is not a one-lawyer file. It is a coordinated team effort assembled around the client and the family.
The treating physicians. Trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, plastic and reconstructive surgeons, neurologists, physiatrists, pulmonologists, urologists. We work with the treating team — never around them — and we ask the questions that develop the permanency, causation, and future-care opinions the case needs.
Life care planner. A certified rehabilitation specialist who works with the treating doctors to project every category of future care: medications, equipment, attendant care, therapy, surgeries, hospitalizations, and replacements. The life care plan is the backbone of the future-medical damages claim.
Forensic economist. Converts the life care plan and the lost-earning-capacity projection into present-value dollars, taking into account inflation, discount rates, and work-life expectancy.
Vocational expert. Documents what the client could do before the injury, what they can do now (often nothing or a fraction), and what realistic earning capacity remains.
Neuropsychologist. In TBI cases, formal neuropsychological testing documents cognitive deficits the adjuster cannot wave away. Mild TBI in particular is dismissed by adjusters until the testing is on paper.
Accident reconstructionist and biomechanical engineer. For liability and causation. The reconstructionist explains how the crash happened; the biomechanical engineer connects the crash forces to the specific injuries.
Day-in-the-life videographer. A short, professionally produced video showing the realities of life after the injury. It is often the single most persuasive piece of evidence at mediation and at trial.
Texas trial counsel. We try these cases. We are not a referral house. The investment we make in workup is the investment we make to be ready for a Texas jury if the defense will not pay fairly.
How Insurance and Defense Counsel Approach Catastrophic Claims
Catastrophic cases trigger a different kind of defense. When the injury is permanent and the policy limits are exposed, the carrier brings in senior adjusters, sophisticated defense counsel, and consultants of their own. They have a playbook, and we know it.
Causation attacks. "These injuries were not all caused by the crash." "There was a pre-existing condition." "The surgery was elective." Texas follows the eggshell-plaintiff rule — the defendant takes the injured person as they find them — and treating-physician causation testimony answers the pre-existing-condition argument. We develop it early.
Future-care attacks. Defense life care planners producing alternative plans that exclude services the client actually needs. Defense neuropsychologists giving "no objective deficit" opinions. Defense vocational experts opining that the client can still work some sedentary job. Each of these requires a counter-expert and detailed cross-examination preparation.
Comparative-fault arguments. Under §33.001, every percent of fault attributed to the plaintiff reduces the recovery. In a catastrophic case where damages run into eight or nine figures, a 10% fault finding is millions of dollars. The defense will push hard.
Reptile-theory defense. Defense lawyers train against the "reptile" plaintiff approach with their own counter-techniques. The plaintiff team has to be calm, prepared, and substantive.
Structured settlement pressure. In serious cases the carrier may offer a structured settlement — periodic payments over years — instead of a lump sum. Structures have advantages and disadvantages. We bring in structured-settlement consultants who work for the plaintiff (not the carrier) to evaluate any structure proposal on its real economics.
Bad-faith exposure. When a carrier refuses a within-limits demand on a clearly catastrophic case, it can expose itself to bad-faith and Stowers liability. That dynamic gets the carrier's attention and is a tool we use in serious cases.
Family and Caregiver Impact in Catastrophic Cases
A catastrophic injury is never just a one-person event. It reshapes the lives of everyone around the injured client.
Spouses become caregivers. A husband or wife who was a partner before the injury is now a partner, nurse, advocate, and sometimes the family's sole financial provider. Loss-of-consortium damages exist for this loss, but the lived reality is bigger than the legal label. Many spouses also lose paid work in order to provide care.
Children carry weight beyond their years. Children of a catastrophically injured parent take on responsibilities, witness pain, and adjust to a parent who may no longer be the person they remember. Texas allows loss of parental consortium for minor children whose parent suffers a serious, permanent, disabling injury.
Parents of injured children. When the injured person is a minor, parents bring the suit on the child's behalf. Settlements involving a minor typically require court approval through a friendly suit, and a guardian ad litem may be appointed. We coordinate that process and protect the minor's recovery through structured settlements or qualified-settlement-fund trusts where appropriate.
Caregiver compensation. Attendant-care damages are recoverable. Where a family member is providing care that would otherwise require professional support, that family member's care has dollar value. Life care planners and home-care economists put real numbers on it.
Mental-health support. PTSD, anxiety, and depression are common in both the injured client and the immediate family. Recovery from a catastrophic injury is multi-year. We work with our clients on the family dimension of the case as actively as we work on the medical and legal dimensions.
Steps to Take When a Catastrophic Injury Has Happened
Families dealing with a catastrophic injury are often in the ICU when they read pages like this. Here is what to focus on.
Medical care first. Decisions about ICU treatment, surgery, rehab placement, and discharge planning take precedence. The legal case can wait a day or two for the family to breathe.
Preserve evidence as soon as practical. Photos of the scene, the vehicles or equipment involved, the property. If a commercial trucking, premises, or industrial defendant is involved, evidence will be destroyed quickly if no preservation letter is sent.
Do not give recorded statements. Do not sign anything. The carrier will call quickly in serious cases — sometimes within hours — and they will sound concerned. Politely decline.
Document the medical journey. Names of doctors, dates of surgeries, medications, equipment, and questions answered or not answered.
Consult a lawyer who handles catastrophic cases. Not every personal injury firm has the infrastructure to work up a serious file. Ask the firm how many catastrophic cases they have taken to trial in Texas, who their life care planners and reconstructionists are, and whether they advance case expenses.
Call Patterson Law Group. Free consultation. Contingency fee — no fee unless we recover. We come to you when the family cannot come to us. (817) 784-2000. Offices in Fort Worth, Arlington, and San Antonio. Se Habla Español.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes an injury 'catastrophic' under Texas law?
There's no statutory definition. In practice, a catastrophic injury is one that permanently impairs the victim's ability to work, care for themselves, or participate in daily life — TBI, spinal cord injury, amputation, severe burns, blindness, and similar life-altering harm.
Why do catastrophic injury cases need a life-care plan?
Because future medical and care needs often dwarf the bills you've already incurred. A certified life-care planner projects every cost — surgeries, therapy, equipment, in-home care, transportation, home modifications — out over the remaining life expectancy. Without that plan, the case undervalues.
Can I recover damages for pain and suffering in a catastrophic case?
Yes. Texas does not cap non-economic damages in most personal injury cases. (Medical malpractice claims have caps under CPRC §74.301.) For ordinary catastrophic injury claims, pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, and physical impairment are all recoverable without statutory limit.
How long does a catastrophic injury case take?
Often longer than ordinary cases — 12 to 24 months or more — because the full extent of injuries and future needs has to be understood before settlement. Settling too early on a catastrophic case is the single biggest mistake an unrepresented victim can make.
Will my settlement be taxable?
Generally no. Compensatory damages for physical injury and sickness are excluded from gross income under IRC §104(a)(2). Punitive damages and certain interest amounts can be taxable. We coordinate with tax and structured-settlement professionals for catastrophic cases.
What makes a case 'catastrophic' for case-handling purposes?
Operationally, a catastrophic case is one where the injury permanently changes the client's ability to work, care for themselves, or live independently. Traumatic brain injury with permanent cognitive deficits, spinal cord injuries with paralysis, amputations, severe burns over significant body surface area, and multi-system trauma. These cases require a life-care planner, vocational economist, and often a structured-settlement specialist. We staff catastrophic cases differently from the start.
What is a life-care plan and why does it matter in a catastrophic injury case?
A life-care plan is a written, expert-prepared document that itemizes the projected future medical care, equipment, therapies, home modifications, and personal-care attendant costs for the rest of an injured person's life. In catastrophic cases, the life-care plan often dwarfs the medical bills already incurred — it is what allows a jury or insurer to value decades of future damages. Certified life-care planners are the experts typically retained; their report becomes the damages backbone of the case.
Should a catastrophic injury settlement be paid out as a lump sum or as a structured settlement?
It depends on the injured person's age, family situation, capacity to manage funds, and tax posture. Structured settlements provide tax-advantaged, judgment-proof, scheduled future payments — often used to cover decades of future medical and replacement income for catastrophic cases. Lump sums offer flexibility and control but require active money management. Many catastrophic settlements combine both: a lump-sum portion plus a structured portion designed around the injured person's projected long-term needs. The decision is the client's; a qualified structured-settlement specialist models the options before settlement.
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