What injury claims come out of Greenville?
Highway crashes lead the list. I-30 runs through the city, and a heavy share of the traffic on it is commercial. State Highway 34 (Wesley Street), US-69 (Joe Ramsey Boulevard) and US-380 handle local trips and trucks heading through, and there are plenty of places where fast, through traffic meets slower local traffic, such as around Joe Ramsey Boulevard where it meets the interstate. Traffic is lighter than in Dallas, but speeds are higher, so crashes can be severe.
After crashes come premises injuries, workplace injuries and construction accidents. The city is growing, with new commercial buildings going up alongside older properties, and each brings its own risks. We also see product cases and serious injuries to children and older adults.
If you are not sure what type of case you have, our Dallas-area personal injury team can talk it through.
Who owes you a duty on someone else’s property?
Texas law asks why you were on the property. A customer in a Greenville shop is an invitee, and the owner must use reasonable care to make the premises safe or to warn of dangers the owner knows about or should have found. A social guest at a home is a licensee, and the owner’s duty is narrower: generally to warn of a known danger that the guest would not see. Trespassers are owed less still.
In older buildings downtown, hazards often come from the age of the property: uneven thresholds, worn stair treads, poor lighting and loose flooring. Newer sites bring different problems, such as unfinished walkways and temporary barriers. The question is rarely just “was there a hazard.” It is whether the owner knew or should have known, and whether the owner did anything about it. Our overview of how to claim compensation after an injury on someone else’s property in Texas goes through the basics.
To prove notice, we ask for maintenance logs, inspection records, prior complaints and surveillance video. Many small businesses do not keep records for long, which is why we write to them early.
When the employer does not carry workers’ compensation
Most Texas employers are allowed to choose whether to carry workers’ compensation. Those that do not are called non-subscribers, and if one of them is at fault for your injury you can sue for negligence rather than going through the compensation system. That can lead to larger recoveries, but it also means proving the employer’s fault.
In Greenville’s manufacturing and warehouse sectors, the questions are usually about training, safety equipment, staffing and maintenance. We ask whether the employer had safety rules, whether they were followed, and whether earlier injuries should have prompted a change. If your employer does carry coverage, you may still have a claim against a third party such as an equipment maker or a contractor.
Construction sites and heavy equipment
Falls, struck-by incidents, electrocution and equipment accidents are the common construction injuries. Greenville sites often have a general contractor, several subcontractors and a property owner, each with a different insurer and a different story about who controlled what. OSHA rules help set the safety standard, but they do not decide a civil case by themselves. We look at who was supposed to supervise the work and who had the power to fix the problem.
What an injured person should do in the first days
Get medical care, and do not let distance or cost stop you. Hunt Regional Healthcare in Greenville runs an emergency department that serves patients from across the county, and your doctor can refer you if you need a specialist. Keep records of every visit and every bill, and take photographs of your injuries as they heal.
Report the incident to the owner, manager or supervisor, and ask for a copy. Do not sign a statement written by the other side, and do not accept a quick payment in exchange for a release. Say as little as possible about fault, and stay off social media.
The most useful habit is to write things down as they happen: names, times, what the doctor said, what you can no longer do.
Who is responsible when a truck is involved?
A collision on I-30 or US-380 with a tractor-trailer often reaches beyond the driver. The motor carrier that employs him can be responsible, and so can a company that loaded the cargo badly, a maintenance shop that missed a brake problem or a broker that picked an unsafe carrier. Federal safety rules set limits on driving hours and require inspection and maintenance records, and those records can show where a company cut corners.
Trucking companies usually send a response team to the scene quickly. We try to move as fast, by sending preservation letters for electronic logging data, dispatch messages, inspection files and the truck itself before anything is repaired or returned to service.
Farm, ranch and rural road injuries
Hunt County is not only a city. Farm and ranch work brings tractor rollovers, livestock injuries, equipment entanglements and falls, and country roads bring crashes with farm vehicles and unmarked hazards. Rural roads often lack lighting, shoulders and guardrails, and a driver may meet a slow-moving implement or a loose animal with no warning.
Responsibility in these cases can be hard to pin down. A landowner, a hired operator, an equipment manufacturer or a county that failed to maintain a road may each play a part. Because little documentation exists at remote sites, we move fast to photograph the scene and identify witnesses before the details are lost.
Serious and lifelong injuries
Spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, amputations and severe burns change a family’s life. The claim has to account for far more than the first hospital stay: surgeries, therapy, home changes, attendants, lost earning years and the person’s own sense of independence.
In these cases we work with physicians and life care planners who can lay out what care will look like and what it will cost over the person’s lifetime. A rushed settlement can leave a family paying for care out of pocket decades later, so we do not recommend settling before the medical picture is clear. If you or a family member is dealing with a catastrophic injury, the first conversation can be short and does not obligate you.
Defective products and equipment
When a tire, a power tool, a vehicle part or an appliance fails and causes harm, the claim can reach the maker, a distributor or a seller. Texas recognizes design defects, manufacturing defects and marketing defects, which means a failure to give adequate warnings. Proving one typically requires engineering analysis, and the product itself is the most important piece of evidence.
If something broke, keep it. Do not repair it, return it or throw it away. Photograph it, keep the packaging and receipt, and tell us before you speak to the company.
Where is a Greenville injury case filed, and by when?
Greenville is in Hunt County, and the county has two district courts, the 196th and the 354th, which sit at the Hunt County Courthouse on Lee Street in Greenville. A case belongs in the county where the incident happened or where a defendant lives, so a crash on I-30 involving a driver from out of state may still end up here.
Most Texas personal injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury, under Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Claims against a city, county or school district follow different notice rules, and the notice period can be much shorter. If you suspect a public body played a part, call us soon.
How shared fault works, and a correction worth making
Texas follows a proportionate responsibility system. Under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, you cannot recover if your percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. If your share is 50 percent or less, you can recover, but your damages are reduced by your share. A fault finding of 20 percent on a $100,000 loss means an $80,000 recovery.
People sometimes hear this as a 51 percent rule. The line is more than 50 percent, so a person who is exactly 50 percent responsible can still recover. A single percentage point can matter, and insurers know it.
Compensation and what you actually keep
Texas allows you to pursue economic damages, such as medical expenses, lost earnings and reduced earning ability, and non-economic damages, such as physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement and impairment. In most personal injury cases Texas does not put a cap on non-economic damages, although some claim types are treated differently. Exemplary damages are possible for gross negligence, but they are limited.
What reaches you depends on liens and costs. Beyond pursuing the gross recovery from the at-fault insurer, we negotiate with hospitals, ER groups and medical lien holders at settlement to reduce what you owe out of the award, so more of the money reaches you.
Dealing with the insurance company
An adjuster may call within a day, sound sympathetic and ask for a recorded statement. You are not required to give one to the other side’s insurer. Whatever you say can be quoted back to you, so wait until you have legal advice.
Be wary of quick offers too. They often arrive before you know the full cost of treatment, and accepting one usually closes the claim. If you want to talk it over first, you can schedule a free consultation with our team.
Which Greenville cases do we take?
Many of the Greenville cases we see start on the road. Crashes on I-30, US-69, US-380 and State Highway 34 are handled by our Dallas-area car accident lawyers. Freight moves through on the same highways, and a crash with a tractor-trailer brings in a carrier, its insurer and federal safety rules, which our Dallas-area truck accident team works from the first week.
When someone is killed, Texas allows the surviving spouse, children and parents to bring a wrongful death claim, and the estate may bring a separate survival claim. Our Dallas-area wrongful death lawyers handle those cases. We also take premises, workplace, construction, farm and ranch, and product injury cases from Greenville.
