Laredo, TX Rideshare Accident Lawyer
Uber and Lyft trips in Laredo share I-35, Loop 20, and the World Trade International Bridge approaches with heavy cross-border truck traffic. When a rideshare crash happens here, who pays depends on what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact. Mike Slocumb Law Firm’s Laredo personal injury lawyers represent injured passengers, rideshare drivers, pedestrians, and families who lost a loved one.
We take these cases on contingency, so you pay no attorney’s fees or case costs unless we recover compensation for you.
Which Policy Pays After a Laredo Uber or Lyft Crash?
The Texas Insurance Code ties rideshare coverage to the driver’s app status:
- App off: only the driver’s personal policy applies.
- Logged on, no trip accepted: a modest rideshare policy applies.
- Trip accepted until the last passenger exits: a far larger commercial liability policy applies.
That is why the driver’s exact app status is one of the first things we pin down in any Uber or Lyft accident claim.
Texas sets a strict filing deadline for injury claims, generally counted from the crash date. For a fatal crash, the wrongful death deadline runs from the date of death, and the discovery rule does not extend it.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in Texas?
Under the Texas wrongful death statute, the surviving spouse, children, and parents may sue together or separately, each acting for the benefit of all. If none of them files within a set period after the death, the executor or administrator of the estate must bring the claim for them, unless all of them ask the representative not to.
Grandparents, siblings, and grandchildren cannot bring a wrongful death claim in Texas, even if they relied on the victim financially. Stepparents and stepchildren are also excluded unless a legal adoption took place.
How Is a Survival Claim Different, and When Is It Due?
The estate can bring a separate survival claim for the pain, suffering, and medical costs the victim endured before death, plus funeral and burial expenses. It arises from the same crash as the wrongful death claim, but it belongs to the estate rather than to any one relative.
Both claims carry strict filing deadlines, but the start dates differ. The wrongful death clock runs from the date of death, while the survival claim generally runs from the date of injury, with a limited pause allowed after a death.
If a City of Laredo vehicle, such as an El Metro bus, caused the crash, the Texas Tort Claims Act adds a separate notice requirement. The city’s notice-of-claim window is much shorter than the state default, and written notice must reach the City Secretary in time. Claims against the city are also subject to damage limits under the same Act.
What Can You Recover After a Laredo Rideshare Crash?
Injured passengers and others hurt in the crash typically recover:
- past and future medical bills
- lost wages and lost earning capacity
- out-of-pocket costs, such as travel to appointments and vehicle repair
- pain, suffering, and the effect on daily life
Billing records, pay stubs, and physician notes support these losses. Wrongful death beneficiaries recover lost financial support and loss of companionship.
Can You Get Punitive Damages?
Only in limited cases. Punitive damages, called exemplary damages in Texas, are an exception to the normal rules of recovery. They are awarded only where expressly authorized by statute, here the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which requires a higher standard of proof and limits the amount. They are never automatic.
What If You Were Partly to Blame?
Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule. If you share some blame, your award is reduced by your share of responsibility. If you are found more responsible than the other parties combined, you cannot recover.
Rideshare trips along the World Trade Bridge corridor and Bob Bullock Loop mix with heavy commercial truck traffic, and insurers often try to shift blame onto the injured person.
Where Will Your Case Be Heard?
Civil suits above the county court limit go to the Webb County District Courts at the Dean Senator Judith Zaffirini Justice Center, 1110 Victoria Street in Laredo. The building houses the 49th, 111th, 341st, and 406th District Courts, each with its own elected judge. Lower-value claims may instead go to one of Webb County’s two County Courts at Law in the same building.
What Other Cases Do We Handle in Laredo?
We also represent Laredo clients in car accidents, cross-border truck accidents near the World Trade Bridge, slip and fall cases, dog bites, workers’ compensation, motorcycle accidents, medical malpractice, paraquat exposure, and other wrongful death cases.
