You’ve Been Served. The First Thirty Days of a Personal Injury Lawsuit Matter More Than You Think
A process server knocks on the door, hands over a stapled set of papers, and walks away. The papers are a citation and a petition. The petition says that someone — a person you may not even recognize — claims that something you did, or something that happened on your property, or something that one of your employees did, caused them serious harm. The damages section asks for a number large enough to make your stomach drop.
What happens next, in the first thirty days, often determines how the case ends.
The deadline to answer is shorter than people realize.
In Texas, you generally have until 10:00 a.m. on the Monday following the expiration of twenty days after service to file an answer. Miss it, and the plaintiff can take a default judgment — a judgment entered without you ever having a chance to contest the case. Default judgments in personal injury cases can run into seven figures. They are exceptionally difficult to set aside. The very first thing that has to happen is that an answer gets filed, on time, properly drafted, with the right denials and affirmative defenses preserved.
Notify your insurance carrier immediately.
If the underlying incident might be covered by any insurance policy — auto, commercial general liability, homeowners, umbrella, workers’ compensation, professional liability — the carrier needs to know now. Late notice can void coverage. Carriers have specific notice provisions in their policies, and missing them can convert a defended lawsuit into a personally funded one. If you are not sure whether a policy applies, send the notice anyway and let the carrier and its counsel work it out.
Stop talking about the case.
This sounds obvious, and it is the rule that gets violated most often. Conversations with friends, social media posts, text messages, statements to other employees about what “really happened” — all of it can be discovered. Anything you say or write about the case may end up in front of a jury. From the moment a lawsuit is filed, the conversation about the underlying facts needs to happen between you and your lawyer, and almost nowhere else.
Preserve evidence right now.
Most useful evidence has a shelf life. Surveillance video gets overwritten on a thirty-day loop. Vehicle electronic data fades or gets lost when the truck goes back into service. Witness memories get worse, not better. Maintenance records, training files, and inspection logs get archived or discarded under routine retention policies. The first calls a defense lawyer makes after taking the case usually involve preservation — securing the video, downloading the data, photographing the scene, locating witnesses while they still remember.
Comparative responsibility is your friend.
Texas law under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code provides defendants with a powerful tool. A plaintiff who is more than fifty percent responsible for an occurrence cannot recover anything. A plaintiff who is less than fifty percent responsible has any recovery reduced by their share of fault. Building the evidentiary record that supports apportioning fault — to the plaintiff, to non-parties, to other defendants — is one of the most consequential strategic decisions in the case, and it starts with how the answer is drafted and what is preserved during early investigation.
The demand will probably be inflated.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys often open with a demand that bears little resemblance to what the case is actually worth. The right response is not panic, and it is not a counter-demand based on the inflated number. It is a careful evaluation of liability, damages, and exposure, followed by a measured response that reflects the real value of the case. Cases that resolve on the best terms for the defense are the ones where the defense team genuinely understood the case better than the plaintiff’s team did.
Being sued is stressful. The natural impulse is either to ignore the lawsuit and hope it goes away, or to overreact and accept the first settlement number that gets floated. Neither is the right move. The right move is to retain experienced defense counsel, do the work, and let the case get evaluated properly.
If you, your business, or your insured has just been served with a personal injury lawsuit in Texarkana or anywhere in the surrounding region, Jeff Elliott Law Firm handles personal injury defense across Northeast Texas and the broader Ark-La-Tex.