McKinney Personal Injury Lawyer

A personal injury claim in Texas lets you recover money from the person or business whose carelessness left you hurt, and you have two years from the date of the injury to bring it.

A McKinney personal injury lawyer at Tate Law Offices takes these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay no attorney fee unless we win money for you. Call (903) 892-4440 any time, day or night, for a free consultation.

Injuries in McKinney rarely announce themselves on your schedule. A rear-end car accident at the US-380 and Custer Road light, a fall on an unmarked wet floor at a store off Eldorado Parkway, a construction site shortcut that put a worker in the hospital: different events, one common thread. 

Someone else’s negligence changed your life, and now an insurance company is deciding how little it can pay you. That decision should not be theirs to make alone.

As a family firm rooted in Collin County, Tate Law Offices puts a real attorney between you and the adjuster, and we do it without the volume-shop feel of a billboard operation.

Why Choose Tate Law Offices as Your McKinney Personal Injury Law Firm

You get direct access to the attorney handling your case, not a rotating cast of paralegals. Tim Tate, Chris Rehmet, and Claire Tate-Rehmet built this personal injury law firm in McKinney, TX around serious injury work, and we keep the caseload deliberate so the people who hire us are known, not numbered.

We are local where it counts. McKinney is the Collin County seat, so a filed lawsuit is heard in the Collin County District Courts here in town, not in a distant venue.

We know the corridors where these injuries happen, from the freeway speeds of US-75 and the Sam Rayburn Tollway to the crowded retail lots along Virginia Parkway and Stonebridge Drive, and we know the trauma teams at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center McKinney and Medical City McKinney.

What that means for you:

• No fee unless you recover. We advance the cost of the investigation, the expert reports, and the litigation. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
• A firm that answers. Call (903) 892-4440 at 2 a.m. and a person picks up. Injuries do not wait for business hours.
• Straight talk. We tell you what your case is worth and what it is not, and we never inflate a promise to sign you up.

What Counts as a Personal Injury Case in Texas?

Any time another party’s negligence causes you harm and real losses follow, you likely have a personal injury claim. The legal test is straightforward: someone owed you a duty of reasonable care, they breached it, that breach caused your injury, and you suffered damages you can prove.

The negligence can take many forms. A driver checks a phone instead of the road. A property owner ignores a hazard customers keep tripping over. A trucking company pushes a driver past the federal hours-of-service limits. 

The label on the case matters less than the pattern underneath it, which is why a McKinney injury attorney looks first at who was careless, what that carelessness cost you, and which insurance policies are on the hook.

Types of Injury Cases Our McKinney Injury Attorneys Handle

Our practice centers on serious harm, the kind that changes how you work, move, and provide for your family. The cases we take most often fall into a handful of categories, and each carries its own evidence trail and insurance complications.

The table below maps the injuries we handle most often to where they tend to happen in and around McKinney and who is typically responsible.

If your situation is not on this list, call and ask. A short conversation tells us quickly whether it is a case we handle or one we should point you toward.

What Texas Law Governs Your Claim?

Texas is a fault-based state, so the negligent party, through that party’s insurance, is responsible for your damages.

Because fault drives every dollar, the case becomes a documented argument about who was careless and how much harm followed.

How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Claim in Texas?

Two years from the date of the injury, under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003.

Miss that window and the court will almost certainly dismiss the case no matter how strong it was, which is why a delay in calling a lawyer can quietly cost you everything. 

You can read the statute on Texas Legislature Online. A few narrow exceptions exist, such as claims involving a minor, but treat two years as the wall.

Can You Still Recover If You Were Partly to Blame?

Yes, as long as your share of the fault is 50 percent or less.

Texas uses a modified comparative fault rule under Section 33.001, so your recovery drops by your percentage of fault and disappears only if your share exceeds half. 

If your damages come to 100,000 dollars and you are found 25 percent responsible, you recover 75,000 dollars.

Insurers know this rule cold, which is exactly why they work to inflate your share, and why pushing that number down protects your money.

How Much Is a McKinney Personal Injury Claim Worth?

It depends on the harm, and your damages fall into two groups that both belong to you. Economic damages are the measurable costs: emergency and ongoing medical care, future treatment, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity.

Non-economic damages cover the human toll: physical pain, mental anguish, disfigurement, and the loss of activities you can no longer enjoy.

In catastrophic cases, such as a spinal cord injury or a traumatic brain injury, the future costs often outweigh everything billed so far.

Getting that number right takes treating physicians, life-care planners, and sometimes an economist, and that investment is one a contingency firm makes on your behalf because our fee rises and falls with your result.

If you are dealing with an insurer directly, the Texas Department of Insurance offers plain-language consumer help on injury and auto claims, though nothing there replaces having a lawyer counter the adjuster.

How the Personal Injury Process Works

Most claims settle without a trial, and the ones that settle well are built as if a jury were waiting. The path runs through a few predictable stages.

First, we investigate and you heal. We gather records, photos, any surveillance video, and the reports that establish fault while you focus on treatment, because valuing a case before your recovery is clear is how people get shortchanged. 

Second, we send a documented demand to the responsible party’s insurer and negotiate hard from a position of proof. 

Third, if the insurer will not pay fairly, we file suit in the Collin County District Courts, move through discovery and depositions, and prepare the case for trial.

Most disputes resolve once the other side sees the file is real and the firm is ready to try it.