1:33Fault and insurance
Can you help me if I caused the car accident?
The short answer
Our firm cannot represent a driver who caused the collision, because Texas law places responsibility for the harm on the person who was negligent. When fault is still unclear, managing litigation attorney Matthew Graham explains in a 2026 video, we can help a hurt family by representing the passengers first and deciding on the driver once an authority determines fault.
“Unfortunately, we're unable to help people who are at fault for a collision because the law in Texas holds the negligent party responsible”
Key points from Matthew
Texas law holds the negligent party responsible for the damages caused in the accident, so we are unable to take a client who caused the collision.
Sometimes a whole family is hurt and nobody can tell at first whether the driver was at fault, shared fault, or was completely without blame.
In those cases our team can represent the passengers right away, while waiting on the driver's representation.
We hold off on the driver until an authority has determined fault, and Matthew Graham says this happens very often.
Why fault decides who we can represent
The attorney starts from the Texas rule that the negligent party answers for the harm done. Following from that, our firm does not represent the person who caused the collision. He says this without softening it, and he calls it unfortunate, since the person on the phone is often hurt too.
The harder case is one family in one vehicle with murky facts. Maybe the driver was careless, maybe only partly, maybe not at all, and nobody can say yet. Waiting on the driver, rather than guessing, is how the firm handles that uncertainty, and he says it comes up very often.
Read next on our site
How Texas weighs partial blame, and what shared fault does to a claim, is explained on the page covering shared fault.
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Start with one honest conversation
Dial 1-800-INJURED if nobody knows yet who was at fault in your crash. Our team can explain who we are able to represent, and the first call costs nothing.
This video and answer explain Texas law in general terms; they are not advice about your own case, and watching does not make us your lawyers.