Law Firms in Houston, TX

Hiring a lawyer in Houston: what is different

The limitation period is two years from the day the claim accrues, under section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. A claim against a governmental unit needs written notice within six months under section 101.101 of the Tort Claims Act, and that covers METRO, a county hospital district, a city truck and a flooded road alike.

What sets Houston apart from the rest of Texas is the Texas Medical Center, the largest concentration of hospitals in the world, and with it a volume of medical claims no other city in this directory carries. Those claims run on their own track. Chapter 74 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code requires notice sixty days before suit and an expert report served within 120 days of the defendant answering, and a case without that report is dismissed with the defendant’s fees attached. It is the single most unforgiving deadline on this page, and it is why a firm that does medical work and a firm that does car accidents are not interchangeable here.

Harris County hears these cases in its civil district courts, and federal matters go to the Southern District of Texas. Houston is also, like Dallas, one of the most heavily advertised legal markets in the country, which is worth remembering while comparing: billboards are not a measurement, and their absence from our score is the reason this directory exists.

What lawyers cost in Houston

Injury work is done on contingency and Texas sets no statutory cap on the share, so the percentage is genuinely negotiable and genuinely varies between firms. Ask what the percentage is, ask whether it rises if the case is filed or tried, and ask whether case expenses come out before or after the fee is calculated. That last one moves the number more than most people expect, and the answer belongs in the written agreement rather than on the phone.

Medical claims carry a second cost worth asking about. Texas caps non-economic damages against physicians under Chapter 74, and the expert report the statute demands has to be paid for early, long before any recovery. A firm that takes these cases advances that money; ask what happens to it if the case does not succeed.

Deadlines that catch Houstonians out

• Personal injury: two years from the day the claim accrues, under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003.
• Any claim against the City of Houston, Harris County, METRO or a public hospital district: written notice within six months, under Tort Claims Act § 101.101.
• Medical malpractice: two years, plus sixty days’ notice before filing and an expert report within 120 days of the answer, under Chapter 74.
• Wrongful death: two years, running from the death rather than from the injury that caused it.