After a wreck on US 281, on Loop 1604, or on Stone Oak Parkway near the Rim, Texas usually allows two calendar years to file a personal-injury petition. Opening a carrier file, sending bills, or talking through a first offer will not file that petition. If the lawsuit is not begun inside the period, a court may refuse to hear the case.
Here is what Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003 actually does. A person must bring a personal-injury lawsuit no later than two years after that claim accrues. The same section also gives two years when an injury results in death, and that claim accrues on the death of the injured person. Those are short periods compared with some nearby states. They are not a reason to wait until month twenty-two before you start assembling what the file will need.
Keep one dated list with the day of the collision, when you first noticed that injury, and when a physician described it. Take that list to counsel early. After a stop on Hardy Oak, a bruise that looks minor can later appear as a fracture or as a longer-lasting impairment. When symptoms lag, the start of the period can be a hard question. Do not guess about when that period began. The two-year period in 16.003 runs from accrual, and accrual is a legal question that belongs with counsel and with the official text.
A death claim uses a different starting day
When inpatient care comes between a collision near TPC Parkway and a later death, the days that count are not always the same as the injury clock. The death case still has two years, but the period starts on the day of death. Families often expect a longer injury period to apply. In Texas it does not. The death-claim guide on this directory explains who may bring that case under Chapter 71. Watch that lawsuit window first, before the damages talk gets far. A carrier’s claim number does not pause either period.
A child’s clock can pause
Section 16.001 treats a person younger than 18, even if that person is married, as under a legal disability. The time of that disability is not included in the limitations period. A person of unsound mind has a similar pause. You may not tack one disability onto another to stretch the period, and a disability that arises after the period has already started does not stop the clock. A claim for any child hurt in a Stone Oak Parkway crosswalk, or as a passenger on 281, may therefore last longer than any claim for an adult hurt in that same car. Extra time on the calendar is not a reason to delay. Witnesses move away. Request that crash-report copy without delay. A parent or guardian who waits can weaken that proof even if the limitation period would still permit a later petition in court.
Put the child’s birth date on the same list as the collision date. The pause is not a reason to skip early medical visits, and it does not automatically extend a notice that has to be given to a city or to the state.
Other clocks that can sit beside the filing window
If the collision involves a transit bus, a municipal vehicle, a state-owned vehicle, or a defect on a public roadway that may give rise to a claim against a governmental entity, written claim notice generally must go out no later than six months after that incident itself, as 101.101 provides. A city charter may set a shorter period. Missing that notice can close that government-unit claim even when, on paper, time remains against a private motorist in the same wreck file. The government-notice guide on this directory walks through that path. Use the official San Antonio notice form when the City of San Antonio may be involved, and read the current notice period on that official form.
If the last day of a limitations period falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or a holiday, 16.072 extends the period to the next day that the county offices are open. Do not treat that extra day as slack. Leave time for a rejected filing, for a fee question, and for the clerk’s hours.
Where the petition gets filed
A civil crash case from Bexar County is often started with the Bexar County District Clerk at the Paul Elizondo Tower, 101 W Nueva, Suite 217. Some matters go to the County Courts at Law through the County Clerk at 100 Dolorosa. Ask the clerk which court should take a new civil petition from your part of that county. Confirm desk hours and filing charges with that clerk ahead of a visit, because those details can shift without notice from one week to the next. If the wreck happened in Comal, Kendall, or another nearby county, the case is usually filed in that county.
Collect these dates on one list now. Write the collision date, the first clinic visit, any date of death, any notice given to a city or the state, plus the day a petition is filed with the clerk in that county. Those are the dates that matter. A carrier’s claim number is not among them.
People often treat the carrier’s claim file as if it were the lawsuit. It is not. A claim number, a first report to the carrier, a property-damage check, or a medical-authorization form can all happen while the two-year window is still running, and none of those steps files a petition with the clerk. If you are close to that two-year mark, commencing the case is the step that protects the claim. Everything else can be organized after the petition is accepted, including a later fight about who had the green light on 281.
Stone Oak traffic also meets visitors who are not used to the frontage roads and the 1604 ramps. A driver from out of the county may have a policy written in another state. That does not change the Texas filing window for a wreck that happened here. It can change which coverage you reach for first, and it is a reason to collect every declarations page in that household, including a policy that covers a family member who was only riding along.
If you need a wider walk-through of the clerk’s desks, the courts guide on this directory explains the difference between the District Clerk on Nueva and the County Clerk on Dolorosa. If a city or state defendant may be in the file, read the government-notice guide as well, because that six-month notice can run out while the two-year clock still looks comfortable on paper.