The criminal case is not your case.
Families hurt by a drunk driver often spend months following a prosecution, waiting for it to produce something that helps them. It rarely does. A conviction sends a person to jail and may order restitution, which is usually a fraction of what an injury actually costs. It does not pay for surgery, it does not replace a paycheck, and it does not compensate a family for a death.
Your case is the civil one, it belongs to you, and it runs on its own schedule. A Houston drunk driving accident lawyer at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law can pursue it whether the driver is convicted, acquitted, or never charged at all.
Free, confidential consultation. Call (713) 973-8888.
On This Page
- Do You Need a Lawyer if the Drunk Driver Was Already Arrested?
- How Common Are Drunk Driving Crashes in Harris County?
- Who Else Can Be Held Liable Besides the Driver?
- What Evidence Has to Be Locked Down Immediately?
- How Does the Investigation Actually Work?
- Can You Recover Punitive Damages in a Texas DWI Crash?
- What Is a Drunk Driving Injury Claim Worth?
- Why Does the Insurance Company Move So Fast After a DWI Crash?
- 2 Tracks, Investigated at the Same Time
- Questions After a Houston DWI Crash
Do You Need a Lawyer if the Drunk Driver Was Already Arrested?
Yes, because an arrest resolves nothing about your losses. Criminal and civil cases run in parallel and answer different questions.
The prosecutor represents the State of Texas, and their goal is a conviction. You are a witness in that case, not a party to it, with no control over whether it is pled down, dismissed, or delayed for a year.
The civil case asks whether the driver, and possibly others, owe you money. The standard of proof is lower. A jury in a criminal case must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. A civil jury decides by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. That gap is why a driver who beats the criminal charge can still be held fully liable in a civil suit.
Waiting for the criminal case to end is the most common mistake. Evidence goes stale, and your 2-year civil deadline does not pause. (*Always speak directly to an attorney for the exact deadlines that apply to your potential claims.)
How Common Are Drunk Driving Crashes in Harris County?
More common than almost anywhere in Texas. The Texas Department of Transportation recorded 3,090 DUI-alcohol crashes in Harris County in 2025, resulting in 138 deaths and 224 serious injuries, according to its county-level DUI crash data.
Statewide, TxDOT counted 22,194 DUI-alcohol crashes and 906 people killed, which is roughly 1 in 4 of all Texas traffic deaths that year.
Local patterns follow the map. The Washington Avenue corridor, Midtown, the Heights, and the bar districts along Richmond and Westheimer feed onto I-10, US-59, and the 610 Loop within minutes of closing time. Late-night wrong-way entries onto Houston freeways, which the region sees regularly, are disproportionately alcohol-related. Rodeo season, major sporting events, and holiday weekends all show up in the numbers.
None of that changes the law. It changes how a case gets investigated, because it tells you where to look for cameras, receipts, and witnesses.
Who Else Can Be Held Liable Besides the Driver?
Often a bar, restaurant, or store that overserved. Texas is one of the states where a business that keeps pouring can share responsibility for what happens next.
This is called dram shop liability, and it comes from Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code §2.02. A licensed provider can be liable when it was apparent at the time of service that the customer was "obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others," and that intoxication caused the crash.
Why it matters practically: a drunk driver's auto policy is frequently a minimum-limits policy that will not cover a single surgery. A restaurant or bar carries commercial liquor liability coverage that is often far larger. In a serious injury or death case, that second source of recovery can be the difference between a token settlement and one that actually covers a lifetime of care.
Other parties that sometimes belong in the case include an employer whose employee was driving after a work event, a vehicle owner who handed the keys to someone visibly impaired, and an adult who supplied alcohol to a minor under 18. Our blog on drunk driving accidents in Texas explains how each of those theories works.
These claims are time-sensitive in a way that surprises people. Bars overwrite security footage on a cycle measured in days or weeks. Card receipts and point-of-sale records showing how many drinks were served exist, but only until someone purges them. A preservation letter sent in week one is worth more than a subpoena sent in month six.
If a bar may have been involved, do not wait. Call (713) 973-8888 today.
What Evidence Has to Be Locked Down Immediately?
The evidence that decides these cases lives in places that erase it on a schedule. Almost none of it is preserved automatically, and none of it waits for you to feel well enough to deal with it.
| Evidence | Where it lives | How long it typically survives |
|---|---|---|
| Bar or restaurant security video | The establishment's own DVR | Days to a few weeks before it overwrites |
| Point-of-sale and card receipts | The establishment's POS system | Varies widely; purged on routine cycles |
| Vehicle event data recorder | The vehicles involved | Until the car is repaired, sold, or scrapped |
| Nearby business and doorbell cameras | Third parties with no duty to keep it | Often less than 30 days |
| Cell phone and rideshare records | Carrier and app providers | Requires legal process to obtain |
| Toxicology results | Hospital or law enforcement lab | Retained, but access requires the right request |
| Witnesses | Memory | Contact information goes stale within months |
A crash report gives you the driver's name and insurance. It does not give you the 3 hours before the crash, and that is where the second insurance policy usually is.
How Does the Investigation Actually Work?
It works backward from the crash, not forward from it. Reconstructing where the driver drank, and how much, is a different job from reconstructing the collision.
The collision side is familiar: the Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report, scene photographs, vehicle damage, roadway evidence, and in serious cases a reconstruction engineer who can establish speed and impact angles. In Houston, TxDOT and Harris County camera systems sometimes capture the freeway itself.
The alcohol side is where the work is. It starts with the driver's movements that evening, which come from receipts, phone records, social media, coworkers, and the driver's own statements to police. Each establishment identified gets a preservation demand for video and service records. Employees who worked that shift get located while they still work there, which on a bar staff is a narrow window.
Blood draws are their own subject. Texas law enforcement obtains warrants for blood in serious-injury and fatality crashes, and lab results can take months to come back. A civil case does not have to wait for them, and a case built only around a number in a lab report is a weaker case than one built around what witnesses actually saw.
Can You Recover Punitive Damages in a Texas DWI Crash?
Yes, and drunk driving is one of the few situations where Texas removes its usual cap on them.
Texas normally limits exemplary damages under Chapter 41 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code to the greater of $200,000 or twice economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000.
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §41.008(c) carves out specific felony conduct from that cap, and the list includes intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter. For those 2 offenses, the statute does not require proof that the conduct was committed knowingly or intentionally. This is a meaningful piece of leverage, and it is one reason drunk driving cases behave differently from ordinary car accident claims in settlement negotiations.
Exemplary damages still require clear and convincing evidence of gross negligence, and they are awarded in addition to, not instead of, compensation for your actual losses.
What Is a Drunk Driving Injury Claim Worth?
It depends on the injuries and on how many insurance policies can be reached. Damages in a Texas case generally include:
Medical costs, past and future, including surgery, rehabilitation, and long-term care.
Lost income and lost earning capacity, which for a younger person is often the largest single number in the case.
Physical pain and mental anguish, and physical impairment or disfigurement.
Exemplary damages where the conduct supports them.
In a fatal crash, Texas wrongful death claims belong to the surviving spouse, children, and parents under Chapter 71, and can include lost companionship, mental anguish, and the financial support the family lost. Our Houston wrongful death lawyer page covers those claims in detail.
The injury profile in these crashes skews severe, which is a function of physics. Impaired drivers do not brake, so impact speeds are higher, and a disproportionate share of these collisions are head-on, wrong-way, or high-speed rear-end strikes on a freeway.
Spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, multiple fractures, and internal organ damage are common outcomes, and each one carries a cost curve that keeps climbing for years after the medical treatment ends.
That is why the value of a case is rarely clear in the first month. A shoulder that needs one more surgery, a brain injury that turns out to have changed someone's ability to hold a job, a spinal fusion that fails: none of that shows up in the first stack of bills.
Settling before the medical picture is stable is how people end up covering the rest of it themselves.
One number worth checking early: your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. If the drunk driver carried state minimums, your own policy may be the largest available source of recovery, and claiming it does not raise your rates for someone else's crime.
Why Does the Insurance Company Move So Fast After a DWI Crash?
Because the liability facts are terrible for them and they know it. An early, low offer is a way to close the file before anyone works out what the case is really worth.
Adjusters on these claims often call within days, sometimes before the injured person has finished diagnostic imaging. The offer sounds generous next to a stack of unpaid bills. It is almost always calculated against emergency room charges alone, with nothing for the surgery that has not been scheduled yet or the work you will not be able to go back to.
Recorded statements are the other early move. Anything you say about how you feel today gets quoted back months later, when "I'm doing okay" turns into an argument that your injuries were minor.
You are not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer. You are required to cooperate with your own, and there is a difference.
2 Tracks, Investigated at the Same Time
Serving Houston Since 1985, Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law represents people hurt by impaired drivers. Mr. Bryant is a former judge and is board-certified in personal injury trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
Drunk driving cases get built on 2 tracks at once. One track follows the driver: the crash report, the blood or breath results, the field sobriety video, the driving history. The other follows everywhere that person was before the crash, which is where dram shop claims come from and where the meaningful insurance usually sits.
The office is at 8584 Katy Fwy Suite 100, Houston, TX 77024. Consultations are free and confidential. We work on a contingency fee basis; this means we only get paid from your recovery. If you don't win your case, you owe us nothing.
Questions After a Houston DWI Crash
What if the drunk driver was never charged?
You can still sue. A civil claim does not require a criminal charge, a conviction, or even a blood test result. Intoxication can be proven through witness testimony, bar and restaurant records, video, the officer's observations, and accident reconstruction. Prosecutors decline cases for evidentiary and resource reasons all the time, and that decision does not bind a civil jury.
The driver who hit me had almost no insurance. Is there anything left to pursue?
Frequently, yes. Check 3 places: any commercial establishment that served the alcohol, any employer connected to the driving, and your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. Many Texas drivers carry UM/UIM without knowing it, because it has to be rejected in writing to be excluded from a policy.
Should I go to the criminal hearings?
That is your call, and it can matter. Victim impact statements carry weight at sentencing, and restitution is decided in that courtroom. Anything you say there becomes part of a public record that a civil defense lawyer will read, so it is worth talking through what you plan to say before a hearing rather than after.
How long do I have to file a civil claim in Texas?
Generally 2 years from the date of the crash for injury claims, and 2 years from the date of death in a wrongful death case, under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §16.003. Contact a lawyer as soon as possible after a drunk driving crash, because some evidence, especially bar video, may not exist even only a few weeks after your crash. (*Always speak directly to an attorney for the exact deadlines that apply to your potential claims.)
Will my case go to trial?
Most settle. Drunk driving cases settle at a higher rate than ordinary collision cases, because the liability facts and the uncapped exemplary damages exposure make trial genuinely risky for a defendant. Preparing a case as though it will be tried is what produces that leverage.
Someone Made a Choice. You Are Living With It.
There is a particular kind of anger that comes with a crash caused by a drunk driver, and it is not the same as the frustration that follows an ordinary collision. Nobody made a mistake here. Somebody made a decision.
The civil system is the only part of this that answers to you. It is where your medical bills, your lost income, and your family's future actually get addressed, and it is the only place a bar that kept serving can be made to answer for it.
Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law reviews Houston drunk driving cases at no cost. Call (713) 973-8888 or request a review online. You pay nothing unless you win your case.