Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer in Killeen

Plenty of families sit tight while a drunk driver’s criminal case works through the system, assuming their own claim has to wait its turn. It doesn’t. The civil claim for your injuries and losses moves on its own schedule, and holding off usually just costs you time and evidence you can’t get back.

Two cases, one crash, different rules

A DWI prosecution and your personal injury claim are separate legal proceedings with separate purposes. The state prosecutes the driver to punish a crime. Your claim seeks payment for what the crash cost you: medical bills, lost income, pain, and more. A conviction is not required for your claim to succeed, and an acquittal doesn’t end it either. The standards of proof are different, and so are the people deciding the outcome.

What the arrest file can hand your claim

An arrest for driving while intoxicated tends to generate records an ordinary crash never does: the officer’s own account of the stop, field sobriety results, and a blood or breath test number if one was taken. None of that guarantees an outcome, but it’s useful evidence for showing the driver was impaired at the time of the crash, which can carry real weight in negotiating your claim.

When someone else poured the drinks

In some cases, a bar or restaurant that kept serving a visibly intoxicated customer can share responsibility for what happens next. This is fact-specific and doesn’t apply to every case, so it’s worth raising during your case review rather than assuming it either does or doesn’t fit your situation.

Courts can respond harder to reckless conduct

Driving drunk is more than ordinary carelessness, and Texas courts can award more in especially egregious cases beyond your basic losses. That’s not guaranteed and depends entirely on the facts, but it’s part of why these claims sometimes settle for more than a routine fender-bender.

Their court date isn’t your deadline

The criminal case can take months to reach trial, sometimes longer if it’s continued or appealed. Your own filing deadline under Texas law keeps running the entire time, whether their case wraps up quickly or drags on for a year. If a crash like this took a life, the rules and the deadline change, and the wrongful death page covers what that looks like. A free case review costs nothing, and starting now means the two cases can move forward at the same time instead of one holding up the other.