We charge a contingent fee for our legal services. That means our fee is contingent, or dependent, on the outcome of your case. If we receive money for you via settlement or judgment, we take a percentage of those funds as our fee. Under a contingent fee arrangement, you pay no fees unless and until we have money in hand from your case. The customary percentages are 33.3% if a claim is resolved without filing a lawsuit, 40% after suit is filed, and 45% after appeal. 

A client generally pays no case expenses either. We cover your costs and then, once settlement or judgment funds are received, attorney fees are deducted and then we are reimbursed the costs we incurred on your behalf.

Depending on our staffing at the time, it is almost a certainty that multiuple attorneys will work on your case. You will not pay any more because of multiple lawyers. We believe that wisdom  and strength are derived from a well managed collaborative effort involving mutiple attorneys and staff.

You will always have a designated lead counsel. That lawyer will be primarily responsible for your case. Your lead counsel will manage your claim and represent you from intake through trial. They will know your case better than any other attorney and will have the authority to delegate tasks as they deem best.

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There is not “typical” legal process. There are, though, common steps and stages with the sorts of cases we work on.

While proceedings can be similar, and while case lengths can have a limited range in some instances, every single case is different. We know what you’re thinking: so why offer this Q&A?

Well, here’s the thing—it’s another way to show people your tailored approach and reassure them that you’ll do your best to make sure they’re informed and prepared every step of the way. You can describe general legal events and processes if you’d like, or even link to a loose guideline for all the different types of practice areas that you cover. One thing you can do is to make a timeline with events that have a more specific time frame and note the events that may be more dependent on the circumstances or case itself.

We handle exclusively personal injury cases. There are lots of different types of personal injury cases that we work on. 

Most of our work is on motor vehicle accidents like car collisions, truck accidents, motorcycle crashes, and auto-pedestrian accidents. We handle premises liability claims when a dangerous condition on someone’s property hurts one of our clients. Products liability claims come up quite a bit for us. So we work on cases when a person is injured using a consumer good that was negligently designed or manufactured or that lacked a proper warning. We help people who are bitten by aggressive dogs or attacked by other dangerous animals that people keep as pets. Another category of cases we deal with is defamation, where a person’s reputation is damaged because someone is spreading false information about them. We pursue claims against sexually abusers, who inflict extremely deep wounds, and those who enable them. We also target those responsible for nursing home and other long term care facility abuse, neglect, and exploitation. When someone suffers a brain or spinal cord injury, we do what is needed to get them the compensation needed to live as normal a life as possible. And when the survivors of a person wrongfully killed need help, we are right there wjth them every step of the way. 

Rex Manaster has 30 years of experience as an attorney since receiving his license in 1994. At times, he has practiced only personal injury law and nothing else – car accidents, truck wrecks, auto-pedestrian and auto-bicycle collisions, slip and fall accidents, products liability and more. 

At other times personal injury was part of a mix of cases. Rex has done a good amount of business and commercial litigation. He has in probate court handling  estate and trust litigation and guardianships. Insurance bad faith, employment disputes, consumer complaints, landlord-tenant and other real estate disputes, and employment law are other subjects of litigation in which Rex also has experience. He has also represented clients in family court and criminal court. 

In addition to litigation, Rex has done work on the transactional side. He has helped countless businesses get set up and then operate according the rules applicable to them. He has drafted wills and trusts and overseen their execution. He has also helped document foreign persons immigrating to the United States and helped United States employers bring talented people from overseas to work for them here.

The years spent doing personal injury work have always been the most fun for Rex, but also the most serious and rewarding. It is where he belongs and why he is doing it now and sharing his wide array of experiences with those who matter, his personal injury clients.

Everyone wants to know whether they’ll have to go to court. And everyone gets the same answer, “you will definitely have to go to court… maybe.” Really, there is no hard-and-fast answer here because it is all on a case-by-case basis. 

Often, but not always, personal injury cases settle before it is necessary to file a lawsuit. A person seeking compensation for an injury caused by someone else’s careless or reckless conduct has two years to file suit. Knowing that to be the case, insurance companies may not offer enough to settle until just before that two years is up. Some lawyers will wait the two years and try get the insurance company to pay an acceptable sum of money. In some instances, waiting is a good strategy. Other times it is best to get file a lawsuit as soon as it appears settlement will not happen without filing. 

Once a lawsuit is filed, it can take a year or two for a first trial setting. It is rare that a case will go to trial on its first setting because other older cases will be tried before. The case will be reset each time it is set but does not happen. Each time is reset the list of cases also set for same time grows shorter and eventually trial arrives.

Ninety five percent (95%) of personal injury lawsuits settle before trial. Some o on for years and years and then settle on the eve of trial. Many cases settle as a result of mediation. To avoid backlogged and slow dockets, most courts order parties to a lawsuit to participate in mediation and to do so in good faith.

You may have to go to court, but odds are you will not. 

In Texas, you generally have two years to bring a personal injury lawsuit (one year for a defamation case). There are some exceptions. For example, if two years to bring a lawsuit from the is another common question that people don’t often realize has such a variable answer. Include it on your FAQ so that you can explain to them all the variables involved and how they can determine the best course of action (hint: this is where you plug them calling you for a consultation). For example, the statute of limitations on a product injury lawsuit in Ohio is two years, while in Florida, people have up to four years to file. The type of claim also affects how long people have to file, and that’s determined on a state-by-state basis, as well.

You are showcasing your expertise here by providing as much information as you can without actually giving people the answer because the answer doesn’t exist. At least, not until you know the parameters of the case and the other details involved. When you give them an insightful answer that also encourages them to reach out, you’re going above and beyond even though you can’t give them the actual answer that they wanted.

When it comes to dealing with estates and cases on behalf of family members, people often have a lot of questions. The most common, of course, is regarding who can or can’t bring a legal case against someone on behalf of someone deceased. This usually can be any family member that wants to file a case as long as they can prove their relationship, but some states may have different laws.

It may also be that there’s a hierarchy, such as that the surviving spouse has to bring the case and if they don’t, no one else can for “x” amount of time. This is an odd circumstance, but we all know the legal field is a little odd at times. Helping people understand the ins and outs of handling cases like this will give you a big reputation boost.

This is another popular, yet nearly impossible question to answer. People don’t realize, often, that even something as specific as product liability lawsuits for an injury from product use could range in damages from hundreds to millions of dollars, and some claims might even be denied. When people are asking this question, they’re mostly looking for someone to tell them that you will work as hard as you can to get the best outcome in their favor.

You need this question because it allows you to offer this to people. It allows you to explain that the legal process is complex, and their exact claim will depend on the circumstances of their case. In turn, you save yourself from answering the question time and again, and you encourage potential clients to reach out and discuss their specific case so that you can assist them further.

Not much is certain about the duration of a given claim or case. 

One time marker, though, is set it stone. How long does a person have to file a lawsuit?  Each state has its own statutes of limitations that limit how long a party can wait to file lawsuits for different types of cases. Texas, like almost all other states, has a two-year limitation period for most personal injury claims. Those suing for defamation or false imprisonment must do so within a year of when their claim accrues. 

How much of those two years a party waits varies. The more contested a dispute as to “fault” or amount of “damages”, the more difficult negotiations can be. Other factors also play a part in how long negotiations will go on and whether a case will settle – the facts of a case, applicable law, which insurance company provides coverage, who are the adjusters, the lawyers, the clients, etc. If a claim is not going to settle within two years, then an injured person must lawsuit or lose the right to do so. 

After filing suit and having the defendant served with the citation, most cased will then be subject to scheduling orders that provide specific deadlines leading to trial.  Smaller cases tend to have simpler scheduling orders that provide about nine months of prep time. More complex and higher damage cases tend to schedule more time for pre-trial. Whether a scheduling order provides 9 months or two years, the trial date is the end of the line. Unless a case is appealed, it is the last stop.

The initial trial setting for a case, though, is often not its last. In busier counties, such as Dallas County, there could be an additional six months to two years or more wait to actually do the trial in a 12-juror district courts or 3 months to a year in 6-juror county courts at law.

Appeals to a Texas appellate court can add a year and half and to the Supreme Court of Texas still more time.