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Updated & Reviewed by
Joshua Lee -
August 14, 2026
The evidence needed to build a strong personal injury claim in Texas usually comes down to a few things:
If you already have most of that information, you likely have the makings of a solid case.
But if you don’t, don’t worry; most of it can be located. The most important thing to do is start as soon as possible. People’s memories fade, security footage gets erased, and physical evidence can disappear or get repaired. Once this evidence is gone, it can make filing a claim more difficult.
If you’ve been injured in an accident and are wondering if you have enough evidence to file a personal injury claim in Texas, our team is here to help. While this guide covers all of the basics, it’s best to give us a call to get real answers as to how strong your claim might be.
While every case is different, below are the types of evidence that are typically needed to prove a case, whether you were hurt in a car accident, a trucking collision, a workplace accident, or a slip and fall.
Anyone who saw what happened, or who saw you right before or right after, is a fact witness. The fact witnesses you need will depend on your case, but they typically fall into these categories:
Pro tip: A witness who is easy to reach today may be impossible to find in six months. Given that, if a witness is willing, a short written or recorded statement while the details are still fresh in their mind is worth far more than a memory pieced together later.
Since insurance companies and juries tend to trust independent accounts over the versions of the parties, a solid witness statement can outweigh almost anything else in a disputed case.
You want photographs of everything: The damaged vehicle, the skid marks, the wet floor or broken step, the visible injuries, even the torn or bloodied clothing you were wearing. Take wide shots that show the whole scene and close-ups of the specific hazard or damage. It’s also good to understand that these do not need to be professional photographs, cell phone pictures are just fine.
Quick pictures matter because conditions change fast. A property owner might fix a broken stair within days. A vehicle can get towed and repaired. Your bruises and swelling will fade within a week or two, long before some injury claims even get filed. Since photos and video are often the only record of what things actually looked like at the moment you were hurt.
Pro tip: Back up your photos and videos the same day, email them to yourself or save them to the cloud. Phones get lost, damaged, or replaced, and losing the originals defeats the purpose of taking them in the first place.
Your medical records are what tie your injury to the accident and show a court or an insurance adjuster exactly what you went through: The ER visit, the imaging, the diagnosis, the treatment plan, and the bills for the whole ordeal.
Gaps in treatment or a delay before you first saw a doctor can give an insurance company an opening to argue your injury was not that serious, or was not caused by the accident at all, so it is vital to follow your doctor’s recommended treatment plan closely.
Also, if you had a prior injury to the same part of your body, be upfront about it with your attorney. Insurance companies will often find those old records anyway, and a lawyer who knows about a prior injury can address it directly instead of getting caught off guard.
Pro tip: Keep a folder, physical or digital, for every bill and record that comes in. Insurance companies and hospitals are not always fast about sending copies later (to say the least), and reconstructing months of records after the fact eats up precious time.
If your injury kept you out of work, you will need records showing what that actually cost you. You can get this from pay stubs, a letter from your employer, and your recent tax returns. If you are self-employed, your business records and tax filings typically take the place of pay stubs.
For more serious injuries, this category should also include any proof of a reduced ability to earn a living going forward, not just the paychecks you already missed.
Pro tip: Ask your employer for a written statement confirming the exact dates you missed and your rate of pay. A letter on company letterhead carries more weight than pay stubs alone.
For car accidents, trucking collisions, and many workplace incidents, police or another investigating agency may respond and put together a report. That report typically includes a diagram of the scene, statements from those involved, road and weather conditions, and sometimes a citation issued to one driver.
These reports are important because insurance companies will use them during negotiations since they capture details like vehicle positions, damage, and conditions. It is not, however, the final word on who was at fault. Your own account, witness statements, and photos still carry real weight in building your case.
Pro tip: Get a copy as soon as it is available. If you do not already have a copy, you can request it online through the Texas Department of Transportation’s CRIS system, searching by your name or driver’s license number, or by requesting it directly from the police department that responded. Reports typically take up to two weeks to become available online.
Sometimes the clearest proof of what happened is a physical object, be it the broken stair that caused the fall, the defective part that failed, the dented bumper, or the torn seatbelt. Physical evidence can prove both fault and the force involved in what happened to you.
Pro tip: Before you get anything repaired, whether it is your car or a broken piece of equipment, take detailed photos and ask your attorney whether the item itself should be kept. Once it is fixed or thrown out, it cannot be examined again.
A simple daily journal, even just a few sentences, can help document so many things:
Months later, when a case is still working its way through negotiation or litigation phase, those notes can be very convincing.
One caution: if your case goes to court, the other side’s attorneys can typically ask to see your journal and so, keep entries honest and factual. Exaggeration in a journal you have to hand over can do more damage to your case than the journal itself ever helps.
Pro tip: Date every entry and stick to specifics, what hurt, what you could not do, how your treatment made you feel that day. An entry like “could not lift my arm above my shoulder to get dressed” holds up far better than “having a bad day.”
This is the evidence people forget about most, and it is often the most time-sensitive of all. A few examples worth chasing down right away:
The catch is that a lot of this evidence has a short shelf life. Many businesses overwrite their security footage automatically, sometimes within a week or two. That is exactly why it is important to be proactive when collecting evidence.
Pro tip: Send a written request to any nearby business (or have your attorney do so), asking them to preserve their surveillance footage as soon as possible after the accident.
Nearly every category of evidence above has a clock running on it. The longer you wait to start gathering evidence, the more of it quietly disappears, often before you even realize it existed.
This is one of the most important reasons to bring in an attorney early; they know how to gather and preserve evidence quickly.
A personal injury lawyer can send preservation letters that put a business or trucking company on notice, so that if they destroy footage or data they would otherwise erase on a normal schedule, they risk real legal consequences for doing so.
Your attorney can also track down witnesses while their memories are still sharp, request the police report, subpoena records if needed, and work with investigators or experts on evidence you would not know how to collect on your own, all while you focus on actually recovering.
Still gathering evidence, or worried you may have already lost some of it? That is exactly the kind of question worth asking a lawyer sooner rather than later. Our team at Armstrong Lee & Baker LLP knows what evidence a strong personal injury claim actually needs, and how to go get it before it disappears.
There is no cost for that first conversation, and you will not owe us a dime unless we win your case. Call us, and let us start building your case today.
Joshua Lee believes in aggressive, tough advocacy and a client-centered approach to every case. Joshua draws from a wide body of experiences and a robust understanding of the law. Joshua graduated from the New York University School of Law in New York City, which is considered among the best law schools in the world. Our lawyers have 25+ years of combined experience.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of lawyers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. Our lawyers have more than 20 years of legal experience as personal injury attorneys.
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