Serious Injury Lawyer in Texas – Board-Certified Personal Injury Trial Attorney

Life-Changing Injuries Demand a Life-Changing Lawyer

A serious injury can happen in seconds, but the impact lasts a lifetime. Whether caused by a truck crash, industrial explosion, scaffolding collapse, defective product, or dangerous workplace, catastrophic injuries create enormous medical bills, long-term care needs, and life-altering physical limitations. You and your family are suddenly forced to navigate not just physical recovery, but a legal battle against insurance companies and corporate defendants determined to protect their bottom line.

When the stakes are this high, you need an attorney with the credentials, resources, and trial experience to take on powerful opponents — and win. David P. Willis, founder of Willis Law Firm, is Board-Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1988. For over 40 years, he has represented seriously injured clients and wrongful death families across Texas, recovering hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements. A former attorney for the Supreme Court of Texas, Willis has earned a national reputation for his skill in complex, high-stakes injury litigation.

What Qualifies as a Serious or Catastrophic Injury?

In personal injury law, “serious injury” often means any harm that results in long-term disability, significant disfigurement, or life-altering medical consequences. These serious injuries not only impact your health but can eliminate your ability to work, care for yourself, or enjoy life as you did before the accident.

Common examples include:

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI): Affecting memory, reasoning, mobility, and personality.
Spinal Cord Injuries & Paralysis: Requiring lifetime medical care and adaptive equipment.
Severe Burns: Often from explosions, chemical spills, or vehicle fires.
Multiple Fractures & Crush Injuries: Involving extended hospital stays and multiple surgeries.
Amputations: Due to trauma or medical necessity following a catastrophic accident.
Wrongful Death: The most devastating loss for any family.

These injuries often occur in high-energy, high-force events — such as 18-wheeler rollovers, oilfield rig collapses, or industrial plant explosions — where the human body is subjected to forces far beyond what it can withstand. Understanding the biomechanics of these impacts is critical to proving both the cause of injury and its long-term consequences in court.

The Biomechanics of Catastrophic Injuries

When a multi-ton commercial truck or industrial machine strikes a person or vehicle, or a vehicle rolls over at highway speeds, the amount of kinetic energy transferred is massive. In a truck accident at highway speed, the force can be dozens of times greater than that of a passenger car crash. This energy causes rapid acceleration and deceleration of the body, leading to tearing of ligaments, spinal cord damage, and traumatic brain injury — even without direct head impact.

In rollover crashes, roof crush and structural collapse can compress occupants, causing spinal fractures, paralysis, or fatal head injuries. In oilfield explosions, the blast wave alone can cause internal organ damage, followed by burns and shrapnel wounds. Understanding these mechanics is not just academic — it is central to demonstrating the severity of injury to a jury and securing the compensation needed for lifelong care.

West Texas & Permian Basin – A Hotspot for Serious Injuries

The Permian Basin and West Texas oilfields are among the most dangerous work environments in the United States. The combination of high truck traffic, dangerous rural roads, long work hours, and heavy industrial activity makes catastrophic injuries far more likely.

Oilfield truck accidents in West Texas often involve fatigued drivers hauling drilling equipment, fracking sand, and chemicals on narrow highways like Hwy 285, Hwy 302, and Hwy 18. Semi-truck jack-knife and rollover crashes are common due to high center-of-gravity loads, speeding and poor road conditions. Explosions at well sites or processing plants can cause multiple fatalities in seconds. Our firm has handled numerous truck cases and oilfield injury cases in West and East Texas, and also out of state with local co-counsel to ensure every piece of evidence is preserved before it disappears. This is especially critical in oilfield cases where corporate defendants move quickly to “clean up” accident scenes.

Preserving Evidence After an Accident – The First Step in Winning

In serious injury cases, evidence can be altered or destroyed within hours. Plant, refinery and trucking companies may hide evidence, coach witnesses to a certain set of facts, may repair or replace faulty machinery, and hid or prevent critical witnesses from being interviewed. To prevent this, our firm immediately sends spoliation and preservation letters to all potentially responsible parties, putting them on legal notice that evidence must be preserved.

Key evidence may include:

The product or injury causing equipment
Black box data from trucks and equipment.
Surveillance footage from worksites or intersections.
Maintenance logs showing skipped inspections or ignored repairs.
Training records for drivers and machine operators.
Product blueprints in defective equipment cases.

By locking down this evidence early, we strengthen your case and prevent the defense from rewriting the narrative.

The Power of Contingency Fees – No Fees Unless We Win

For more than 40 years, our firm has taken 100% of our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means:

No legal fees unless we win your case.
We advance all expenses — from hiring expert witnesses to filing court documents.
You never receive a bill for our time or costs unless we secure a settlement or verdict for you.

This arrangement allows injury victims to pursue justice without the crushing burden of hourly legal fees. While defense lawyers bill insurance companies by the hour — often in 1/10th-of-an-hour increments — we focus entirely on winning your case, because our success is tied directly to yours.

Steps to Take After a Serious Injury

Your actions in the hours and days following a catastrophic accident can make or break your claim. Here’s what you should do:

Seek Immediate Medical Attention: Some injuries, like internal bleeding or brain trauma, may not be immediately obvious but can be life-threatening.
Do Not Give Recorded Statements: Insurance adjusters are trained to minimize or deny your claim using your own words.
Contact a Board-Certified Injury Lawyer like Willis: The sooner we begin, the sooner we can preserve critical evidence.
Document the Scene and Your Injuries: Photos, videos, witness names, and accident reports are invaluable in court.

Even if you are still in the hospital, contacting us immediately can ensure the preservation of evidence before it disappears.

Linking Serious Injuries to Other Major Practice Areas for over 40 Years

Many serious injury cases overlap with other areas of law we handle:

Semi-Truck Accidents– Catastrophic injuries from 18-wheeler and commercial truck crashes.
Industrial Accidents – Explosions, heavy equipment failures, plant disasters.
Maritime & Jones Act – Offshore and boat catastrophic injuries.
Product Liability – Defective tires, scaffolding equipment, and consumer products.
Automobile Defects – SUV & pickup truck rollovers with roof crush or collapse injuries.
Defective Airbags – Takata airbag eye injuries due to explosive airbag with metal shrapnel.

Why Willis Should Be Your First Call

Choosing the right lawyer can be the single most important decision you make after a serious injury. Here’s why Texans turn to David P. Willis:

Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law since 1988 – Fewer than 2% of Texas attorneys hold this distinction.
Over 40 years handling high-stakes injury litigation across Texas.
Former attorney for the Supreme Court of Texas – Insight into complex legal strategies and appellate issues.
Hundreds of millions recovered for clients through settlements and jury verdicts.
Nationally recognized authority on catastrophic injury and trucking law.

Get the Justice and Compensation You Deserve

If you or a loved one has suffered a life-changing injury anywhere in Texas, don’t face the insurance companies or corporate defense teams alone. Serious injury cases are battles fought on multiple fronts — medical, legal, and financial — and you deserve a proven advocate in your corner.

For more than four decades, trial attorney David P. Willis has fought for the rights of seriously injured Texans, securing life-changing results for clients who thought they had no chance against billion-dollar corporations. Your case will be handled on a contingency fee basis — you pay nothing unless we win.

Call 1-800-883-9858 or fill out our secure online contact form now for a free, no-obligation consultation. The sooner you call, the sooner we can start building the case you need to secure your future.

Serious Injury Lawyer