Injury Handbook is an independent, plain-English guide for people in the US dealing with a car accident, an injury or a death in the family. It explains the deadlines, what a claim is made of, how insurers handle claims and what is left after fees, liens and tax. We cover what a claim is made of, deadlines by state, dealing with the insurer, different kinds of accident, wrongful death, bills, liens, fees and tax, and car damage.
This page is general information, not legal, tax or medical advice, and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Injury law and deadlines vary by state and change. Ask a lawyer or the court about your situation.
What we do
Injury rules turn on your state, on who you are claiming against and on what kind of claim it is. In Texas, for example, a personal injury suit generally has to be brought within two years (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code 16.003(a), read 6 November 2026), but a governmental unit is entitled to notice of a claim within six months of the incident (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code 101.101(a), read 6 November 2026). Much of what is written on these subjects gives one number for the whole country, or repeats a rule that has since changed.
So every state rule on this site carries its statute and the day we read it. Where we could not read a rule in an official source, the page says “not confirmed” and points you to that state’s courts. Where a page has a sum to work out, such as a fault reduction or what is left after a lawyer’s fee and a lien, it shows the arithmetic on numbers you enter. Our how we check page explains where each kind of fact comes from and how we word it. Pages are published under the Injury Handbook name.
What we are not
Injury Handbook is not a law firm, an insurer, a court, a government agency or a legal aid office. We give general information, not legal, tax or medical advice, and nothing here is a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Reading this site, using a calculator or writing to us creates no attorney-client relationship. We have not seen your accident, your medical records, your policy or your offer. We never say what your claim is worth, what your deadline is, whether you would win, or whether you should sue, settle, accept an offer or hire a lawyer. Pages explain how the process works and the questions to ask.
How we are funded
Injury Handbook is funded by display advertising. Ads may not appear yet while the site is new. Once they run, some may come from law firms, insurers, lenders or other companies that sell to people after an accident. An ad is not an endorsement, a referral or a recommendation, and advertisers have no say over what we publish.
How we stay independent
- No affiliate links. We earn nothing if you buy something or sign up for anything after reading a page.
- No paid placements. Nobody can pay for coverage, a mention or a better position.
- No sold leads. We collect no details to pass on to lawyers, insurers, lenders or anyone else.
- No lawyer referrals. We keep no lawyer listings, offer no “free case review” or “free consultation”, and do not recommend or rank firms.
- No settlement loans. We do not offer, arrange or link to pre-settlement funding, and we do not buy or broker structured settlements.
- Nothing for sale. We sell no forms, letters, templates or reports.
That is why our pages can say things a firm or a seller might not: that a widely repeated settlement formula has no law behind it, that a deadline you saw elsewhere is out of date, or that we found no public data to support an “average settlement” figure.
Why we publish no average settlement
We looked for a public dataset of injury settlement amounts and did not find one. Most claims settle privately, and the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics notes that the terms of settlements reached before trial “may not be reported to the court or may not be publicly available” (BJS, Civil Bench and Jury Trials in State Courts, 2005). So no page here gives an average, typical or usual settlement, and our calculators work only with numbers you enter. Our how we check page says more.
How pages are checked
Every page gets a fact-check against its sources, separate from the writing. Each page ends with the date its sources were checked. Our editorial policy sets out each step.
Where to start
If you have just been in a crash, start with what to do after a car accident. If you want to know how long a state allows, the injury deadlines by state show each rule we have read, with its statute, the date we read it and the exceptions. If you are holding an offer, the what you keep calculator works out what is left after fees, costs and liens you enter. If someone in your family has died, who gets the money in a wrongful death case explains how states decide. If a deadline may be close, or you have a letter from an insurer or a court, ask a lawyer, the court or a legal aid office now rather than later.
Mistakes and questions
Our corrections page logs what we have fixed, and our contact page says how to reach us. Please read our disclaimer too.
