Mild TBI / Concussion Settlements in Texas (2026)

For a moderate mild TBI or concussion case in Texas with clear liability and documented treatment, reported settlements typically range from $51,600 to $120,400, with a midpoint around $86,000. That's not a guarantee and it's not legal advice. It's what the data looks like across a large sample of resolved cases with similar fact patterns. Your case could land outside that band in either direction, and the rest of this page explains why.

What Actually Moves the Number

Five factors do most of the work in a Texas mild TBI case. Not all of them are obvious.

1. Objective Findings vs. Subjective Complaints

Concussion is notoriously hard to prove on imaging. A normal CT scan doesn't mean you weren't injured, but adjusters and defense attorneys know that juries respond to pictures. If your neurologist ordered an MRI and it showed anything — microhemorrhage, white matter changes, anything at all — that single finding can push a case from the low end toward the high end. Cases built entirely on symptom diaries and self-reported headaches settle lower, sometimes well below $51,600.

2. Neuropsychological Testing

A formal neuropsychological evaluation that documents cognitive deficits is worth real money. Adjusters can dismiss headaches. They have a harder time dismissing a 40-page report from a board-certified neuropsychologist showing processing speed in the 12th percentile. If your treatment included this testing and the results were abnormal, you're looking at a materially stronger case.

3. Treatment Gap

If you waited more than three weeks after the accident to see a doctor, or if you had a gap of more than 30 days mid-treatment, expect the defense to argue your symptoms weren't that serious. This is the single most common reason cases settle at the low end. Gaps are hard to explain away even when they're completely understandable — no insurance, missed work, didn't think it was serious. The gap gets used against you.

4. Wage Loss and Earning Capacity

Economic damages are uncapped in Texas for standard personal injury cases, which means a documented wage loss claim can add significant value. A salaried professional who missed eight weeks of work and has pay stubs to prove it is in a different position than someone who was between jobs. Lost earning capacity — the argument that the injury affects what you can earn going forward — requires expert support but can be the largest single component of a high-end settlement.

5. Venue

Where your case is filed matters more than most people realize. Harris County (Houston) and Dallas County juries have historically produced substantial plaintiff verdicts, but Texas's 2003 tort reform package shifted the overall climate toward defendants. Travis County (Austin) sits somewhere in the middle. If your case is in a smaller, more rural county, the jury pool tends to be more conservative and defense-friendly, which affects what insurers will offer to settle.

The Math: How Opening Demands Get Built

Lawyers don't pull demand numbers out of thin air. The standard approach is to multiply your documented medical specials by a factor that reflects the severity and permanence of the injury. For mild TBI, that multiplier typically runs 6x to 9x of specials.

Here's a worked example. Say your total medical bills — ER, imaging, neurology follow-ups, physical therapy, neuropsychological testing — come to $14,000. At a 6x multiplier, the opening demand is $84,000. At 9x, it's $126,000. Settlements in these cases typically close at roughly 60–70% of the opening demand, which puts the realistic outcome somewhere between $50,400 and $88,200. That tracks almost exactly with the $51,600 to $86,000 portion of the reported range.

Push the specials to $18,000 — add a few more specialist visits, a formal neuropsych evaluation — and the math shifts. At 7x, the demand is $126,000. Settle at 65% and you're at $81,900. The multiplier and the specials work together. Neither one alone tells the story.

Why the Range Is So Wide

A $70,000 spread between the low and high benchmarks isn't sloppiness. It reflects genuine variation in how these cases resolve.

Liability strength is the biggest variable. A rear-end collision where the other driver admitted fault at the scene is a different case than a multi-car pileup where three parties are pointing at each other. Texas uses a modified comparative negligence rule, meaning if a jury finds you more than 50% at fault, you recover nothing. Even at 30% fault, your award gets reduced by 30%. Insurers price that risk into their offers, and they price it aggressively.

Treatment decisions also drive the spread. Surgery — even something as relatively minor as a procedure related to a secondary injury — dramatically changes the multiplier conversation. Cases without any surgical component settle lower on average, not because the pain was less real, but because the documentation is thinner and the jury appeal is weaker.

And then there's the credibility of the plaintiff. Adjusters and defense lawyers assess this early. Prior claims, inconsistent statements, social media posts that contradict reported limitations — these things move cases toward the low end fast.

Cases That Land at the Extremes

Some mild TBI cases settle for $10,000 or less. That happens when liability is genuinely disputed, when there's a significant treatment gap, when the plaintiff had a prior head injury that muddies the causation argument, or when the case is in a venue where the defense is confident a jury would be skeptical. It also happens when someone handles the case without a lawyer and accepts the first offer.

Cases that settle above $120,400 — sometimes well above — usually have at least one of the following: documented cognitive impairment that affects employment, a high-income plaintiff with provable wage loss, a defendant with a commercial policy and deep coverage limits, or egregious conduct by the at-fault party that raises the possibility of punitive damages. Those cases are real, but they're not typical. The $51,600 to $120,400 range is where most moderate, clearly-liable, reasonably-documented cases land.

Attorneys do materially change outcomes in these cases. Not because they have magic, but because they know how to document the damages correctly from the start, they know what adjusters respond to, and they know when a low offer is actually low. Whether you hire one is your call. But the data on represented vs. unrepresented plaintiffs in TBI cases isn't close.