Personal Injury

Gary Cunha, P.C.

Attorney and Counselor at Law

Please realize the information contained on this web site should not be construed as legal advice nor does it create an attorney-client relationship between us. It is simply here as a means for me to provide you some basic information for you to use when deciding on whether or not you need to hire an attorney. Because each case is different, it would be impossible for us to provide legal advice on a web site.

Motor Vehicle Accident
aka Car Accident, Truck Accident, Collision, Motorcycle Wreck

If you have been injured as a result of a motor vehicle collision (sometimes referred to as an accident or a wreck) you have a right to collect from the insurance company to compensate you for your damages. This is true if you were a pedestrian or driving a car, truck, minivan, sports utility vehicle SUV, motorcycle, moped, or bicycle.
The insurance company has a lawyer (or lawyers) fighting for them, so should you! Gone are the days of automatically getting an offer from the insurance company to pay you 3x your medical expenses. Now they want to lowball you with ridiculously low offers to settle and make you feel that your injuries, pain, and suffering are not worth compensation.

Most of these cases are handled on a contingency basis, meaning you do not pay anything if we do not win your case. And since we only get a percentage of your recovery, you know we will work very hard to get that recovery as large as possible.

Call us now for a free consultation regarding your motor vehicle accident.

If a loved one was killed due to the negligence of another, you may have a right to sue for compensation.

Please call for a free consultation for your wrongful death case.

DTPA - The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act

The DTPA gives consumers a right to sue for certain wrongs committed against them. Included is a "laundry list" of violations as well as what are called "tie-in statutes" such as wrongful debt collection. The DTPA includes remedies such as attorney's fees to be paid by the wrongdoer and up to treble (triple) damages awarded for certain acts. The laundry list violations are:
(1) passing off goods or services as those of another;
(2) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval, or certification of goods or services;
(3) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to affiliation, connection, or association with, or certification by, another;
(4) using deceptive representations or designations of geographic origin in connection with goods or services;
(5) representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities which they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection which he does not;
(6) representing that goods are original or new if they are deteriorated, reconditioned, reclaimed, used, or secondhand;
(7) representing that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade, or that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another;
(8) disparaging the goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading representation of facts;
(9) advertising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised;
(10) advertising goods or services with intent not to supply a reasonable expectable public demand, unless the advertisements disclosed a limitation of quantity;
(11) making false or misleading statements of fact concerning the reasons for, existence of, or amount of price reductions;
(12) representing that an agreement confers or involves rights, remedies, or obligations which it does not have or involve, or which are prohibited by law;
(13) knowingly making false or misleading statements of fact concerning the need for parts, replacement, or repair service;
(14) misrepresenting the authority of a salesman, representative or agent to negotiate the final terms of a consumer transaction;
(15) basing a charge for the repair of any item in whole or in part on a guaranty or warranty instead of on the value of the actual repairs made or work to be performed on the item without stating separately the charges for the work and the charge for the warranty or guaranty, if any;
(16) disconnecting, turning back, or resetting the odometer of any motor vehicle so as to reduce the number of miles indicated on the odometer gauge;
(17) advertising of any sale by fraudulently representing that a person is going out of business;
(18) advertising, selling, or distributing a card which purports to be a prescription drug identification card issued under Section 4151.152, Insurance Code, in accordance with rules adopted by the commissioner of insurance, which offers a discount on the purchase of health care goods or services from a third party provider, and which is not evidence of insurance coverage, unless:
(A) the discount is authorized under an agreement between the seller of the card and the provider of those goods and services or the discount or card is offered to members of the seller;
(B) the seller does not represent that the card provides insurance coverage of any kind; and
(C) the discount is not false, misleading, or deceptive;
(19) using or employing a chain referral sales plan in connection with the sale or offer to sell of goods, merchandise, or anything of value, which uses the sales technique, plan, arrangement, or agreement in which the buyer or prospective buyer is offered the opportunity to purchase merchandise or goods and in connection with the purchase receives the seller's promise or representation that the buyer shall have the right to receive compensation or consideration in any form for furnishing to the seller the names of other prospective buyers if receipt of the compensation or consideration is contingent upon the occurrence of an event subsequent to the time the buyer purchases the merchandise or goods;
(20) representing that a guarantee or warranty confers or involves rights or remedies which it does not have or involve, provided, however, that nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to expand the implied warranty of merchantability as defined in Sections 2.314 through 2.318 and Sections 2A.212 through 2A.216 to involve obligations in excess of those which are appropriate to the goods;
(21) promoting a pyramid promotional scheme, as defined by Section 17.461;
(22) representing that work or services have been performed on, or parts replaced in, goods when the work or services were not performed or the parts replaced;
(23) filing suit founded upon a written contractual obligation of and signed by the defendant to pay money arising out of or based on a consumer transaction for goods, services, loans, or extensions of credit intended primarily for personal, family, household, or agricultural use in any county other than in the county in which the defendant resides at the time of the commencement of the action or in the county in which the defendant in fact signed the contract; provided, however, that a violation of this subsection shall not occur where it is shown by the person filing such suit he neither knew or had reason to know that the county in which such suit was filed was neither the county in which the defendant resides at the commencement of the suit nor the county in which the defendant in fact signed the contract;
(24) failing to disclose information concerning goods or services which was known at the time of the transaction if such failure to disclose such information was intended to induce the consumer into a transaction into which the consumer would not have entered had the information been disclosed;
(25) using the term "corporation," "incorporated," or an abbreviation of either of those terms in the name of a business entity that is not incorporated under the laws of this state or another jurisdiction;
(26) selling, offering to sell, or illegally promoting an annuity contract under Chapter 22, Acts of the 57th Legislature, 3rd Called Session, 1962 (Article 6228a-5, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), with the intent that the annuity contract will be the subject of a salary reduction agreement, as defined by that Act, if the annuity contract is not an eligible qualified investment under that Act or is not registered with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas as required by Section 8A of that Act; or
(27) taking advantage of a disaster declared by the governor under Chapter 418, Government Code, by:
(A) selling or leasing fuel, food, medicine, or another necessity at an exorbitant or excessive price; or
(B) demanding an exorbitant or excessive price in connection with the sale or lease of fuel, food, medicine, or another necessity.

Defamation: Slander and Libel

If you do not think defamation is serious, please keep this in mind, the largest jury verdict in the history of McLennan County was for defamation. Also, think of the Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard case.

Defamation cases are where somone (or some entity) has made a false statement about you and because of the statement you have suffered a financial injury (such as loss of job/promotion/business opportunity). Slander is spoken defamation. Libel is printed defamation.

What is NOT defamation: if someone makes the statement to you and only you. The false statement must be made to a third party.

If you are the victim of defamation, please contact our office. There may be a consultation fee for an in-office consultation with an attorney.

Thanks to tort reform, medical malpractice is extremely tough to make a case on. If you are harmed by medical malpractice, your damages are now capped based on who did the harm. Under the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, section 74.301, damages for noneconomic damages are capped at $250,000. That number is increased or reduced based on the consumer price index from 1977 so it may be lower (or higher) at the time you suffer your injury. However, keep in mind that the limit is not on top of the costs you will have to hire expert witnesses to prove your case. Because of this, it is extremely difficult to recover any noneconomic damage money for the victim of medical malpractice. Noneconomic damages would include your pain and suffering, loss of use of parts of your body, and other injury to your body.
Economic damages are not capped, and they are pretty much the only way to put any money in your pocket if you are harmed by a doctor in Texas. Economic damages include your future lost wages, future medical bills, future needs (such as wheel chair, medication, therapy, etc.).

We do offer a free consultation for medical malpractice cases. Keep in mind that if your case has been turned down by other attorneys, we will probably also turn you down. Please contact us for a free consultation:

If you remember a few years back, there was a constant barrage of TV ads telling you of "frivolous lawsuits" being filed and how doctors were no longer able to afford their malpractice insurance so they were quitting the practice of medicine and leaving most folks without access to health care. The message was clear, if you did not vote for tort reform, you would likely face empty hospitals and doctors offices when you needed health care. Of course, all of it was a BIG FAT LIE designed to line the pockets of the insurance companies at the expense of your right to compensation when someone injures you.

We continue to see people maimed by medical malpractice who, because of their race or status in life, literally have no ability to find an attorney to take their case.

I urge you to contact your representatives in the legislature and urge them to undo so called "tort reform." One day it might be you who goes in for a toenail removal and comes out with both arms and legs amputated, only to find out that no one can take your case against the hospital thanks to tort reform.