What If the Driver Who Hit You Lives in Another State?

You trade insurance information on the shoulder of LBJ Freeway, glance down at the other driver’s license, and see a state that isn’t Texas. The crash happened here. The driver goes home to Oklahoma, Louisiana, or Florida.

Yes, you can still bring your claim in a Texas court. Texas law treats a driver who uses our highways as having agreed to answer here for a crash they cause here, and it gives you a way to deliver the lawsuit even when that driver cannot be reached at home.

The complication is not whether you have a case. The complication is timing, paperwork, and how much insurance money actually sits behind the driver who hit you.

Texas’s Nonresident-Motorist Statute: How You Can Still Sue an Out-of-State Driver

Texas has a dedicated statute for exactly this situation. Under the nonresident-motorist provisions of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, sections 17.061 through 17.068, the chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission serves as the out-of-state driver’s statutory agent for service of process. Service on the chairman “has the same effect as personal service on the nonresident.”

The statute applies when a nonresident operated a motor vehicle in Texas and your suit arises from that collision. It also reaches a driver who lived in Texas when the crash happened and has since moved away, which matters more than people expect in a state with as much turnover as ours.

You may have read that this paperwork goes through the Texas Secretary of State. That office is the agent for service under a separate, general long-arm statute, not under the nonresident-motorist provision that governs after a crash. The Texas Department of Transportation confirms that the Transportation Commission chairman is the agent for this specific route.

Here is how the mechanism works in plain terms:

– A certified copy of the process is served to the chairman at least 20 days before the return date stated in the process.

– The chairman then promptly mails a copy of the process and notice of service to the driver by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested.

– Once the chairman deposits that mailing, the law presumes the driver received it. That presumption can be rebutted.

– If the mailed service fails or the driver refuses it, your attorney can have the driver personally served instead, along with notice of the date the chairman was served.

If you want the broader picture of jurisdiction and insurance when a nonresident is at fault, our guide to Texas car accidents involving out-of-state drivers covers that ground.

How Service of Process Actually Works on an Out-of-State Driver

You have two service tracks available, and they work together rather than competing. Your attorney can serve the driver directly at a confirmed out-of-state address under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 108, or use the substituted-service route through the Transportation Commission chairman when the driver cannot be located or refuses to accept papers.

Rule 108 says that a defendant who is absent from Texas or a nonresident of Texas gets the same form of notice as a resident defendant. The notice may be served by any disinterested person at least eighteen years old, in the manner provided by Rule 106, and the return of service is completed under Rule 107. The driver must then appear and answer on the same schedule and under the same penalties as if they had been handed the citation on a Dallas street corner.

Rule 108 governs service in another U.S. state. A separate rule handles service in a foreign country, so an out-of-state driver claim stays on the Rule 108 track.

Direct Rule 108 service is usually the cleaner path when you have a good address and the driver is reachable. The chairman route is the fallback that keeps your case alive when the driver has moved, gone quiet, or simply declined the envelope.

That fallback has its own procedural requirements. TxDOT’s nonresident motorist service FAQ explains that service must comply with the applicable Rules of Civil Procedure and that two copies each of the citation and petition must be submitted. Small paperwork details, and they decide whether your service holds up.

Our car accident practice area page explains how our team handles the litigation side of these claims.

The Practical Cost: Delay, Default-Judgment Risk, and Collecting Later

The mechanism is constitutionally settled, but using it costs you time and creates a risk you should understand before you rely on it. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld nonresident-motorist implied-consent statutes against a due process challenge nearly a century ago in Hess v. Pawloski, so the tool itself is sound. The friction is procedural and practical.

Three consequences deserve your attention:

– Delay. Process must reach the chairman at least 20 days before the return date, the chairman must then mail notice, and a court cannot enter a default judgment until at least the 21st day after the chairman was served. The court can also postpone the case further to give the driver a reasonable opportunity to defend. Direct Rule 108 service adds its own lead time for locating an authorized server in another state and completing the mailed return.

– Default-judgment exposure. The statutory presumption that the driver received the mailed notice is rebuttable. A default judgment, by definition, is entered without the driver appearing to contest whether the Texas court had jurisdiction over them.

– Collection in the driver’s home state. A judgment is entitled to full faith and credit on the jurisdictional question only when that question was fully and fairly litigated in the court that issued it. Under Underwriters National Assurance Co. v. North Carolina Life & Accident & Health Insurance Guaranty Association, a state asked to enforce a judgment may permit a collateral attack when that did not happen.

Read that as a risk to manage, not a prediction. It means a driver who later claims they never got notice, or that service missed a statutory step, has an argument to raise when you try to collect in their home state.

Which is why the service return is so important. The officer serving the chairman must record the day and hour of service and the other facts a citation return requires, and a Rule 107 return must state who was served, when, by whom, and be verified. That paper trail is what protects the judgment you worked to obtain.

Why the Driver’s Home-State Insurance Minimums Matter to Your Recovery

An out-of-state driver’s policy is typically written to their home state’s compulsory minimums, not ours. Never assume the driver who hit you carries anything close to Texas’s floor.

Texas requires 30/60/25 coverage, meaning $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage, per the Texas Department of Insurance auto insurance guide. Our breakdown of Texas minimum car insurance requirements walks through what that actually buys.

Other states sit well below that line. Louisiana requires only 15/30/25, and Pennsylvania requires 15/30/5 with a $5,000 property-damage limit, according to state-by-state minimum coverage data. Florida’s financial responsibility statutes do not generally require drivers to carry bodily-injury liability coverage at all, attaching that requirement only through specific financial-responsibility triggers.

Whether a particular out-of-state policy adjusts upward to Texas’s minimum while the insured drives here depends on that policy’s own language. It is not a uniform guarantee, and it is not something to count on either way. The answer comes from reading the actual policy.

So the work is confirmation, not assumption:

– The Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report (CR-3) captures each driver’s license and address information along with the insurer and policy number, which is where both the service address and the coverage investigation begin.

– TxDOT’s crash reports and records system provides the report, and Texas Transportation Code section 550.065 entitles involved parties to a copy on request and payment of the required fee.

– Discovery or direct contact with the carrier confirms the stated limits, which tells you whether the available coverage can realistically address your medical bills and lost income.

When those limits fall short, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage becomes the practical backstop. Our Texas uninsured motorist accident guide explains how UM and UIM claims work and when to open one.

Talk to a Texas Car Accident Lawyer About Your Out-of-State-Driver Claim

A driver’s home address does not buy them a way out of accountability for a crash on a Texas road. It just means the case needs someone who knows where the paperwork goes and how to follow the money.

Angel Reyes & Associates has guided injured Texans through situations like this for over 30 years. Our team handles nonresident motorist service, builds the service record that protects your judgment, tracks down the driver’s actual out-of-state policy, and evaluates your UM and UIM options when that policy runs thin. We work on contingency, so there is no upfront cost to you.

Contact Angel Reyes & Associates for a free consultation to review your options. Every case is different.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.