Understand the terms and check the source

By Jacob Alford

What does this unfamiliar insurance or court term mean?

Start with the plain meaning, then check how the actual document uses the term. These short definitions help you navigate the guide. A policy or court rule can use a more specific definition.

People and claims

• Adjuster: the person investigating or handling a claim for an insurer or other party. Ask whom the adjuster represents.
• Claim: a request for payment or another benefit. It is not necessarily a filed lawsuit.
• Claimant: the person seeking payment or relief.
• Insured: a person or organization protected by a policy for a particular purpose. Being related to the policyholder does not by itself answer every coverage question.
• First-party claim: a claim for benefits under insurance that protects you, such as your collision coverage or qualifying PIP benefits.
• Third-party claim: a claim against another person or that person’s liability insurer for harm you say they caused.
• Liability: legal responsibility. An insurance card proves neither fault nor payment for every loss.

Policy and payment words

• Declarations page: a policy summary listing items such as the named insured, covered vehicles, coverages, limits, and policy period. It is not the entire contract.
• Endorsement: a document changing or adding to policy terms.
• Exclusion: language removing certain risks or losses from coverage.
• Deductible: the amount allocated to you under a particular coverage before or as part of the insurer’s covered payment.
• Limit: the maximum payable under a coverage provision, subject to its terms. A per-person limit and a per-accident limit do different work.
• Collision: coverage for qualifying damage to the covered vehicle from a collision, subject to the policy and deductible.
• Comprehensive: coverage often called “other than collision,” for specified losses such as theft, hail, or certain animal-related damage. Read the policy rather than relying only on the label.
• PIP: personal injury protection. Texas PIP can include specified medical, income-loss, and substitute-service benefits for covered people, subject to the statute and policy.
• MedPay: medical-payments coverage. It is not simply another name for PIP.
• UM/UIM: uninsured/underinsured-motorist coverage. It can address qualifying losses involving an uninsured driver or insufficient available liability insurance, but insured status, proof, limits, and policy terms matter.
• GAP: a contractual product that may address part of the difference between a vehicle’s covered total-loss payment and the loan or lease balance. It does not necessarily erase every amount owed.
• Actual cash value: a valuation concept generally connected to the property’s value at the time of loss. It is not automatically the payoff balance or price of a new replacement.
• Loss of use: a category of loss associated with being deprived of property use. It is not identical to rental reimbursement purchased under your own policy.

For coverage definitions and their Texas context, see the TDI auto-insurance guide, OPIC auto-insurance resources, and the fuller explanations in Chapter 3 and Chapter 5.

Resolving the claim

• Damages: legally recoverable losses. The number written on a demand is not proof that every listed amount is recoverable.
• Comparative responsibility: allocation of responsibility among relevant people or entities. Texas’s percentage rules can reduce or bar recovery; see fault and responsibility.
• Lien: a claimed legal interest securing payment from specified property or proceeds. Not every bill is a valid lien, and not every repayment right depends on a lien filing.
• Subrogation or reimbursement: rights asserted to recover payments from another source or from a recovery. The statute, plan, or contract matters.
• Release: an agreement giving up specified claims or rights. Read whom it protects and what it covers.
• Settlement: an agreement resolving a dispute. Its effect depends on the actual terms and applicable law, not just whether the check seems fair.
• Net recovery: the amount remaining for the client after the deductions and obligations that actually apply.

Court words

• Limitations period: a time limit for bringing a legal claim. It is different from an adjuster’s offer deadline.
• Service: formal delivery of legal papers in a legally recognized way.
• Answer: a response filed in court. Calling the opposing insurer is not an answer.
• Discovery: the formal process for obtaining information in a lawsuit.
• Deposition: sworn testimony taken outside the courtroom under procedural rules.
• Mediation: a process in which a neutral person helps the parties try to resolve a dispute; the mediator does not ordinarily decide the case like a judge.
• Judgment: the court’s formal decision. Winning a judgment and collecting money are different questions.

The detailed rules belong with their questions in Chapter 7 and Chapter 8, including the Texas civil rules, Chapter 33 responsibility rules, and Chapter 16 limitations provisions.

Where is the official source behind an explanation?

Use the source link next to the particular rule, not a generic search result about the subject. Jacob Alford’s explanations in this Guide on InjuredTexan.com address the practical question; the linked source lets you check the rule, its limits and the facts it covers. The strongest source depends on the question:

• Statutes and court rules establish legal text, but their application may depend on court decisions and the version in effect.
• A court opinion explains a decision on particular facts. Do not turn one outcome into a guaranteed result for every reader.
• TDI, OPIC, TxDOT, TDLR, and other agencies explain their programs and consumer processes.
• CDC and clinical authorities inform health guidance; an insurance article does not diagnose a reader.
• The actual policy, endorsement, declaration, or rejection record decides contractual questions that a general coverage summary cannot settle.

Check the jurisdiction, effective date, section, and whether the source is a final law or merely a proposed bill. A source can be genuine and still be the wrong one for your wreck. If the link is broken, locate the issuing organization independently rather than trusting a look-alike page or an unexplained replacement.

How can I tell when this guidance was last substantively reviewed?

Look for a named reviewer, a substantive review date, and a note explaining material changes. A footer year or automatically refreshed “updated” label does not establish that someone rechecked the law, policy description, or medical source.

A review label should identify the person who actually did that review, not merely an attorney associated with the publisher. A downloaded copy should state its version and point back to the current online source. If you use an older saved copy, check whether a later version changes the answer you need.

If you ask an AI to help you understand the guide, ask it to identify the section and source supporting its answer and to say what remains unknown. Do not mistake a confident summary for a review of your policy, documents, medical condition, or deadlines. You can use the guide without uploading private records. A chapter download can be useful background; it does not give any tool authority to act for you or change the source’s meaning.

Attorney reviewed by Jacob Alford · November 11, 2026