Top-Rated Houston Medical Malpractice Attorneys Handling Health Care Negligence Claims
Written by: Hastings Law Firm | Reviewed by: Tommy Hastings | Updated: September 18, 2026
Medical Malpractice Litigation is All We Do
When a hospital, medical professional, or medical device or drug causes harm, families are often left with unexpected medical bills, extended recovery time, and unanswered questions about what went wrong. What you need in such situations is a clear, honest answer about what happened and what can be done.
Hastings Law Firm has focused exclusively on medical malpractice since 2005, and our Houston medical malpractice lawyers understand the medicine as well as the law. We will listen, explain your options, and tell you what we can do.
If you or a loved one were harmed or worse due to medical malpractice in Houston, contact Hastings Law Firm for a free, confidential case review.
Why Hire Hastings Law Firm for Your Medical Malpractice Claim
Medical malpractice cases are among the most difficult in personal injury law. Hospitals, insurers, and drug companies defend them with deep resources, which means teams of defense lawyers and their own medical experts ready to fight every claim. Texas tort reform laws make it harder still, with strict deadlines, expert report requirements, and limits on what an injured patient can recover. Winning takes attorneys who understand the medicine, know the law, and can successfully try the case in front of a jury.
A Singular Focus on Medical Law
At Hastings Law Firm, medical-injury litigation is all we do. Our entire practice is dedicated exclusively to medical malpractice, dangerous drugs, and defective medical devices. Patients who need a medical malpractice lawyer in Houston turn to us for that focus. Families across Texas and in other states come to us for the reputation our results have earned.
Industry Leaders & Record Setting Verdicts
We are among the top-rated medical malpractice firms in the nation, with board-certified trial leadership under founder Tommy Hastings and a record of multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements for patients and their families. Every one of those results began the same way, with a thorough investigation, a team that understood the medicine, and a commitment to preparing the case as if it were going to trial. The investigation starts with knowing what we are up against.
Experience on Both Sides of the Court Room
We know how the defense will build its case before it is filed. Some of our attorneys started their careers on the other side of the courtroom, where they learned how hospitals and insurers respond to a claim. That knowledge now goes into every case we handle. Our certified patient advocates make sure you are heard from the first call, and a nationwide network of medical experts provides the testimony these cases require. Our medical professionals read a chart the way the treating staff did, and they read every page.
Innovation & Trial Readiness
Our attorneys also designed and built their own AI tool, called Florence. This tool is unique to our firm and built on decades of combined medical and legal experience. Our team uses it to assist in scanning case medical records, which can run thousands of pages, as a second set of eyes checking for potential errors and drawing deeper insight from what the records show.
Reviews that once took weeks can now be done in hours, which means our clients hear from us sooner and we can move quickly when a filing deadline is close.
Innovations like Florence are one more example of how Hastings Law Firm sets itself apart, and every one of them is built to benefit our clients.
Everything our team finds goes into a case built for the courtroom. We are trial ready from day one. Defense attorneys and insurance carriers know that when Hastings Law Firm brings a case, we are prepared to take it to a jury, and that reputation leads to stronger settlement offers for our clients.
Every part of that preparation comes at no risk to you. There is no fee unless we win, and our intake team will review your case for free.
Meet Our Houston Medical Malpractice Attorneys
All of our attorneys have spent their legal careers handling medical negligence cases, and they have spent them on both sides of the courtroom. Trying these cases for patients, learning from the inside how hospitals defend them, and litigating the severe injuries that change a family’s life are all part of the experience every Houston medical malpractice lawyer on our team brings to your case. All of that experience stands behind your case.
Tommy Hastings
Founder, Board Certified Personal Injury AttorneyTommy founded Hastings Law Firm in 2005 with one mission, to hold health care providers accountable when preventable medical harm changes lives. He is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and a member of the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates.
His record includes multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements in birth injury, surgical error, hospital failure, and wrongful death cases, among them the first civil verdict in the country against a pill mill. Tommy also teaches other attorneys how these cases are tried, through the books he has written, his lectures, and the courses he directs. For him, great lawyers use both head and heart. Read Tommy Hastings’s full biography.
Gabriel “Gabe” Sassin
Senior Trial Counsel, Personal Injury AttorneyBefore joining Hastings Law Firm, Gabe spent more than a decade on the defense side of medical error claims, including serving as primary counsel to one of the largest surgical groups in the Houston area. Those years gave him a firsthand understanding of how hospitals and their defense teams think, prepare, and fight back.
He has represented injured patients since 2020, and he uses everything he learned to build cases that hold up against those defenses. For the families we represent, that experience can make all the difference. Read Gabe Sassin’s full biography.
Brady D. Williams
Senior Trial Counsel, Personal Injury AttorneyBrady is a nationally recognized attorney who represents patients and families harmed by medical mistakes, birth injuries, and catastrophic brain and spinal cord injuries. He returned to Texas in 2017 after beginning his career with a leading medical injury firm in California, and he has since resolved a large number of medical cases, with many tried to verdict. Each of those cases started with the family.
Brady’s approach is personal. To advocate for someone, you have to know them, understand their family, and understand what the injury has taken from their daily life, and he builds every case with that full picture in mind. Read Brady Williams’s full biography.
How We Investigate Your Medical Malpractice Case
Every case begins with the medical record, and the record is rarely written with the patient in mind. A serious hospitalization produces hundreds or thousands of pages of charting, orders, and results, and the answer to what went wrong is often somewhere inside them. Our Houston medical malpractice attorneys and medical professionals are experienced at reading those records, and the first thing we build from them is a timeline.
That timeline shows what was seen and what was ordered. It shows how the medical team responsible for the patient’s care responded, and where a change in the patient’s condition should have changed the plan. Florence, our AI tool, then reviews the same records and adds another layer of insight, highlighting additional discrepancies and concerns and giving our attorneys new angles to approach the case from. The result is a thorough, well-documented account of what happened, and it shows us where the care fell short.
Texas does not let a medical malpractice claim go forward without a qualified expert report. Our research and analysis identify where the care was negligent, which is what the case needs to move forward. An outside physician in the specialty involved, whether that is obstetrics, anesthesia, or emergency medicine, then evaluates that care and testifies to what it should have been. That work takes time, and you should know what is happening while it does.
Our certified patient advocates stay in contact with you through every stage, explaining medical developments in plain language and making sure your questions are answered. You can learn more about the people behind your case on our About Us page.
The Types of Houston Medical Negligence Lawsuits We Handle
If a health care provider or facility in Houston harmed you or someone you love, a Houston medical malpractice lawyer at our firm can review what happened. We bring medical negligence claims against physicians, hospitals, nurses, pharmacies, and the companies that make drugs and medical devices. The cases we see most often include:
- Missed and delayed diagnoses. A condition that should have been caught was not, and the treatment that could have changed the outcome came late or never came. The damage is often permanent, and a family is left knowing it did not have to happen. In a medical misdiagnosis in Houston claim, we establish what a competent provider would have found and what earlier treatment would have prevented.
- Surgical and anesthesia errors. A procedure meant to fix one problem caused another, through a mistake in the operating room or a complication that went unrecognized afterward. Recovery can mean more surgery, lasting disability, or a loss the patient never agreed to risk. For a surgical error claim, we reconstruct the procedure from the operative record and show where the care fell below the standard.
- Birth and pediatric injuries. An injury during labor and delivery, or during a child’s later care, can follow that child for life. Families face years of treatment, therapy, and worry about what the future will hold. In a birth injury case, we look at the fetal monitoring records and the delivery team’s response to show what should have been done, and when.
- Hospital and nursing failures. A change in condition went unanswered, a fall was not prevented, or care was left to too few staff. The harm often lands on someone who was already seriously ill, and it can turn a recoverable illness into a lasting one. With hospital negligence, we examine staffing, protocols, and supervision to show where the facility itself failed, and nursing home abuse and neglect claims get the same scrutiny.
- Medication errors and deaths from negligent care. The wrong drug, the wrong dose, or a prescription that should never have been written can be as devastating as any surgical mistake. When the result is a death, the family is left with questions that the providers involved rarely answer. In a medication error claim, we trace the order from the prescriber to the pharmacy to the bedside to find where it broke down. A death from substandard treatment gets the same review.
- Dangerous drugs and defective medical devices. Sometimes the cause was the product itself rather than the care a provider delivered. A drug with risks its maker did not disclose, or a device that failed inside the body, can hurt a patient who did everything right. Our practice includes claims over unsafe pharmaceuticals and defective devices, and in those cases we hold the manufacturer responsible for the defect.
This list covers the medical malpractice cases we see most often, not every case we take. If what happened to you or your family is not on it, ask our Houston medical malpractice attorneys anyway.
Claims Involving Houston Hospitals and Medical Facilities
Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world, with millions of patient encounters a year across its member institutions. Our Houston medical negligence lawyers handle medical malpractice claims arising from care at Memorial Hermann, Houston Methodist, HCA Houston Healthcare, Baylor St. Luke’s, Texas Children’s, and the Woman’s Hospital of Texas. That includes the public systems, Harris Health’s Ben Taub and LBJ hospitals and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, which follow rules of their own. A single illness can involve several of these systems, and each one documents care differently.
Our attorneys and medical professionals bring those records together and reconstruct what happened across every facility involved. Your case then contains the full picture of your treatment, not one hospital’s version of it.
Working With Our Medical Malpractice Law Firm
From your first call to Hastings Law Firm, our team works to make sure you are heard, informed, and supported. During business hours you speak with a member of our intake team, and after hours our on-call staff take your message so that an intake specialist can return your call the next business day. Tell us what happened, who treated you, and what you believe went wrong. Your account of what happened is where our review begins.
That review starts with your medical records, which our team requests so you do not have to. Our attorneys and medical professionals read them to establish what was done, what was missed, and what should NOT have been done. If our Houston medical malpractice lawyers take your case, we build it on what the records show, on the experts who can explain them, and on what the injury has meant for your life and your family’s. Every case we build is meant to show a jury clearly where the negligence happened, the damage it caused you, and why you are entitled to compensation.
Once we take on your case, we deal directly with the hospital, the insurer, and their attorneys, so you never face them on your own. We push for a settlement that reflects what you have lost, and when the offer falls short, we take the case to trial. Throughout the process, our team stays in contact with you.
Our certified patient advocates keep you up to date as your medical negligence case moves forward. They explain each development in plain language, and between those moments they are available for whatever questions come up. This process is unfamiliar to most people, and our advocates are there to make it easier to understand. That level of support and caring begins with the first call, whether or not your case becomes a lawsuit.
For the cases we unfortunately cannot accept due to Texas tort reform laws, we still take the time to explain. We walk you through the law and why a medical malpractice lawsuit is not possible in your situation. We then point you to what you can do instead, from documenting what happened to reporting it to the agency that oversees the provider, such as the Texas Medical Board. Our goal is to ensure you leave the conversation with answers.
Our Commitment to Clients
Every case we accept carries deep personal meaning. We understand that by the time you reach out to us, you have already experienced confusion, grief, or frustration trying to understand what went wrong. Our job is to shoulder that burden and pursue the accountability and justice you deserve.
We measure success not only by verdicts or settlements, but by the peace of mind and closure our clients gain when the truth is finally brought to light. We know this is not just a legal claim. It is the health and future life of someone and their family.
Our Houston Medical Malpractice Lawyers Come to You
Our Houston medical malpractice lawyers travel to you wherever you are in Texas, whether that is your home, a hospital room, or a rehabilitation facility. Between those visits, your meetings with us can happen by phone or video call, so an injury or a caregiving schedule never stands between you and your lawyer.
That begins with the first call, which you can make on behalf of a loved one if they are not able to, and we take it from there. Whoever makes that call, members of our intake staff and our team are bilingual, so you can tell us what happened in English or Spanish. From that first conversation on, the records, the filings, and the deadlines are ours to manage, not yours. You focus on your recovery, and we focus on your lawsuit.
What Determines Whether You Have a Valid Medical Malpractice Claim in Texas?
Texas law requires specific things from a medical malpractice claim, and knowing them helps you understand what a Houston medical malpractice lawyer looks for when we read your records. Whether you have a valid claim comes down to what the records can prove and what the injury has cost you.
The Four Elements You Must Prove in a Texas Medical Malpractice Case
A medical malpractice case in Texas has to prove four elements, which are a duty of care, a breach of the standard of care, causation, and damages. The health care provider or facility owed you a duty, the care fell below the accepted standard, that failure caused the injury, and the injury caused real harm.
The standard of care means what a reasonably careful provider in the same field would have done in the same situation. Qualified medical experts explain that standard and measure the care against it.
Causation is usually the hardest element, because the medical evidence has to show that the failure, more likely than not, caused the injury rather than the underlying illness. Care given in an emergency room carries a higher standard of proof still, and the compensation a claim can recover is limited by law as well.
The Compensation You Can Recover in a Texas Medical Negligence Lawsuit
In a Texas medical negligence lawsuit, you can recover economic damages for the losses that have a calculable dollar amount, and noneconomic damages for the ones that do not. Economic damages include medical expenses, lost earnings, and the cost of future care, and have no limits. Noneconomic damages cover physical pain, mental anguish, and physical impairment.
Texas limits non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, at $250,000 against all physicians and other non-institutional providers combined, with a separate $250,000 per institution and a $750,000 aggregate maximum. Our Texas damage caps resource explains the rules and how they apply.
Those limits matter for a practical reason as well. Cases like this are some of the most expensive personal injury claims to litigate. When the damages available are small, the cost of bringing the case can exceed what it could recover. That is a factor that we must weigh in every case review, and we tell you plainly where your case stands.
What Houston Courts Handle Medical Malpractice Lawsuits?
A medical malpractice claim arising from treatment in Harris County is ordinarily filed in the county’s civil district courts at the Harris County Civil Courthouse downtown. Venue, the county where a lawsuit may properly be brought, is decided under Texas venue rules that look at where the events happened and who the defendants are, not simply where the patient lives. Treatment that crossed a county line into Fort Bend, Montgomery, Galveston, or Brazoria County can change the answer.
We settle that question early, because the court’s procedures and its jury pool shape how a medical negligence case is prepared. Appeals in these cases ordinarily go to the First or Fourteenth Court of Appeals, both based in Houston.
Potential Medical Malpractice Case in Houston?
Get the Answers You Deserve.
If you or someone you love was harmed by medical malpractice in the Houston metro area, our team is here for you. We’ll review the case details, walk you through your options in plain language, and give you an honest answer about whether you have a claim. Case reviews are free and confidential, and if we take your case, you pay no attorney fees or costs unless we win your case. Let us help you find the answers you deserve!
Houston Medical Malpractice FAQs
This content was researched and written by the Hastings Law Firm editorial team, which includes attorneys, medical professionals, and experienced researchers. Our writing is informed by internal knowledge and practical experience, and we cross-check critical details against authoritative sources cited throughout. Every piece undergoes human-led fact-checking and legal review. Because legal and medical information can change, if you spot an error, please contact us. Learn more about our content standards and review process on our editorial policy page.
Tommy Hastings, founder of Hastings Law Firm, is a board-certified personal injury trial lawyer dedicated exclusively to healthcare injury cases. Since 2001, he has represented injured patients and families in litigation against major hospital systems, pharmaceutical companies, and negligent healthcare providers nationwide. He has handled numerous high-profile cases that have drawn national media attention and resulted in multi-million dollar recoveries. He draws on that experience in his writing, helping readers understand how these cases work and what options may be available to them.
