Frequently Asked Questions

Bearstone Law, PLLC, is a Texas plaintiff’s litigation firm based in Frisco, just north of Dallas. The Firm represents clients in high-stakes civil claims — catastrophic injury, wrongful death, nursing home neglect, dangerous products, select medical malpractice, and disputes with insurance companies. It takes a deliberately limited number of cases so that each one gets real attention from an experienced Texas attorney.

Elijah Stone is the Firm’s Managing Attorney and Founder. Before opening Bearstone Law, PLLC, he spent six years as an associate attorney at Jones Day — one of the twenty largest law firms in the world and a renowned litigation powerhouse. He founded Bearstone Law to bring that same level of advocacy with the personal attention of a solo practitioner.

More about his background is on the About page.

The Firm is small by design. Elijah Stone is the founder and managing attorney. Sadie is a paralegal who also helps administer the Firm and works closely with clients. Katy is a paralegal and registered nurse who plays an important role in cases with a medical component. You will deal with the same few people throughout your case rather than being handed between departments.

• Phone and fax: 469-505-1033
• Email: [email protected]

For an injury, wrongful death, or other serious claim, the most useful thing you can do is complete the case evaluation form — it captures what the Firm needs to evaluate your case in one pass instead of several rounds of questions. For a shorter inquiry, the contact form works.

12800 Westridge Blvd, Suite 141, Frisco, Texas 75035 is the Firm’s principal office.

Office visits are strictly by appointment — please do not stop by without a confirmed appointment, since there may be no one available to meet with you. Most clients never need to come in at all; consultations are usually handled by video or phone.

Regular hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central. Calls and email are monitored around the clock, but that does not mean the Firm will always respond outside business hours. We do our best to respond promptly, based on factors like availability, need, and urgency.

Bearstone Law is licensed in Texas, and a slight majority of its matters are in the Dallas–Fort Worth area — but the rest of the Firm’s clients are spread across the state and beyond.

For a serious matter in another state, the Firm can still take the lead by associating local counsel admitted in that jurisdiction to handle filings and local logistical requirements, while Bearstone Law drives strategy and execution — subject to that state’s admission rules and the court’s approval. If you are outside Texas, send your information and you will get a straight answer about whether we would be a good fit.

The Firm is a plaintiff’s firm built for complex, high-stakes civil claims. Its core work:

• Catastrophic personal injury, including serious car, truck, and commercial vehicle collisions
• Wrongful death
• Nursing home abuse and neglect
• Dangerous and defective products
• Insurance coverage disputes and bad faith claims against insurers
• Select medical malpractice involving permanent impairment or death

The common thread is severity — cases where someone’s life or property was permanently harmed and the outcome genuinely matters. If your situation is not on that list, it is still worth asking.

Yes. Beyond its core areas, the Firm reviews other civil matters case by case — work injuries, employment disputes, contract and business disputes, and other civil claims.

Send the details through the case evaluation form and you will get a straight answer about whether the Firm can help or whether you would be better served somewhere else. If it is not a fit, the Firm will tell you rather than leave you waiting.

Bearstone Law handles civil matters only, and on the plaintiff’s side — the party bringing the claim. The Firm does not take criminal defense, family law (divorce, custody, support), immigration, traffic tickets, estate planning, or real estate transactional work.

The Firm also does not do defense-side work. It does not defend companies, employers, or insurance carriers against claims — never has and never will. If your matter falls outside what the Firm does, it does not hurt to ask anyway; we will try to point you in the right direction.

No. Bearstone Law is exclusively a civil litigation firm and does not handle criminal cases. If you are facing charges, you need a criminal defense attorney.

That said, if a criminal case and a civil claim overlap — for example, you were seriously hurt by someone who was also charged with a crime — the Firm can still look at the civil side.

Yes, assuming the injuries are serious. Collisions involving commercial trucks, 18-wheelers, delivery vehicles, and company drivers are a significant part of the Firm’s work, because those cases usually involve a business defendant, a commercial insurance policy, and evidence — driver logs, telematics, maintenance records, dashcam footage — that starts disappearing quickly.

If you were badly hurt in a collision, get your information to the Firm early so that evidence can be preserved.

Yes — wrongful death is central to the Firm’s core practice areas. It represents surviving spouses, children, and parents, and it handles the estate’s own claim for what the person suffered before death.

These cases have their own rules about who has the legal right to bring the claim, and their own deadline, which generally runs from the date of death. If you have lost a family member and think someone else is responsible, contact the Firm rather than waiting to see what an insurance company offers.

Yes. The Firm handles nursing home and long-term care cases involving falls, pressure ulcers, malnutrition and dehydration, medication errors, unexplained injuries, wandering, understaffing, and deaths in facility care.

Useful early steps: photograph everything you can see, request the resident’s complete chart in writing, write down the names of staff you have spoken with, and report the facility to the state if you have not already. Then contact the Firm.

Selectively, yes. Texas medical malpractice claims typically run on the same two-year limitations period as other injury claims, but they are harder in ways that affect you directly:

• The clock generally runs from the negligent act or the end of that course of treatment, rather than from when you found out about it.
• There is an absolute ten-year outer cutoff.
• You generally must give the provider 60 days’ pre-suit notice, with a medical authorization, before filing.
• The case requires a qualified expert report from a physician before it can move forward.

The Firm focuses on malpractice that caused death, permanent impairment, or a lifetime of medical care: paralysis, brain injury, loss of a limb, birth injury, and similar outcomes. If you are unsure where yours falls, send the details early rather than waiting.

Yes — this is one of the Firm’s core practice areas. It represents policyholders against their own insurers in coverage disputes and bad faith claims: denials with no real explanation, lowball payments, unreasonable delay, misrepresented policy language, and claims left sitting without a decision.

Property, commercial, and other first-party coverage disputes are all worth bringing to the Firm. If you have your policy, your claim correspondence, and any denial letter, those documents usually tell the story quickly.

Yes. The Firm handles claims involving defective vehicles and vehicle components, machinery and industrial equipment, consumer products, and medical devices, where the product caused serious injury or death.

One thing matters more here than in almost any other case type: keep the product. Do not return it, discard it, repair it, or let anyone else take it. Photograph it, keep the packaging, instructions, and receipt if you have them, and tell the Firm you still have it.

Yes — that is much of what the Firm does. Its matters typically run against corporations, trucking companies, hospital systems, nursing home operators, manufacturers, and insurance carriers, all of whom show up with experienced defense counsel. The Firm builds every case on the assumption that the other side will be well-resourced and well-represented.

There is no formal minimum, but the Firm concentrates on catastrophic and high-stakes matters, and it only takes a case where it believes it can add genuine value. If your claim is not a fit, the Firm will tell you honestly rather than take it and underserve it, and it will try to point you toward someone better suited.

Three steps:

• Send your information. For an injury or death claim, the case evaluation form gives the Firm the most to work with. You can also call 469-505-1033.
• The Firm reviews what you sent and runs a conflict check.
• If it looks like the Firm can add real value, someone reaches out to schedule a full consultation.

A person from the Firm typically follows up within one to two business days — sometimes sooner, occasionally longer, depending on volume and availability. Calls and email are monitored around the clock, but that does not mean you will get a response outside business hours.

If your matter is time-sensitive — a deadline, a hearing, a filing due — do not rely on a form. Call 469-505-1033 and email [email protected] with the date, so it is in front of someone immediately.

Usually by video — most often Zoom, and you will get a link in advance. You can join from a computer or dial in from a phone, and being on camera is optional. In-person meetings at the Frisco office can be arranged by appointment.

The who, what, when, where, and why. Concretely:

• Your full name, phone number, and email.
• What happened, in as much detail as you can give.
• When it happened — dates drive legal deadlines.
• Where it happened, and where the people involved live (city and state is enough).
• Who else is involved — other drivers, companies, hospitals, insurers, employers.
• Whether you have already spoken with an attorney about this, and whether you hired one.

You do not need documents in hand to make first contact. The Firm will send an intake form and a secure upload link to collect them.

Whatever you already have — do not delay contacting the Firm in order to go collect things. The useful items are:

• Police or incident reports
• Photos and video
• Medical records and bills
• Insurance policies and claim correspondence, including any denial letter
• Wage or employment records
• Any contracts
• Names and contact information for witnesses

If you have a letter with a deadline printed on it, send that one first.

Your information goes into the Firm’s intake system. The Firm runs a conflict check and reviews both the merits and the practical realities of the claim, then reaches one of three outcomes:

• It may ask whether you would like to schedule a consultation;
• It may hold the matter open pending more information; or
• It may decline the representation.

You will be told which as promptly as possible. A decline is not a judgment about you, or about whether you were wronged — it usually means the Firm is not the right fit for that particular claim, or that we are simply out of bandwidth at that time.

Call 469-505-1033 or email [email protected], and mention that you are an existing client along with your matter.

Please do not use the public forms on this website for case-specific questions or to send documents — they are not the right channel for sensitive or confidential case material.

Fees depend entirely on the specifics of a case, so it is not something the Firm can quote on a web page. The attorney will go through fees and costs with you directly once he understands your situation, and nothing is agreed to until you have a written engagement agreement in front of you to read and sign.

To start that conversation, send your information through the case evaluation form or call 469-505-1033.

Fee structure is something the attorney discusses with you directly, because it depends on the particulars of your case. Send your information through the case evaluation form or call 469-505-1033, and you will get clear answers from the attorney before you commit to anything.

Fees and case costs are exactly the kind of thing to discuss with the attorney directly, since the answer turns on your specific case. Everything is spelled out in a written engagement agreement that you review and sign before any work begins, and you will have the chance to ask questions about all of it.

Reach the Firm through the case evaluation form or at 469-505-1033.

Sending your information puts you under no obligation and creates no commitment on either side. Any question about fees or costs is one the attorney will take up with you directly, based on the particulars of your case.

Yes, and it is the most urgent thing in your situation. Most Texas personal injury and wrongful death claims have to be filed within two years — sometimes sooner. The real answer depends on your facts, and several traps are far shorter than two years, as in mere months or weeks. Deadlines also start running from different dates depending on the type of claim.

Missing one usually ends the claim permanently, however strong it was. Do not try to work yours out on your own — send your key dates and let the Firm check them.

Possibly not, and it is worth checking rather than assuming. Sometimes it depends on why you are late.

Deadlines sometimes start later than people expect — from the date a problem was discovered rather than when it occurred, from the date of death rather than the date of injury, or later for a claim that belongs to a child. In some circumstances they can be paused. Those are attorney determinations, not something to guess at. Send your dates and the Firm will look.

Longer than most people expect. A claim that resolves before a lawsuit is filed might still take several months to a year. A case that goes into litigation commonly runs one to three years, sometimes longer if it is tried or appealed.

What drives it is how hard liability is contested, how long your medical picture takes to stabilize, and how the other side behaves. The Firm will give you a realistic picture for your specific case rather than an optimistic one. No attorney can promise you a timeline or an outcome.

It depends whose adjuster it is, and the difference matters a great deal.

• Your own insurer: your policy usually obligates you to cooperate, which can include giving a statement or sitting for an examination under oath. Refusing can put your own coverage at risk.
• Another party’s insurer: that adjuster is not neutral — part of the job is limiting what gets paid — and you are generally not required to give them a recorded statement, especially before you know the full extent of your injuries.

Either way, be careful what you sign. Releases, broad medical authorizations, and quick settlement offers can close out a claim for a fraction of its value and are usually irreversible. If you are not certain which situation you are in, ask before you record or sign anything.

Do:

• Get any necessary and appropriate medical treatment, and keep going to your appointments.
• Keep every bill, record, and receipt.
• Photograph your injuries and any damage.
• Write down what you remember while it is fresh.
• Preserve the physical evidence — the wrecked vehicle, the defective product, the medication bottle.

Avoid:

• Posting about the incident, your injuries, or your case on social media.
• Giving recorded statements to other parties’ insurers.
• Signing releases or settlement paperwork without advice.
• Discussing the case with anyone other than your attorney and your doctors.

Gaps in medical treatment and social media posts are two of the most common ways a good case loses value.

Not from a web page, no. Whether a claim is viable turns on specifics — who was at fault and how provable that is, whether your injury links medically to what happened, what the damages actually are, whether there is insurance or assets to pay a judgment, and what deadline applies. That is an attorney’s evaluation.

What this page can do is point you to the case evaluation form, which puts your information in front of someone who can answer properly. Nothing on this page is legal advice about your situation.

If another attorney is currently representing you on the matter, the Firm’s practice is typically not to get into the substance unless you specifically ask for a second opinion.

You always have the right to seek a second opinion or to change attorneys. If you are considering either, say so up front and the Firm will tell you what it can do. If you spoke with an attorney but never hired one, these issues do not apply.

Do not route that through a web form. Call 469-505-1033 and email [email protected] with the name of the court, the case number, and the next date.

A matter already in litigation, or with a hearing, filing, or discovery deadline on the calendar, needs an attorney’s eyes right away.

No, and no attorney ethically can. Past results do not predict future outcomes, and every case turns on its own facts, its own evidence, and the people deciding it.

What the Firm can commit to is an honest assessment — including telling you when a case is weak, rather than taking it and disappointing you later.

No. Contacting the Firm — by form, phone, or email — does not, by itself, create an attorney-client relationship, and nothing on this website is legal advice about your situation.

The Firm accepts new clients only through a written engagement agreement signed by both attorney and client. Until that agreement is in place, the Firm is not representing you and is not monitoring any deadline in your matter.

In Texas, if you speak with a lawyer privately for the purpose of getting legal advice, that conversation is both confidential and generally protected by attorney–client privilege, even if you do not end up hiring the lawyer.

As a general matter, it is typically better to share only factual information at the initial consultation, and to wait until a formal engagement is in place before discussing strategy and issues of that sort.

Treat the forms on this website as a front door, not a private conversation with your lawyer. They are fine for your contact information, the basic facts, and a short description of what happened — but save the detail for your consultation with the attorney, where the protections described above apply fully.

Two related points worth knowing. Confidentiality governs what you tell your lawyer; it does not protect what you say to insurance adjusters, to opposing parties, or on social media. And it extends only to communications, not to the underlying facts communicated.

Information you send is used to check for conflicts of interest, evaluate whether the Firm can help, and contact you about your inquiry. The Firm does not sell, rent, or share your personal information or mobile number with third parties for their marketing.

If you give a phone number, the Firm may text you about your inquiry. Message frequency varies with your matter, message and data rates may apply, and you can reply STOP at any time to opt out or HELP for help.

Full details: Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and SMS Terms.

The Firm’s working language is English, and its legal work and written communications are in English. If English is difficult for you, send your information anyway and note which language you prefer, and the Firm will tell you what it can accommodate.

If it is a true emergency — someone is hurt, in danger, or needs medical attention — stop and call 911.

For a legal emergency such as an upcoming filing deadline or hearing, call 469-505-1033 and leave a detailed voicemail with your name, number, the deadline, and what is due, then email the same information to [email protected].

Calls and email are monitored around the clock, so it will be seen — though that does not guarantee a response outside business hours. Anything deadline-driven gets prioritized, so please clearly state whether there is a looming deadline and when it is.