Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Texas

You probably do not want to file a medical negligence claim or nursing home abuse claim in small claims court because the damages you will likely seek will exceed the jurisdictional limits of the small claims court. Under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, you can join all claims against the opposing party(ies) in one lawsuit. Therefore, if you decide to file a medical negligence or nursing home abuse claim against the facility, then you will also be allowed to add the $5K claim to that lawsuit.

Since you are awaiting the outcome of the DADS investigation before you file a lawsuit, you should be sure that the applicable statutes of limitations on all of your claims against the opposing party(ies) do not pass before you file a lawsuit. Otherwise, your claims will be time barred by the applicable statute of limitations. Different claims - depending on which theory of law they are based - have different statutes of limitations. These statutes of limitations vary greatly, and will most likely have different dates or events that trigger when each of the limitations period starts to run.