Cesar Tavares

If you are sorting through Houston injury attorneys, one question matters more than almost any other: does this lawyer actually try cases, or does everything get settled on the insurance company’s terms? Cesar Tavares of Williams Hart & Boundas, LLP answers that question with a courtroom record few plaintiffs’ lawyers anywhere can match — more than a dozen jury verdicts above $1 million, two verdicts ranked among the Top 10 in Texas in a single year, and total client recoveries well past the $100 million mark.

That history is not just a trophy case. Defense lawyers and insurers keep tabs on which attorneys will walk into a courtroom and which will fold, and they price their settlement offers accordingly. When the lawyer across the table has repeatedly persuaded juries to award seven and eight figures, lowball offers tend to disappear. Clients hiring Tavares inherit that credibility from day one. His outcomes span the full range of catastrophic cases: $10 million for the family of a man killed in a crane accident, $10 million for a family who lost a loved one in a trucking crash, $6.5 million in a trucking wrongful death, $8.25 million for a mother whose son died near her home, a $5 million settlement reached mid-trial after he cross-examined the defense experts, and $3.995 million for a seaman who lost his leg to an infection contracted aboard a vessel — among more than 100 successful outcomes. In 2025, he earned the number one workplace-negligence jury verdict in Tarrant County per TopVerdict.com.

His path to that record was anything but typical. Born in Mexico City, Tavares immigrated to the United States as a child and became the first in his family to earn a college degree — completing an associate’s degree at Utah Valley University in 2003, then a philosophy degree with honors from Brigham Young University in 2005, all while working full-time and supporting his family. He went on to Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude in 2009, and has been trying cases ever since. He joined Williams Hart & Boundas in 2017, where his practice centers on personal injury, product liability, trucking litigation, and maritime and Jones Act claims.

Who should call him? Anyone facing a truly serious case: a fatal 18-wheeler collision, a refinery or oilfield injury, a defective product that caused burns or amputation, a railyard accident, or an offshore injury governed by maritime law. These are cases where the defendant has deep pockets and aggressive lawyers, and where the difference between an average result and a life-changing one comes down to whether your attorney can credibly threaten — and win — a jury trial. Tavares works on contingency, so injured clients pay nothing unless he recovers for them, and consultations are free. Families dealing with wrongful death, injured industrial and maritime workers, and victims of commercial trucking crashes will find in him a rare combination: elite credentials, a genuine trial record, and a personal history that keeps him grounded in who he is fighting for.