Personal Injury Lawyers in Clovis, NM

Clovis, NM sits where U.S. Routes 60, 70, and 84 converge in the high plains of eastern New Mexico, a city of roughly 39,000 built as a division point on the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and still crossed daily by BNSF freight traffic through its downtown. Eight miles west, Cannon Air Force Base adds several thousand active-duty personnel and their families to the area, a presence that shapes not just the local economy but occasionally the legal rules that apply when someone gets hurt.

Where Three Highways and a Rail Line Meet

US-60 and US-84 run together west out of Clovis toward Fort Sumner, while US-70 splits off southwest toward Portales and eventually Roswell, and all three carry a steady mix of long-haul trucking, agricultural equipment, and commuter traffic through town. Add a BNSF main line with at-grade crossings threading through residential and commercial streets, and Clovis sees a wider variety of serious crash types than many similarly sized New Mexico cities — highway collisions at rural speeds, intersection wrecks near the Prince Street commercial corridor, and the occasional vehicle-train incident. Each type of case draws on different evidence, from commercial carrier logs to railroad crossing signal records.

Cannon Air Force Base and Federal Claims

Cannon Air Force Base is one of Clovis’s largest employers, home to roughly 4,500 active-duty personnel along with thousands of family members and civilian workers. Most accidents involving base personnel off-duty proceed like any other New Mexico injury claim. But when a federal employee or a service member driving a government vehicle causes a crash in the scope of their duties, the case typically shifts to the Federal Tort Claims Act — a different track entirely, requiring an administrative claim filed with the Air Force within two years and a required waiting period before any lawsuit can reach federal court. Sorting out which track applies early can matter enormously to how a Clovis case is built and where it ultimately gets filed.

Fault Rarely Ends a Claim in New Mexico

New Mexico follows pure comparative negligence, the rule the state Supreme Court adopted in Scott v. Rizzo. A Clovis claimant found 60% at fault for an accident on US-60/84 can still recover 40% of the verdict — there is no percentage that erases a claim outright, unlike the harsher modified-comparative rules used just across the border in Texas. That makes the fight over fault percentage, rather than fault itself, the center of most contested Clovis injury claims.

Uncapped Damages, With Two Exceptions

Compensatory damages in an ordinary Clovis claim against a private party — medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering — carry no cap under New Mexico law. The exceptions are narrow: claims against the City of Clovis, Curry County, or a state entity are capped at $750,000 per occurrence under the Tort Claims Act, with a 90-day notice requirement and a two-year filing deadline instead of the standard three years. A medical malpractice claim against Plains Regional Medical Center, the area’s hospital, carries its own separate cap of $6 million as of 2026, with a new law effective May 20, 2026 also capping punitive damages in malpractice cases specifically.

Insurance Minimums and Cross-Border Traffic

New Mexico requires minimum liability coverage of 25/50/10 — $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident in bodily injury coverage, plus $10,000 in property damage. Since January 1, 2026, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage has been mandatory on every policy issued in the state, a change that carries extra weight in Clovis given how much traffic crosses in from Texico and Farwell, Texas, just 18 miles east — drivers who may carry only their home state’s coverage, which does not always match New Mexico’s requirements.

Finding the Right Lawyer for Your Case

The Lawyer Atlas is a directory, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice about your specific situation. Look for a Clovis-area attorney who understands both ordinary New Mexico negligence law and, where relevant, the Federal Tort Claims Act process that governs claims tied to Cannon Air Force Base. Most personal injury attorneys offer a free consultation and work on contingency, meaning there is typically no fee unless the case results in a recovery — ask how that fee is calculated and who covers case costs before you sign anything.