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CAR ACCIDENTS
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TRUCK ACCIDENTS
Do You Understand the Issues of Injury and Damage Compensation When You are Seriously Hurt in a Trucking Accident?
In Texas, you know it is your lot in life as a driver to share our roads, streets, and highways with “big rig” 18-wheelers. They’re the last link in a supply chain that can span thousands of miles as they bring all types of goods to market in all parts of the state and country. Most of the time, they pose no problems to Texas drivers. But what about the exceptions to this general rule? Just how good is that driver? How safe is the load they carry? Has it been adequately secured? How safe is the 18-wheeler itself? Does it even belong on the road? No wonder you feel uneasy when an 18-wheeler pulls dangerously close behind you on a two-lane highway at night, causing you to speed dangerously just to put a bit of space between their front grill and your rear bumper. This is why accidents, injuries, and even deaths are statistically inevitable when 18-wheelers are on the road. If you have been injured in a big rig accident or a loved one was injured or killed in one, a prominent rig accident lawyer with our Law Office stands ready to help you. We have aggressively negotiated fair damage settlements for our clients with trucking company representatives. We have litigated hundreds of significant rig accident cases in civil court during our 20-plus years of service to injury victims. After being involved in one of these horrible and expensive wrecks, we understand your pain and your financial burden. Despite your ability to recover from your injuries (or the wrongful death of a loved one if you are a surviving family member), your troubles are far from over. The difficulties you face in seeking fair compensation for your injuries can be just as arduous as the physical injuries and pain you now suffer from the accident. Fighting for a fair settlement or civil judgment award creates even more emotional stress and exacerbates your financial problems. This is why we feel it is important for you to know all the legal avenues available to take the right action to win just and fair restitution for your injuries, pain, suffering, and lost income.
Determining the Defendants after You’ve Suffered Serious Injuries from a Big Rig Wreck
If you have been hurt in a big rig accident, chances are those injuries are pretty severe because 18-wheeler wrecks are the most expensive and create the most severe injuries. They also produce many more deaths than traditional vehicle wrecks. The first thing you must find out is whose fault it is to determine who is legally liable for injuries you suffered and your property damage. In many 18-wheeler accidents, parties may share liability for damages. Just as often, there is more than one defendant. A legal notion in Texas law called “respondeat superior” states that employers are just as liable for the actions or inaction of their employees when they’re at work. So when the employee makes a contributing mistake, it’s the employer’s responsibility to make things right as the employee who made the error.
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In an injury accident insurance claim involving a big rig, a combination of several different parties can be responsible and subsequently held liable for the wreck. This includes the trucker, the company he or she works for, the company that loaded the trailer, the person who planned the truck’s route, and by connection to any responsible party. This insurance company insured those who were liable. Another source of liability is relatively new. The government outsources a lot of road maintenance duties, as well as highway construction, to private industry; if a privately-owned company is performing road construction or maintenance and creates hazardous road conditions that cause a big rig accident in which you are the victim, these companies may also be held liable for a portion, or maybe all, of the liability arising from the accident. All private companies retained to build and maintain Texas roads by the state or county must document that they are adequately insured or provide a significant liability. This bond is often held in escrow. To win your claim among a surplus of potential defendants, you need an experienced prominent rig injury lawyer on your side that also can investigate the scene of an accident to discover who is liable. Naturally, local or state law enforcement agencies do investigate all 18-wheeler accidents. In some instances, so does the US Department of Transportation (DOT), especially if a repeat offender of their statutes and laws governing interstate transportation might be involved. Those investigations often only reveal the primary responsible parties, such as the drivers or the company that owns the rig, if the 18-wheeler has bad brakes or some other safety violation. Such investigations invariably fail to identify all underlying causes for the big rig accident, and every liable party may escape criminal detection. That leaves it to the experienced 18-wheeler accident lawyers and their investigators to conduct more stringent inquiries that identify everyone liable. They know how to determine the degree of each responsible party in every 18-wheeler accident. Occasionally our investigations will even reveal additional criminal facts about the accident that law officials might miss. We pass them along to the appropriate agencies for further discretionary action when this happens.
When you are injured in a commercial trucking accident, your attorney must determine whether the negligent truck driver caused the wreck, if someone else played an important part, or if a mechanical malfunction might be responsible. What if the company that owned the cargo failed to load it correctly or didn’t safely secure the cargo, which caused it to break free during transport and topple the trailer or slide off the trailer and hit your vehicle as it was traveling alongside highway speeds? Or did the route planner negligently send the truck into an area not zoned adequately for 18-wheelers? Were flammable or hazardous chemicals mistakenly loaded inside a tanker not rated to carry such dangerous materials and suddenly, unexpectedly exploded, seriously injuring you as you drove alongside it? It is rarely easy to determine immediate fault in a big rig accident. This is why you benefit in many ways through the expertise of a Texas truck accident lawyer who will make sure that every liable party who is responsible for an 18-wheeler accident is held responsible for your injuries, your accompanying passengers, along with the damage to your vehicle, and other contents.
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Insurance Companies Are Great at Playing “Keep Away” With Your Rightful Compensation
The federal government requires all interstate trucking companies to purchase sizable insurance policies to protect against accidents. There is also certain state-mandated insurance coverage for Texas trucking companies. Many of you might believe that the trucking insurance compensation process is quick and free of surprises. So you must file a claim and wait for that inevitable, generous, compensatory check. That will happen only when pigs fly. All insurance companies are in the business of taking-in premiums and paying out as little as absolutely necessary in claims. Since insurance policies for big rig transport companies involve vast sums of money, much more significant than your personal car insurance coverage, the insurance company’s primary mission is to keep from paying you fairly and increase its high profits. It is no surprise that insurance companies deny every claim possible, whenever possible, and for as long as possible. They do this by habit. Or they do it just to see how serious you are in fighting for your compensation rights. Without the right attorney on your side, collecting a fair settlement from an insurance company is anything but foolproof. While the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Codes grant the right of anyone injured in a big rig accident, or the family of one who was killed to be compensated for the harm done, the law doesn’t say reimbursement is automatically granted when a victim claims an injury. This is the dirty little secret that insurance companies don’t want you to know until you find out the hard way by having to deal with an out-of-hand denial by an insurer. You, as plaintiff, must first prove the liability of the party responsible for the accident and the injuries you suffered from the wreck.
Furthermore, in any liability case, the plaintiff holds the burden of proof: evidence that proves the defendant’s guilt and that your compensation demands are a fair reflection of the losses you’ve experienced from those damages and injuries. The insurance company and the lawyers who represent them do everything possible to deny an injured plaintiff’s claim or argue that the level of restitution you seek is excessive and unreasonable. Somewhere along the way, they’ll charge you with filing a frivolous lawsuit and don’t deserve anything, especially if you are covered by auto insurance that can pay the compensation they feel they are not responsible for. As we said, pork would be sitting in the trees before anyone sees an insurance company that benevolently grants any injury claim without a hard fight.
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The Ugly Underside of an Insurance Company: Adjusters Who are Not to be Trusted
Insurance adjusters are just as dangerous to an accident victim as the defense lawyers who represent their companies, maybe even worse. They aim to help their employer, not you: plain and simple. They are interested solely in saving their companies money by denying your claim, underestimating the accident’s cost, or placing one obstacle after another in your path to that just compensation. An adjuster acts like your sympathetic best friend and constantly assures you that your needs are met, only to cut you off at the knees when it’s time to pay up. Insurance adjusters are very clever. They know you probably have a good relationship with your car insurance agent. So they imitate that relationship and ease you into a false sense of security. Sugar would melt in their mouth. Often they might innocently try and record you saying something that is later twisted into sounding like your admitting liability and destroy your chance to receive fair compensation. The trucking company’s insurance adjuster gets paid to deny or hinder your claim. Remember, insurance companies are in business for themselves, not you. Some unscrupulous adjusters even convince uninformed personal injury victims, often deceptively, to sign away the legal right to sue in exchange for a small settlement that never comes close to compensating the victim’s injuries or other losses from an 18-wheeler accident. There’s only one way to stop insurance adjusters in their tracks. Hire an experienced trucking accident lawyer. That way, you don’t have to deal with them at all. Our clients know that adjusters deal with us. They can record us all they want. We’ll never say anything that can come back to haunt you. No matter how innocent, the words you don’t say to an adjuster will never be used to hang you in court.
Corporate insurance adjusters and defense lawyers love nothing more than to find a victim who tries to represent his or herself. They know how easy it is to lead a novice around by the nose. The behavior of insurance adjusters alone should be proof enough of why you need an aggressive big rig accident injury lawyer who knows how to combat the tactics of the insurance companies and win your fair settlement. Only the history of success of an experienced local big rig attorney with our Law Office will combat unscrupulous insurance adjusters, frighten their insurance company employers into a fair settlement, or beat them in court if they insist on fighting you there. Insurance companies are even prepared to fight injury claims before accidents occur. Their experienced attorneys are either on staff or on permanent retainer. They’re just waiting to take on personal injury claims. They specialize in cases like yours and know every trick imaginable to tilt the case in favor of their insurance company employers (and, by definition, their trucking company policyholders). Insurance defense lawyers race to the scene of an accident as soon as it happens and begins investigating to build a case against you while you are still in the hospital after emergency surgery. If you have been injured in an accident involving an 18-wheeler, you mustn’t hesitate to find a big rig accident law firm to help you. You only get one bite at the compensation apple. So you must make it a good one because you’ll never get a second bite once you’ve taken it.
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Can you Trust a Trucker When you’ve Been Seriously Hurt in a Big Rig Wreck?
Let’s see now…With so much at stake, will the truck driver tell the truth if he or she causes an expensive accident? If they do, will they be fired and have to look for another driving job with this hanging around their neck? Will their employer make them the “fall guy” and toss them “under the rig” (as it were) and then distance themselves from the certain attempts of the plaintiff to invoke respondeat superior? Here’s one clue. If the insurance defense attorneys can make the driver out to have been careless, aside from normal respondeat superior, they might wiggle out of it; or maybe not have to pay as much. No matter how you slice it, even if guilty, the sacrificial truck-driving lamb can lessen the financial blow to them. Can you trust the trucker to tell the truth? If this isn’t the driver’s first wreck behind the wheel of a big rig, it’s possible to lose either his state trucking driver’s license or his DOT certification, which means the (former) truck driver has to find a new way to make a living. The temptation for drivers to lie, cheat or behave dishonestly to save their job is too great. That driver’s very paycheck, which supports himself and his family, is at risk. It’s a cold, cruel world out there.
Can you trust the trucker to tell the truth? After suffering a serious injury in a big rig wreck in which the truck driver claimed that our client was driving with his lights off at night, our investigators were retained in time to examine the scene quickly. They noticed a security camera outside a convenience store pointed directly at its parking lot, with a clear view of the accident scene behind it. The video plainly showed our client’s headlights shining brightly when he was hit. We proved that the truck driver boldly lied. So, what do you think? Will the driver tell the truth that the blame comes from his end and those who stand behind him, not yours? Witnesses and defendants can lie or callously misrepresent critical facts in commercial trucking accident cases. The big rig accident lawyers with our Law Office know how to uncover the lies and counter them with the truth to stop witness misrepresentations. Over the past 20 years, we have conducted thousands of 18-wheeler accident investigations to get to the bottom of the case and won for our clients’ fair and just compensation by shining the light on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth: sometimes in court, but often during negotiation. So to answer the question: there are honest truckers in the world. They’re awfully hard to find if one of them just hits you.
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Self-Insured Truck Companies Represent a Sinister Threat to Your Just Compensation
Some trucking companies protect themselves against personal injuries from accidents by reserving a percentage of their assets to pay accident claims instead of purchasing a coverage policy from an insurance carrier. Though federal and state governments monitor the insurance industry, license adjusters, and hold insurance companies to ethical standards as best they can, no such regulations exist for self-insured trucking companies. Seeking compensation from these “self-insured” firms or self-insured independent truckers (or those who run the risk of no insurance or much less than is necessary) can be far more difficult and chaotic than finding justice in the Old West. So be ready to “cowboy up” if you go it alone, you will pursue a settlement with an officer of the company, not an insurance adjuster. This company officer’s salary is typically tied directly to company profits. Any amount paid to you for an injury comes directly from the company coffers, meaning that when the company’s officer compensates you, he or she is taking money out of their own pocket. This is why we’re not surprised when a self-insured company officer stoops to any means to deny your claim, which protects the company’s assets. Self-insured companies (as well as independent truckers) have been known to willfully destroy damning evidence, bribe witnesses, and even physically intimidate their victims. There have been times when those intimidation attempts were directed at our clients. This is why every time our attorneys are hired against a liable self-insured party; the first action we take is to prevent anyone with the company from behaving unsuitably toward our clients. Often, we are forced to demand that they entirely refrain from communicating with our clients unless one of our attorneys is present.
I’m a Smart Person, and I Know People: Why Don‘t I Handle This Myself?
A non-attorney has difficulty accumulating all the knowledge required to effectively negotiate a fair settlement with insurance companies or successfully represent him or herself in court. But more important, seriously injured victims just don’t have time for all the rigmarole. So this article is for the smart one who’s researching now that your loved one is out of surgery and has begun a long road to recovery. Injured victims who represent themselves are certainly an option. It’s just not a very good one right now. Winning is a very long shot at best. When can you get out to investigate the accident scene? Dealing with insurance company tricks is a daily ordeal. Litigation in 18-wheeler accident-related injury cases is extremely complex. Inexperienced attorneys have only a slightly better chance than you alone of recovering any reasonable compensation. So why would you even entertain such a foolish idea, especially when tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars are on the table to pay those inevitable huge bills you’ll be getting shortly?
Would you build your own house on a vacant lot you purchased? You know you wouldn’t. Then why would you risk fighting for your rightful compensation on foreign turf where your opponents make the rules? You need an attorney’s legal expertise and investigative power to successfully represent your personal injury case from a big rig accident. Everyone has heard the old adage about the law: “those who represent themselves have a fool for a client.” But it’s doubly disastrous in any personal injury case, especially an 18-wheeler. The laws and procedures involved are complex, and the playing field is tilted toward the trucking companies, their insurance providers, and attorneys. Those who oppose you have deep pockets and years of experience winning these kinds of cases. You need more than general law knowledge to succeed in trucking accident litigation. Here’s a little secret that few non-lawyers know. Legal knowledge is only the foundation of success. Successful injury negotiation and litigation require a thorough knowledge of civil procedure, a keen understanding of the workings of your opponent, and the ability to develop the perfect strategy necessary to battle the insurance companies and their defense lawyers. Legal novices, by their very definition, don’t have that. Having your opponent’s respect doesn’t hurt, either. This is why an experienced and highly respected big rig accident injury attorney who has spent years taking on the insurance companies and their lawyers and beating them at their own fame is a powerful weapon in your fight for just compensation.
Also, if you have a relative or friend who is a lawyer, even though he or she might be looking out for your best interests and might be inspired to fight hard for your rights when an 18-wheeler accident has befallen you, often, that person might have a difficult time detaching him or herself emotionally from the issues (and passion) surrounding your case. Personal injury law can get intense: often “chippy.” A specialized commercial trucking accident attorney must be pragmatic, myopically focus on the facts of a case and be very cool under fire if your claim or civil case is to be successful. What happens if that friend or relative attorney doesn’t win the case or accepts a woefully substandard settlement because he knows how badly you need the money now? How will you feel about your friend or a relative then? Keep your family members and friends out of your legal business. There are much better ways in which they can support you in your time of need. You and your family will be wise to remember this when deciding who will represent your big rig liability lawsuit to your greatest benefit.
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Your Best Chance After an 18 Wheeler Accident is With Experience on Your Side.
Only after trying hundreds of cases can a lawyer learn the intricacies of developing the right tactics for success at trial or in negotiations with insurance companies in an 18-wheeler accident. Most people, and many inexperienced attorneys, don’t know the proper way to answer interrogatories, prepare demand packages, and conduct sophisticated depositions that get to the bottom of liability for the accident that caused injuries and pain. Experienced attorneys know how to conduct sophisticated accident investigations or respond to admissions lists. You need somebody who knows how to do all this and forcefully represents your interests. Insurance companies only agree to fair settlements if you are protected by an attorney with a history of success in court. While insurance companies and their lawyers are eager to take on non-lawyers and inexperienced attorneys, they fear us. When we file a claim, the insurance companies usually see the wisdom of settling with our clients for a fair amount. They want to avoid a trial, especially if they know you have a strong case. From a fair settlement, our clients can resume living their lives again because we’ve negotiated that compensation on their behalf. Our attorneys suggest that you interview at least two or three big rig accident lawyers before choosing the firm that will represent you. Start with those who are local and experienced. Ask each member about his track record for settling and litigating serious big rig claims and civil cases. Find out what each one thinks the strengths and weaknesses of your case are. Ask about the attorney’s ability to negotiate fair settlements. Ask them to give you at least two names of former clients whose cases were similar to yours. Then contact them and ask the same questions. Then you’ll be in a better position to hire a local attorney whose experience in handling cases like yours gives you confidence, comfort, and peace of mind that this is the advocate/partner you can confidently trust.
Time Flies: What Should Be Done Now?
Quick action needs to be taken to preserve the evidence in your case now. You must hire a lawyer as quickly as possible to investigate the accident scene immediately. Every moment you wait, evidence becomes stale, witnesses’ memories fade, or their stories can “mysteriously” change. The accident scene also becomes altered either by the passing of time or because your opponents do it themselves. Physical evidence that proves your case also might begin to “mysteriously” disappear. As soon as we are hired, our Law Office begins a thorough investigation of the accident scene to uncover evidence that proves the liability of the truck driver, the trucking company, and any other third parties. We inspect all the vehicles involved, clearly survey the accident scene, measure distances, hunt for photographic and video evidence, and assemble it all to prove your claim or case.
No stone is left unturned in pursuit of all the evidence that proves your serious truck accident damage claim beyond reproach. For example, we were once hired by the families of two men who were involved in a terrible accident with a big rig. After the initial accident, the truck’s trailer was stretched across the unlit road on a moonless night. Only the trailer’s taillights near the shoulder of the highway were visible to oncoming drivers. Our clients rounded a curve and unknowingly smashed into the trailer. One man died at the scene. The other was left fighting for his life. The collision’s force ripped off the vehicle’s roof, killing the driver and critically injuring the passenger. The following day we were hired, flew to the accident scene, and were investigating by lunchtime. Our client’s car had already been towed to a salvage yard by the time we arrived. After examining the vehicle, we found it strange to find no headlights. A warning bell went off when our investigators spotted a security camera near our client’s vehicle in the salvage yard, and we asked the owner to view the video. It showed a mid-level official of the trucking company blatantly removing the headlights. When the company’s insurance carrier tried to claim our client had been driving his car without headlights, we produced the video that caught their client red-handed.
You can guess who won this battle. It didn’t take long. As a nice little bonus, law enforcement officials and the U.S. Department of Transportation found this video very interesting. If the loved ones of these two men drove down the road, minding their own business when tragedy found them, had not been fortunate enough to be referred to us so soon, this crucial evidence would have been gone forever because the salvage yard’s surveillance system recycled its old tapes after two days. We can’t think of a more substantial reason why victims of tractor-trailer accidents need to find a prominent rig accident injury attorney now so the investigation can begin. At the same time, the case, and evidence, is still fresh. Lies and missing evidence can cripple your legal right to fair compensation for your injuries in an 18-wheeler accident from the moment it happens only if – by your inaction – you allow it. Our Law Office has over 20 years of experience handling personal injury claims and litigation in 18-wheeler accident cases. Suppose you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a trucking accident. In that case, we use every bit of our expertise to assure that you and your family receive fair compensation for your injuries and pain. We’ve helped deliver millions of dollars to hundreds of accident victims across Texas. Call us today (toll-free) for a free consultation. Start your road to recovery the right way so you and your family can resume your life.
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When You are Hurt in any Negligent Trucking Accident, You May be Entitled to Compensation
We need trucks to keep our economy going. Trucks of all sizes, from the 18-wheeled behemoths that carry goods from one part of the country to another to large box trucks that move goods locally and deliver products to homes and businesses to the smaller ones that scurry about delivering everything from bread and milk to grocery stores, flowers to sweethearts and carry plumbers and air conditioning repair specialists from one important service call to the next. These deliveries of vital goods and services can sometimes invade your life by suddenly and negligently hitting your vehicle. And suppose you are seriously injured when that happens. In that case, you have the right to be compensated for your injuries, pain, suffering, lost wages, disability if it happens, and – if a loved one has been killed in such an accident – even more damages through a wrongful death insurance claim or civil case. Many questions arise when a tragedy like this befalls you and your family. Just how good is that driver? How safe is the load, they carry if it’s an 18-wheeler and – no matter how big the truck is, How safe is the truck itself? Does it even belong on the road? It’s no wonder you feel a bit uneasy when an appliance truck scurries around like a formula one racing car dashing from one delivery point to the next on a crowded street or moving faster than the traffic will allow on a crowded freeway. This is why accidents, injuries, and even deaths are statistically inevitable when large or overloaded trucks are on the road.If you have been injured in a commercial trucking accident or a loved one was injured or killed, a truck accident lawyer at our Law Office is always ready to help you. We have won numerous judgments and litigated hundreds of trucking accident cases for our clients during our 20-plus years of service to these injury victims. Your troubles probably continue aside from your ability to recover from your injuries. This is because your mission to seek fair compensation for your injuries is often just as challenging as the physical injuries and pain you have suffered from the accident. You must fight for a fair settlement. You might even have to file a lawsuit to secure the fair injury award you deserve. This creates even more emotional stress as you fight for fiscal justice. Most of the time, a large commercial liability injury insurance company will be standing between you and that fair compensation. So we believe it is very important for you to understand every legal avenue available to you, so you can take the proper action to win the fairest restitution for your damages from a commercial truck accident that is not your fault.
The Damages for Your Injuries and Pain From a Commercial Trucking Wreck Can Be Significant
If you have been seriously hurt because a truck hit your vehicle, the first thing you must find out is whose fault it is to determine who is legally liable for these injuries you suffered and your property damage. Depending on the details of the accident, several defendants may be identified. This is due to an applicable legal precedent in Texas personal injury law called “respondent superior.” It states that employers who are liable for the wreck their employee causes are, by legal definition, every bit as responsible for the action or inaction of their employee. In an accident injury claim involving an 18-wheeler, a combination of several different parties can be responsible and subsequently held liable for the wreck. This includes the trucker, the company he or she works for, the company that loaded the trailer, the person who planned the truck’s route, and (by connection to any of the responsible parties) the insurance company who insured those who are liable. But what if you’re hit by a “big box” truck or a service vehicle? Might a dispatcher have sent the truck to the wrong location or told the driver to take an unnecessary route? Or did that dispatcher order the truck on the road, knowing something was wrong with the vehicle? With tight schedules, sometimes that dispatcher might get as much as he can out of the delivery vehicle before sending it out for repair. Did a defective part cause the truck to careen out of control and hit you? How often (and how recently) was the truck serviced? Was the owner of the company aware that anything was wrong? What about the driving record of the employee behind the wheel? Does he even belong behind the wheel? To win your claim among a surplus of potential defendants, you need an experienced local commercial truck accident lawyer on your side who also can investigate the scene of an accident to discover who is liable. You know that local or state law enforcement agencies also investigate truck accidents. In instances where an 18-wheeler hit you, so does the US Department of Transportation (DOT). This is especially true if a repeat offender of federal statutes and laws governing interstate transportation is involved.
Did You Know? Our Law Firm has been fighting for 18-wheeler accident victims` rights for over 20 years. Call us to discuss your case.
Many times those law enforcement investigations only reveal the primary responsible party, such as the driver or maybe the company that owns the truck. But law enforcement and other such agency investigations often fall short of identifying every underlying cause of the accident, which could reveal more liable culprits who may escape criminal detection. Experienced lawyers and their investigators conduct these much more intensive investigations to identify everyone liable. Our Law Office and its’ panel of veteran investigators know how to determine the degree of each responsible party in every truck accident, from big rigs to delivery vans. At times our investigations reveal additional criminal facts of the accident that public investigation officials miss. When that happens, we pass this information to the appropriate agencies for further discretionary action.
When you are injured in a truck wreck, your attorney must determine whether the negligent truck driver caused the wreck, if someone else played an important part, or if a mechanical malfunction or some other defect had a hand in the accident. What if the company that owned the cargo failed to load it correctly or didn’t safely secure it? Or, did the route planner or dispatcher negligently send the truck into (or through) an area where it might not have belonged? Or maybe flammable chemicals were part of the load inside a truck that was not designed to carry such dangerous materials and suddenly, unexpectedly exploded after the truck hit you, seriously injuring you and your passengers. It is seldom easy to determine immediate fault in a trucking accident. This is why you stand to gain in many ways through the expertise of truck accident lawyers who will make sure that every liable party who is responsible for any trucking accident is held responsible for your injuries, in addition to the damage to your vehicle, its passengers and other contents.
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Insurance Adjusters and Lawyers Will Run You in Circles and Leave you With nothing if you Let Them
It’s a good bet that if you are hit by any commercial vehicle, the accident will be covered by some sort of liability insurance company. Like all other drivers in Texas, all companies must carry commercial liability insurance on their vehicles. Many of you are probably assuming that trucking insurance compensation is quick and relatively free of surprises. So you must file a claim and wait for that expected, bighearted, compensatory check. If you believe someone has some swamp land, they want to sell you. All insurance companies are in the business of taking-in premiums and paying out claims with an eyedropper. Since insurance policies for most all trucking companies involve huge sums of money, the insurance company’s sole mission is to keep from paying you fairly. They increase their already high profits and pay out those big dividends to their investors. So it is no surprise that insurance companies deny every claim they can, whenever possible and for as long as possible. They do this simply because they can. Collecting a fair settlement from an insurance company is virtually impossible without the right attorney on your side.
While the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Codes grant the right for anyone injured in any vehicle accident or the family of one who was killed to be compensated for the harm done, that doesn’t necessarily mean that reimbursement is automatically granted when a victim files an injury claim. Insurance companies want you to think they’re on your side until it’s time to pay. Then you find out the hard way by having to deal with an out-of-hand denial by an insurer.You, as plaintiff, must first prove the liability of all responsible parties for the accident and the injuries you suffered from it. What’s more, in any liability case, the plaintiff holds the burden of proof. You must clearly show that the money you’re asking for fairly reflects the loss you’ve experienced from those damages and injuries after you prove liability, which isn’t always easy. The insurance company, its adjusters, and the lawyers who represent them do everything possible to deny a plaintiff’s claim or argue that the restitution you seek is excessive and unreasonable or that you caused the accident. Often, they’ll try and prove all three because if they can prove only one, they’re off the hook, and you get stuck. Insurance companies profit by saying “no” to ordinary everyday folks like you. Insurance adjusters are just as dangerous to accident victims as the defense lawyers representing their companies. They help their employer, not you: plain and simple. They do this by saving their companies money by covertly helping to deny your claim or underestimating the cost of the accident by any means necessary.
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An adjuster behaves like a long-lost best friend and bends over backward to convince you that all of your needs are met. Then they turn around and stab you in the back. Insurance adjusters are very clever. They act like your “good neighbor” auto insurance agent and create a false sense of security. Often they innocently try and record you saying something that is later twisted into sounding like your admitting liability and destroy your chance to receive fair, or any, compensation. The insurance adjuster and the companies they work for are in business for themselves, not you. Some unscrupulous adjusters will even try to deceptively convince uninformed prominent rig accident victims to sign away the legal right to sue in exchange for flashing a small settlement that would never come close to compensating them for injuries or other losses from a commercial trucking accident. We’ve even seen a few haunting the ICU, waiting to pounce on unwary accident victims before they even have a chance to take stock of their dire straits.
Corporate insurance adjusters and defense lawyers in their expensively tailored suits love nothing more than to find a victim who tries to represent his or herself. They easily lead a novice down the primrose path of ultimate defeat. The underhanded behavior of most insurance adjusters alone should be proof enough of why you need an aggressive personal injury attorney who knows how to combat the tactics of the insurance companies and win your fair settlement. Only the history of success of an experienced truck accident lawyer with our Law Office will combat unscrupulous insurance adjusters and frighten their insurance company employers into a fair settlement or beat them in court if they don’t. Insurance companies are even prepared to fight injury claims before accidents occur. Their attorneys are either on staff or on permanent retainer. They’re good and just waiting to take on personal injury claims. They specialize in cases like yours and know every trick in the book. Insurance lawyers race to the scene of an accident and begin investigating to build a case against you while you are still trying to figure things out. This is their game, played by their rules and on their playing field. So why would you hesitate to find a Texas trucking accident law firm to help you? You only get one bite at the compensation apple. Once you take that bite, it better be enough to see you through because when you get that check, you sign your right to sue again away.
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For a Truck Driver to Tell the Truth in a Commercial Trucking Accident is Often a Grave Mistake
With so much at stake, you cannot always trust the driver to tell the truth if his or her negligence has caused an expensive accident. If truck drivers are found to be liable for an accident, not only can they be fired, it could become very difficult for them to land a new job after costing their previous employer enormous damages due to their negligence. Sometimes employers will fire him outright and make the driver the “fall guy” as they run for cover to avoid their role as respondent superior or cover their direct negligence that caused the accident. This is especially true in 18-wheeler big rig accidents involving state and local law enforcement and the federal government. If this 18-wheeler driver has been in previous accidents, it’s possible to lose either his state trucking driver’s license or his DOT certification, which means this former trucker has to find new line-of work. With high unemployment in the U.S., the temptation for that driver to lie, cheat or behave dishonestly to save their job can be too great to ignore since that driver risks losing the paycheck that supports his or her family.
After suffering an injury in an 18-wheeler accident in which the truck driver claimed that our client was driving with his lights off at night, our investigators quickly examined the scene. They discovered a security camera outside a convenience store pointed directly at its parking lot and the accident scene behind it. The video clearly showed our client’s headlights shining brightly. We proved that the truck driver boldly lied. Witnesses and defendants can lie or callously misrepresent critical facts in trucking accident cases. The lawyers with our Law Office know how to uncover the lies and counter them with the truth to stop witness misrepresentations. We’ve seen many “about town” delivery and other short-haul truck drivers do the same thing (which is anything) to avoid liability for the accident and save their jobs. This is why it is important to hire an experienced attorney as soon as possible so that a professional investigation of the accident can begin. while the evidence is still fresh and easy to gather. Over the past 20 years, we have conducted thousands of trucking accident investigations to get to the bottom of the case and won our clients’ fair and just compensation by shining the light on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
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As a Seriously Injured Commercial Trucking Accident Victim, Your Best Chance is With Experience on Your Side.
Only after trying hundreds of cases can a lawyer understand and use the intricacies of personal injury law to develop the perfect plan for success in negotiations or at trial against insurance companies in a commercial trucking accident caused by their negligence. Most people, and many inexperienced attorneys, don’t know the proper way to answer interrogatories, prepare demand packages, and conduct sophisticated depositions to get to the bottom of liability for the trucking accident that caused your injuries and pain. Experienced attorneys know how to conduct complicated accident investigations and respond to admissions lists. Somebody who knows how to do all of this knows how to forcefully and effectively represent your interests. Insurance companies only agree to fair settlements if you are protected by an attorney with a history of success in court. While insurance companies and their lawyers are eager to take on non-lawyers and inexperienced attorneys, they fear us. When we step in, the insurance companies often see the wisdom of settling with our clients for a fair amount. They want to avoid a trial, especially if they know you have a strong case. From a fair settlement, you can resume living your life again after we’ve secured that compensation on your behalf. A non-attorney will have difficulty accumulating all the knowledge in a short time necessary to effectively negotiate a fair settlement with insurance companies or successfully represent you in court. Litigating any personal injury case is extremely intricate.
Inexperienced attorneys have only a slightly better chance than you have by yourself to recover any reasonable compensation. So why would you even entertain either of these misguided ideas, especially when huge amounts of money are on the table? Why would you consider hiring anything short of a successful personal injury lawyer with the expertise and investigative power to represent your claim against those who caused a trucking accident that injures or disables you or causes the death of a loved one? We all know the old saying. “Those who legally represent themselves have a fool for a client.” But it’s doubly disastrous in any personal injury case, especially involving a commercial truck. The laws and procedures involved are complex, and the playing field is tilted against you. The trucking companies, insurance providers, and attorneys have deep pockets and years of experience winning these kinds of cases. You need the most significant “legal gun” you can find to succeed in trucking accident litigation. Legal knowledge in and of itself accounts for maybe a third of all the necessary elements for success in personal injury cases. Successful litigation requires thorough knowledge of civil procedure and the ability to develop the tailor-made strategy necessary to battle the insurance companies and their defense lawyers. Inexperienced personal injury attorneys, or worse, you, don’t have that. Having your opponent’s respect is also an essential element of victory. This is why an experienced, highly regarded, and respected commercial truck wreck injury lawyer who has spent years taking on the insurance companies and their lawyers and beating them at their own game is the most potent weapon in your fight for just compensation. Also, if you have a relative or friend who is a lawyer, even though he or she might be looking out for your best interests and might be inspired to fight hard for your rights when a trucking accident has befallen you; often that person might have a difficult time disassociating him or herself emotionally from issues surrounding your case. Personal injury law is often quite intense. A specialized truck accident lawyer must be calm under fire and focus solely on the facts of the case if you are to be successful. What happens if that friend or relative attorney doesn’t win or accept a less-than-fair settlement because he knows how badly you need the money now? How will you feel about your friend or relative then? Keep your family members and friends out of your legal business. Let your friends and relatives support you and your family during your time of need. That’s really what they’re good at anyway, right?
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OK, What Do We Need to Do to Get Started Now?
You must take steps to preserve the evidence in your case now and act quickly. You must hire a lawyer to investigate the accident scene immediately. Every moment you wait, evidence becomes compromised, you witness memories fade, or their stories “mysteriously” change. The accident scene also becomes altered either by the passing of time, or maybe your opponents do it themselves. Physical evidence that proves your case can also begin to “mysteriously” disappear. As soon as we are hired, our Law Office begins a thorough investigation of the accident scene to uncover the proper evidence that proves the liability of the truck driver, his or her employer, and any other third parties. We inspect all the vehicles involved, clearly survey the accident scene, measure distances, hunt for photographic and video evidence, and amass it all to prove your case. No stone is unturned to uncover all the evidence that proves your claim beyond a shadow of a doubt. Often, a family member of a severe trucking accident victim is the first person who reaches out to us just because the victim cannot. We encourage them to do that because time’s wasted, and the sooner we can begin our investigation, the stronger your insurance claim or civil case will be.
Our respected trucking accident attorneys suggest that, if possible, you interview at least two or three lawyers before choosing the one you want to hire. And if a family member is fresh out of emergency surgery, it is not unusual for family members to begin this task quickly. Hiring an experienced attorney as soon as possible is strongly suggested if the investigation needs to begin ASAP for no reason other than the investigation. Ask each one about his track record for settling and litigating trucking accident cases and get his opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of your case. Ask the lawyers to provide the names of former clients whose cases were similar to yours. Then, contact them and ask the same question you asked your prospective attorney. If you do all of these things to your satisfaction, you’ll be able to hire an attorney whose experience in handling cases such as yours gives you confidence and peace of mind that this is the lawyer you can trust with your case. When accident victims retain attorneys with our Law Office, they receive the following services:
We ensure that our clients receive the medical care they require to recover from their injuries.
We conduct an in-depth investigation to determine the cause of the accident. This includes asset checks of all defendants to ensure they can pay damages.
Our investigators gather evidence that we will need to prove your claims, including witness statements, photographs, forensic tests, and police reports.
We respond to and send discovery requests (and shield you from opposition insurance adjusters).
We manage ALL the paperwork and phone calls related to your claims. We file all motions (and answer all motions made by the defense) quickly and effectively.
We use our stellar reputation to pressure the defendants into a settlement.
When necessary, we file lawsuits and argue them aggressively to prove your damage case in front of a jury.
We fairly and accurately calculate all damages resulting from the car accident and demand fair compensation for you.
Do the Right Thing for Your Family: Contact an Experienced Truck Accident Lawyer
Our Law Office has over 20 years of experience handling personal injury litigation in 18-wheeler accident cases. If you or a loved one has been in a trucking accident, we use our expertise to ensure that you receive fair compensation for your injuries and pain. We’ve helped deliver millions of dollars to hundreds of accident victims in Texas. So if you or a loved one has been involved in a trucking accident, let an experienced accident lawyer win the best compensation for you. Call us today (toll-free) for a free consultation to continue your road to total recovery and resume your life.
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