Texarkana Truck Accident Attorney Michael Grossman Discusses Semi-Truck Wrecks in East Texas
No matter where you travel on the highways in and around Texarkana, you’re going to encounter big rigs; they are a constant presence on the road. And even though they can be annoying to some fellow motorists and intimidating to others, they perform the vital function of transporting goods from the Texarkana area to all points of the state of Texas and across the country. They are ever present, day and night.
Behind the wheel of each big rig is a trucker who spends hours at a time behind the wheel and logs thousands of miles. Multiply the immense number of big rigs on the road by the number of potentially exhausted drivers piloting them, and it is easy to see why accidents, injuries and deaths are, unfortunately, a relatively common occurrence.
If you or someone you love has been injured or killed as the result of an 18-wheeler accident, the Texarkana big rig accident attorneys with Grossman Law Offices are here to help you understand what kinds of legal avenues you may be able to pursue. We empathize with the emotional trauma you have experienced. However, your problems may only be beginning. Dealing with the litigation you will have to undertake in order to obtain the fair restitution you deserve can be a cause for even more suffering and distress – should you try and take on this incredible responsibility by yourself. In this article, we will provide you information that is designed to explain the intricate and complex nature of big rig accident litigation, and how you can win just compensation for everything that you have had to go through.
Who is to Blame for the Accident?
The first thing that has to take place in the event that you are involved in an accident with a big rig is to accurately determine who is to blame for that accident. There are many cases involving big rigs where there is more than one defendant. The legal concept known as respondeat superior mandates that all employers in the state of Texas are liable for the job-related actions or inactions of their employees. In the case of a big rig accident, then, there are multiple defendants that can be held responsible for various forms of negligent acts that are committed that result in an accident occurring.
For example, in most big rig accidents, the driver, obviously, is the first party to which blame will be attached. He or she could have been driving under the influence of some kind of drug. If that proves to be the case, then that driver’s employer can be held liable as well for negligently testing the driver for narcotics. In another example, the company responsible for planning a truck’s route can also be held liable if that truck, for example, collides with a bridge that has too low of a clearance for the rig. Or the company could have sent that rig into an area that is not zoned for trucking, and be liable for any accident that involved the rig that occurred in that area. Still another example is that of a company that is charged with loading a truck’s cargo, but improperly secures the cargo and causes an accident. We bring you these examples to illustrate how easily there could be multiple parties against which you can take legal action in the event of an accident taking place. And each of them could be independently liable.
But to have any chance in obtaining the just restitution you have coming to you from all the potentially liable parties involved in your accident, you need the skill and experience of a Texarkana big rig accident lawyer who will protect your rights. Such an attorney is well seasoned in investigating the cause of a big rig accident and helping you accurately assess blame. The driver of the 18-wheeler obviously seems to be one responsible party, but was his or her negligence the true cause of the accident, or did a critical mechanical part malfunction? Was the cargo that the truck was transporting properly secured, or did it come loose and cause the accident? Did the truck hit a low bridge because the company planning the big rig’s route did an inadequate job? It is very rare to be able to quickly and easily determine all the parties to blame in a big rig accident case. That is why you need an experienced Texarkana big rig attorney who can not only make sure everyone to blame for the accident is held accountable, but to accurately determine the degree to which each party is to blame, so that damages can be properly assessed.
Can an Accident Victim Self-Represent?
It is quite legal, of course, for the victim of a big rig accident to represent himself or herself in the ensuing litigation – but it is never recommended. We’re sure you’ve heard of the old saying, “someone who represents himself in court has a fool for a client.” That saying has survived all of these decades because it is true. The road to either settling a big rig accident case out of court or successfully taking it to a trial is fraught with complexity and, in some cases, treachery. Would you perform knee surgery on your son? Would you try and build a Ferrari by yourself in your garage? Of course you would not; you do not have the skills required, skills that take many years to develop and hone. The same is true for trying to litigate a big rig accident case. You will see several illustrations in this article why it is imperative that you enlist the assistance of a skilled and seasoned Texarkana big rig accident lawyer in order to get the just compensation you deserve.
Dealing with a Large Corporation
Trucking companies are mandated by federal law to purchase extremely expensive insurance policies to protect themselves from the inevitable litigation that will stem from inevitable accidents. A lot of people are under the erroneous belief that since the trucking company is insured, getting compensation will be a quick and easy process. In reality, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Insurance companies could not care less about how badly you are hurt, or how much you have lost financially and otherwise due to the accident. They care only about their bottom line, and their interests will always be diametrically opposed to yours. In fact, the worse you are injured, the harder they will fight to defeat your claim. The reason is that the monetary amounts associated with severe injury and death claims can reach astronomical heights, and significantly damage an insurance company’s bottom line. If the insurance company capitulates to your demands, it is setting a precedent and will have to do the same in the next case, the next case, the next case after that, and so on. So they will do everything in their power to make sure they defeat your case.
Texas personal injury law flows from the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code, and that code allows the victim or loved ones of a victim of a personal injury or wrongful death due to a big rig accident to try and obtain restitution for the harm that has befallen the victim. But that victim, known as the plaintiff in legal parlance, has to bear the burden of proof and establish that the defendant was responsible for the accident taking place. The victim must also prove that the amount of restitution that is being sought is an equitable monetary amount. The insurance company, on the other hand, will either attempt to have the claim denied flat-out or argue that the amount of compensation sought is too high. The best chance you have at getting the just compensation you deserve is by hiring a skilled and seasoned Texarkana big rig accident attorney who is adept in the fine art of dealing with huge trucking and insurance companies.
The High-Powered Insurance Professional
Before your accident even happened, the insurance company was already prepared for your case. Insurances carriers maintain a staff of legal specialists, and these well-trained and highly paid professionals are devoted to helping that insurer protect its profit margins. These specialists are experts in dealing with personal injury litigation, and they have at their disposal a large bag of tricks they can use to sway a judge or jury to the side of the insurance company. These defense lawyers will typically speed to the scene of an accident almost immediately after it takes place in order to launch an investigation. The main purpose of the investigation is to gather critical evidence the defense will need to prove that the injury victim was the cause of the accident so that the insurer can build a case before that victim even hires a lawyer. The longer you wait to get an attorney on your side, the more difficult it will be to win your case, because your lawyer will be in the position of having to play catch-up with the opposition. It’s just that simple; as much pain or emotional trauma you may be experiencing, it is imperative that you act quickly and decisively in procuring legal representation.
Never Trust an Insurance Adjuster
The second component of the insurance company’s two-pronged attack on your case will be the insurance adjuster assigned to it. And he or she is just as much your enemy as is the defense lawyer. Shortly after the accident, the adjuster will get in touch with you and act almost as your friend; he or she will give the impression of being much like the adjuster you may encounter after a minor fender-bender. But do not be fooled – this person is another highly skilled professional who is bound and determined to see to it that your case fails. In fact, he or she may have a very substantial bonus riding on it. The adjuster, after gaining your trust, will then all of a sudden change course and pepper you with a series of confusing and misleading questions that are designed to make you trip up and say something that can be construed as an admission of blame in the accident. Once you make that mistake, they will use your words against you and see that your claim is denied. Even if you don’t flat-out say that you were to blame, they will still record the conversation and twist your words in a way that could, conceivably, make it sound like you are accepting responsibility.
Some adjusters are especially adept at convincing an injury victim or bereaved loved one into accepting a settlement offer without the advice of an attorney. They will ask you to sign a form stating that you agree, in exchange for the settlement, to never try and get more money from the defendant at a later date. Not only will the settlement likely be laughably inadequate in relation to the expenses you are incurring, and will incur in the future, you will be forfeiting your rights by accepting it.
The bottom line is to NEVER agree to talk to the defendant’s insurance company adjuster. Many times these adjusters will come down from Chicago or New York, and when they see an unrepresented injury victim sitting alone at the negotiating table, they know right then and there that they have won. They know that there is no chance a non-lawyer will ever beat them. This is yet another reason you need an assertive, passionate and skilled Texarkana big rig accident lawyer by your side. Such a lawyer will protect you from the unscrupulous tactics of an insurance adjuster, and work to compel the insurance carrier to offer you a fair out-of-court settlement. Insurance company professionals will only respond to the threat that an experienced lawyer with a track record of success presents. The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have defeated nearly every major insurance company in the United States over the past 20 years, so insurers know we are a real threat to them. As a result, they will be much more likely to offer one of our clients a fair settlement rather than risk much more money by trying to tangle with us in a courtroom.
Never Trust a Truck Driver, Either
There is no way that you can ever expect the driver of the truck that caused your accident to admit his or her responsibility. And when you think about it, you can see why. A truck driver found to be at-fault for an accident that results in an injury will more than likely be fired. Not only that, but with a black mark that severe, he or she will probably not be hired by any other trucking company. So that driver will basically have to lie in order to have a chance at keeping his or her job and providing for his or her family. When you think about the state of the economy at this time, you can see why otherwise honorable and reliable people would stoop to lying in order to protect their way of life.
Here’s an illustration of a big rig accident case that involved a lying truck driver. A client who had been injured in an accident with an 18-wheeler hired us, and during our investigation, the driver of the rig said that our client had been driving with his headlights off at the time of the accident; the accident occurred in the evening. Our investigators promptly arrived at the accident scene, and while gathering evidence they noted that a nearby store had a security camera pointing directly at the accident scene. We were able to procure the video, and it showed that, indeed, our client had his headlights on at the time of the accident. We had just caught the driver of the rig in a blatant lie. But, again, this kind of thing is typical in cases involving a big rig accident. If you have an experienced Texarkana big rig accident attorney working for you, he or she will be able to ask the right questions of the driver and expose the lies that driver tries to tell in order to keep a job. During our two decades of handling personal injury litigation, we have questioned thousands of witnesses. As a result, we know how to uncover the truth and help our clients get the just compensation they deserve for the injuries they’ve suffered.
Dealing with a Self-Insured Trucking Company
There are some trucking companies out there that would rather insure themselves than spring for extremely costly policies through a traditional insurance provider. They do this by setting aside a portion of their revenues to protect themselves from a lawsuit once one of their rigs is involved in an accident. These self-insured companies have their own version of an adjuster, and that person is normally an officer of the company. When you have to deal with this person, you’d almost rather that company had purchased traditional insurance. The reason is that a self-insured trucking company officer does not work under the same guidelines as does an insurance adjuster. While the adjuster, in order to keep his or her license, must conform to a code of ethics, self-insured officers are under no such obligation. As a result, self-insured officers are not above using the tactics of harassment and intimidation in order to see that a claim is denied. As motivated as insurance company adjusters may be, self-insured trucking company officers are even more so, since a portion of their salary could be on the line. These officers are, more than likely, part of the trucking company’s profit-sharing program. If the company loses a personal injury lawsuit, those profits are reduced – and therefore, so is the officer’s paycheck. So there are many self-insured officers who are not above trying to alter evidence, badger and bully witnesses, and even threaten witnesses – all in the name of saving their company’s profits. There have been many instances where our lawyers have had to force self-insured companies to cease their underhanded behavior through means of legal action.
Why You Need Legal Help
As we stated previously, it is permissible under the law for an injury victim to represent himself or herself in litigation involving a big rig accident, but it is never advisable. You have basically zero chance of winning your case, and if you lose it could devastate you financially for the rest of your life, since you will be on the hook for all medical expenses and other expenses that you have incurred. It takes more than knowledge of the law in order for you to win a case; you need years of experience in devising successful courtroom strategy, and years of experience negotiating fair settlements so a case doesn’t need to go to trial. You need to know how to answer an interrogatory, prepare a demand packet, respond to a list of admissions, and know all the other steps required in order to follow courtroom procedures to the letter. You don’t know how to do all of that; otherwise you probably wouldn’t be reading this article. You simply must have the help of a seasoned and skilled Texarkana big rig accident lawyer who knows all the complexities and intricacies involved with personal injury litigation in order to have the best chance possible of obtaining the fair restitution that you have coming.
We noted earlier that insurance company representative only respect lawsuits brought against them by attorneys who have a track record of success. The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have taken on and defeated nearly every major insurance carrier in the nation in the process of winning thousands of cases for our clients. The big insurers know us, they respect us, and will, as stated earlier, oftentimes make a fair settlement offer to our clients rather than gamble on losing much more money by tangling with us in a courtroom.
What You Need to Do First
We understand you are going through an incredibly trying time. However, you have to try and clear your head and act decisively in order to stand the best chance possible of getting the fair restitution you deserve. The first thing we strongly urge you to do is to hire an attorney who can act quickly and preserve the integrity of the accident scene in order to gather evidence. The faster your lawyer can start an investigation, the better chance he or she will have of proving the validity of your claim. The longer you wait, the more evidence will be lost. Witnesses’ memories can become cloudy, or they can decide they no longer want to get involved. Physical evidence such as skid marks can fade due to weather and other factors. Any existing video evidence can be taped over or otherwise disappear. The attorneys with Grossman Law Offices begin every single accident case by launching a detailed investigation into the accident scene and gather evidence that will prove the negligence of the trucking company and the truck driver. We measure the skid marks, and the distance between those skid marks and the impact point. We depose witnesses, sequester and inspect all the vehicles involved in the accident, seek photographic and/or video evidence, and then preserve and catalog all that evidence in a manner that will be admissible in court. We will spare no investigatory resource in order to prove your case and help you win fair restitution.
Here’s an example that illustrates the critical need for a quickly launched investigation. We once represented two men in a big rig accident case, one man, the driver, was killed, and the other was severely injured when riding as the passenger in the car. The big rig driver who caused the accident had left his trailer stretched across the road, making it impossible for anyone to safely pass the rig; unfortunately, this is a common occurrence. It was dark at the time of the accident, and our client, as he was rounding a bend, could only see the truck’s taillights by the side of the road. The driver of the car could not see the trailer, and as a result crashed into it. The impact sheared the roof off of his car, immediately killing the driver and leaving the passenger in a fight for his life. We were hired the next day and quickly rushed to the accident site in order to start our investigation. By the time we arrived, our client’s car had been sent to a salvage yard, so we went there to inspect the wreckage and take pictures. As we looked at the car we noticed it had no headlights. We spotted a security camera in the salvage yard and were able to procure the video. And on that video, we saw a trucking company operative actually removing the car’s headlights. Thanks to the video, we were able to expose the trucking company’s disgusting attempt at altering evidence in an attempt to make it look like our client had been driving without headlights.
If we had not discovered that video evidence, it would have been exceedingly difficult to win the case. And that video evidence was slated to soon disappear, because the salvage yard cameras erase their footage every 48 hours. If we had not been hired at the time we were, the case would have more than likely been lost. But since we were able to uncover that video footage, we were able to make the trucking company pay dearly for its disgusting attempt to alter that evidence.
We Can Help You
The Texarkana big rig accident lawyers with Grossman Law Offices have put their skill and experience to work and helped thousands of clients win millions of millions of dollars in personal injury compensation.
If you or a loved one has suffered due to an accident caused by the negligence of a big rig driver as well as other potentially responsible parties, we can help you get the just compensation you deserve. Please call us as soon as possible at 1-855-239-1290 (toll free) for a confidential and free consultation. We will listen to the specific circumstances surrounding your accident, gladly answer any questions you may have, and discuss with you the strength of your case.