Carrollton 18-Wheeler Truck Accident Attorney

Our Texas Truck Accident Lawyers Can Assist you in Recovering Damages Following a Commercial Vehicle Accident in Carrollton TX

Our lawyers know plenty about the emotional and physical trauma created by 18-wheeler accidents. Through our years of experience, we’ve observed that lots of 18-wheeler accident victims in Grapevine, Coppell and Carrollton are hesitant to pursue legal action because the think putting a price on their injuries is unnerving and part in that causes them to journey back to the incident. While filing a claim isn’t fun, as we’ll observe later on this article it’s critically important for you claim that quick action be taken, so you have to move as soon as you can following the accident.

By using a lawsuit to resolve the harm done by a Carrollton semi-truck accident, two objectives can be achieved: it allows the injured party to recover from financial and emotional harm done by the accident punishes those whose behavior led to the accident. While there’s no sum that can take away the damages sustained by you in the 18-wheeler accident or erase the horrific memory from your psyche, you still have huge financial losses that you have to deal with. The only way you’ll be able to get your family headed in the right direction following a setback such as this is to get compensation from all the liable parties. What’s probably happened too is that you’ve missed work because of your injuries, so covering medical expenses to handle your injuries and repair bills for your car can be impossible unless you sue the individuals responsible for inflicting your injuries.

The other objective is that 18-wheeler accident lawsuits help decrease the chance of continued negligence by punishing those who caused the accident. People who’ve lost considerable sums of money in 18-wheeler accident lawsuits usually don’t repeat the same mistakes. If you want to get someone’s attention - go for their checkbook.

Common Negligent Causes of 18-Wheeler Accidents

If you want to know who you should file a lawsuit against, the first thing you have to do is determine how the accident happened and who was at fault. Lots of people are involved in the transportation of goods by 18-wheeler, so in a lot of truck accident cases, more than one group may have been negligent to some degree and played a role in the cause of a truck accident. A veteran Carrollton truck accident lawyer can use the experience gained over years of working 18-wheeler accident claims to properly figure out how your accident happened and who all was at fault. Any number of individuals could have caused an 18-wheeler accident with their negligent behavior: the truck driver, the trucking company, manufacturers of the 18-wheeler or trailer, the company that mapped out the 18-wheeler’s route, the company that loaded the trailer, or other third parties. Let’s continue:

• Truckers - Truck drivers spend countless hours traveling up and down our interstates, and in a lot of 18-wheeler accident cases, they are liable either partially or totally for the injuries that were caused. Truckers cause wrecks with negligence like driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, ignoring speed limits, floating stop signs or wild swerving. In other instances, 18-wheeler accidents happen due to driver fatigue. Drivers are required by federal law to take regular rest breaks, but lots of truckers ignore these rules so they can meet required deadlines set by the company. Studies have revealed that the odds of a trucker getting into a wreck double after eight straight hours working, and 20 percent of truckers confessed to falling asleep at the wheel at least once in the month before participating in this survey. Whether intentionally or by accident, if a trucker’s negligence resulted in an accident that hurt you, you can pursue a lawsuit against him or her.

• Trucking companies - Texas follows a legal concept known as respondeat superior that holds employers liable for the actions or inaction of their workers. If the truck drivers’ negligence caused your accident that means the trucking company is also at fault. That means if the trucker had been linked to a slew of DUI convictions, and causes a wreck while intoxicated, then the trucking company would be responsible for any injuries caused by the accident.

  The trucking company doesn’t have to be negligent itself to be found liable for the negligent choices of its workers. That means as long as the trucker is found negligent, a lawsuit can be filed seeking damages from the trucking company. Majority of the time the trucking company is the preferred defendant to pursue damages from because it’s linked to considerably more resources than truckers.

• Manufactures - Look close and you’ll see the trucks and trailers are comprised of thousands of parts, all put together to make sure the vehicle works safely. If any of these parts doesn’t work like they’re supposed to while the truck is working, then an accident can occur. If this problem was due to a design defect or manufacturing error and a wreck takes place, then anyone hurt in the wreck has the option to pursue compensation from the manufacturer.

• The Company that Planned the Route - Not all streets and neighborhoods can handle 18-wheelers and lots of bridges have height and weight restrictions. To make sure they’re safe, busy trucking companies often contract other businesses to plan out the safest routes possible. If this company makes a course that is deemed unsuitable and dangerous for 18-wheelers, then a lawsuit can be pursued against that business.

• The Company that Loaded the Cargo - In some cases, the business that owned the cargo takes care of stocking the truck, and there are other occasions when that becomes the responsibility of another company. If the company that put the cargo on the trailer did so improperly, this can lead to a wreck, causing injuries that the company is responsible for. Cargo in 18-wheelers must not exceed a weight limit of 80,000 pounds, but lots of companies try to carry more goods at a lower cost by disregarding this rule. There’s a reason weight limits exist because an overloaded truck stands a greater chance to topple and create immense damage when it’s involved in a wreck.

  When the company that puts the cargo on the trailer doesn’t secure it well, the cargo can loosen during transport, leading to a shifted load that overturns the trailer and causes an accident with other vehicles. When you factor in flatbeds into this illustration, poorly loaded cargo can spill onto the highway and lead to panic for unsuspecting drivers who are driving behind the flatbed.

• Other Drivers - An 18-wheeler may be part of an accident doesn’t mean the big rig or its driver was the cause of the incident. Sometimes other motorists ignore their responsibility to provide for the safety of others on the road, and a wreck with a North Texas 18-wheeler results, leading to damage and injuries to additional drivers on the road. In that case, the victims can seek damages from this party.

Any of these groups or lots of them could have entirely or partially been the cause of the 18-wheeler accident that hurt you. You need the assistance of a qualified Carrollton Texas truck accident lawyer who can determine the cause and all of the potential defendants, so that you can obtain compensation you deserve from all the individuals who hurt you with their negligent actions.

Prompt Investigation is Essential

A speedy, detailed investigation is necessary to get the required evidence to locate all of the liable parties and prove your case after you’ve been hurt in a Carrollton 18-wheeler accident. Since a lot of different parties could have contributed to the source of the accident that harmed you, a thorough investigation is needed to compile a list of all the parties who were responsible and their degree of negligence. It’s essential to have proof to persuade the jury to rule in your favor, and evidence starts to disappear promptly after any Coppell wreck. You need to put your Carrollton lawyer on the trail of evidence as quick as you can. For every day you don’t get a lawyer that you’re comfortable with, you are doing serious damage to your case because the key proof you’re after is vanishing - witnesses move or their memories become foggy, videos get deleted, and the accident scene changes.

Our Carrollton 18-wheeler accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have 20 years of experience learning how to investigate accident scenes. The moment we’re hired we go to the accident scene at no cost to our clients so we can search for any evidence that proves our client’s case. We do what’s necessary to get to the bottom of the truth - sequestering and securing all the key vehicles, taking photos, looking for video evidence, examining police reports, measuring the distance between skid marks and where the impact happened, doing forensic tests, finding and conducting witness interviews and compiling evidence we find that can be used later in trial.

Odds are you’ve already got behind the efforts being launched by the defense. Most of the time, the trucking or insurance company gets their investigators straight to the accident scene after the trucker reports it. The defense investigators aren’t worried about figuring out the cause of the accident; they just want to get evidence that shows your injuries were due to your own negligent actions. If you don’t have your own attorneys on the accident scene doing their own investigation, you have no ability to determine if the defense altered the evidence or did a credible investigation. If they can gather evidence that proves your negligence, then your claim can be denied if they can show you were completely responsible or get your damages decreased if they’re able to establish your contributory negligence.

One case we recently dealt with in Dallas illustrates the need for a speedy and in-depth investigation. In this situation, our firm was hired by the driver of a regular vehicle after he was involved at night in an 18-wheeler accident. The trucking company was trying to say our client didn’t have headlights installed in their care when the accident took place. Once we joined the case, our client’s demolished car had been taken from the scene of the accident and transported to a local salvage yard. When our lawyers spotted the car at the junkyard, they discovered that indeed it was missing headlights. Worried about our client’s ability to get compensated, our investigators discovered a surveillance camera in the salvage yard so they managed to obtain some footage. This surveillance system was programmed to tape over its footage every 48 hours, and we got copies of the video before it was deleted. The video showed a representative of the trucking company grabbed the headlights and leaving the premises with them. When the trial began, the company’s defense attempted to say at trial that our client’s car didn’t have any headlights installed, but we had the evidence to show proof of their deception and get the compensation needed for our clients. If our client had waited another day to retain us, the video would have vanished, the ability to get restitution would have left and trucking company would have managed to commit felonious evidence tampering.

Our accident injury attorneys routinely deal with lies and deception in 18-wheeler accident cases, so you need to get a lawyer who can start a quick and prompt investigation as quick as possible. In some instances, our investigators can still obtain the required proof long after an accident took place, but the quicker we start the better the chance we have of getting the required compensation needed. Don’t wait any longer before meeting with a Carrollton truck accident lawyer.

Common Obstacles that Plaintiffs Must Overcome

You may have filed an insurance claim after a regular car accident but that doesn’t mean you’re ready to negotiate an 18-wheeler accident on your own. Trucking insurance policies are valued at 50 times that of a normal auto insurance policy. Because of the huge size of trucking insurance policies, litigation involving trucking accidents are considerably more detailed than a normal passenger car case. Plaintiffs who try to save a little on attorney’s fees by going with self-representation usually cost themselves far more than they saved with diminished compensation. Those with no legal background and lawyers who just graduated law school are often frustrated when they want to obtain lawsuits following 18-wheeler accidents because of numerous obstacles: establishing the burden of proof, the size of insurance policies, trucking companies that are self-insured and truckers who end up lying.

Burden of Proof

The law doesn’t demand that the defendant or defendants give you anything after you’ve been hurt in a truck accident unless you, the plaintiff, can show they need to. If you want to get the accurate restitution you need for your injuries, you’ll need to prove your case with hard evidence. Even when other kinds of negotiation are used to work a claim, evidence must be gathered to force the defense or insurance to negotiate in good faith. You’ll need to establish each of these four key parts of an 18-wheeler accident case:

• Duty - You’ll first have to prove that the defendant had an obligation to ensure your safety by acting properly. The law states the legal duty of care owed for particular circumstances and for each group depending on their links. In Carrollton 18-wheeler accident cases, achieving this becomes easy, since all drivers have to operate their motor vehicles in a manner that would properly provide for the well-being of other motorists, pedestrians and other passengers on the road.

• Breach - If you want to prove your case, the next step is to demonstrate that the defendant or defendants violated the duty of care they were supposed to give you. This usually takes place when the defendant endangered others with a choice or inaction that a normal person wouldn’t or didn’t do anything when most people would be expected to do something. You’ll have to give evidence that shows the defendant disregarded their legal duty of care in order to prove this duty was violated. Along with that, you’ll need a Carrollton Texas accident lawyer who knows how to take that evidence and use it to convince a jury that the defendants behaved wrong.

• Causation - Besides having to show the defendant or defendant’s breach of legal duty, you have to also show your injuries were a direct result of this violation. Because different groups could have contributed or played a role in the cause of a Texas 18-wheeler accident, it takes strong evidence to make a jury see a causal relationship existed between the defendant’s breach of their responsibility to you and the harm that resulted. If this can’t happen, then the defendant can take apart your case by shifting blame to someone else for your injuries. Usually, the defendant or defendant’s best chance of avoiding blame is to put the fault on the victim for causing their injuries with their own negligence.

• Damages - After you’ve proved the first three parts of a successful 18-wheeler accident lawsuit, you then have to show the damages that the defendant owed for the injuries you’ve sustained. Legally, damages aren’t about injuries and property damage, but instead refer to the compensation the defendant owed for the harm they inflicted. The plaintiff has the ability to pursue damages for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, lost earning capacity, property damage and other losses sustained in the accident.

  The bad part is that you can’t just ask the court for compensation you feel you deserve and expect to get it. No, you’ve got to provide evidence that validates not just your losses but backs up how you arrived at the total for your monetary damages. What usually occurs then is that defendants will argue over the compensation amount the plaintiff asked for and then come back with their own estimate of the damages owed that will probably decrease the overall fiscal amount of harm incurred by the plaintiff. If you want to show the defendant short-shifted its total estimation, you’ve got to present flawless evidence to show your calculations are accurate.

  What’s the true worth of my case? Since damages like pain and suffering or loss of earning capacity are very subjective in figuring and open for interpretation, totaling damages can be very tough for someone unaccustomed to it. It’s very tough to put a number on pain and suffering or figure lost earning capacity by determining the value or hypothetical raises and inflation. In court, you’ve got one opportunity to total the amount of equitable compensation you’re entitled to. For the past two decades, our Carrollton 18-wheeler accident lawyers have been figuring damages and we have gained enough experience with cases like yours to know how to account for all your losses and come to estimation for compensation that properly provides for the restitution you need.

Not being able to establish any of these four things guarantees you’ll fail to get compensated for the harm done to you. You have to get the help of an 18-wheeler accident lawyer - especially if you head to trial. Years of experiencing working 18-wheeler accident cases has helped our lawyers learn how to develop a good strategy to meet the burdens of proof and persuade a jury to rule for you.

Enormous Insurance Policies

Federal regulations require that trucking companies get huge insurance policies to protect them against accident, injuries and fatalities that happen when doing business with 18-wheelers. Because of this, many assume that they will get compensated quickly and not have any issues. Majority of the time it’s not true. Since insurance policies for 18-wheelers can be worth 50 times that of normal car coverage, the insurance companies will usually invest 50 times the resources and energy to protect their policies.

With everything on the line, insurance companies turn to their shrewdest and best insurance adjusters to work negotiations. You’re probably new to handling 18-wheeler accident claims, but these adjusters are the elite in their field and work these claims on a daily basis. They are the best at taking an accident victim’s shock and trust in local insurance agents, then turning it against them to deny their claim. They put forth a fake friendship and attempt to convince the victim they want to help them get compensation - if only the victim can first answer some basic questions. They really don’t want to help; they just want to increase company profits by turning down your claim. After that they hit you with a ton of questions that basically re-word the same questions nonstop in an effort to get you to mistakenly admit your own liability for the accident. If they can get your admission, then they can turn your claim down. The less contact you have with the insurance adjuster, the better your case will be, so you need to obtain a Carrollton 18-wheeler accident lawyer and let your legal team deal with the persistent questions by insurance adjusters. We tell clients you should never talk to any worker for the insurance company without the lawyer serving as a shield. If you retain our firm, our lawyers will take care of all conversations involving the insurance company and shield you from any chance at admitting your own liability.

Sometimes aggressive adjusters will attempt to get accident victims to waive their right to sue in exchange for a far smaller settlement offer. It’s usually a good idea to avoid the stress and unknowns that emerge in a jury trial, but you don’t want to settle for an offer that doesn’t properly assist you with the harm you’ve sustained. Only a Texas lawyer with a long history of success can get the insurance company to offer a proper settlement, because they fear losing additional money at trial.

The insurance company will also try to avoid liability for your injuries by using a talented defense team that can find just the right hurdles to complicate things for some plaintiffs as they try to obtain compensation. You need an experienced Carrollton TX truck accident lawyer whose efforts can equal those coming from defense teams. Our attorneys have been awarded millions upon millions of dollars from every big-time insurance company in America, and we’ve learned how to predict everything that can be thrown at us.

Self-Insured Companies can be More Treacherous

Instead of getting a regular insurance policy, a lot of trucking companies budget their own assets aside to use as insurance for accidents. The federal government regulates the insurance industry and requires all companies get registered, adjusters have licenses and ethical standards be followed, but self-insured companies don’t have to be concerned about these rules. As a result, self-insured companies are known for being disreputable and being impossible to negotiate with. Most of the time, if you want to work a settlement with a self-insured company, you’ll need to work with an officer from that business. Since this worker probably gets their income from some kind of profit sharing, they’ve got every reason to turn your claim down. This worker would be giving you their income if they let you get the restitution you’re entitled to. With their money on the line, self-insured companies tend to put their interests ahead of the injured victims and will turn to unethical acts like bullying, altering or evidence tampering and threatening victims.

If a self-insured company tried to bully you or push you around, then you can get them to stop with the help of an accident lawyer. Once we’re hired, our Carrollton attorneys can get the self-insured companies to deal in good faith and even threaten them with legal recourse.

Truckers Can’t be Trusted

We all want to believe the best in people, and that people are good, honest and truthful. However, the truth is that the trucker who hurt you with their negligent actions has plenty of reasons to life. If the trucker is found to have hurt others with negligent actions while driving, then they will probably be receiving a pink slip in just a matter of time, if they haven’t been let go already. You also need to realize that any trucker who’s been found negligent won’t have an easy time getting another job with a black mark like that on their record. Factor in the economy and the state of the job market, and those hard-working truckers who you’d normally consider upstanding citizens will turn to lying in order to protect their jobs and their ability to take care of their families. To get the compensation you deserve, you’ve got to show the trucker was lying.

Our Denton County 18-wheeler accident lawyers have become accustomed to investigating and locating the key evidence you need to show the trucker’s lies. We will take apart their credibility with all the pertinent evidence we have to show just how false their lies truly were.

In the same manner that insurance adjusters attempt to get victims to admit their negligence with tons of questions, our attorneys will develop a series of questions for the deposition that will be used to trick the trucker into admitting his or her own lie. The Carrollton 18-wheeler accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices deposed thousands of witnesses in the last two decades and know how to construct the questions just right to expose the truckers’ lies.

How We Can Help

If you’ve ever been hurt or a family member has been lost in an 18-wheeler accident in Dallas, Grapevine, Coppell or Carrollton, you need to hire an 18-wheeler accident lawyer to guard your rights and help you obtain the proper and fair compensation you deserve. From the first papers we file to the court’s resolution, your attorneys will deal with every detail of your case and make sure you know about any changes as they arise. We’ll provide you with the following services:

• Conducting an investigation to determine how the accident happened.
• Locating all of the liable parties and filing comprehensive claims and lawsuits against each individual/or party.
• Getting the required evidence to successfully meet the burden of proof.
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• Using our reputation for success as way to pressure the defendants.
• Shielding victims from nonstop phone calls made by insurance adjusters.
• Using a strong approach in our investigative methods and deposition practices to expose the truckers’ lies.
• Developing a strong strategy to move the jury in favor of our clients.
• Forcing self-insured companies to act ethically and negotiate in good faith.
• Making sure our clients get needed medical care.

Odds are strong that the defendant and his team of lawyers have already concluded their investigation and finished their case against you. The longer you delay in hiring a lawyer, the more damage you cause in your ability to getting the proper restitution you deserve. Call us toll free today at 1-855-326-0000 for a free consultation and to determine how we can assist you like we have countless other Texans.