Dallas Trucking Accident Lawyer
Dallas Accident Attorney Michael Grossman on Your Legal Options Following an 18-Wheeler Wreck in Dallas, TX
If you have had the unfortunate experience of suffering an injury, or losing a loved one, because of an 18-wheeler accident in Dallas, Texas, you’re likely experiencing a wealth of emotions, from anger at the liable parties to confusion about your next steps.
Some people in your situation aren’t aware of their legal options; other people in your situation don’t even want to consider their legal options until they can get through the emotional turmoil that often accompanies such an accident. In both instances, such a victim may actually be doing more harm to themselves than good. By contacting an experienced Dallas trucking accident lawyer as soon as possible in the aftermath of a semi-truck wreck in the metroplex area, you may be able to seek full compensation for your injury or loss, which can greatly assist you with medical bills or lost wages caused by the wreck. Furthermore, seeking civil action through a personal injury lawsuit or a wrongful death lawsuit also works to hold the negligent parties accountable for their actions. In instances where criminal charges have not been brought, seeking such legal action may be the only way for a liable party to be brought to justice. As a Dallas trucking accident lawyer for the last 20 years, Michael Grossman possesses a wealth of legal information that is reinforced by his two decades of practical experience. His reputation for keeping his clients’ interests at the forefront of every case he handles is well-known and well-respected.
The following article is presented as a general overview of the issues most commonly involved in trucking accident cases in Texas, including the likely hurdles that must often be overcome if an injured victim or a bereaved family member desires to be fully compensated for their injury or loss. The article will discuss the notion of liability, and the fact that there are often many liable parties involved in Dallas trucking accidents. It will also speak to the fact that large insurance policies are often involved in truck wreck cases, and how the involvement of such insurance policies can create certain challenges that only experienced attorneys will know how to handle. We’ll also provide you with information in regards to self-representation, and why that’s quite often not a good idea, especially when litigation against a trucking company or insurer is being considered. Lastly, we’ll provide you with a few reasons why quickly contacting our Dallas commercial truck accident law firm as soon as possible after you or your loved one has been involved in an 18-wheeler wreck can prove beneficial to you in pursuing justice and seeking compensation.
Who’s to Blame for an 18-Wheeler Accident?
Ask yourself this question: Who’s at fault for an 18-wheeler wreck when an 18-wheeler driver crashes into another car on the road? If you’re like most people, you’ll assume that the 18-wheeler driver is at fault, and you’d be correct, but not completely correct. Like most issues in life, assessing liability in an 18-wheeler accident is seldom a straightforward affair. Regardless of news reports that are often hastily written in the hours immediately following an 18-wheeler wreck in Dallas, there can often be many contributing factors to these types of accidents. Depending on the specifics of the accident itself, which can often only be found out through an exhaustive investigation conducted by an experienced team, there can be many parties involved in a semi-truck wreck that may have each played a negligent role.
While a truck driver can be a liable party, the driver’s employer can also be held liable for their driver’s actions. Because of the legal notion of “respondeat superior” that exists in Texas law, an employer is responsible for their employees’ actions while on-the-job. As such, a trucking company can be an additional defendant in a trucking accident case in Texas as they can be held vicariously liable for the accident. Furthermore, trucking employers can also be held liable for failing to provide adequate training, engaging in negligent hiring practices, or for failing to provide proper or functional safety equipment. However, when a trucking company is involved in a civil lawsuit, their insurer will also likely become an involved party. The inclusion of a trucking insurer creates many hurdles toward receiving proper compensation, and is one of the main reasons why an injured victim or a bereaved family will likely need the assistance of a legal professional like Dallas trucking accident lawyer Michael Grossman. These apparent challenges will be discussed shortly.
In addition to the 18-wheeler driver, the trucking company, and the trucking company’s insurer, still more liable parties may be involved in a trucking accident lawsuit. The involvement of other liable parties is highly dependent on what caused or contributed to the accident. For example, an erratic vehicle driver may have caused a semi-truck driver to swerve, resulting in an accident to a driver of another car. The driver of the first car may be an additional defendant due to their role in starting the chain of events that resulted in your injury. In other instances, falling cargo may strike a windshield and cause a driver or a passenger to suffer severe injury. If a third-party cargo-loading company was used by the trucking company whose driver lost a piece of cargo, the third-party loading company could be held liable for not properly loading or securing the cargo. Some trucking companies also utilize route-planning companies. If a truck driver follows such a prescribed route and strikes an overpass, resulting in an accident causing injury, the route-planning company could be held partially liable for the wreck. Lastly, if a truck is in a wreck due to a mechanical malfunction, the manufacturer of a defective piece of machinery may be held partially liable for the accident. If such a mechanical failure was a result of poor maintenance, the trucking company or the company responsible for maintaining the fleet may bear liability.
Essentially, there is often more than one liable party responsible for an 18-wheeler wreck. Assessing liability for an 18-wheeler accident can be a challenging issue, especially when multiple parties may have each contributed a portion of liability to the wreck. Such accident scenes are quite complex as well. Discovering what may have been the initial cause of an accident, in addition to identifying all of the liable parties, is often only accomplished through the work of an experienced investigative team. Our Dallas trucking accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have that experience, and can help insure that all liable parties are properly identified so that they can be held accountable for their actions resulting in your injury or loss. Furthermore, since each liable entity is only responsible for awarding you a portion of compensation based on their percentage of liability for the wreck, it’s often vitally important toward being able to receive full compensation that all liable parties are correctly identified following an 18-wheeler wreck in Dallas, Texas.
Why Should I Pursue Legal Action Against the Liable Parties in an 18-wheeler Accident?
The Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code does not state that a liable party must compensate an aggrieved party. However, it does state that an aggrieved party has the right to seek legal remedy against the parties responsible for causing them injury or loss. In other words, it is the victim’s responsibility to initiate legal proceedings if they desire to seek compensation for their injury or loss. It is only after a defendant has been proven to be linked to a victim’s injury or loss, through a civil lawsuit, that a plaintiff will be awarded compensation. As such, the burden of proof in Texas trucking accident cases rests on the shoulders of the plaintiff, which means that the plaintiff’s legal representation must be able to show how a defendant caused or contributed to an 18-wheeler accident resulting in injury or loss being experienced by the plaintiff. Dallas trucking accident lawyer Michael Grossman has two decades of experience in building these specific kinds of cases and is ready to help you against even the most aggressive of opposition.
Won’t a Large Insurance Policy Help Me?
Texas trucking companies are required by law to carry insurance coverage on their trucks and drivers. Since the amount of damage that these 80,000 pound trucks can do can be quite immense, in terms of property damage, personal injury, and loss of life, the insurance policies that trucking companies must purchase in order to cover themselves in the event of an accident are likewise quite large. However, such policies seldom work like full-coverage policies often work in regards to a passenger-vehicle wreck. When a person with full-coverage auto insurance is in a wreck, their needs will likely be taken care of within a reasonable amount of time. When a person is in an 18-wheeler wreck, despite the fact that an insurance policy exists which may be able to rectify the situation, a trucking insurance company will often work as hard as possible in order to ensure that they lose as little of their financial assets as possible. In other words, since the sum they could lose could be quite substantial, especially if you’ve suffered a severe injury or have lost a loved one, they will attempt a plethora of methods in order to have the claim dismissed, or, at the very least, severely diminished.
To do so, specialized insurance adjusters with years of relevant experience in these specific types of trucking accident claims will attempt to get you to admit fault, even if such fault is only to a small degree. They will likely ask you certain questions that appear to be about the same issue, but simply worded differently. While it may appear that they’re attempting to get to the bottom of what really occurred in the semi-truck wreck, it could be that they’re trying to use your words against you. You may even inadvertently admit to blame without realizing it. Without an attorney to help guide you in these situations, it can often be difficult for a victim to know whether or not they’re being taken advantage of by an insurance adjuster more concerned with their company’s bottom-line than with an injured victim’s real need for compensation.
If blame for an 18-wheeler collision cannot be passed onto another entity, an insurer may make a calculated move by offering a victim compensation in the form of an out-of-court settlement. However, a victim being offered such a settlement should be quite wary of the insurance adjuster’s true motive. Such a settlement is often a low-ball offer, meaning that it’s often a compensation amount that is much less than what is equal to a victim’s incurred damages, i.e. the financial losses they’ve experienced as a result of the 18-wheeler wreck. An insurer will sometimes offer such a settlement in the hopes that an injured victim will be enticed by the allure of sure money in a short amount of time. However, this type of settlement is often accompanied by a victim signing over their rights to pursue any further legal action. When such a settlement is agreed to, there is little that an attorney can do. Instead, victims offered such settlements can benefit from the watchful eye of their own attorney, who can help such a victim understand whether or not the settlement they’re being offered is commensurate with the damages they’ve actually incurred or will incur in the future. One of the sure warnings that a settlement is a calculated move by an insurance company is when such a settlement is offered to an injured victim before the victim’s injuries are fully known or diagnosed. In instances where they can’t shift blame away from their client, they’d rather pay a little money up front than a lot of money later. In order to ensure that you’re properly compensated for your injuries so that you can get on with your life, we want to help make sure that such an insurance company isn’t mistreating you in that way.
Other Challenges in 18-Wheeler Accident Cases in Texas: Defense Attorneys, Truck Drivers, and Self-Insured Trucking Companies
All civil lawsuits have their own specific types of challenges that can often arise in the midst of a plaintiff seeking justice for their injury or loss. 18-wheeler accident cases are no different; however, these challenges are often more challenging when they come as a surprise. Since our Dallas trucking accident lawyers have been working on these types of cases for the last two decades, we’re well-aware of the issues that often present themselves in 18-wheeler accident cases. We will work hard to help you overcome these apparent hurdles so that you can stand to receive proper compensation for your injury or loss.
For instance, highly experienced defense attorneys will likely be contacted quite quickly after an 18-wheeler accident has occurred. Since trucking accidents happen with a certain frequency, trucking companies and their insurers will often have specific, well-trained defense attorneys at-the-ready that can be quickly deployed to an accident site. Once there, these defense lawyers will investigate the scene in order to gather any evidence which may assist them in shifting blame from their client. If a majority of the blame can be proven to have existed due to the victim’s actions, then the claim will be dropped. Often, one of the only ways to ensure that your best interests are looked after is to enlist the help of an experienced Dallas trucking accident lawyer that has the investigative resources to be able to gather evidence on your behalf so that the events of the 18-wheeler accident can be faithfully re-created for a judge or jury. This is yet another reason why contacting an attorney as soon as possible after a tractor-trailer accident is important toward the building of your case.
Additionally, truck drivers who may fear losing their job as a result of being involved in a fatal trucking accident or an 18-wheeler wreck resulting in severe personal injury may be prone to lying about their involvement in the wreck, or what may have actually occurred to have caused the accident. In these instances, relevant evidence and a tactful deposition of the truck driver can work in tandem to either prove or disprove a truck driver’s story. With 20 years of hearing varying fabrications from many truck drivers, our Dallas trucking accident attorneys are often able to deduce when a truck driver’s story needs to be vetted by evidence or further inquiry into the wreck. Consequently, we can help you substantiate your claim in most instances, even when a truck driver may be lying about their involvement.
Lastly, another issue that can sometimes arise occurs when a self-insured trucking company may be at fault for an accident. Since such a company is not required to adhere to the rules and regulations that guide traditional insurers, self-insured trucking companies may act unethically when a victim is seeking compensation from them. This can happen through either arrogance of ignorance on the part of the self-insured trucking company, which can result in unethical behavior occurring in the form of plaintiff threatening, evidence tampering, or witness threatening. We have had past clients who have asked for our assistance after they’ve experienced such unethical treatment. In those instances, we’ve pursued legal action in order to effectively level the legal playing field. Once the liable trucking company begins acting rightly, then we have been able to help our client seek compensation for their injury or loss. Had these past clients contacted us before attempting to seek out justice on their own, they likely could have saved themselves from much frustration and wasted time.
Refraining from Self-Representation
Some victims involved in 18-wheeler accidents believe that they can seek compensation on their own against a trucking company or their insurer. Such an assumption can occur for any number of reasons. The victim may think that the threat of a lawsuit from the actual injured victim would be enough to warrant compensation from a liable party. Another victim may think that they have ample legal knowledge to see them through the process. Another victim may assume that, since they were able to handle their own fender-bender property damage claim, that they can likewise handle an 18-wheeler accident claim. Unfortunately, these assumptions are seldom if ever proven true. The challenges that we’ve presented in this article are often much too strong for even some lesser-experienced attorneys to handle, much less a non-attorney. For example, legal knowledge alone will not result in the successful outcome of an 18-wheeler accident case in Texas. An experienced Dallas trucking accident lawyer will have proper legal knowledge, in addition to relevant in-court experience. Failure to follow proper procedure can see a case dismissed on a technicality, regardless of the plaintiff’s legal knowledge. Furthermore, the opposition often mounted in 18-wheeler injury accident cases is often quite experienced. They do not fear a self-represented plaintiff as they will likely have many ways in which to see such a plaintiff fail due to a technical error. Essentially, a successful outcome to an 18-wheeler accident case may result in a sizable sum of compensation being awarded to an injured victim or a bereaved family. With so much likely on the line, choosing to self-represent could be quite a costly risk.
What To Do After an 18-Wheeler Wreck in Dallas, TX
- Seek proper medical attention.
- Contact an experienced Dallas trucking accident lawyer.
These two simple steps can prove of great benefit to you in seeking justice against the parties responsible for your injury or loss due to an 18-wheeler wreck. An injured victim in Texas has a duty to mitigate damages. This means that they must seek proper medical help within a reasonable amount of time following an injury accident so that their injury does not worsen. If an injury worsens past the initial injury because a victim failed to seek medical care, such a victim cannot then seek compensation against the liable party for that further injury. Some people that have been injured in 18-wheeler wrecks do not have health insurance, or cannot otherwise pay for medical care. However, it’s still important, both for a victim’s physical health and for their possible civil action, for such an injured victim to seek medical help as soon as possible. If you are financially unable to seek proper medical help, contact our law firm at 1-855-326-0000. We can help you locate medical attention that will take your financial means into consideration. It should also be noted that medical costs are part of the damages that can be requested through a personal injury lawsuit or a wrongful death lawsuit. In other words, medical costs can be compensated for through the successful outcome of civil action against the liable parties.
After you’ve received proper medical help, contacting an experienced trucking accident lawyer in Dallas can prove beneficial toward seeking compensation and pursuing justice against the liable parties. By contacting such an attorney as soon as possible following an accident, you will allow us to begin a thorough investigation into an 18-wheeler accident site while the site is still available to be investigated. In other words, the earlier that we can begin an investigation into an accident, the more likely it is that we can gather strong evidence that can be used to build a robust case on your behalf. If even a few days pass, evidence can go missing. It can also be manipulated or erased by those that would rather not be held responsible for their actions. Witnesses also become increasingly difficult to track down as time elapses. When our Dallas trucking accident attorneys are hired to investigate an 18-wheeler wreck site, we will work as hard as possible to investigate the accident so that all liable parties are properly identified. We want to make sure that a strong case can be built on relevant evidence so that you can stand to be fairly compensated for your injury or loss.
Contacting An Attorney Quickly After an 18-Wheeler Accident
The following true-life client story speaks volumes as to the necessity of contacting an experienced attorney as soon as possible following a semi-truck accident. A past client was involved in a catastrophic 18-wheeler underride accident in which the top of his car was sheared off by the trailer of an 18-wheeler. The driver suffered severe personal injury; the passenger died. The passenger’s family also contacted us to help them with their claim against a negligent truck driver. On the night of the accident, the 18-wheeler’s trailer was perpendicular to the road at a bend in the highway. He had been attempting an awkward turn, resulting in his trailer occupying all available lanes on the highway. Our client came upon the truck with no time and no room to make any type of evasive maneuver and was forced to drive underneath the trailer.
Once hired, we flew to the accident site and visited the junkyard where our client’s car had been towed. The crumpled remains of the car was a tragic testament to the immensity of the fatal accident that had occurred. However, we saw that our client’s car had no headlights. It wasn’t that the headlights were smashed - they were completely gone. Knowing this to be an anomaly, we sought out surveillance video from the junkyard’s proprietor. On that video, we witnessed a trucking company representative visiting the junkyard and stealing our client’s headlights. Later, the trucking company’s insurer attempted to blame our client for the wreck because he was, apparently, driving without headlights at night. We showed them video evidence that proved quite the contrary. The video surveillance footage that was so vital to the outcome of this particular case was set to delete itself shortly after we had viewed it. Had we not arrived when we did, the evidence likely would have been lost through a natural process, since most surveillance footage is only stored for a certain amount of time. As a testament to our client’s ability to contact us quickly despite having suffered through a devastating accident, and our ability to respond to our client’s needs, we were able to help prevent a bad situation from becoming much worse for our client because of the unethical behavior of a liable trucking company.
Contact Dallas Trucking Accident Lawyer Michael Grossman
If you’ve been injured or have lost a loved one due to an 18-wheeler collision in Dallas or Fort Worth, you may be able to seek compensation and pursue justice against the liable parties through a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. As evidenced by the information contained in this article, 18-wheeler accident cases in Texas can be highly complex and challenging. However, with 20 years of experience in 18-wheeler injury cases in Texas, Dallas trucking accident lawyer Michael Grossman is ready to help you meet those challenges so that you can stand to receive compensation that can go toward your medical bills, lost wages, or other financial losses incurred due to a semi-truck wreck.
In our two decades of practice, we’ve worked on hundreds of 18-wheeler accident cases against nearly every major insurer in the country. Consequently, these insurers know that we mean business and that we will aggressively defend our clients’ interests, even against their most aggressive insurance adjusters. Often, since these insurers and law firms are familiar with our work, they will work with us to arrive at a fair out-of-court settlement for our clients, meaning that you may not have to set foot in a courtroom. In many instances, they would rather settle out-of-court than to meet our attorneys in court. If a trial case is necessary, we will be well-prepared to likewise defend your interests in that setting as well.
Should you have further questions regarding your legal options in connection to an 18-wheeler accident in Dallas, consider calling our trucking accident law firm in Dallas at 1-855-326-0000 for a toll-free legal consultation. We’ll answer your pressing questions and provide you with further information that is in line with the particular details of your 18-wheeler accident case. With two decades of experience, a wealth of legal knowledge, and a well-earned reputation for helping his clients, Dallas trucking accident lawyer Michael Grossman is ready to help you seek justice for your injury or loss.
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