DeSoto & Cedar Hill 18-Wheeler Accidents

Injured in an 18-Wheeler Truck Accident in DeSoto, Cockrell Hill, Cedar Hill or Lancaster? Call Dallas Attorney Michael Grossman Today

Our lawyers know full well about the incredible emotional and physical trauma that comes with truck accidents. Due to our years of experience, we’ve seen how many DeSoto truck accident victim claim are hesitant to take legal action because they don’t like the idea of putting a price on their injuries and that process causes them to re-live the ordeal. Even though filing a claim can be excruciating, as we’ll see later on this article, quick action is essential to the success of your claim, so you need to move as quickly as you can after an accident occurs.

Using a lawsuit to resolve the pain caused by a truck accident achieves two objectives: it allows the injured victim to heal from the financial and emotional burdens caused by the wreck and makes sure those who caused the accident are punished. While there’s no sum of money that can erase the damages caused by the accident or make the memory vanish from your conscience, you still are probably dealing with significant financial losses that you have to recover from. The only way to get your family back to normal from such a tragedy is to get compensation from those responsible for your accident. You probably have even missed work because of your injuries, so paying for your medical expenses to fix your injuries and repair bills to repair your car can be impossible unless you file a lawsuit against those who were responsible for your injuries.

Besides that, an 18-wheeler accident lawsuit helps decrease the chance of those actions continuing by making sure those who caused the accident are punished. People who’ve lost considerable amounts of money in truck accident lawsuits don’t wind up making the same choices again. If you want to really create change - hit people in their wallet.

Common Negligent causes of 18-Wheeler Accidents

In order to figure out who you should file a lawsuit against, you need to first determine how the accident happened and who was responsible for the wreck. A multitude of people can be involved in transporting goods through a truck, so in numerous truck accident cases, more than one party may have committed some kind of negligence that caused or led to the cause of an 18-wheeler accident in DeSoto or Cedar Hill, Texas. A veteran DeSoto truck accident lawyer can turn to the lessons learned over years of working accident claims to accurately determine the reason for your accident and everyone who played a role in it. All sorts of negligent parties could have contributed to a given truck accident: the truck driver, the trucking company, makes of the truck or trailer, the route planning company, the company that loaded the truck, or other third parties. For instance:

• Truckers -- Truckers work long hours traveling up and down the highway and in a lot of truck accident cases, they are liable entirely or partially for injuries. Truck drivers can be responsible for accidents through negligent behavior like: driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, speeding, ignoring stop signs, or crazed swerving. Other times 18-wheeler accidents in Cedar Hill happen just because the trucker is exhausted. Federal law requires trucks to take mandatory rest breaks, but lots of truckers disregard those safety guidelines so they can adhere to company mandated time constraints. According to studies, the odds of a trucker being involved in a wreck double after eight straight hours at the wheel, and 20 percent of truckers say they’ve fallen asleep at the wheel at least once in the month prior to doing the survey. Whether intentionally or by accident, if a trucker’s negligence led to an accident that injured you, then you can sue him or her.

• Trucking Companies -- Texas uses a legal concept called respondeat superior that holds employers liable for the behavior or inaction of their workers. If the truckers’ negligence caused your wreck, then the trucking company is also responsible. So if a driver had a string of past DUI convictions, and then caused a wreck while drunk, that trucking company is also responsible for any injuries caused by the accident.

  Along with that, the trucking company doesn’t have to be negligent on its own to be deemed responsible for the negligence of its truckers. That means as long as the trucker is negligent, then a lawsuit can be brought to seek damages from the trucking company. A lot of times the trucking company is the defendant that’s most sought to get damages from since they likely have access to more resources than the truckers.

• Manufacturers -- Trucks and trailers are made from thousands of parts that are all fastened together to ensure that the vehicle operates safely. If any of these parts don’t perform to their expected purpose while the truck is working, then an accident can occur. If a malfunction was caused by a bad design or manufacturing flaw and a wreck follows, then anyone hurt in the accident has the option to get compensated by the manufacturer.

• The Company that Planned the Route -- Not every road and neighborhood is designed for trucking and a lot of bridges have weight and height restrictions. In order to make sure they operate safely, fast-paced trucking companies often turn to other businesses and contract out the planning of safe routes. If this planning company maps a course that turns out to be unsafe for 18-wheelers, then a lawsuit can be filed against that party.

• The Company that Loaded the Cargo -- A lot of times, the company that owns the cargo puts it on the truck, but other times another company fulfills that role. If the company that put the cargo on did so wrong, this can lead to a wreck and injuries that the company would be liable for. Cargo in 18-wheelers has a restriction of 80,000 pounds, but lots of companies try to transport additional goods at a smaller cost by refusing to follow this rule. There’s a purpose for weight limits because a truck that’s overloaded stands a greater chance to overturn and cause plenty of additional damage when there’s an accident.

  When the company that loads the cargo doesn’t do it in a safe manner, the cargo can loosen during transport, causing a load shift that topples the trailer and creates an accident with other vehicles. When you’re dealing with other flatbed trucks, improperly loaded cargo can spill onto the road and create horrendous havoc to many cars with shocked drivers trailing the truck.

Any of these groups of a combination of many of them could have entirely of partially caused the Cedar Hill truck accident that injured you. You need the assistance of a qualified Cedar Hill truck accident lawyer who can spot the cause and all of the potential defendants so you can obtain the compensation you deserve from all the parties whose negligence led to your injury.

Prompt Investigation is Critical

A quick and thorough investigation is needed if you want to obtain all the required evidence to determine all the responsible parties and prove your case after you’ve been hurt in an 18-wheeler accident. Since a lot of parties could have contributed to the cause of the accident that hurt you, a strong investigation is needed to determine all of the liable parties and their degree of negligence. Proof is going to be needed to persuade the jury to rule in your favor, and evidence will begin vanishing quickly following your wreck. You need to get your lawyer on the trail of evidence as quick as you can. For every day you delay finding a lawyer that you’re comfortable with, you are doing serious damage to your case because the proof you need is disappearing - witnesses move or forget what they saw, videos get taped over and the accident scene will physically change.

Our truck accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have spent two decades learning the art of investigating accident cases. As soon as we’re hired we travel to the accident scene at no cost to our clients so we can search for any evidence that aids our client’s case. We do what’s necessary to get to the bottom of the truth - securing and observing all the vehicles involved in the wreck, getting photographs, searching for video evidence, looking through police reports, measuring the distance between skid marks and points of impact, doing forensic tests, finding and interviewing key witnesses and gathering evidence that’s been found to be used later in court.

Chances are you’re probably way behind the defense’s investigation that’s being done. A lot of times the trucking or insurance company will send their investigators to the accident scene right after the trucker calls it in. The defense investigators aren’t worry about determining how the accident happened; they just want to get the evidence that shows your injuries were caused by your own negligence. If you don’t have your own attorneys there doing their own investigation, you won’t know whether or not evidence has been tampered with or if a credible investigation has been done. If they can spot evidence to prove your negligence, then they can toss your insurance claim if they can show you were totally responsible or decrease the damages owed if they can show your negligence played a role in the accident.

One case we recently took on in Lancaster illustrates the need for a fast and detailed investigation. In this case, our firm was retained by the driver of a regular car after he was involved in an accident at night with a big rig. The trucking company alleged that our client didn’t have headlights in his car when the accident took place. When the case finally was brought to us, our client’s demolished car had been taken from the accident scene and over to a salvage yard not far off. When our Lancaster attorneys spotted the car at the junkyard, they did notice it was in fact missing its headlights. We were immediately worried about our client being able to secure compensation, but our investigators noticed a surveillance camera in the salvage yard so they were able to get a copy of the video tape. This particular system was programmed to record over its own memory every 48 hours and we were able to get to it right before it was deleted. The video showed a worker from the trucking company illegally taking our client’s headlights out and leaving the premises. When the trucking company’s defense lawyers later tried to say at trial that our client’s car didn’t have any headlights installed we had definitive evidence to reveal to show their deception and get compensation for our client. If our client had waited much longer to get us, the video would’ve been lost, the chances of obtaining restitution would’ve vanished and the trucking company would’ve been able to commit evidence tampering and not get caught.

Our attorneys in DeSoto & Cedar Hill will often deal with lies and deception in truck accident cases, so you need to obtain a lawyer so your attorney is able to undertake a quick and thorough investigation as quick as possible. A lot of times our investigators can still find the necessary proof long after the accident has occurred, but the quicker we can begin investigating the better odds we have of finding the proof need to get you the compensation you deserve. Don’t allow anymore delays before talking with a lawyer in DeSoto or Cedar Hill.

Common Obstacles that Plaintiffs Must Overcome

Just because you’ve filed an insurance claim after a typical car wreck doesn’t mean you’re able to take on an 18-wheeler accident lawsuit by yourself. Trucking insurance policies can be valued at 50 times the amount of a normal automotive insurance policy. Because of the incredible size of commercial insurance policies, litigation to settle truck accidents is considerably more detailed than your everyday passenger car case. Plaintiffs who try to save money on lawyer’s fees by choosing self-representation end up costing themselves far more than they tried to save by ending up with decreased or altogether denied compensation. People with no legal background and lawyers who just graduated are often stalled and frustrated when they try to file lawsuits following truck accidents because of a multitude of normal obstacles: establishing the burden of proof, the size of insurance policies, self-insured trucking companies and truckers who lie.

Burden of Proof

The law doesn’t require the defendant or defendants to pay you a dime after you’ve been hurt in a truck accident unless you, the plaintiff, are able to prove they should. If you want to receive fair restitution you deserve for your injuries, you’ll need to prove your case with tangible, credible evidence. Even when other kinds of negotiation can be used to settle a claim, evidence must be found to compel the defense or insurance to negotiate in good faith. You’ll need to show each of these four necessary components of a trucking accident case:

• Duty -- The first thing is that you need to show the defendant owed you a duty to ensure your safety by acting reasonably. The law has put in a legal duty of care owed for any specific circumstances and for each party contingent on their relationship. In truck accident cases, meeting this element isn’t difficult, since all the drivers must operate their vehicles in a manner that can reasonably provide for the safety of other drivers, pedestrians and passengers on the road.

• Breach -- If you want to prove your case, the next step is to show the defendant or defendants violated the responsibility of care you were owed. This usually occurs when the defendant put others at risk either with an action that normal people wouldn’t do or inaction when a regular person would’ve been expected to do something. You’ll need to obtain evidence that proves the defendant ignored his or her legal duty of care by action or inaction in order to prove this breach of duty. Along with that, you’ll need a DeSoto truck accident lawyer who knows how to take evidence to persuade a jury that the defendant or defendants behaved unreasonably.

• Causation -- Not only do you have to establishing the defendant or defendant’s violation of a legal duty to you, but also that your injuries were a direct cause of this breach of duty. Since multiple parties could’ve caused or played a factor in a trucking accident, it takes credible evidence to make a jury see the link existed between the defendant’s breach of his or her responsibility to you and the ensuing harm that happened to you. If not, then the defendant can topple your case by accusing someone else of causing your injuries. A lot of times, the defendant or defendant’s best chance of ducking blame is to cast blame directly on the victim for causing his or her injuries through their own negligence.

• Damages -- Once you’ve shown the first three parts for a successful truck accident lawsuit, you have to then prove the damages that the defendant owed for the injuries you’ve sustained. Legally, damages aren’t referring to your injuries and destroyed property, but instead are about the compensation the defendant owes for harming you. The plaintiff can pursue damages for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, lost earning capacity, property damage and other losses that resulted from the accident.

  Unfortunately you can’t just request compensation from the court that you think you should get and expect it to be dropped in your lap. You’ve got to provide evidence that proves not just your losses but also how you came to these totals for your damages. Most of the time, defendants will fight the amount of compensation being requested by the plaintiff and counter with their own totals that will probably decrease the fiscal amount of harm that the plaintiff dealt with. If you want to show that the defendant short-changed their estimates, you have to present evidence to show your figures are spot on.

  

  What is the true cost of my case? Since things like pain and suffering and loss of earning capacity are very subjective open to interpretation, totaling damages can be extremely complicated for anyone who’s inexperienced. It’s very tough to put a price on pain and suffering or determine lost earning capacity by determining the overall value of possible raises and inflation. In court, you only get one shot to total the amount of equitable compensation to which you’re entitled. For the past two decades, our Cedar Hill truck accident lawyers have been figuring damages, and we have become familiar with enough cases to know how to factor in all your losses to determine an estimation of compensation that properly provides you with the restitution you deserve.

Failing to establish any of these four factors means you will also fail to get the compensation you are seeking for the harm you’ve endured. You need the assistance of an 18-wheeler accident lawyer - especially if you go to trial. Years of experience working truck accident cases in Dallas County have taught our attorneys how to develop a strong legal game-plan to meet the burdens of proof and persuade any jury to rule in your favor.

Enormous Insurance Policies

Federal regulations demand that trucking companies buy sizable insurance policies to protect them against accidents, injuries and fatalities that happen due to doing businesses with big rigs. As a result, lots of people falsely assume they will get compensated quickly and without any problems. Most of the time that’s just not the case. Since insurance policies for trucks can be value at 50 times those of regular cars, the insurance companies will usually invest 50 times the energy and effort to guard their trucking policies.

With all that’s on the line, insurance companies use their shrewdest and most qualified insurance adjusters to work settlement negotiations. You probably have never had to deal with truck accident claims before, but these adjusters are the elite in their field and deal with these claims on an everyday basis. They are experts in taking an accident victim’s state of shock and basic trust in their local insurance agent and using it against them to deny their claim. They offer a fake friendship and are able to convince the victim they want to help him or her get compensated - but the victim first needs to answer some basic questions. They aren’t trying to help; they just want to increase company profits by tossing your claim. Next, they hit you with a multitude of questions to get you to mess up and say you were at fault for your accident. If they get that, then they can deny your claim. The less contact you have with an insurance adjuster the better, so hire a veteran DeSoto 18-wheeler accident lawyer and let your legal team handle the deceptive questions from the insurance company. Our rules is that you shouldn’t talk to a representative from an insurance company without a lawyer acting as a buffer. If you choose our firm as your legal council, our attorneys will take all conversations with the insurance company and shield you from any chance at admitting your own liability.

There are some occasions when pushy adjusters will try to get accident victims to wave their rights sue in exchange for a settlement offer that is both unfair and paltry. You always want to try and avoid the stress and uncertainty of a jury trial, but you don’t want to take an offer that doesn’t help you with the harm you’ve sustained. Only a lawyer with a long history of success can get the insurance company to offer a fair settlement, because they fear losing more money at trial.

The insurance company will try to dodge liability for your injuries by using a skilled defense team that can pinpoint loopholes and procedural hurdles that will then force inexperienced plaintiffs to blow their chances at getting properly compensated. You need a veteran Cedar Hill 18-wheeler accident lawyer who can counter the efforts of these professionals. Our attorneys - including those in Dallas, DeSoto & Cedar Hill - have won significant compensation from every big-time insurance company in America, and we’ve learned how to plan for every trick and shady tactic they use.

Self-Insured Companies can be More Treacherous

Instead of getting a regular insurance policy, many trucking companies allot an amount of their overall assets in reserve to use as insurance for their own accidents. While the federal government regulates the insurance industry - which requires that all companies be registered, adjusters be licensed and ethical guidelines be followed - self-insured companies are constrained by ethical guidelines. That’s why self-insured companies have earned the reputation of acting unethically and being difficult to negotiate with. A lot of times in order to negotiate a settlement with a self-insured company, you’ll have to deal with a worker from the company. Since this individual probably gets a portion of his/her salary from profit sharing, they have plenty of motivation to deny your claim. This worker would basically be give you their paycheck if they allow you to be compensated how you deserve. With their money at stake, self-insured companies usually put their own interests before those of the victims and will turn to such tactics like bullying and harassing victims, changing or tampering with evidence and even threatening victims.

If a self-insured company has tried to bully you or push you around, then you can get them to stop with the help of a DeSoto truck accident lawyer. As soon as we’re hired, our attorneys in the North Texas areas can force self-insured companies to negotiate in good faith by using legal action.

Truck Drivers Can’t be Trusted

While we’d like to believe that people are basically good and decent, the trucker who hurt you with his or her negligence has too much motivation to lie. If the trucker has been deemed to be negligent while injuring others, then he or she will be getting fired soon, if they haven’t got a pink slip already. Moreover, a trucker that’s been proven negligent will not have an easy chance at getting another trucking job with that kind of black mark on their record. When you factor in the job market and the economy, most of your basic honest and trustworthy truckers will have to lie so they can save their jobs and their ability to provide for their loved ones. To get the compensation you want, you must be able to show that the trucker is lying.

Our 18-wheeler accident lawyers in DeSoto have learned how to investigate and discover the key evidence that shows the trucker is lying. We will take the trucker’s credibility apart with all the evidence which will disprove each of their lies.

In the same fashion that insurance adjusters attempt to get victims to admit negligence through a barrage of questions, our lawyers will develop a line of questioning for the deposition with the intent of tricking the trucking into confessing their own lies. The 18-wheeler lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have deposed countless witnesses over the last two decades and we know how to construct the questions just right to expose the truckers’ lies.

How We Can Help

If you have suffered an injury or a loved one has died in an 18-wheeler accident in the DeSoto/ Cedar Hill areas, you need to retain an 18-wheeler accident lawyer to guard your legal rights and help you get the fair compensation you deserve.

From filing to restitution, our lawyers will take care of every detail in your case and see to it you are kept informed of any details as they arise. We will give you such services as:

• Conducting an investigation to determine how the accident happened.
• Identifying all the liable parties and filing comprehensive claims and lawsuits against each of them.
• Finding the necessary evidence to meet your burden of proof.
• Using our reputation for success to pressure the defendants.
• Shielding victims from the telephone calls and questions that insurance adjusters will hit them with.
• Using strong investigative and deposition strategies to expose the lies of the truckers.
• Developing a strong game-plan to persuade the jury to rule for our clients.
• Getting self-insured companies to act appropriately and negotiate in good faith.
• Making sure our clients get the medical care they need.

The chances are strong that the defense team has already conducted its investigation and finalized its case against you. By procrastinating and delaying hiring an attorney any longer, you are causing tremendous damage to your ability to get the restitution you deserve. Contact us toll free today at 1-855-326-0000 for a free consultation and see how we can help you like we have so many others throughout Texas.