Irving 18-Wheeler Accident Lawyer

Hurt in an Irving Texas 18-Wheeler Truck Accident? Call Grossman Law Offices Today

There are lots of firms who wouldn’t hesitate to take your truck accident case, but there aren’t many who can really say they have extensive experience in working 18-wheeler and other types of commercial vehicle accident cases.

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The veteran team of Irving truck accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices has been litigating truck accident cases for over two decades and emerged successful in countless cases.

There are several kinds of commercial vehicles. We have successful tried personal injury and/or wrongful death cases that have included rock haulers, dump trucks, various kinds of construction vehicles, moving vans, buses, tankers and other forms of commercial vehicles. While there are lots of different commercial vehicles, these kinds of cases have some particular similarities:

• They are much bigger and tend to cause greater damage than regular vehicles.
• They are covered by another set of laws that aren’t relevant with normal vehicles.
• The final, but perhaps most important, factor is they are owned by huge businesses that will form a no-holds-barred defense focused on denying plaintiffs fair compensation.

We can take just as aggressive an approach. If you want your truck accident case to have the best shot at winning, you need to choose a law firm that has a combination of experience, resources, skill and the track record of defeating opposition in trial or pressuring them into a fair settlement that they would normally fight to avoid paying.

When you retain Grossman Law Offices for your legal representation in your Irving truck accident case, you are obtaining 20 years of experience from lawyers who have won hundreds of cases (and thousands of personal injury cases overall) over time.

Below, you’ll discover a plethora of information that details the case-flow process involved in a truck accident case, and learn about some of the hurdles to a positive recovery.

How Truck Accident Cases Work

Recovering from any accident can be stressful and painful, but there’s not anything that can compare with the traumatic effects of truck accident cases. Commercial trucks sometimes way in excess of 80,000 pounds, so there is incredible damage that takes place when they’re involved in accidents. Since truckers work on an hourly pay schedule, they can go extended hours without rest, which increases the chance for decreased concentration, as well as stronger chances of accidents, injuries, property damage and fatalities.

For over two decades, the Irving truck accident lawyers at Grossman Law offices have gained experience in personal injury cases involving trucks, and we have handled a ton of medical and legal questions posed by clients who are trying to find answers after they’ve been hurt or lost a loved one because of a truck accident. The biggest thing is that you need to receive proper medical attention following your wreck. Not only is this important for your physical well being, but you need to have your injuries professional documented. If you don’t carry medical insurance or are under-insured, then we have ways of helping you get a physician who can factor in your current struggles and establish a payment plan that fits in your budget.

After your injuries have been cared for, it’s critical that you begin thinking about how to proceed with this legally and what ways you can get proper and fair compensation. The law states that whoever is responsible for your injuries isn’t required to pay anything, but the victims (also called plaintiffs) face the burden of proof in showing they require such compensation. The best way to get the right amount for your injuries is through a qualified, veteran Irving truck accident lawyer. Our lawyers want to provide you with information about your legal options so you can help your family the best way possible. Before that, however, we want to teach you about the various details involved in truck accident law:

• Why you should file a lawsuit.
• Individuals and groups who routinely cause truck accidents.
• The need for a fast and detailed investigation.
• Challenges that often destroy the claims of those who want to work the case themselves.
• How an Irving truck accident lawyer can help you.

This article is meant as just a resource, and shouldn’t act as a replacement the expert assistance you’d get from an attorney who knows how to handle each and every detail in your case. To discover how the law affects your particular case, you can reach us today at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free) to have your particular questions answered.

The Reasons to File a Truck Accident Injury Lawsuit

Our attorneys have become familiar with the catastrophic pain and suffering that is caused by truck accidents. Thanks to our years of working cases like these, we’ve observed that several truck accident victims are hesitant about pursuing any legal action because they don’t like the idea of determining a price for their injuries and having to do that would make them simply relive what happened. While filing a claim could be painful and not fun to think about, we’ll see later in this piece that speed is essential in having a successful claim, so you need to remember and act fast right after the accident takes place.

Filing a lawsuit to help with injuries caused by an accident can actually help you in two ways: First, it serves as a way to help the injured heal from the financial and emotional harm stemming from the accident and punishes those who were responsible for causing the wreck. There’s no sum of money that can erase what happened or take it from your psyche, but what remains are the financial burdens that you somehow have to deal with. The only solution to helping your family return to normal is to obtain compensation from those who caused the accident. Odds are that you probably missed work because of your injuries, so there are probably medical bills and repair bills mounting that will be impossible to pay unless you sue those who are liable for your injuries.

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The other benefit of a truck accident lawsuit is to decrease the chance of continued negligence by making sure those responsible face justice. Anyone who’s taken a huge financial hit because of a truck accident lawsuit isn’t going to make the same poor choices again. If you want to really have change take place - go for someone’s bank account.

Common Negligent Causes of Truck Accidents

Before you file a lawsuit, you first must know why the accident happened and who was responsible. A lot of times there are numerous people who are involved in goods being transported by a truck, so in numerous truck accident cases there can be lots of people whose negligence contributed to a truck accident unfolding. A qualified Irving truck accident lawyer can use his or her experience gained over time with working previous truck accident claims to figure out how an accident happened and what individuals were at fault. There are lots of possibilities that can be considered here with truck accidents: truckers, the trucking company, manufacturers of the truck or trailer, the company that mapped out the trucker’s route, the company that loaded the truck, or other groups. Let’s explain:

Truckers - Truckers put in extensive hours traveling through our highways and throughout the country and in the majority of truck accident cases, they are responsible for most of part of injuries that take place. Trucker drivers will create accidents when they choose to negligent do such things drive under the influence, speed, ignore stop signs, or swerve wildly on the roads. There are other times when truck accidents happen due to drivers being exhausted. Federal law mandates that drivers take required rest breaks, but these rules are usually ignored by truckers so they can meet specific time deadlines. There are studies that show truckers double their odds of being involved in a wreck when they’ve spend eight straight hours driving, and prior to being surveyed, 20 percent of truckers admitted to falling asleep while driving. Whether it was a simple accident or intentional, if a truck driver’s negligence led to an accident and you got hurt, then you have the chance to pursue a lawsuit against him or her.

Trucking Companies - In Texas, a legal term has been established called “respondeat superior” which says employers are liable for the behavior of their workers. If a trucker’s negligence led to your injuries; the trucking company is also on the line. So if you’re dealing with a trucker, let’s say, that had a history of DUI arrests, and they cause an accident while drunk, then that company they work for is just as responsible for any injuries that resulted from the wreck.

It also needs to be noted that the trucking company doesn’t have to operate with negligence to be found liable for the negligence of its workers. That means that as long as a truck driver is ruled negligent, a lawsuit can be filed with the intent of obtaining damages from the trucking company. A lot of times, the trucking company is the intended defendant the plaintiff pursues for damages since they probably have way more resources than the truckers themselves.

Manufacturers - When trucks are made, there are thousands of parts and pieces all drilled and molded together for the truck to safely operate. If even one of these parts doesn’t work right while the truck is moving, then there’s a chance at an accident happening. If this problem stems from a faulty part or manufacturing error and an accident occurs, then those hurt in a wreck have the opportunity pursue compensation from the manufacturer.

The Company that Planned the Route - Trucks aren’t able to travel on every road and neighborhood, and you’ve probably noticed how lots of bridges have height and weight restrictions in place. To make safety the top priority, trucking companies will often turn to other businesses to map out safe routes. If this course becomes unsafe and dangerous for trucks, then they could face a potential lawsuit.

The Company the Loaded the Cargo - Sometimes the company the owned the cargo took care of the loading process on its own, but then they may also turn to another business for this. If the company who put the cargo on did so in an unsafe manner, this can create a wreck and lead to countless injuries that this business would be responsible for. Weight limits of 80,000 pounds are in place for trucks, but many companies neglect this rule and try to transport additional goods at a lower cost. Weight limits have a purpose, because an overloaded truck has a greater chance to overturn and cause more damage when there’s a wreck.

When the company that loads the cargo doesn’t fasten it properly, the cargo can come loose during transport, loads will shift and the trailer can topple, which could then lead to accidents with other cars. If you’re dealing with flatbed trucks, poorly loaded cargo can spill into the highway and create incredible problems for cars of suddenly shocked and panicked drivers who are traveling behind the truck.

Other Drivers - Truck drivers aren’t always at fault whenever they’re involved in accidents. There are scenarios when other motorists neglect their role to ensure the safety of other motorists, which then lead to accidents with trucks, and creating even more damage and injuries to additional drivers. When that happens, victims can file lawsuits against these third parties.

Any of these groups, or combinations of, could have contributed to or partially caused the truck accident that harmed you. You need assistance from a veteran Irving truck accident lawyer who can determine the cause and all of the potential defendants so you can obtain the compensation you deserve from those whose negligence led to your pain and suffering.

Prompt Investigation is Essential

The biggest priority to make sure all the responsible parties are spotted and that all critical evidence is gathered for your truck accident is for a quick and detailed investigation to be conducted. Knowing that numerous people could have acted in a negligent manner that led to your accident and injuries, an investigation is done to ascertain the degree of negligence with each party. It’s critical to have the proper evidence to persuade the jury to rule for you and evidence will begin vanishing quickly right after your accident. You need to hire a lawyer immediately so they can begin gathering evidence as quick as possible. Every day that goes by without you electing a lawyer to work your case, you’re doing incredible harm to your case because the evidence you need is vanishing - witnesses move and forget the details of what they observed, videos get recorded over and the accident scene will physically change.

Our irving truck accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have devoted two decades to developing their skills at investigating accident scenes. Once you retain us, we travel quickly to accident scenes free of cost to our clients in hopes of finding evidence to support our client’s case. We take every necessary step to reach the truth through securing all the pertinent vehicles, taking photos, looking for video evidence, looking over police records, taking measurements of the distance between skid marks and points of impact, doing forensic tests, locating witnesses and interviewing them and gathering any credible evidence that can be used later in a trial.

You should go ahead and expect that you’re probably trailing behind what work the defense team has already done. A lot of times once truckers call in accidents, the trucking company or insurance provider will immediately send their investigators to accident scenes. Their aim isn’t to figure out how an accident happened; they’re just there to find evidence that can help them argue it was your own ignorance that caused your injuries. If you haven’t acquired an attorney who can be there as well to do their own investigation, you won’t have any way to know if the defense was involved in evidence tampering or if they conducting an honest, truthful investigation. If they can locate evidence to prove your negligence, then your insurance claim can be tossed if they’re able to show you were at fault, or your damages can shrink dramatically if they can show your negligence played a critical part in the accident.

There’s always one case we handled in Irving that perfectly illustrates the need for a quick, thorough investigation. In this case, our firm was retained by a man who was in an accident late one night with a big rig. The trucking company tried to say our client had no headlights in his car when the accident happened. After we were hired, we discovered our client’s demolished car had been taken from the scene of the accident to a local salvage yard that wasn’t far away. When our lawyers found the car at the junkyard, they noticed it was missing its lights. Our concern then shifted to our client not getting compensated, but our investigators saw a surveillance camera mounted in the salvage yard and managed to get a copy of the footage. This system was programmed to record over its previous footage every 48 hours, and we got the film just before that happened again. What we discovered was that a worker from the trucking company illegally removed the headlights and took them from the premises. Once the trial began and the defense attempted to say our client had no headlights, we had the proof to show the unethical behavior that took place and got our client compensation. If our client had waited just a little while longer to retain us, the video would have been useless, getting compensation would have vanished and the trucking company could have been able to tamper with evidence without anyone knowing.

Our Irving attorneys are used to dealing with lies and deception, so you have to get a lawyer that can begin a speedy, thorough investigation as quick as they can. There are times when our investigators can find the vital proof for their investigation long after the accident took place, but the quicker we can begin investigating, the better chance we have of getting strong proof to secure the compensation you need. Don’t allow any more time to pass before you meet with an Irving truck accident lawyer.

Common Obstacles that Plaintiffs Must Overcome

Just because you’ve dealt with insurance claims after a car wreck doesn’t mean you have the skills to handle a truck accident lawsuit on your own. The value of a trucking insurance policy can be 50 times more expensive than your normal automotive insurance policy. Because of the enormity of trucking insurance policies, trying truck accident cases are far more complex than your regular car accident cases. Plaintiffs who think they can save some money through self-representation can eventually cause themselves more problems and wind up with far less compensation. People who have no legal pedigree or lawyers who’ve just graduated law school end up dealing with problems ranging from the burden or proof, the size of insurance policies, self-insured trucking companies and lying truckers.

Burden of Proof

The law doesn’t demand that a defendant or defendants pay you anything after your truck accident injury, unless you (the plaintiff) have the facts and evidence to show that. In order to get properly compensated for your injuries, you need to compile evidence that can be used. There are different ways to settle a man, but evidence still needs to be presented so defense attorneys and insurance companies conduct negotiations in an ethical manner. You will need to show each of these four things when proving your truck accident case:

Duty - The first thing is to show the defendant owed you a legal duty to keep you safe. The law explains a clear legal duty owed for certain circumstances and for each individual depending on their relationships. When dealing with truck accidents, this isn’t an issue since drivers have to operate in a way that ensures other motorists, pedestrians and passengers are kept safe.

Breach - The next step in proving your case is showing the defendant or defendants violated the duty of care you were owed. You’ll see this when the defendant puts others at risk with behavior you wouldn’t find with normal citizens or when they don’t act when most would do something. You’ll need to find evidence that shows the defendant neglected their duty of care by acting or not acting in a way that proved that a duty was broken. This is why you need an Irving truck accident lawyer who knows how to take evidence and sway a jury into seeing a defendant’s actions were improper.

Causation - Along with proving the defendant or defendants have violated a legal duty, you also have to prove your injuries were a direct cause of this violation. Since there could have been lots of people or groups that contributed to a truck accident, there’s an emphasis on having strong, credible evidence that can help a jury see the link between the defendant’s actions and how it led to you being harmed. If that isn’t established, the defendant can blow your case away and blame someone else for your injuries occurring. Many times what a defendant will attempt to do is shift the blame to the victim for the cause of their injuries.

Damages - After the first three components have been established for a strong truck accident lawsuit, the next thing is to prove the defendants owed you damages for your injuries you’ve sustained. When it comes to the legal world, damages aren’t referring to injuries or destroyed property, but are defined as the compensation the defendant must pay out for their negligence. Such things as medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering, inability to earn wages, damaged property and other losses are some of the damages that a plaintiff can pursue.

Problem is you can’t demand compensation and just expect to get it. You’ve got to present evidence that shows your losses and how you came to the totals for your damages. Often these totals are debated by the defendant, who will then submit their own amount for the damages that usually is considerably lower. If you want to blow holes in the credibility of the defendant’s numbers, you’ve got to provide evidence that shows your calculations are valid.

What is the cost of my case? Damages covering pain and suffering, or loss of earning capacity are subjective and open to interpretation. Figuring these totals can be very complicated for those who aren’t trained with this. It’s not easy to determine a price for pain and suffering or figure out the total for lost earning capacity by totaling hypothetical raises and inflation. In court, you get one shot to total the amount of equitable compensation you deserve. For over two decades, our Irving truck accident lawyers have been figuring damages, and we have developed enough familiarity with cases like yours to know how to account for your losses and get the compensation that will assist you in the best way possible.

Not being able to establish any of these factors means you will probably not get compensated for the injuries you’ve sustained. You need to get help from an Irving truck accident lawyer - especially when you go to trial. Our involvement in previous truck accident cases has helped our lawyers learn how to develop a strong legal strategy that will meet the required burdens of proof and get the jury to rule for you.

Enormous Insurance Policies

Federal rules state that trucking companies have to obtain big insurance companies to use in the event of accidents, injuries and fatalities that happen when dealing with big rigs. As a result, there are many who incorrectly assume they will get compensated soon and without any complications or setbacks. Most of the time, that’s just not true. Since most truck insurance policies can be 50 times the amount of those for regular passenger vehicles, the insurance companies in turn will devote 50 times the effort and manpower to defend those policies.

With everything that’s on the line, insurance companies have their sharpest and most talented insurance adjusters to lean on to work these negotiations. You probably haven’t had to deal with truck accident claims before, but these adjusters are the elite in their industry and have been involved with these kinds of claims on a consistent basis. When a victim is in shock and has a basic trust for their neighborhood agent, these experts know how to take it, twist it and use that to deny their claim. They have the appearance of being a great friend and wanting to make sure they get compensated, but the victim has to first answer some questions. Their aim isn’t to help you out; they just want to make sure company profits grow and that your claim is denied. They will hit you with endless questions that basically re-phrase the same questions repeatedly in hopes of getting you to make a mistake and admit you were liable for your accident. If you can admit that, then your claim will be denied. The less interaction you have with insurance adjusters, the better it will be for you, so obtain an Irving truck accident lawyer and allow them to handle the harassing questions that adjusters fire at you. Generally you shouldn’t talk to any insurance representatives without the presence of a lawyer. If you retain our firm, our attorneys will handle phone calls from the insurance company and make sure you’re shielded from accidentally admitting liability.

There are times when aggressive adjusters will try to get accident victims to even give up their rights to sue in exchange for a paltry settlement. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to avoid a trial, but you don’t want to take an offer that doesn’t help you out with injuries you’ve sustained. Only a lawyer with a consistent record of victories can influence the insurance company into give you a fair settlement, since they know there’s a possibility they could pay out more in a trial.

The insurance company will also try to duck liability by using a savvy defense team that will find ways to cause plaintiffs to hurt their chances of getting compensated. This is where a qualified Irving truck accident lawyer can come in handy and counter the moves being made by defense lawyers. Our lawyers have been awarded millions from every big-time insurance company in America, and we know what to anticipate seeing from opposing attorneys.

Self-Insured Companies can be More Treacherous

Rather than buy a regular insurance policy, there are some trucking companies that choose to take some assets and save them to use as insurance for accidents. The federal government regulates the insurance industry, where there are rules in place that companies are registered, adjusters have licenses and that specific standards are followed. Self-insured companies, however, don’t have to follow these rules. That’s why many have gained the reputation of acting dishonestly and being difficult to work with in negotiations. When you have to negotiate with a self-insured company, you usually are dealing with one of the company’s officers. These workers likely get their income from some kind of profit sharing, so they have plenty of motivation to deny your claim. The officer would basically be providing you with their paycheck if they let you get the compensation you deserve. With their salary at stake, self-insured companies usually look after their own interests and will choose to use such tactics as bullying witnesses, evidence tampering or threatening victims.

If you’ve dealt with self-insured companies bullying you, then you can get this to stop with the help of an Irving truck accident lawyer. The minute we’re hired, our lawyers can get self-insured companies to work appropriately by threatening legal action.

Truck Drivers Can’t Be Trusted

We always want to believe people are honest and act with integrity, but the truck driver who hurt you has plenty of reasons to lie. If the truckers are found to have acted with negligence, chances are they will be fired soon, if that hasn’t happened already. That trucker will also have a nearly impossible time getting another job with that kind of issue on their record. When you think about the economy and job market, it makes sense that normally honest, hard-working truckers will choose to lie to protect their jobs and make sure they can provide for their family. To make sure you get compensated you need to be able and show the trucker was lying.

Our Irving truck accident lawyers have developed a knack for getting the facts that can expose the trucker’s lies. We will ruin the trucker’s credibility with all the facts we access that will bust holes in their lies.

In much the same way that insurance adjusters try to get victims to confess to their negligence with a ton of questions, our lawyers will develop a list of questions that will accomplish the same thing with the lying truckers. The Irving truck accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have interviewed thousands of witnesses over the years, and we know how to ask just the right questions to show the truckers are lying.

How We Can Help

If you’ve sustained an injury or a family member has been lost in a truck accident in the Irving area, you need to retain an Irving truck accident lawyer to protect your legal rights and help you obtain the compensation you’re owed. In every facet, we will take care of all the details of your case and stay in touch constantly if there are any changes in your case. We will also give such services as:

• Conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.
• Determine all of the liable parties and filing lawsuits against each of them.
  
• Finding evidence that will help you with the burden of proof.
• Protecting you from harassing phone calls made by insurance adjusters.
• Using strong investigative strategies to bring the truckers’ lies to light.
• Developing a strong strategy to move the jury in your favor.
• Pressuring self-insured companies to act in an honest, ethical manner.
• Making sure our clients get mandatory medical attention.

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The defendant has probably already done its investigation and finished its case against you. When you hesitate to hire a lawyer, you are causing serious damages to your chances of getting fair compensation. Call us now toll free at 1-855-326-0000 for a free consultation and discover how we can help you in the same way we’ve helped countless other Texans.

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