Irving 18-Wheeler Truck Accident Attorney

Irving Semi Truck Accident Lawyer Michael Grossman Can Help You Recover Damages Following an Irving Texas Commercial Trucking Accident

Emerging from any wreck can be arduous, but few accidents can have the catastrophic effects like those involving 18-wheelers. Commercial trucks often weigh at or above 80,000 pounds, so there is incredible damage whenever they’re involved in accidents. Since truck drivers are paid by the hour, they usually work extra long shifts without breaks, which lead to regular lapses in concentration and consciousness, which lead to accidents, injuries, property damage and often death.

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For two decades, the Irving 18-wheeler lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have handled personal injury cases centering around big rigs, and we know that victims usually have an excessive amount of medical and legal questions they need answered after they’ve been hurt or had a loved one die in a truck accident. More importantly is that you need proper medical evaluations after such an accident. Besides getting treated for your injuries, you need to make sure they’re documented too. If you don’t have medical insurance or don’t have the proper coverage, then we can assist you in getting a doctor who can account for your financial situation and set up payment options that are suitable for you.

After your injuries have been examined, you need to begin thinking about your legal options for getting compensated for the harm you’ve endured. Negligent parties aren’t required by law to pay for your injuries, but the victim (which is also called the plaintiff) has the burden of proving they should be compensated. Only a veteran Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer gives you the best odds of getting the compensation you deserve. Our lawyers want to make sure you know about your legal options, so you can make the best decision for you and your family.

This article is here to provide information only, and you shouldn’t view it as an easy replacement for the legal guidance you would obtain from a knowledgeable, skilled attorney. To gain more insight into the legal details of your specific case, contact us soon at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free) to discuss your specific legal questions.

The Reasons to File an 18-Wheeler Accident Injury Lawsuit

Our lawyers fully understanding the enormous emotional and physical harm that result from big rig wrecks. Due to our years of experience, we know that plenty of truck accident victims never pursue legal action because they don’t like the burden of placing a price on their injuries and that process then brings back the pain of the accident. Regardless of how tough this is, as we will see later in this piece, quick choices are essential in your claim’s success, so you must move quickly after your accident happens.

Obtaining legal representation following an 18-wheeler accident helps you in two ways: allowing the injured victim to recover both financially and emotionally from the harm inflicted by the wreck and seeking justice with those whose actions caused the accident. No sum of money can help with the damages caused by your accident or erase the memory from your mind, you still have to handle the financial burdens and recover from them. The only way to refocus you and your family back on track is to get compensated from those who are responsible. You may have even missed work because of your injuries, so covering medical costs that helped with your injuries, along with the repairs for your car, can be overwhelming unless you file a lawsuit against those who caused your accident.

Along with that, an Irving 18-wheeler accident lawsuit helps decrease the chance or more improper actions by punishing those responsible for your wreck. People who have lost tons of money in big rig accident lawsuits will usually not do the same thing a second time. If you want to prove a point - hit them in their wallet.

Common Negligent Causes of 18-Wheeler Accidents

To fully know who you should file suit against, you must first discover how the accident happened and who was responsible. Many people and companies are involved in goods being transported by truck, so in lots of 18-wheeler accident cases, more than one group may have been found negligent and caused or been part of an 18-wheeler accident. A veteran 18-wheeler accident lawyer in Irving can use their extensive knowledge acquired from past accident claims to properly figure out why your accident happened and figure out just who contributed to the catastrophe. Any amount of people could have been involved in an 18-wheeler accident: the truck driver, the trucking company, makers of the truck or trailer, the company that set up the truck’s route, the company that loaded the truck, or other third parties. Let’s explain:

Truckers

Truck drivers compile long hours traveling up and down the highway, and in the majority of truck accident cases, they are liable in all or partial injuries. Truck drivers can cause accidents through intentional negligent choices like driving while under the influence of drugs/alcohol, speeding, ignoring stop signs, or errant swerving. A lot of times, 18-wheeler accidents in Irving are just a result of the driver being exhausted. Drivers must comply with federal law that require mandatory rest breaks, but lots of them ignore safety guidelines so they can meet the required time guidelines their companies have set up. Studies indicate that the odds of an accident increase when a driver has been behind the wheel for eight consecutive hours, and 20 percent of drivers claim they’ve fallen asleep at the wheel more than once a month before they were surveyed. Whether deliberate or just accidentally, if a truck driver’s negligence led to an accident where you were hurt, then you can pursue a lawsuit against that person.

Trucking Companies

Texas adheres to a legal term called respondeat superior that says employers are responsible for the actions or inaction of their employees. If a truck driver’s choices led to an accident; the trucking company they work for is also responsible. That means then if a truck driver had a history of DUI convictions, and causes another accident while drunk, then that business is additionally liable for any injuries caused by the accident.

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Along with that, it must be noted that the trucking company doesn’t have to commit a negligent act to be found liable for the negligent behavior of its workers. That means that as long as the trucker is negligent, a lawsuit can be filed to seek damages from that particular company. A lot of times the trucking company becomes the defendant because they are linked to more resources than their drivers.

Manufacturers

Trucks and trailers include thousands of bolts, wires and other parts that are put together so the vehicle can run safely. If any of these parts don’t perform what they were designed to do when the 18-wheeler is operating, then it can lead to an accident. If this error was a result of a design defect or manufacturing problem an accident happens, then whoever is hurt in an accident has the ability to pursue compensation from a manufacturer.

The Company that Planned the Route

Not every road and neighborhood is capable of handling 18-wheelers, and lots of bridges have weight restrictions for driving on them and height limits for going under them. To make sure they’re safe, busy trucking companies will usually turn to other companies to help safely plan out driving routes. If this company maps a route that is shown to be problematic or dangerous, then a lawsuit can be sent to that business.

The Company that Loaded the Cargo

Many times, the business that owned the cargo puts it into the 18-wheeler, and sometimes that responsibility falls on another business. If the company that put the cargo in did so improperly, this can lead to an accident and countless injuries, which this company would be responsible for. There is an 80,000-pound weight limit for cargo in an 18-wheeler, but countless companies try to haul more goods for cheaper by subverting this rule. This rule is in place for a reason, because overloaded trucks have a better chance to turn over and can lead to more damage when involved in an accident.

When the company that loads this cargo doesn’t fasten it down properly, the cargo can loosen during transport, causing the load to shift, the trailer to topple and an accident with other cars. If you’re dealing flatbed trucks, poorly loaded cargo can spill onto the road and cause tremendous panic to cars driven by shocked drivers who are behind the 18-wheeler.

Other Drivers

Just because a truck was part of an accident doesn’t mean the truck or the trucker was responsible for the accident. A lot of times, other drivers ignore their duty to ensure the safety of others on the road, and that leads to an accident with an 18-wheeler and damages and injuries to additional drivers on the road. In that case, the victims can go after damages from this third party.

Any of these groups, or combinations of them, could have completely or partially contributed to the 18-wheeler accident and your injury. You need assistance from a veteran Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer who can determine the cause and all of the defendants who are responsible so you can obtain the compensation deserve from those whose negligence caused your injury.

Prompt Investigation is Essential

To get the proper evidence and discover who was responsible and prove they are liable after you’ve been in an Irving 18-wheeler accident, a quick and detailed investigation must take place. Since a multitude of people and groups have contributed to the accident and your resulting injuries, a thorough investigation is done to see who is responsible and their degree of negligence in the matter. You’re going to need factual proof that will get the jury to lean in your favor, and evidence often vanishes quickly following most wrecks. You need to get a lawyer quickly so they can hunt down any relevant evidence as fast as they can. For every day wasted not finding an Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer you can trust, you are inflicting tremendous damage to your cause since the proof is disappearing - witnesses move or their memories fade, videos are deleted and the accident scene can have physical changes happen quickly.

Our Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have spent two decades becoming skilled at investigating accident cases. As soon as you obtain our assistance, we bolt to the accident at no expense to our clients, so we can search for any evidence that assists our client’s case. We do whatever is necessary to reach the truth - sequestering and looking over the vehicles involved, taking countless photos, looking for video evidence, scouring police reports, taking measurements of the distance between skid marks and where impact occurred between vehicles, doing forensic tests, searching for an interviewing witnesses and compiling proper evidence that we can use later in court.

Chances are that you’re probably way behind the attack the defense team has already begun. A lot of times, the trucking or insurance company shoots their investigators to an accident scene right after the truck driver calls it in. The investigators for the defense don’t concern themselves with how the accident really occurred; they just need enough proof to argue that your injuries were due to your own negligence. If you don’t have your own Irving 18-wheeler accident attorneys on the scene doing their own work, you can’t determine if the defense tampered with evidence or did its investigation in an ethical manner. If they can locate evidence to prove your negligence, this means your insurance claim can be denied if they can show you were totally at fault, or damages can shrink if they can show your negligence was a contributing factor.

One case we had not long ago in Irving shows the importance of conducting a prompt, detailed investigation. In this example, our firm was obtained by the driver of a regular car after he was involved in an accident late at night with an 18-wheeler. The trucking company said our client didn’t have any headlights put in his car when the accident happened. When we came on the case, our clients demolished car was gone from the accident scene and transported to a local salvage yard close by. When our lawyers spotted the car at the junkyard, they did see how the car was without headlights. Worried that our client wouldn’t be adequately compensated, our investigators saw a surveillance camera in the salvage yard, so they got hold of some footage. This specific system was set to tape over its data every 48 hours, and we got it shortly before it was erased. The video showed an individual from the trucking company illegally removing and taking our client’s headlights from the premises. Later when the trucking company’s defense team attempted to argue in court that our client’s car didn’t have headlights installed, we had physical evidence with the video to show their unethical behavior and get compensation our client deserved. If our client had waited any longer to come get help, the video would have been erases, our ability to get compensation would have vanished and the trucking company would have prevailed in its deceitful evidence tampering.

Our Irving attorneys often deal with these lies and deceit in 18-wheeler accident cases, so it’s critical to get an attorney who can begin an investigation as quick as possible. In some situations, our investigators can still secure proof way after an accident has occurred, but the quicker we can begin investigating, the better odds we have of making sure we get the proof that will help you obtain the compensation you need. Don’t delay any longer before you talk with an Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer.

Common Obstacles that Plaintiffs Must Overcome

Just because you’ve submitted an insurance claim after a regular car accident doesn’t mean you’re capable of handling your Irving 18-wheeler accident lawsuit on your own. Trucking insurance policies can be valued at 50 times that of a normal automotive insurance policy. Because of the enormous size of 18-wheeler insurance policies, litigation to settle big rig accidents is way more complex than a regular passenger car case. Plaintiffs who think they can save money on lawyer’s fees by selecting to self represent wind up costing themselves more than they saved with diminished or denied compensation. Regular citizens with no legal experience and raw, young lawyers fresh from law school encounter problems when they try and follow lawsuits after truck accidents because of numerous common problems: establishing the burden of proof, the total of the insurance policy, self-insured trucking companies and truckers who lie.

Burden of Proof

The law doesn’t require the defendant or defendants to give you anything after you’ve been hurt in an 18-wheeler accident in Irving unless you (the plaintiff) can show they must do that. In order to get the compensation you truly deserve for your trauma, you will need to prove your case with factual evidence. Even when other means of negotiation are used to settle a claim, evidence must be gathered to show the defense or insurance companies so negotiations can be done in good faith. You will need to show these four factors that are required in an Irving 18-wheeler accident case:

Duty

The first thing is that you need to show the defendant owed you a duty to ensure your safety by acting in a reasonable manner. The law clearly shows the legal duty of care owed for certain circumstances and for each individual depending on their relationship. In 18-wheeler cases, reaching this requirement occurs easily, since every driver has to operate their motor vehicle in a manner where they are being safe around other drivers, pedestrians and other passengers on the roads.

Breach

To be able to prove your case, you then have to show that the defendant or defendants breached the responsibility of care you were required. This usually occurs when they defendant put others in harm’s way either with a choice that a normal person wouldn’t do, or didn’t act when most everyone would do something. You’ll need to gather facts that show the defendant clearly ignored his or her legal duty of care by acting or not acting in order to prove their breach of duty. Along with that, you need the help of an Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer who knows how to use that evidence in a way to sway a jury into seeing that the defendant or defendants behaved in an unreasonable manner.

Causation

Not only must you be able to establish the defendant or defendants’ breach of legal duty to you, but also that your injuries were a result of this breach of duty. Since different parties could have contributed to this 18-wheeler accident in different degrees, it requires specific credible evidence to make a jury see there was a link between the defendant’s breach of their responsibility to you and the resulting injuries you incurred. If not, then the defendant can take apart your case by casting blame on another individual for your injuries. A lot of times, the defendant or defendant’s best chance of avoiding blame is to place responsibility on the victim for causing their own injuries through their own negligent behavior.

Damages

After you’ve clearly showed the first three factors exist for a credible 18-wheeler accident lawsuit, you must then properly prove the damages you are owed by the defendant. When it comes to the legal world, damages have nothing to do with your injuries or destroyed property, but are referring to the compensation the defendant owes you for the harm you’ve experienced. The plaintiff can elect to get damages for medical bills, lost income, pain and trauma, inability to earn income, property damage and other various losses stemming from the accident.

Unfortunately, you can enter the court, ask damages and simply think you’ll get it. On the contrary, you have to give evidence that proves your losses, but also clearly explains how you came to your total for the monetary value of your damages. Most of the time, defendants will fight the amount of compensation the plaintiff is seeking and will counter with their own estimation, which usually diminish the monetary amount of harm the plaintiff has sustained. In order to show the defendant’s attempt to short-change on damages, you have to provide evidence that can’t be challenged to show your calculations are legitimate.

How much is my case truly worth? Since damages such as pain and suffering and inability to earn income are highly subjective and open for interpretation, totaling damages can be extremely puzzling for anyone not experienced at this practice. It’s very difficult to put a cost on pain and suffering or figure out lost earning capacity by figuring out the total value of hypothetical raises and inflation. In a courtroom, you only get one shot to total the amount of compensation you truly deserve. For the past two decades, our Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyers have been figuring damages, and we have gained enough experience through similar cases like yours to figure out the losses involved and determine an estimated compensation you deserve.

Being unable to show any of these four factors means you will also not be able to get the compensation you want from the harm you’ve had inflicted. You need the assistance of an Irving 18-wheeler accident attorney - especially if you head to trial. An extensive track record of trying 18-wheeler accident cases has helped our lawyers discover how to put together the right legal approach to meet required burdens of proof and move the jury in your favor.

Enormous Insurance Policies

Federal law requires trucking companies to obtain sizable insurance policies to protect them in case of accidents, injuries or fatalities that result from business involving 18-wheelers. As a result, many get the false assumption that they will get quick compensation with zero hassle. The majority of time, that’s just untrue. Since insurance policies for 18-wheelers cost 50 times that of regular passenger car coverage, the insurance provides will usually invest 50 times the resources and manpower to defend those specific policies.

With all that’s on the line, insurance companies use their savviest and best insurance adjusters to work on negotiation settlements. While you are probably unfamiliar with dealing with 18-wheeler accident claims, these adjusters are the very best in their industry and handle these matters on a routine basis. They are skilled at manipulating an accident victim while they’re still in shock, and will pounce on their basic trust of local insurance agents, then use all that against them to deny their claim. They provide a false sense of friendship and persuade the victim they want to help them get properly compensated - but first the victim has to answer some basic, normal questions. They really don’t want to help; they are just aiming at protecting their company’s bottom-line by denying your claim. Then they hit you with a ton of questions that basically seem to be the same questions re-worded in hopes of you messing up and eventually admitting you were liable for the accident. If they can obtain that, then your claim can be denied. If you can avoid any contact with insurance adjusters, that’s a huge plus, so you need to go obtain a savvy Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer and let your legal team handle their loaded questions. In fact, as a rule, you don’t want to talk to any worker from an insurance company without a lawyer serving as a middle-man. If you elect to work with our firm, our lawyers will take on every conversation with insurance companies and help you avoid the possibility of admitting you were the person who was liable.

In some cases, aggressive adjusters will even attempt to get an accident victim to revoke their right to sue in exchange for a horrific, low settlement offer. It’s a good idea to not have to deal with the stress and unknown factors involved in a jury trial, but you don’t want to get an offer that really doesn’t help you get compensated for the harm you’ve endured. Only an attorney with years of success can get those insurance companies to provide adequate settlements, since they fear losing more money if a case heads to trial.

The insurance company will also try and avoid liability for your injuries by using a talented defense team that can find legal loopholes and procedural issues that would cause inexperienced plaintiffs to damage their chances of getting compensated. You need a veteran Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer who can stand toe-to-toe with what they attempt. Our attorneys have won millions of dollars from every big-time insurance company throughout America, and we’ve learned how to predict everything possible that they can throw at you.

Self-Insured Companies can be More Treacherous

Rather than get a regular insurance policy, some trucking businesses budget aside an amount of their assets in reserve to be used for insurance with accidents. The government regulates the insurance industry, and requires that all companies be registered, adjusters be licensed and ethical guidelines be followed, self-insured companies don’t have to follow these same set of rules. That means self-insured companies have gained a reputation of behaving unethically and being hard to deal with in negotiations. A lot of times, in order to negotiate a proper settlement with a self-insured business, you’ll have to work with an officer in that company. Since these individuals probably get their salary from some form of profit sharing, they have every reason to deny your claim. The officer would basically be giving you part of their paycheck if they let you get compensated for what you are entitled to. With their own income at stake, self-insured companies place their interests ahead of the victims’ and will use any kind of defense, including bullying witnesses or altering evidence and even threatening victims.

If a self-insured business has tried to bully you or throw their weight around, then you can make that stop with the help of an Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer. As soon as we’re obtained, our team can use potential legal action to make sure these businesses act in good faith.

Truck Drivers Can’t be Trusted

While we want to believe that people are basically good and have integrity, the trucker who injured you with his negligent behavior has too much on the line and will likely lie. If the trucker is found to have caused injuries while driving negligently, they’ll probably get fired if he or she hasn’t been already. Along with that, a trucker who’s been found negligent will have a hard time getting another job with that kind of black mark on their record. When you think about the economy and the amount of jobs available, lots of normally honest and trustworthy truckers will turn to lying to make sure their jobs are safe and they can provide for their families. To make sure you get the compensation you deserve, you need to be able to show that trucker is lying.

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Our Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyers have learned how investigate and find the key facts to show the trucker is caught in a lie. We will eradicate the trucker’s credibility with all the evidence at hand to take apart their lies.

Just like the manner in how insurance adjusters seek to get victims to admit negligence with a barrage of questions, our lawyers develop questions that will get the trucker to fess up to their own lies. The 18-wheeler accident attorneys in Irving at Grossman Law Offices have interviewed thousands of witness over a 20-year span, and we know how to construct questions in a way that expose a truck driver’s lies.

How We Can Help

If you’ve been insured or lost a family member in an 18-wheeler accident in the Irving area, you need to hire an Irving 18-wheeler accident lawyer who will look after your legal rights and help you get the compensation you need. From filing to the conclusion of your case, our lawyers will oversee every part of your case and make sure you’re kept in the loop about any developments as they arise. With us you’ll get these services:

• Investigation to determine how the accident occurred.
• Determining who all is responsible and issuing detailed, thorough claims and lawsuits against those parties.
• Finding facts and evidence to help you meet the burden of proof.
• Using our reputation and track record to put pressure on defendants.
• Protecting victims from harassing telephone calls and having to answer tricky questions from adjusters.
• Using strong investigation and deposition tactics to expose truckers who lie.
• Planning a strong strategy to persuade the jury to rule in favor of our clients.
• Forcing self-insured companies to act in an ethical manner and negotiate in good faith.
• Making sure our clients get proper medical care.

Odds are that the defendant has already conducted an investigation and concluded its case against you. Any further delay on getting a lawyer will lead to your case being further damaged, and you not getting the compensation you deserve. Call us today at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free) for a free consultation and see how we can help you like we have countless other Texans.

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