1. To gauge the actual impact of your injuries on your life, today and in the future:
Truck accident victims often suffer from broken bones, significant scarring/disfigurement, spinal injuries, loss of a limb, internal organ damage and/or head injuries.
As such, treatment is both expensive and extensive and even if maximum recovery is achieved, victims are left grappling with lifelong disabilities. Calculating the immediate cost of an injury and the losses that will result from it in the near future is not so hard. But, understanding the value of its impact on your life 2, 3 or even 10 years from the time of the accident is a very complicated process.
An experienced truck accident attorney will calculate the loss of income based on wages that could not be earned today as well as the higher wages that you would have received in the future had you not been injured in the accident.
2. To peel through the layers of liability:
When an accident involves two passenger vehicles, things are fairly straight forward. Either both parties share some percentage of the responsibility, or one party is completely responsible. Rarely is a third party involved! But, when you are talking about a truck accident there may be a third, fourth or even fifth party involved.
For example, the truck driver may only be partially responsible if a mechanical failure led to the accident. The same reasoning applies if the payload came undone and that is what led to the mishap. Along the same lines, if the crash resulted from the driver’s inattentiveness this would put the blame on the driver. However, if the trucking company disregarded the “maximum number of hours” rule they would be just as much or more to blame.
In a nutshell, there are multiple regulations that govern the operation of big rigs. Only a lawyer who has ample experience of handling truck accident claims will know these rules and how they can be used to establish liability.
3. To obtain vital evidence that will turn the tide in your favor:
While accident site photographs, witness testimony and police reports hold weight even in the case of truck accidents, there are other pieces of evidence that are just as crucial and sometime even more so. For example:
- Training, employment, medical, drug and alcohol testing and previous accident records of the truck driver.
- Maintenance records of the semi-truck.
- Operational log with details such as no of hours of truck operation, stops and breaks taken, etc.
- Truck cockpit camera footage.
- Mobile phone records of the truck driver.
- Black box recorder of the truck that will contain information such as the speed and direction of the truck and engine, brakes, and general vehicle performance.
Unfortunately, the trucking company holds all this crucial data. Now, they may/may not heed to your request to be allowed access to this data. But, once they get a lawyer’s notice to this effect, they will have no choice; not to mention that an experienced attorney will easily spot foul play if any attempts have already been made to tamper with/destroy this evidence.
4. To handle the representatives of insurance companies:
Before you know it, insurance adjustors will be on your case. In fact, some clients have reported receiving calls from the trucking company’s insurers while they were still at the scene of the accident or in the hospital.
Make no mistake, these calls are certainly not made out of concern. They want to catch you at your weakest, so they can get you to agree to a low-ball settlement or an attempt at getting you to say something that they can use against you in court.
The best thing about getting an attorney involved is that you will no longer have to field calls from insurance adjusters. In fact, the minute a lawyer starts working on your claim, he/she will notify the other side that they should only contact your attorney going forward.
5. To get emotions out of the equation:
Although this is the last on the list, it is by no means the least. As if the shock and trauma of the accident is not enough, the pain that accompanies the injuries, worries over mounting medical bills, the grief of a gravely injured or deceased loved one and the fear of an uncertain financial/professional future, can snuff the rationality out of even the most mentally strong individuals.
With a lawyer handling the negotiations, you won’t have to worry about your emotions impacting your ability to make the right decisions. And that brings us to the single most important question that you need to ask yourself…
Are you going to let the trucking company get the upper hand?
The minute you get legal representation, the trucking company, other parties of interest and their insurers all know that they can no longer bully you. They can no longer push you into a corner and wait for you to finally give in.
Because with a lawyer in the equation, there is always the very real possibility that the matter will end up in court. And in a courtroom is not where the insurance companies want to be!
When you have DeVaughn James Injury Lawyers on your side, you will be represented by attorneys who are experienced and know the insurance company’s tactics and you can focus on recovery while we defend your rights!
There’s no cost or obligation for us to review your case so contact us today and let us fight to get you the medical treatment and compensation you deserve!