The Process of Litigating 18-Wheeler Accident Cases
The Process of Litigating 18-Wheeler Accident Cases
There are few motor vehicle accidents that can cause the devastating kind of damage an 18-wheeler accident can inflict. These behemoths can weigh up to 40 tons (80,000 pounds), so when they are involved in a collision with almost any other kind of vehicle you can find on the road, they’ll usually win. And truck drivers are usually paid by the hour, so in order to make as much money as they can, they will often drive for an extensive period of time without taking a break. This often leads to drivers experiencing concentration lapses, and even a momentary loss of consciousness. It’s only natural, then, that accidents, property damage, injuries, and deaths will often be the result of these drivers pushing the limits – and often exceeding the boundaries – of their endurance.
The truck accident lawyers at our Law Offices have handled personal injury cases resulting from 18-wheeler accidents for two decades, so we are well aware of the many legal and medical questions people will have after they’ve suffered an injury – or a loved one has died. The most important thing you need to realize, obviously, is that you must be evaluated by a medical practitioner after the wreck. You need to do so not only for your health, but to also get any injuries you may have suffered documented. Don’t hesitate to get medical attention because you don’t have insurance or are underinsured; we can help you find a doctor who will take your financial means into consideration and come up with a payment plan that fits into your budget. Don’t let a lack of money keep you from getting the medical help you need.
After you handle Priority One, which is getting medical attention, then you can start to focus on getting fair restitution for the harm that has befallen you. In the state of Texas, those whose negligence resulted in the accident that caused your injury are not required to pay for your injuries and accompanying financial losses. Rather, the victim, known as the plaintiff in legal terms, bears the burden of proving he or she should be compensated for losses resulting from the accident. The only chance you have of getting the compensation you deserve is through the help of an experienced truck accident lawyer. We would like to tell you what legal avenues you may be able to pursue so that you can get the compensation you deserve.
Following are some of the elements of a case involving an 18-wheeler accident. All of these will be explained in detail below.
Reasons to file a lawsuit:
Some of the potential negligent parties responsible for the accident.
The vital need for a thorough and quickly-launched investigation.
The hurdles people faced by those who choose to represent themselves.
How an experienced truck accident lawyer can help.
Again, we must stress before going any further that the information in this article is in no way intended to take the place of a skilled lawyer who can analyze the details that are specific to your case. Call the attorneys at our Law Offices for a confidential and free consultation. We’ll be happy to answer any questions that you might have concerning the specifics of your litigation.
Personal Injury Law – What’s Best? A Settlement or a Trial
What’s Best? A Settlement or a Trial
If you end up in court, it comes down to what the jury thinks of your evidence. The quality of the evidence presented determines how much the jury awards you. It’s not very difficult for a lawyer to explain the numerous technicalities of liability in a vehicle accident to a jury. It’s not all that hard to prove damages or to show, in the eyes of the law, that you and your attorney have satisfied the burden of proof that inspires a jury to award you that compensation.
Juries must appreciate just how tragic a price, both monetarily that seriously injured accident victims must live with because of the actions of those negligent drivers behind the wheel. All of this must be done to a group of 12 people who sit in judgment of you and the defendants, simply because they weren’t able to avoid serving their civic duty.
The only way to defend your rights as an accident victim is with an experienced and gifted lawyer who speaks in a manner that appeals to a jury. He should be one that makes them clearly understand that you must receive compensation for your damages so you can get back on your feet. Those who have been injured by a careless or negligent driver suffer significant financial, emotional, and physical injury. Surviving family members of a fatal accident deserve their fair share of compensation for their devastating loss just as well. Bringing a negligent driver to criminal justice is one thing. Justice is still not done until the havoc that a callously negligent driver caused to their victims, and their families are repaired, and their lives return to normal.
Our Law Firm Is Here to Protect Your Rights From Those Who Deny Them to You
The first thing you need to understand is this. Before you speak with an insurance company, or accept even a single dollar of payment or compensation from your employer, sign anything, or attempt to file a lawsuit on your own, you must contact a competent lawyer.
If you have been in a car accident in our community, you must contact an attorney who can give you the best results possible. Our experienced car accident lawyers suggest that you speak with two or three attorneys before deciding which one can handle your case. When consulting with one, ask about their experience in handling cases similar to yours and make sure to discuss this lawyer’s record in litigating and settling similar car accident cases. Ask the attorney to provide you with a few names and the contact information or a few former clients with cases similar to yours. Then call them. Do not hire the attorney unless you trust him or her and are confident in their ability to represent you in a way that you are comfortable with.
The attorneys with our Law Firm have been handling car accident insurance claims and litigation for decades. We’ve won favorable verdicts and negotiated fair settlements against nearly every major auto insurer in the state. Insurance companies recognize our name. And the reputation that precedes us. Both are very helpful in securing our clients’ fair settlements from these insurers. We’re here to make sure that you recover as much as legally possible for your injuries and simplify what, to many, is a complicated and dubious legal process.
The time after a car accident is often stressful and confusing to the victims. Don’t add to the stress and confusion by letting an inexperienced attorney handle your case or represent yourself when you are unqualified to look out for your (and your family’s) best interests. We are uniquely qualified to get you the best results possible. If you or someone you know was injured in a car accident, contact an attorney at our Texas Law Firm today at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.
An experienced local attorney with our Law Firm will analyze your case and explain your options so that you will fully understand them. We want to make certain that you recover as much as reasonably possible for your injuries and make this complicated legal process as easy as for you to understand and navigate to a successful end. Then you can resume your life: free from financial danger, and place this experience where it belongs: in your rearview mirror.
The Four Required Elements of a Successful Auto Injury Accident Insurance Claim or Lawsuit
The Four Required Elements of a Successful Auto Injury Accident Insurance Claim or Lawsuit
If you’re reading this, you certainly want to know whether or not your family might have a successful personal injury case against a defendant who must reimburse you for the loss of your loved one in a fatal car accident. In most auto accident cases, the victim, or in this case, the victim’s surviving family, has a legal right to collect damages. Texas law says that rightfully asking for and collecting damages are two different things. As plaintiffs, you have the burden of proving all four necessary pillars of defendant liability for the fatal car accident claim in court. In the US, we all know that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty. All who will judge your case (or evaluate your insurance claim) must clearly understand why you are owed damages. All your opponents have to do to win is effectively deny or disprove any one of these four elements. 
In civil law, each of these four essentials of proving legal liability against a defendant must demonstrate your charges are valid and appropriate. They are duty, breach, causation, and damages. Below, we’ll briefly discuss each of these elements to give you a better appreciation of what it will take to prove that you’re entitled to damage compensation.
Duty: The first task thing your fatal auto injury lawyer must do is prove is that the defendant owed your loved one a duty of care. The defendant must exercise an acceptable level of caution to prevent people from being hurt or killed as they drive. Texas Civil Codes and Procedures establish the level of the duty of care that a person or organization owes to another in personal injury cases. Duty depends on the situation in-question that are considered relative to the relationship of the parties involved. Proving that the defendant in your case owed your loved one at least some duty of care is relatively straightforward since nearly all drivers owe each other the duty to drive as a reasonable person would in keeping others safe. Unless there are unusual circumstances (and there are a few), the chances are that a moderate “reasonable person standard” applies to the defendant (or defendants) in an auto accident case that caused your loved one’s untimely death.
Breach: If the defendants drive unreasonably only for the moments immediately leading up to the fatal car wreck, they can be held responsible for their negligent actions that caused this tragedy.
A breach of the defendant’s duty of care includes offenses such as
speeding recklessly, driving at night without headlights, running through red lights, driving while intoxicated, driving while distracted (by cellphone or texting). It applies even if they may not have been legally charged for these offenses in criminal court. Proving that the defendant breached his duty of care is typically accomplished when your attorney presents evidence from an investigation that removes any doubt what the defendant did or failed to do in causing the fatal car wreck. The jurors, in your case, will consider your breach of duty evidence along with additional evidence that clearly illustrates the defendant’s negligence. Many times this element can be the most difficult to prove and calls for a great deal of investigation by your lawyer. But once that breach is successfully confirmed, the rest of your civil action might not be so difficult.
Causation: Simply showing the defendant might have been negligent isn’t always enough to win your case that the defendant owes your family a long list of damages arising from the fatal auto wreck. If a defendant is forced to deny causation (a term used in proving a breach of duty), often he will argue “unforeseeable circumstances” such as other drivers, pedestrians, or even your loved one were the actual cause of the fatal wreck. Most often, this tactic is the defendant’s last stand if he or she hopes to wiggle out of being held liable for legal damages. Expect the defendant’s lawyers to claim anything from the sudden appearance of an obstacle in the road that forced them to violently swerve and hit your loved one’s car to their toddler threw a bottle of apple juice at them while they were otherwise driving safely. You know that this is untrue. But how do you expose this defense for what it is? What happens if they introduce a perfect driving record, no accidents or tickets, that dates back to the Reagan Administration? It’s up to you and your Texas fatal auto accident lawyer to prove your accident claim and disprove any untruthful defense. It’s important to have more than sufficient evidence to refute any argument that is thrown at you, and that it was the defendant’s conduct behind the wheel that caused the car accident that took your loved one.
Damages: The term “damages” isn’t limited to just the actual cost of injuries and the medical or funeral expenses of your loved one. It’s a legal term that refers to the total monetary value (the exact sum of money) the defendant owes you and your family in the wake of your loved one’s fatal auto accident. In addition to the above expenses, damages might include your deceased loved one’s pain and suffering, present lost wages (present and projected earnings), and you and your family’s pain and suffering. The repair or replacement bills for any vehicle or items of worth that are destroyed in the accident will be included as well. To prove what you’re entitled to collect, you and your attorney must correctly calculate what the defendant owes you and provide irrefutable evidence of all your family’s injuries and losses to support your damage claim.
While you and your fatal car accident lawyer establish your exact damage amount, the defendants also work on the very same thing, calling it “totaling up our losses.” Civil damages owed can be the most contentious issue of any personal injury case. Defendants use their own “creative accounting” to determine how little they think they owe fatal accident victims if the jury finds that they are responsible for the accident. They’ll accuse you of asking for a handout and beg the court to see that your requested amount is unreasonably higher than traditional payouts in similar cases. This very convenient defendant argument is also often accompanied by a charge that you are bringing a frivolous lawsuit against them. You must clearly show the jury that your requested damage amount is realistic and proportional to the actual harm done to you and your family by the negligent defendant. Contesting the compensation amount is usually their last gasp at wiggling out of paying reasonable damages. You must strongly finish your case with clear evidence that proves your family’s losses are genuine, and that the amount requested is the full and reasonable total of your damages.
Determining the proper amount of damages can be as important as the other three elements of proof because you are approaching the end of your family’s quest. And you have only one shot at receiving fair compensation from any single negligent defendant. Computing every single loss can be challenging unless you have an experienced auto injury attorney who knows the value of personal injury losses arising from fatal auto accidents and how to effectively calculate them: both tangible and intangible. How do you put a price tag on a beloved family member? In calculating the loss of earning capacity, how do you account for hypothetical raises and promotions your loved one would have received had he or she continued to work, or been promoted, or hired away by another company at double tomorrow’s salary? Damage calculation issues are a reason you need an experienced fatal car accident attorney with our Law Firm who knows how to account for and calculate every damage claimed as a result of losing a loved one to a deadly auto accident.
Call us today. One of our accident injury attorneys will patiently listen to you, analyze your case, and explain your options. Our goal is to make sure that you recover as much as possible for your injuries and make this sometimes complicated legal process as easy as possible for you to bear.
The period after the loss of a loved one is often stressful and confusing. Don’t add to it and the confusion it creates by letting an inexperienced attorney handle your case or represent yourself when you are unqualified. With decades of experience, we are uniquely qualified and fully prepared to get you the best results possible. If you or someone you know was injured in a car accident, contact an attorney at our Texas Law Firm today at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.