Generally speaking, our Rock Hill commercial truck accident lawyer deals with catastrophic injuries, so overcoming those is extremely difficult. Catastrophic injuries don’t just affect people physically. There is going to be an emotional side to it, as well as a financial side. We are talking about people whose lives have forever changed if they are fortunate enough to survive such a wreck. It means that they may not be able to ever work again. They may not be able to participate in activities that they normally participated in to find enjoyment in their lives. These are all things that are just horribly devastating to people, so we are going to see this in all these cases. There really is no such thing as a small tractor-trailer case when it comes to injuries.
Steps to Take After a Commercial Truck Accident
Once we are retained in a commercial tractor-trailer case, one of the first things we do is make sure that there is a letter that goes out right away to inform any motor carrier to preserve any evidence, and there would be a list of things that we would consider pertinent to the case itself. Generally speaking, immediately after that, we would follow that up with a lawsuit. The purpose of the lawsuit is really to give up power to the court to compel them to provide us with the evidence that we need. Among the list of items that we would list in discovery are driver’s logs, the driver’s records, the company’s safety and training procedures, the carrier’s own accident history, and the service records for the tractor and trailer.
Once we get that process underway, then we can identify potentially other at-fault employees. For instance, some carriers would maintain their own fleet of vehicles through an in-house shop, whereas some carriers will have a 3rd party to take care of those things. If there is a record that shows improper maintenance, it may indicate a 3rd party, which means that there is a shop somewhere that would have to be brought in to testify.
We would identify any relevant parties and amend the complaint to add them if necessary, and at that point we would start working through the discovery process to see what’s there. The other side of that is helping the client. We have to make sure that nothing is falling through the cracks with the client and that they are getting the treatment that they need. During that process, the carrier may attempt to resolve the case. If not, then we move forward to mediation, and generally speaking, that’s as far as the case will go. It’s rare that a case, which identifies a strong liability, would make it all the way to trial in one piece.
For a free legal consultation with a Challenges Faced In A Commercial Truck Accident Claims call 1-803-366-0333
Negotiating With Insurance Companies After a Truck Crash
Any insurance company is going to make some attempt to mitigate what they are going to have to pay, whether that’s arguing the liability side or the damages side. Certainly, we are going to do everything we can to make the liability argument as clear as possible, and part of that is a big reason for the discovery process so we can do that. When we see violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations that strengthens our liability argument. When we see track records or patterns of abuse of those rules that becomes relevant as well. The other side will try to fight or mitigate the damages side. To learn more about the challenges you mat face in a commercial truck accident case, call a skilled attorney for assistance.
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