San Antonio Commercial Vehicle Accident Attorney

San Antonio Personal Injury Attorney Michael Grossman Discusses the Legal Ramifications of Commercial Vehicle Accidents

Next time you’re stuck in traffic on I-35 or I-410, take a look around you, and you’ll find more than a few commercial trucks. That’s because commercial vehicles of all kinds – 18-wheelers, flat-beds and construction machines – comprise a sizable percentage of the vehicles on the roads and highways in and around San Antonio.

Without the vast array of commercial vehicles on the roads of the Lone Star State, Texans could not finish the construction in our constantly growing state, transports their goods to markets around the United States or import products from all over the world to be enjoyed by local consumers. Unfortunately, the fruits of that commerce come at a very steep price. The high volume of commercial vehicles on the roads, coupled with drivers who work long hours trying to stockpile hourly pay and meet demanding schedules, leads to inevitable accidents that can result in injuries or even deaths. Since commercial vehicles are such hulking pieces of machinery, the effects when they get into wrecks can be horrific.

If you have been injured or lost a family member in a commercial vehicle accident, then you need the assistance of a skilled and experienced San Antonio commercial vehicle accident attorney. You needn’t look any further than the lawyers at Grossman Law Offices, who have spent the past 20 years resolving accident cases involving commercial vehicles of all kinds. First, with this article, we hope to inform you about the legal options you have available and the challenges you will likely face, so you can make the best decisions to secure the compensation you deserve for the injury or loss you have sustained. We want you to understand that your struggles have not ended with the wreck. Not only will you need time to recuperate from your injuries, but the quest to secure compensation will not be easy, either. You are going to have to deal with the stress and uncertainty of the legal process, and with that, we can help.

Assigning Blame

Before you file an insurance claim or a lawsuit, you have to know who caused the commercial vehicle accident that injured you, so that you know with whom to file the claim. Making this matter often challenging, multiple parties often cause or contribute to the cause of an accident. Texas recognizes a legal principle called respondeat superior, which makes employers accountable for the negligent actions or inaction of their employees. Therefore, most personal injury claims as a result of commercial vehicle accidents involve at least two defendants – the trucker who negligently caused the wreck and the company that employed him or her. The trucker doesn’t have to do something grossly negligent, like driving while intoxicated, to make him or herself and his or her employer liable, either. If the trucker merely suffers a solitary lapse in focus or decision-making for a split second, resulting in a wreck, then he or she and his or her employer is liable.

In many commercial vehicle accidents, however, other negligent third parties are also to blame for the wreck, as there are often many different hands involved with the transportation of goods. If another company planned the truck’s route and sent it into an area that wasn’t safe for trucking, resulting in an accident, then that company could be liable for any injuries. The company that loaded the cargo could incur liability if the payload was improperly secured, causing an load shift that wrecked the truck. Either the manufacture of the truck, in case of a design or assembly error, or the mechanic, in case of a maintenance error, could be liable for an accident caused by the mechanical malfunction of the truck or any of its thousands of integrated parts. Of course, another driver could be liable if he or she caused the commercial vehicle to collide into your car by driving in an unsafe manner. In most cases, assigning blame in a commercial vehicle accident is extremely challenging and demands the skilled touch of an experienced commercial vehicle accident attorney who’s spent thousands of hours investigating other accidents and knows what clues to look for in order to determine who was at fault for an accident. Only through such diligence, can you be sure that all of the parties who caused your accident and your injuries are held accountable for the damage that you have suffered.

Is This a Do-It-Yourself Job?

While anyone is permitted to represent him or herself in any legal proceeding, it’s an extremely bad idea to attempt to do so when you’ve been injured in an accident with a commercial vehicle. Due to the complexity of the laws and procedures involved with personal injury claims stemming from commercial accidents , as well as, the large amounts of money at stake, people with no legal experience, and even less experienced lawyers, will be doomed to failure. You wouldn’t attempt to perform open-heart surgery on your dog or build a space shuttle in your back yard. That’s insanity because those tasks require extensive training, resources and skill – exactly like successfully resolving a wrongful death or personal injury lawsuit involving injuries suffered in an accident with a commercial vehicle in San Antonio. Thus, you need the help of well-trained and trial-tested San Antonio commercial vehicle accident attorney.

Taking on Big Business

As we’ve stated, the amount of money at risk in a personal injury claim to resolve a commercial vehicle accident can be tremendous. By order of the federal government, trucking companies must purchase huge insurance policies to protect against the accidents and injuries that happen as the inevitable result of doing business. However, that doesn’t mean you will be swiftly compensated without a hassle. Insurance companies are not interested in helping people, but in making as much money as they can –just like every other big business in America. With much more money at stake in commercial vehicle policies than standard passenger car policies, the insurance companies will try much harder to protect those policies. Insurance adjusters let the old saying, “if you give someone an inch, then he or she will take a mile,” govern their actions. They believe that if they give in to your demands, then you will only want more. Additionally, the next accident victim will expect even more. Thus, they take action to limit or deny every claim that comes across their desks.

While you know you have been injured and that the harm was done to you in the accident with the commercial vehicle, you aren’t guaranteed compensation. The Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code does not require trucking companies or their insurers to volunteer compensation for the injuries a victim has suffered in a commercial vehicle accident. Rather, it is the responsibility of the victim, also known as the plaintiff, to seek the compensation he or she deserves. In order to actually secure the restitution he or she deserves, a plaintiff holds the burden of proof for establishing the defendant caused the accident by negligently ignoring a legal duty to the plaintiff. Moreover, the plaintiff must be able to prove that negligence caused the wreck and the injury suffered. Once negligence and causation have been proven, the plaintiff must finally prove that the amount of compensation requested is fair and equitable considering the extent of the injuries inflicted. In turn, the defense has legal rights too, and the insurance company or defense lawyer will likely deny causation or contest the value of the requested compensation. In order to get what you deserve in such a complicated matter, you needed the skilled assistance of a commercial vehicle accident attorney in San Antonio.

Well-Seasoned Defense Specialists

Obviously, you’ve begun searching for an attorney, or you wouldn’t be reading this article right now. However, you clearly haven’t hired a lawyer, yet either. The trucking company’s insurance carrier didn’t waste time searching for an attorney because it already had competent counsel. Insurance companies keep highly experienced specialists in commercial vehicle accident law on staff 24-7, waiting like circling vultures for a commercial vehicle to happen. As soon as the driver reports a wreck, these specialists swoop in immediately to conduct their investigation. They’re not interested in discovering what really happened in the wreck, but only finding any evidence they can use to build a case that suggests the victim was responsible for his or her injuries. They’ve collected a bag of tricks to turn the case in the favor of their clients, and they’ve had years of experience mastering how to do so. The longer you wait to hire an experienced expert of your own to represent you, the tougher time your lawyer will have matching the effort of the defense specialists. You need an advocate on the scene to uncover the truth and to make sure the defense lawyers are conducting their investigation honestly and fairly.

Aggressive Insurance Adjusters

Since insurance companies have so much to lose in commercial vehicle insurance policies, they usually assign their toughest most experienced adjusters to handle these cases. These are aggressive adjusters who have risen to the top of their profession by denying claims to impress their bosses. They know how to manipulate accidents victims into ruining their own chances at recovering the compensation they deserve. Drawing upon the knowledge that most people have a friendly relationship with their own insurance agents, the insurance adjusters will feign an amicable connection with you, making assurances that they want to help you recover the compensation you deserve for your injuries. However, they are just trying to butter you up so they can ask you a litany of questions designed to get you to admit your own liability for your injuries. If they can prove that the plaintiff was entirely liable for his or her own injuries, then they can entirely deny the claim, saving thousands, possibly even millions for their employer. However, even if they can only get you to admit partial liability, then they can greatly limit the amount of compensation the plaintiff is owed. Moreover, many people are desperately in need of closure after being injured in an accident with a commercial vehicle, and particularly pushy insurance adjusters prey upon this fact. They’ll approach the accident victims in the hospital and try to bully them into signing away their right to sue in exchange for a low-ball settlement that does not even remotely compensate them for the injuries they’ve suffered. They’ll say things like, “this is all you’re going to be able to get,” or “we don’t even have to give you this much. Should be very leery of any settlement offer that is presented to you until you have consulted with an experienced San Antonio commercial vehicle accident lawyer.

Big city insurance adjusters love nothing more than to find a non-lawyer or inexperienced attorney sitting across from them at the mediation table when they come down from New York City or Chicago. They know they can have their way with a person who has inadequate legal experience or none at all. You need the help of a seasoned and assertive San Antonio commercial accident attorney, who can give the insurance adjusters a taste of their own medicine, bullying them like they have tried to do to you. The insurance company only responds to the threat of an experienced attorney with a history of success against them. Over the past 20 years, Grossman Law Offices has tried hundreds of cases against every major insurance company in the country, and we’ve won millions of dollars for our clients, as well as, the respect of the insurance carriers.

Negligent Truck Drivers Cannot be Trusted

While it’s nice to think that people are essentially good and honest, it’s extremely foolhardy to do so in a commercial truck accident case. The trucker who caused your accident can’t be relied upon to tell the truth about his or her negligence in court. If the trucker is found to have negligently caused the accident, resulting in a sizable award in your favor and at the insurance company’s expense, then he or she will probably be fired. Furthermore, no reputable trucking company is going to hire a driver with that sort of costly negligence on his or her record. Thus, in order to protect their livelihood, most truckers will not hesitate to lie, especially considering the sorry state of the job market in this economy.

To illustrate, consider the case of a client who once hired us after suffering an accident with a commercial truck at night, only to have the truck driver lie, claiming our client did not have his lights on at the time of the accident. As soon as we were hired, our attorneys went to the scene of the accident to begin our investigation. Searching the area, we spotted a nearby store that had a security camera angled in the direction of the accident. We obtained a copy of the footage, and when we watched it, we found our client’s lights were shining brightly at the time of the accident. During the deposition process, the truck driver attempted to repeat his lie, and we were able to shine a light on the truth. You need the help of an experienced San Antonio commercial vehicle accident attorney who knows how to get to the truth with a timely and diligent investigation and a well-crafted deposition strategy. Over the past two decades conducting hundreds of investigations and thousands of depositions, our attorneys know how to uncover the truth, so that you can recover the compensation you deserve for your injuries.

Beware of Treacherous Self-Insured Companies

Instead of purchasing a standard insurance policy, some commercial trucking companies choose to insure against the accidents and injuries that happen by reserving a portion of their assets. The federal government provides regulations, which the entire insurance industry is expected to follow. Insurance companies must be registered, their agents must be licensed and ethical standards are expected to be maintained. Companies who fail to comply with these guidelines are subject to fines, and their agents and adjusters can be stripped of their licenses. Self insured companies are bound by no such guidelines, so taking them on is like a showdown at high noon in the Wild West. Instead of negotiating with an insurance adjuster, you will be bargaining with an office of the self-insured company who likely takes a hefty percentage of his or her salary from year-end profit-sharing. Ergo, the more money the self-insured company makes, the more money the company officer makes. On the other hand, if this officer allows you to have the compensation you deserve, then both the company and the officer make less money. With his or her personal funds on the line, the self-insured company’s officer has every incentive to deny your claim. As a result, self-insured companies have developed a well-earned reputation for unscrupulous behavior and have been known to resort to destroying damning evidence, bribing witnesses and threatening victims. If a self-insured company is bullying you, then you need the help of an experienced attorney. Grossman Law Offices can take legal action to compel them to treat you equitably and negotiate in food faith.

Knowledge of the Law isn’t Enough – You Need Guidance

Representing yourself is an extremely poor idea in a complex commercial vehicle accident case. Sure, you can use an online search engine to find out whatever you need to know about the laws involved in your case. However, knowledge of the law only represents a fraction of the prerequisites for a successful case. Successful personal injury litigation depends far more on a knowledge of procedure, skill developing legal strategy, and the ability to convince an insurance company to settle adequately or a jury to accept your right to compensation. These skills cannot be learned through a Google search but can only be mastered through years of trial and error. You need the assistance of an expert who can handle all of the procedural requirements to succeed: preparing a demand packet, answering interrogatories, responding to a list of admissions or figuring out what to do in the face of a counter-suit.

Just as important to you ability to successfully negotiate, you need the assistance of a San Antonio commercial vehicle attorney who has built a strong track record and reputation for success. Insurance companies are solely motivated by the fear of losing money, and only an attorney with success against them can create that dread and encourage the insurance company to offer a settlement that is fair and adequate. Over the past 20 years, our attorneys have won hundreds of cases against every major insurance company in the United States, allowing our clients to secure many millions of dollars in damages. A threat a lawsuit from our attorneys often convinces insurance companies to offer a settlement that adequately compensates our clients and allows them to return to enjoying their lives without the uncertainty of a jury trial.

How Should you Proceed Now?

Most importantly, you must act quickly to preserve whatever evidence there is in your case. Evidence begins to disappear soon after an accident – especially when it occurred on a busy roadway. Witnesses disappear, records get destroyed, videos are erased, and the accident scene itself evolves. You need to hire a lawyer immediately, so that he or she can begin investigating before the evidence that is essential to your success is gone forever. As soon as you hire Grossman Law Offices, our firm conducts a thorough investigation of the accident scene, looking for any evidence that can help prove your right to compensation, leaving no stone unturned and charging no out-of-pocket expense to our clients. We sequester and examine all vehicles involved, measure the distance between the point of impact and skid marks, find and view any video or photographic evidence for hidden or revealing clues, examine police reports and any available forensic evidence. We are careful to record any evidence we have found in a catalog, so that it is admissible in court. If there is evidence to prove your right to compensation, then we will find it if given the opportunity.

Did You Know?

Our San Antonio Texas attorneys have won hundreds of 18 wheeler accident cases. Call us today to discuss your case. 1-855-393-0000

For instance, our firm was once hired to represent the families of two men who suffered a terrible accident with a commercial truck. As is shockingly common in commercial truck accidents, the driver of the truck attempted to make an awkward turn and managed to get his truck stuck in the middle of the road, completely blocking the ability to pass in either direction. Since it was nighttime when the accident occurred, the only part of the truck that was visible to oncoming traffic were the taillights by the side of the road, leaving the body of the trailer practically invisible. Our clients’ loved ones rounded a curve in the road and plummeted into the trailer at full speed. The tremendous force of the impact ripped the roof of the car off, killed the driver instantly and left the passenger fighting for his life. As soon as our firm was retained the next day, our attorneys raced to the scene to investigate. Since the car in question had been totaled in the wreck, it had already been towed to a nearby salvage yard by the time our investigators arrived at the scene. They went to the salvage yard and were shocked to find the dead man’s car was missing headlights entirely, putting our client’s right to compensation severely in doubt. Without giving up, our lawyers kept on searching and discovered a video surveillance system on the premises. Asking for a copy of the footage, we were again stunned to discover that the truck driver has snuck into the salvage yard the night before and stolen the headlights right out of the dead man’s car. When the trucking company attempted to make the claim that our client’s loved one had caused the accident with his own negligence by driving without headlights, we were able to shine a light on their deception with the revealing video. We were able to make them pay dearly.

However, the trucking company almost succeeded with its deceit and would have had the loved ones of the deceased not hired us immediately. The salvage yard’s surveillance system was designed to tape over its own memory every two days. Any further delay in hiring us would have resulted in the destruction of the evidence. Take heed from this example and find an attorney with whom you are comfortable immediately. The only way to preserve the evidence you need is through a timely and thorough investigation.

Grossman Law Offices can Help

The San Antonio commercial vehicle accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have devoted the last 20 years of our lives to helping injured Texans recover financially from the physical and emotional harm that has been done to them in commercial truck accidents. If you have been injured in an accident with any sort of commercial vehicle – an 18-wheeler, a construction machine, or a flat-bed – then we can help you secure the maximum compensation possible. After resolving hundreds of other cases and obtaining millions and millions of dollars in damages for our clients, we know how to help you too. Call us today for a free consultation at 1-855-393-0000 (toll free), and we can discuss the specific details of your case, answer any questions you may have and tell you how we can be of assistance. Call now, and let us handle your case, so that you can concentrate on recovering for your injuries.