Dump Truck Accident Attorney

San Antonio Tractor Trailer Lawyer Michael Grossman Explains Dump Truck Injury Accidents

Due to the large amounts of construction ongoing in San Antonio and the surrounding areas, there are a large number of construction vehicles on the road.

Do you have a legal question?
Enter your phone number below and let's talk.
--

Unfortunately, this leads to a high number of dump truck accidents each year. These accidents often cause severe damage to property and serious injuries. Dump trucks’ massive size means that, when they are involved in accidents, victims’ injuries are rarely minor. To make matters worse, seeking compensation after being hurt in a dump truck accident is a difficult process, but many people do not realize what they are up against until it is too late. Thankfully, experienced dump truck accident lawyer Michael Grossman can tell you about the legal opposition you will be facing.


Aggressive Insurance Adjusters and Commercial Insurance Carriers

Dump trucks, 18 wheelers, and other commercial vehicles are not protected by the same insurance policies that cover passenger cars. Dump trucks and their drivers are covered by massive policies from commercial insurance providers. These policies are worth approximately 50 times more than the policies that cover standard passenger cars. This means you can potentially receive much more compensation in a dump truck accident case than in a typical car accident. But it almost means that insurance companies are going to put much more effort into protecting their money and trying to get out of paying you.

In practice, this means that commercial insurance carriers employ the most aggressive adjusters in the insurance world. These insurance adjusters have years of experience denying claims exactly like yours. They employ devious tactics to get off the hook, often acting like they only want to help you. In reality, they have one goal: to pay you as little as possible. They often attempt to contact accident victims as soon as possible after an accident, before the victim has had a chance to speak to an attorney. In doing so, they hope to trick an accident victim into saying or doing something that will allow the adjuster to deny the victim’s claim. Unfortunately, their tactics are almost always successful against individuals without legal experience.


Defense Attorneys and Accident Recreation Experts

The trucking company responsible for the dump truck and its driver will know about your accident within minutes of it occurring. No matter when it occurs, the trucking company will dispatch a team of defense lawyers and accident recreation experts to the scene. This team has one goal: to find some sort of evidence that can be used against you in court. They will scour the scene of physical evidence from the crash that can pin the blame for the accident on you. They will interview witnesses, and might even use your own statements against you in the guise of helping you. Particularly unscrupulous trucking companies may even have this team destroy incriminating evidence from the scene. This is why it is imperative that you get an experienced attorney on your side as soon as possible, so that all the relevant evidence can be preserved while it is still accessible.

Even the driver of the dump truck will probably be working against you. In all likelihood, his continued career depends on the outcome of this case. He or she may be tempted to destroy driving records or other evidence. At any rate, he or she likely will not be doing you any favors. And if the driver did destroy any evidence, the trucking company probably would not put much effort into investigating it if it let them avoid legal liability.

Do you have a legal question?
Enter your phone number below and let's talk.
--

Let Grossman Law Offices Help

The bottom line is that you should not attempt to win a dump truck accident lawsuit or even file an insurance claim without a legal professional. You are up against a professional, orchestrated push to find you responsible for the accident. You need an equally experienced and professional team to make sure that your rights are protected.

Grossman Law Offices has been investigated and resolving dump truck accident cases and other commercial vehicle accidents for twenty years. We have handled hundreds of high-profile cases, including a number of multi-million dollar settlements. We have faced every major insurance company and trucking company in court. Their insurance adjusters and defense attorneys know who we are and how successful we have been. In many cases, they will go along with our settlement demands simply out of fear of facing us in court. This lets us typically resolve a case very quickly, so that you can get on with your life. We are dedicated to making sure you receive the justice and the compensation that you deserve. So if you or someone you love has been hurt due to a dump truck, contact San Antonio dump truck accident attorney Michael Grossman today.


Some of Our Most Recent Successful Cases
$875,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident (Back Injury Requiring Surgery)
Plaintiff suffered a back injury resulting in spinal fusion surgery when her car was rear-ended by an 18-wheeler. The defendants argued that the accident was unavoidable, thus denying liability. Litigation commenced and the case was satisfactorily resolved soon thereafter.
Total Recovery:
$875,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$288,750.00
Litigation Expenses:
$2,500.00
$41,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident (Soft-Tissue Injuries)
Recovery for client who suffered soft tissue injuries when she was struck by an 18-wheeler.
Total Recovery:
$41,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$13,666.00
Litigation Expenses:
$135.00
$2,000,000.00 Recovery - Wrongful Death / Commercial Vehicle Accident
The family of a deceased woman hired our firm following a fatal 18-wheeler accident. The fatal accident occurred as the driver of an 18-wheeler lost control of his vehicle and veered out of his lane, resulting in a massive collision. The decedent, a passenger in a vehicle, died on the scene.

Her adult children consulted our firm to initially investigate the accident and make sense of the facts and circumstances since the family felt that the police report did not make it clear enough precisely what occurred. We launched a full investigation an immediately deposed the investigating officers.

Upon the completion of our investigation, it was apparent that the trucking company was indeed negligent and a lawsuit was soon filed. The defendant's launched an aggressive defense whereby they initially claimed that the truck driver was overcome by his passenger who allegedly grabbed the steering wheel and deliberately drove the truck off the road, despite the truck driver's best efforts.

We refuted this claim by illustrating that the tire marks that were present clearly show the truck gradually moving across the road and eventually onto the grass, which is entirely inconsistent with an abrupt lane change caused by someone taking control of the wheel. It was quite an unusual defense strategy that we were frankly surprised to even find ourselves having to refute.

The defendants then argued that a tire blowout may have contributed to the accident, which is significant because it would enable the defendant to offset some portion of their liability to a tire manufacturer or installer. Through deposition testimony of the investigating officer we established that there was absolutely no indication at the scene of the accident that a tire had blown out.

Finally, the defendants argued that the company which loaded the trailer may have improperly loaded the cargo. This argument was most plausible considering that the precise cause of the decedent's death was that she was essentially pummeled by cargo that broke through trailer and struck her person.

Our firm consulted several experts in the fields of heavy cargo transportation and physics. Our experts felt that the cargo was secured in a manner that is perfectly consistent with industry standards and that due to the forces involved, the cargo would not have behaved any differently irrespective of how it was secured. In short, the collision caused the cargo to break free and the negligence lay squarely on the trucking company and not any other entity. The case was successfully resolved through litigation.
Total Recovery:
$2,000,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$775,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$25,000.00
$1,000,000.00 Recovery - Wrongful Death/ Commercial Vehicle Accident
(policy limits) A husband and father of three was killed when the driver of an 18-wheeler veered into oncoming traffic, striking the young man's vehicle and several others. The defendant was employed by a small construction company that operated only a single 18-wheeler. As such, the defendants were largely underinsured and were not financially solvent.

Furthermore, the defendants had an eroding insurance policy and numerous other parties were intent upon filing claims of their own since the 18-wheeler struck multiple other vehicles. This created the need for an aggressive and rapid response before the other claimants could erode the policy.

Defense counsel made it clear that they wished to litigate the case despite the insurmountable liability arguments that our attorneys presented. They intended to designate a third party as a responsible defendant since the accident happened in a construction zone, even though it was abundantly clear that the construction zone played no role in the crash.

Additonally, the defendants made it clear that they wished to downplay the extent of the damages by virtue of a character assasination on the decedent. Fortunately for our clients, our firm has successfully litigated against the defendant's insurer in nearly a dozen cases, so the carrier was quite aware of our courtroom capabilities. We presented a sample lawsuit to the defendant's insurance carrier and informed them that the lawsuit was to be filed the moment that they refused to settle.

Additionally, our attorneys submitted a Stowers' Demand with a brief window of time for the defendants to respond. We made it abundantly clear that we intended to seek punitive damages and that we would assert the full limits of the carrier's exposure under the Stowers' Demand should the carrier not offer policy limits.

The defendant's attorney adamantly persuaded the carrier to litigate, however, our attorney's threats of litigation, past track record, and incredibly aggressive pre-litigation actions convinced the insurance carrier to disregard their own attorney's advice and to settle the case, lest they face our attorneys in court.

Had our clients been represented by virtually any other firm who did not have our specific track record or who would have not recognized that this case required special and immediate attention coupled with an abnormally aggressive stance, the client's would have certainly been tied up in litigation for years, with the limited supply of funds rapidly depleting since the other claimants who did not need to litigate would have essentially had right of first refusal.
Total Recovery:
$1,000,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$333,333.00
Litigation Expenses:
$0.00
$75,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident (Soft-Tissue Back Injuries)
Recovery for client who suffered soft tissue back injuries when he was rear ended by a delivery truck.
Total Recovery:
$75,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$25,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$100.00
$90,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident (Soft-Tissue Injuries and Leg Contusions)
Recovered for client who suffered soft-tissue back injuries and leg contusions in an 18-wheeler accident.
Total Recovery:
$90,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$30,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$562.00
$335,000.00 Recovery - Wrongful Death/ Commercial Vehicle Accident
The mother of a young man hired our firm to investigate the death of her son following a fatal car accident. The incident occurred as one of the two vehicles involved ran a red light and drive into the path of the other. The defendant was driving a work vehicle for a construction company. The defendant survived the accident and stated to police that the decedent caused the accident. The police could not conclusively determine who was at fault, yet the police report strongly implied that the decedent was likely at fault based on the statement provided by the defendant.

The plaintiff's mother was not convinced. Through a thorough investigation, we ultimately determined that the stoplight that the defendant claimed that our client ran, in fact, worked on a timer whereby the light was always green between certain hours unless a vehicle traveling on the intersecting road had been stopped at the right light for more than 30 seconds. Based on an analysis of the vehicles and tire markings, it was conclusively determined that both vehicles were traveling at the speed limit, which clearly indicates that the defendant driver had not accelerated from stop, rather, he was traveling at the speed limit, which would not have triggered a green light for the defendant.

The logical implications of this information is that the light could not have been red for the plaintiff, and it certainly would have been red for the defendant. As a consequence of this information, the case was resolved through litigation.
Total Recovery:
$335,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$134,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$63,000.00
$200,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident (Back Injury Requiring Surgery)
Recovery for motorcyclist who suffered a back injury in an 18-wheeler accident.
Total Recovery:
$200,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$80,000.00
Litigation Expenses:
$5,709.00
$41,000.00 Recovery - Commercial Vehicle Accident (Soft-Tissue Injuries)
Recovered for client suffered soft-tissue injuries when her car was side-swiped by a dump truck.
Total Recovery:
$41,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$13,666.00
Litigation Expenses:
$50.00
$250,000.00 Recovery - Wrongful Death / Commercial Vehicle Accident
Our attorneys were hired to investigate a fatal motor vehicle accident involving an 18-wheeler that claimed the lives of several men, the family of one in particular which our firm represented, felt that the official version of events as outlined in the police report was not an accurate portrayal of the facts and circumstances of the collision.

Our firm launched an investigation, the findings of which served as the basis for a subsequent lawsuit. We were able to determine that the defendant's accusations of contributory negligence on behalf of he driver of the vehicle did appear to be valid and plaintiffs conceded as much. However, the plaintiffs were adamant that the contributory negligence did not entirely overshadow the negligence on behalf of the defendant truck driver.

Through physical evidence and an admission of liability that our attorneys were able to importune from the defendant under oath, we were able to show that the defendant had indeed pulled into the path of the decedent's vehicle, which was of consequence irrespective of the decedent's own contributory negligence, and that icontact.com
Total Recovery:
$250,000.00
Attorney Fees:
$82,500.00
Litigation Expenses:
$10,000.00

"When I Lost My Father..."

Get Adobe Flash player

Our Cases in the News

Get Adobe Flash player

Contact Us

Fill out the form below and a legal professional will contact you shortly.

Full Name:

Phone Number:

Email Address:

Describe your situation:

   

Related Articles

Click to Call

--
Enter your phone number above and click "Call Me" to talk to one of our lawyers about your potential case.

Our Clients' Words

Recent Successes