San Antonio Trucking Accident Lawyer

San Antonio, TX Lawyer Michael Grossman Explains What to do to Ensure Your Best Chance at a Positive Outcome in a Trucking Accident

Being hurt or seeing someone you love hurt in a trucking accident is a traumatic experience and seeking justice and financial compensation after such an accident can be deceptively complex.

I have been helping people injured in trucking accidents for twenty years, and if I could offer one piece of advice to everyone in this type of situation, it would be this: act quickly! People seeking compensation after being injured in a trucking accident will face strong opposition, but an aggressive San Antonio trucking accident lawyer from Grossman Law Offices is here to help you.

Why Should I Act Quickly After an 18-Wheeler Accident?

By waiting even just a few hours longer to contact experienced legal help, you could actually damage your case, resulting in receiving little to no compensation for your injury or loss. Since compensation in a semi-truck accident personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit is likely to be quite sizable, waiting to contact legal help could be a costly choice. As only one example out of many, take the following true client story:

One of our clients was involved in a horrific accident in which the top of his car was sheared off as a result of the car going underneath the trailer of a semi-truck. The driver was severely injured and his passenger was killed in the accident. Both the driver and the passenger’s family contacted us shortly after the accident to investigate what happened. Our investigative team flew to the scene of the accident and discovered that unethical tactics were afoot in order to cover up the truck driver’s negligence in the wreck.

Once on site, we visited the salvage yard that our client’s totaled car was at and saw that the car was missing its headlights; the lights weren’t just smashed, they were completely gone. Knowing this to be a strange issue, we procured video surveillance footage of the salvage yard which showed a representative from the negligent trucking company stealing our client’s headlights. The trucking company’s insurer later tried to blame our client for the accident by stating that he was driving without headlights at night. However, they were unaware of the footage we had obtained. Fortunately, for our clients that had already suffered so much, they were not taken further advantage of since we were able to present that footage as proof of the trucking company’s unethical behavior.

However, what proved to be the most vital towards the successful completion of this particular case was the fact that we were contacted quickly. We learned that the video surveillance footage we had obtained that was so key to the accident case was set to delete itself shortly after we had viewed it. In other words, had we arrived on site just a day later, the footage would have been unavailable and our clients likely would have received a decreased settlement, or even no compensation at all, due to the unethical behavior of the trucking company.

By choosing to act quickly, even in the midst of the confusion, frustration, and pain that you’re likely experiencing, you can often be working in your own best interests to ensure that all liable parties are brought to justice and compelled to award you compensation that can be put to good use in helping you to recover from the accident. Evidence can become lost over time, as the client story above attests, and witnesses can become more difficult to find as time passes, or they may even forget key details. By enlisting the help of San Antonio trucking accident lawyer Michael Grossman and his investigative team at Grossman Law Offices, you can ensure that your best interests are being looked after so that you can stand the best possible opportunity to receive full and fair compensation for your injury or loss.

Challenges in 18-Wheeler Personal Injury or Wrongful Death Accident Cases

Many people mistakenly assume that truck accidents are just like car accidents, only bigger. This is not the case. The commercial insurance policies that cover trucking companies and their drivers are generally worth 50 times more than a passenger vehicle policy. This is a lot of money, and trucking companies will go to great lengths to avoid paying it.

Casting Liability onto the Victim

This often means that before the truck driver in an accident has even left the scene, a team of defense attorneys, insurance adjusters, and accident recreation experts are combing the accident scene, looking for evidence. Their sole purpose is finding some way to convince a judge or jury that the accident was not due to the trucking company's negligence. Typically, this means pinning all or part of the blame on the victim. If the victim can be shown to have been even incrementally involved in causing the accident, the compensation package could be lessened. If the victim can be shown to have held a majority of liability for the accident, the claim could be denied or the case dismissed, resulting in no compensation whatsoever for a victim, regardless of their need for such compensation.

Experienced Insurance Adjusters That Work to Get Claims Denied

Insurance adjusters that work semi-truck accident claims will often be quite experienced in those particular kinds of accident cases. They have likely risen in the rank of their company because of their proven successes in the past where they’ve been able to save their company large amounts of money due to their ability to see large-sum claims severely lessened or completely denied. Ensure that you have proper legal help on your side that can fight against these particular types of aggressive insurance adjusters by contacting San Antonio trucking accident lawyer Michael Grossman. With twenty years of dealing with insurance companies, we’re all too familiar with their tactics and will work against them to ensure that your best interests are represented at all times.

Defense Attorneys Utilizing Legal Gray Areas

Furthermore, the laws surrounding trucking accidents are complex. The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration creates some legal gray area between state and federal laws. Defense attorneys can often use this gray area to get their clients off the hook based on some technicality. Again, the legal opponents in these types of cases often have many years of prior experience, so they are very intimate with the ways in which they can work to free their clients from liability. By contacting San Antonio trucking accident lawyer Michael Grossman, you can have similar legal experience on your side that is just as familiar with their tactics and will work to aggressively defend your rights.

Truck Drivers Fearful for Their Jobs

The truck driver will probably be cooperating fully with their company’s investigative team because his or her career is likely contingent on the outcome of the lawsuit. I have seen cases where truck drivers have fabricated or destroyed evidence to avoid taking responsibility for an accident in order to not lose their trucking license. However, our investigative techniques and tactful depositions are often effective in assessing whether or not a truck driver is telling the truth about the accident.

Don’t Choose to Self-Represent

With so much likely on the line, choosing to self-represent is simply not an option you should be considering. Even if you’re familiar with the particular laws surrounding your accident case, an 18-wheeler personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit that results in compensation for the plaintiff requires more than just knowledge of the law. Proper procedure must be followed or else the case can be thrown out on a technicality. Additionally, with so many defendants involved that are all likely to be well-defended, the legal opposition in such cases is often quite stout, and only the most experienced of trucking accident attorneys will be able to navigate the often tricky legal battlefield that such a case often is. Experienced insurance adjusters and defense attorneys will likely scoff at a self-represented plaintiff since the adjusters and attorneys know of far too many legal measures that they can employ in order to see the case dismissed on a technicality. With so much at stake, like your own or your family’s financial future, opting for self-representation is too great a risk to take.

San Antonio Trucking Accident Lawyer Michael Grossman Can Help You

The legal landscape surrounding these types of accidents is much more complex than many people realize. It is imperative that you seek out an experienced attorney quickly, as the client story in this article makes all too clear. Whenever my firm takes a case, we quickly secure the physical evidence from the crash scene and any trucking records so that we can thoroughly examine the evidence and help you make the best decision for your case. We have an extensive track record of successful cases, and, what's more, trucking companies know this. Their defense attorneys will often cooperate fully with us when trying to reach a settlement so that they do not have to face our attorneys in the courtroom. In other words, we are going to do everything we can to give you the compensation you need and the justice you deserve. If you or someone you love has been in a trucking accident, contact San Antonio trucking accident lawyer Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices today. We offer free consultations at 1-855-393-0000 (Toll Free) where you can share the details of your accident with us and ask questions regarding your legal options. We want to help you get back on your feet.