Semi-truck accidents happen far too often, and frequently result in very serious injuries and deaths. Windy conditions and other weather hazards increase the odds of a catastrophic truck crash. When a semi-truck causes an accident, an experienced trucking accident attorney must be aware of several things.
First, time is of the essence. The best practice is for the injury victim’s attorney is to immediately send a written demand to the trucking company and its insurer to preserve the truck, trailer and the truck’s event data recorder (EDR). In trucking accidents involving serious injuries, the victim’s attorney should retain his own accident reconstruction expert right away to review the contents of the EDR, inspect the scene, and determine the cause of the crash.
Secondly, reliance on law enforcement investigations alone is not enough. In a major accident, the trucking industry will typically have its own private investigators, attorneys and claims adjusters on the scene, interviewing witnesses, and speaking with police officers long before the injury victim has had a chance to retain an attorney. As one might expect, the goal of the trucking industry’s investigators and attorneys is not to simply determine what happened, but to prepare a defense that minimizes the company’s responsibility for the crash. Trucking companies often hire retired police officers to investigate crashes. Naturally, they feel that police officers investigating a crash will give credence to their retired colleagues who now work for the trucking industry.
Thirdly, the injury victim’s attorney must be aware that the truck driver is probably not the only person responsible for the crash. Truck drivers are put under enormous strain by their employers to drive in unsafe conditions and for longer hours than they should. The trucking company and other entities typically need to be named as defendants in the lawsuit as well.
Finally, the victim’s attorney must have the experience and resources to combat the full throttled defense put up by the trucking company. Semi-truck cases are expensive to pursue, and the injury victim obviously cannot be expected to pay the expenses of experts, discovery and court costs prior to settlement. Likewise, it is entirely unfair to expect the injury victim to pay any fee until the case is settled. Moreover, an attorney’s fee should not be beyond the industry standard of one-third to forty percent, even though the attorney’s work involved in prosecuting a truck collision case is more substantial than other types of cases.
Jeff Cisco knows exactly what needs to be done to get justice for those who have been seriously injured or killed as a result of an accident involving a semi-truck. If you or a loved one have been injured in a crash involving a commercial truck, count on an experienced personal injury attorney to successfully fight to get you all the compensation you deserve. Call Cisco Law, P.C. today for a free, no-obligation consultation. You pay nothing until we settle or win your case.
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