Truck wreck lawyers are lawyers that devote a substantial portion of their practice to representing the victims of truck and/or semi-trailer accidents. The reasons that truck wreck lawyers have different experiences than general injury lawyers is the nature of truck wrecks themselves. First, since a majority of truck wrecks occur on the interstate versus city driving, many involve collisions at higher speeds. Second, the vehicles involved in truck wrecks are much larger in size than typical vehicles. These forces, speed, and size, contribute to a much more grim and many times fatal outcome for victims of truck wrecks.
From an investigation standpoint, lawyers handling truck wreck injury or death cases must realize that since these trucking companies are insured by commercial insurance companies that specialize in policies for trucking fleets, they will be ready to jump on any potential claim as soon as it happens. For instance, as soon as a fatality is reported to a trucking insurance company, that company will likely hire an investigator and a defense lawyer within an hour or two of that notice. The investigation will immediately start for the insurance company. They will usually have an investigator on the scene and someone looking at the involved vehicles prior the most families even thinking about hiring a lawyer. The lawyers for these companies will start working immediately on the legal defenses available to the trucking company. So, the insurance companies have a significant advantage in the truck wreck setting when it comes to being able to be the first party on the scene and the first party to gain access the the vehicles involved.
Experienced truck wreck lawyers or lawyers know that they must act fast. Truck wreck lawyers know that as soon as they are hired by a family an investigator must be discharged immediately to the scene and to the tow yard where vehicles are usually kept. Truck wreck lawyers know that an accident reconstructionist expert should also be retained in conjunction with an investigator since crucial evidence on the roadway and on the vehicles will be compromised as each day passes. The more and more traffic that passes over the scene of a wreck the more likely evidence on the roadway like braking marks, yawl marks, indentions and other similar marks will be compromised or lost.
Truck wreck lawyers know that these commercial trucking insurance companies are usually working under an insurance policy that typically has higher than average limits. These policy limits are usually at least 1 million dollars and many larger companies have limits that can exceed 20 million dollars per claim.
The reason this is important is that these companies have millions of reasons to protect as much of these monies as possible. They will act like they are protecting these monies and will be sparing no expense in the process of protecting these assets. It is our job as Truck Wreck lawyers to first collect as much evidence as possible and then to aggressively seek the most recovery available that is justified under the facts of our case.
Truck wreck lawyers also need to have experience in cases involving these carriers since many times the evidence involved relates to truck driving laws that require certain documents be kept by truck drivings which contain their sleep logs, maintenance logs and other logs required by State and/or Federal law.
If there is a truck wreck and you or a close family member or friend is involved, it is important to seek out advice from a truck wreck lawyer that has experience with injuries and deaths occurring with truck wrecks.