San Antonio Truck Accident Lawyer

What should I do after a commercial vehicle accident?

There are a lot of commercial vehicles on Texas roadways. The first thing that needs to happen if you’ve been involved in an accident with one of these vehicles is get medical attention immediately. These vehicles are larger than passenger-cars. They can be up to 85,000 pounds. If they crash into you – even if you don’t immediately feel something – the force that your body has just gone through needs medical attention. That commercial vehicle, and their company, have lawyers that are ready to go. They’ve got their team called Commercial Crash Teams prepared to fight. They’re going to be at the scene collecting evidence. They’re going to be at the scene trying to figure a way to make sure they can get out of what they’ve caused.

You need an experienced team to do the same thing. We hire reconstruction experts and engineers. We hire police investigators. We hire everybody that’s needed, and we get out to the scene right away. The sooner you hire someone, the better. There is evidence to be found and protected, and you need to have your team looking at it just like the truck company has their team looking at it.

What steps should I take after a truck accident?

When people call our office and say they were in a commercial vehicle accident in Texas, one of the things they want to know is how the process works. The first and most important step is investigation. We need to get our people out to the scene. We need to take measurements. We need to take photographs. We need to inspect the other vehicle. We need to get the black box – it’s called the EDR – of the truck so we can see how fast they were going. We need to get driver’s logs. We need to find out if this driver was driving more than he should have driven.

The critical step is investigation. Then you get your case going and get into the court room. You start holding them accountable. But the first and most important step is investigation.

Do I need a lawyer after a truck accident?

If you’ve suffered injuries because of a commercial crash here in Texas, whether it’s an 18-wheeler, or a company van, you need to call a lawyer as soon as you realize that you’re hurt, as soon as you realize that you’re missing work.

You need to call a lawyer quickly. These cases are different. They’ve got their teams ready to go. Their insurance company has lawyers. The truck company has lawyers. They’ve got investigators. It’s not fair that they get the jump on you. With these kids of cases, you need to act quick.

Are truck accident claims the same as a car accident?

When people call and ask us about a commercial vehicle accident in Texas, a lot of times they think it’s just another case. It’s not. Commercial vehicle cases are a special kind of case. They can be complicated, but with an experienced lawyer, they can be handled. There are federal regulations that apply to the drivers, the company, owners of the tractor, owners of the trailer, and the brokers. There are all sorts of people in play in one of these cases. In this 80,000 pound vehicle, the tractor may be owned by one person, and the trailer may be owned by another. Some other company might have put an inexperienced driver in the seat, and some other company might have overloaded the trailer and made it unsafe.

All of this requires experience eyes to look over the case. It requires experts in the field that understand the federal regulations. It requires experts in the field that know how to reconstruct crashes involving 80,000 pound vehicles. These cases are different and they require lawyers that have done it before and have done it successfully.

Should I speak to the insurance company after a truck accident?

After a commercial vehicle accident in Texas, one of the first things those companies do is call their insurance company, their lawyers, and get their team in place. One of the first things they’re going to want to do is talk to you.

You don’t want to talk to a company lawyer or a company insurance person who’s only interest is in protecting the people that just harmed you and your family. You should never speak with them, not without a lawyer.

How do I choose the best attorney for my truck accident claim?

If you have been seriously harmed or devastated by a commercial vehicle accident here in Texas, one of the things you need to know is who to go to. You should research hard for an attorney. These cases are complex.

There are laws that deal with every aspect of the case. You must have an experienced lawyer. You need to ask questions while interviewing attorneys: how many of these types of cases have you handled? How many different states have you handled them in? How many times have you been successful? You need to know that the person you’re hiring has a proven track record who’s going to help you.

Should I accept a settlement offer from the insurance company for my truck accident?

In a truck accident case in Texas, one of the things you’re going to find is often insurance companies swoop in. They want to try and get you to take a quick check. The reason is they know the devastation that their vehicles can cause and they want you to act before you realize all the impact the crash has to your life.

Never take a first offer. Never entertain what they’re saying. They’re not looking out for your interests; they’re looking out for themselves.

How long do I have to file a truck accident claim?

In Texas, if you’ve been seriously injured because of an 18-wheeler or a commercial vehicle of some sort, technically you have two years to take action. That’s called the statute of limitation. Texas law says is if you are injured, you need to file a lawsuit no later than two years, but you need to understand something: every day you wait is a day that some piece of evidence might be missing.

Maybe a piece of glass at the scene has now blown away because somebody drove by it. Maybe that skid mark is just a little less clear. Can it be worked with? Sure, it can. If you don’t realize for six months just how bad your injuries are, we can still help. With our experience and our background, we understand these things. The truth is, when you’re dealing with a commercial vehicle accident here in Texas, you need to act quickly.

Who can I sue after being injured in a truck accident?

If you’ve been injured because a commercial vehicle driver caused an accident, there are multiple responsible parties. Most certainly, the driver of the vehicle. If they’re the careless one that caused the wreck, you need to go after them. You also need to go after that driver’s employer because they’re the one that put that driver behind the wheel. One of the things we found over and over again is that there are drivers out there that have no business being on the road, and the company knows it, but they put them out there anyway.

There are other people involved as well. Sometimes there are different companies using the truck for shipping. There are different companies brokering. There are different companies owning the trailer. Sometimes there are even different companies that employ the driver. The only way for you to get full and fair compensation is to get all of them involved and all of them need to pitch in to make sure you’re paid.

How much is my truck accident case worth?

One of the first things people ask after a commercial vehicle accident here in Texas is, what am I entitled to recover? There’s no easy answer for that. What you are entitled to is every penny that that careless act has caused you.

You’ve got medical bills. You got time missed from work. You can count those bills and add them up. The devastating injuries caused by 80,000 pounds of an 18-wheeler impact every area of your life. It impacts what you can and can’t do with your family. It impacts how you can and can’t interact with people. Sometimes these injuries make it so that you can never work again. You need to calculate how much you’re going to be missing out on for the rest of your work life. It’s impacting every aspect, and the only way to know what the true value of your compensation is, is to have a team behind you that looks at every aspect of your life, everything that’s been changed, and every dollar that you deserve.

How long will my truck accident case take?

After a commercial vehicle accident, one of the things people worry about the most is how long the case will drag on. The insurance companies want it to drag on and you don’t. They don’t want to face a lawsuit. They don’t want to be held responsible. You need to push them, and you need to push them hard. These are complicated cases; they take time. They won’t be resolved in six months.

A lot of people want to know if their case is going to have to go all the way to trial. One percent of all cases go to trial, but typically the problem is too many law firms know that and act on it. If you hire us, day one we plan on being that one percent so that we are prepared. We look at everything as if we’re in it for the long haul and the hard fight. When you do that, insurance companies usually come to their senses quicker.