Houston Big Rig Accident Attorney

Our aggressive and experienced Houston big rig accident attorneys can help you receive all that you are entitled to, following a Houston truck accident.

Most people are aware that an accident with a big rig will usually result in greater property damage and more severe injuries.

What is not so commonly known is that, with regard to the legal process, big rig accidents are substantially different. Approaching a big rig accident claim or case the same way as you would approach a car accident case will likely end in failure. The tactics used by the insurance company, and the methods for proving up the case are strikingly different. Without proper legal help that has prior experience in litigating big rig accident cases, you will likely stand to receive little to no compensation as a result of your personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. However, Houston big rig accident attorney Michael Grossman has 20 years of such experience and can put that hard-earned, practical knowledge to work for you.

How is a Big Rig Accident Different From a Normal Car Wreck?

While no accidents are normal, passenger-vehicle only accidents occur quite frequently and they often only involve property damage. As a result, there are certain guidelines in place that can help the victim receive compensation from the liable party’s insurer. If you’ve ever been in a fender-bender, you’re likely familiar with the process. For the most part, the process of seeking compensation for your loss in regards to the property damage to your car was fairly straightforward. While dealing with the insurance company may have been mildly irritating, you were likely fairly compensated for your car or your car was fixed. However, big rig accidents are quite different in regards to the way in which a victim must seek compensation. In order to receive full and fair compensation for your injury or loss, you must likely pursue legal action in the form of a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit against all negligent parties.

There Are Likely Multiple Liable Parties

Furthermore, “normal” car accidents often involve only one liable party. Big rig accidents often involve a host of liable parties, many of whom aren’t even at the scene of the accident. Due to their somewhat hidden nature, these types of liable parties can often be challenging to find out unless an experienced Houston big rig accident attorney, like Michael Grossman, is working the accident case. The vicariously liable parties can include any or all of the following:

• An outside company that loads cargo onto the big rig
• An outside route-planning company
• A defective part maker
• An alcohol-serving establishment if the driver was drunk
• Another party, such as another vehicle, that caused the big rig to have a wreck
• The big rig driver’s employer
• The insurer of the employer

In Texas, one of the first additional defendants in any big rig accident case is the truck driver’s employer. This is so because of the legal notion in Texas law known as “respondeat superior” in which an employer is responsible for the negligent actions of their employees. When the employer is a defendant, this often means that the employer’s insurer will also play a role in seeking compensation for your pain or loss. The involvement of this particular entity often raises the stakes of the case and can prove to make such cases quite daunting if a victim has inexperienced legal help.

Expensive Big Rig Insurance Policies

Big rigs are usually covered by large commercial insurance policies that are typically about 50 times more valuable than a regular car accident policy. With so much money on the line, big rig insurance carriers are incredibly aggressive in their defense in order so that they will have to pay out as little as possible. They will seek to skirt as much liability as possible by working to make the victim out to be the liable party. If an insurance adjuster or defense attorney can pin any amount of liability onto the plaintiff, then the amount of compensation awarded could be severely lessened. If a majority of blame can be placed on the plaintiff, then the claim could be denied or the case dismissed.

Veteran Insurance Adjusters

When you are involved in a big rig accident, you will have to deal with an insurance adjuster. These adjusters are not like your typical car accident insurance adjuster. Commercial insurance policy adjusters are the most aggressive and likely most experienced of adjusters in the industry. They have risen to their ranks as a result of being able to see large-sum claims denied or severely lessened. They are professionals in the largest sense of the word in that they will work with their company’s best interests in mind, regardless of your need for compensation. However, Houston big rig accident attorney Michael Grossman has brought cases against every major insurer in the country. That means that we have the knowledge and experience to be able to work against these experienced insurance adjusters with your best interests in mind so that you can stand the greatest likelihood to receive compensation for your pain or loss.

Big rigs operate under the rules set forth by the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration. Additionally, big rigs must also abide by state and local statutes. While that may sound like there are more laws working in your favor, in fact, these laws tend to create an opportunity for insurance companies to create confusion regarding your claim. When dealing with such complex laws, it is tricky for non-attorneys to determine whether or not what they are being told is the truth. Ultimately, the confusion created by these areas of overlap often results in an insurance company denying a claim on a technicality that is likely not well known.

Quickly Responding Defense Attorneys and Investigative Teams

Commercial insurance carriers utilize an in-house investigative team which they dispatch to the scene of an accident immediately after they are notified of the accident. These investigators are charged with the task of recreating the events prior to the accident. They are determined to discover anything they can use to put some portion of the fault on you. In the vast majority of big rig accident cases that our firm has been involved in, we have discovered that these investigators usually arrive on the scene before the victim even leaves the accident site. By the time you have had a chance to read this information, a case may have been started against you as part of an investigation by the insurance carrier’s investigative team to be forwarded to their attorneys and insurance adjusters for the sole purpose of denying your claim. By enlisting the help of Houston big rig accident attorney Michael Grossman, you will also have the legal assistance of an investigative team that can also respond quickly to the scene of an accident in order to build a strong case in your behalf.

Some Truck Drivers May Not Admit Liability

A big rig driver’s entire livelihood rests on their ability to continue driving. They simply can’t afford to accept liability in many cases, and, as a result, will knowingly lie about their liability in order to save their jobs. When no witnesses or scant evidence is involved, some truck drivers can get away with this. However, with our 20 years of litigation experience in big rig accident cases, we’re often able to assess the validity of a truck driver’s testimony. Through careful depositions or thorough investigations, Grossman Law Offices is often able to figure out the truth of an accident, regardless of the claims that a lying truck driver may be making. While it’s somewhat understandable that a truck driver wouldn’t want to lose their job, it cannot be allowed to happen, especially when their negligence caused injury or loss of life. Houston big rig accident attorney Michael Grossman will work to ensure that these types of drivers don’t get off lightly.

Some Big Rig Companies May Be Self-Insured

All Texas trucking companies must insure their drivers and vehicles, but they are not required to use an insurance company. Some big rig companies opt to self-insure, but this can sometimes lead to the unethical treatment of a plaintiff when a claim is brought against such a company. This unethical behavior can take the form of plaintiff threatening, evidence tampering, or witness badgering. Such companies believe they can get away with such behavior out of ignorance or arrogance. Either they don’t know that it’s wrong, or they don’t care that it is. In either instance, their actions create an unfair advantage in which an injured or bereaved victim stands little to no chance of receiving fair compensation. In many ways these types of self-insured trucking companies are essentially trying to bully a plaintiff into getting too frustrated with the process to continue seeking compensation.

Grossman Law Offices has been called many times in the past to work with a victim of such unethical treatment. In those instances, we have pursued legal action to compel the negligent party to act justly so that the injured or bereaved victim can stand a fair chance at receiving their due compensation. Many people could have saved themselves from quite a frustrating experience by contacting Houston big rig accident attorney Michael Grossman before having to deal with such a company. However, if you’re currently in the middle of such a debacle, we can likely still help you and will work towards ensuring a level playing field.

Why Do I Need Legal Representation?

Big rig accident scenes can become quite complex quite quickly. With the addition of multiple defendants, high-dollar insurance policies, experienced insurance adjusters, and rapid-response defense attorneys, an inexperienced attorney likely stands little to no chance of receiving fair compensation for their client in the face of so many seeming obstacles. A non-attorney would face a similar fate. There are simply too many variables involved and the stakes are too high such that a person without the proper experience and knowledge would stand a remote chance of a successful outcome. Furthermore, an attorney spends years in school to learn the law and years in court to learn how to apply the law. Simply knowing what the laws are surrounding a particular accident isn’t enough; an attorney must know both how to apply those laws and how to follow proper procedures in court so that the case isn’t thrown out on a technicality. Furthermore, an experienced attorney builds a certain reputation during their time in and out of court. Houston big rig accident attorney Michael Grossman has such a reputation for the success of his clients that insurance adjusters and defense attorneys will often settle with our clients out of court instead of meeting our lawyers in trial. In other words, our knowledge, experience, and reputation can be a powerful ally in your personal injury or wrongful death claim.

What Should I Do Now?

Often, one of the single best things you can do for your personal injury or wrongful death case is to have an independent investigation performed as soon as possible after the accident has occurred. In so doing you can ensure that vital evidence isn’t lost and that witnesses are tracked down. Furthermore, big rig trucking companies are legally allowed to delete their trucks’ safety records after a certain time period has passed, so waiting too long to pursue legal action could cause those important records to become unavailable for your case. Furthermore, with the likelihood that a case has already begun being built against you, seeking your own legal help that can perform a competent and thorough investigation into your big rig accident is often the first and best step you can take towards securing compensation.

Houston Big Rig Accident Attorney Michael Grossman is Here to Help

When facing such an orchestrated effort against you, it becomes quite obvious that you need a team of your own working to make sure that you are not the victim of an insurance company’s greed or an aggressive attorney’s tactics. Our experienced big rig trucking accident attorneys in Houston would like to be that team. In the past 20 years, our aggressive litigators have defended the rights of Houston big rig accident victims to ensure that they are not taken advantage of by the commercial insurance companies. Contact us today at 1-855-392-0000 (toll free) for a free consultation in which you can share the details of your accident case and ask any lingering questions you may have. If there is a case, we can come alongside you so that our knowledge, experience, and reputation can be put to work for you so that you stand the greatest likelihood of receiving full and fair compensation for your injury or loss as a result of a big rig accident.