Houston Trucking Accident Lawyer

Do You Understand Liability Issues When You are Hurt in a Trucking Accident?

A lot of tractor trailer rigs use the thousands of miles of modern highways and multi-lane freeways in and around Houston and all along the Gulf coast. They haul every conceivable type of good to and from all parts of the state and country. And because Houston has the highest concentration of refineries in the U.S. a very large number of those big rigs are filled with all varieties of highly flammable petrochemicals and fuels.

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And though 90 percent of them are never a problem for Texas drivers, but what about the remaining 10 percent? Does the driver know what he or she is doing? How safe is the truck’s load or the 18-wheeler itself? Does it even belong on the road? It’s questions like these that sometimes enter your mind when an 18-wheeler pulls alongside you at 70 miles an hour on a crowded freeway, or grows perilously larger in your rearview mirror. Accidents, injuries and even deaths are a statistical inevitability when semis are on the road in and around Houston and other communities along the Gulf coast.

If you have been injured in a big rig accident or if a loved one was injured or killed in one, a Houston trucking accident lawyer at Grossman Law Offices can help you. We have won numerous judgments and argued hundreds of trucking accidents cases in court for our clients during our 20-plus years of service to these injury victims. We understand all-too-well the pain you suffer and the financial distress that is now a part of your life after being injured in one of these horrible accidents.

Your ability recover from your injuries notwithstanding, you must fight for fair reimbursement from those who caused your injuries, pain and suffering. You might even have to file a lawsuit to secure the fair injury award that you deserve. Such fights can be quite stressful. We believe it is very important for you to understand every legal avenue available to you, so you can take the right action to win the most fair restitution for your injuries, pain and suffering, and the income you have lost (and might continue to lose) from a Houston big rig accident that is not your fault.

Enormous Damages and Injuries are the Result of Almost Every Big Truck Accident

If you have been hurt in a large truck accident, the first thing you must determine is who is legally liable for the terrible injuries you suffered. In a lot of such accidents, different parties could be at fault. In many cases, there is more than one defendant.

In an accident injury claim involving an 18-wheeler, a combination of a number of different parties can be responsible, and subsequently held liable for the wreck. This includes the trucker, the company he or she works for, the company that loaded the trailer, the person who planned the truck’s route. An applicable legal precedent in Texas personal injury law is called “respondeat superior.” It states that employers of those are liable for the wreck their employee causes are by legal-definition, every bit as responsible for the action or inaction of their employee.

Another source of liability is relatively new. The state of Texas and many counties now outsource a lot of road maintenance and highway construction projects to private companies. The work performed by these firms can sometimes lead to a big rig accident in which you are the victim, thereby making it a liable party to the wreck.

To win your claim among a surplus of potential defendants, you need an experienced Houston trucking accident lawyer who can investigate the scene of an accident and discover who is liable. Local or state law enforcement agencies also investigate big rig accidents, though their jobs are to get to the bottom of any laws that may have been broken.

Many times those agency investigations only reveal the primary responsible party such as the driver, or maybe the company that owns a large furniture delivery truck has bad brakes due to poor maintenance or some other safety violation. And agency investigations often fall short of identifying every underlying cause for the accident. Experienced trucking accident lawyers and their investigators conduct much more stringent investigations to identify everyone who is liable. Grossman Law Offices and its’ panel of veteran investigators know how to determine the degree of each responsible party in every trucking accident. At times our investigations reveal additional criminal facts of the accident that public investigations miss. When that happens, we pass this information along to the appropriate agencies for further discretionary action.

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It is seldom easy to determine immediate fault in a large truck accident. This is why you stand to gain in many ways through the expertise of Houston Texas trucking accident lawyers who will make sure that every liable party who is responsible for an 18 wheeler accident along the Gulf coast is held responsible for your injuries, in addition to the damage to your vehicle, its passengers and other contents.

What Happens if I Represent Myself Against an Insurance Company Without an Experienced Attorney?

A non-attorney is simply doesn’t have the breadth of knowledge necessary to effectively negotiate a fair settlement with insurance companies, or successfully him or herself in court. Litigating a commercial truck accident-related injury case is extremely intricate. Inexperienced attorneys have only a slightly better chance than you have on your own to recover any reasonable compensation. So why would you even entertain either of these misguided ideas, especially when huge amounts of money are on the table? Why would you consider hiring anything short of a successful personal injury lawyer with the expertise and investigative power to represent your claim against those who caused a big rig or some other commercial truck accident that injures or disables you, or causes the death of a loved one?

"Having a fool for a client" when the lawyer and injured party are one in-the-same is doubly disastrous in any personal injury case, especially one involving you and a commercial trucking company. The laws and procedures involved are so complex, and the playing field is clearly tilted against you. The companies, their insurance providers and attorneys have deep pockets and years of experience at winning these kinds of cases. Hire an inexperienced lawyer, or worse, represent yourself, and you become a lamb being led to the slaughter.

Legal knowledge in-and-of itself accounts for maybe a third of all the necessary elements to win personal injury cases against trucking companies. Successful litigation requires thorough knowledge of civil procedure and the ability to develop the fitting strategy that is so necessary to battle the trucking and insurance companies and their lawyers. Having your opponents respect is also an important element to victory. This is why highly regarded Houston trucking accident lawyers who have spent years taking on the insurance companies and their attorneys, and beaten them, are the most-powerful weapon in your fight for just compensation.

Also, if you have a relative or friend who is a lawyer, even though he or she might be looking out for your best interests and might be inspired to fight hard for your rights when an 18-wheeler accident has befallen you, often, that person might have a difficult time disassociating him or herself emotionally from issues surrounding your case. Personal injury law is often quite intense. A specialized truck accident lawyer must be pragmatic, focus solely on the facts of a case and be very cool under fire if you are to be successful. What happens if that friend or relative attorney doesn’t win the case, or accepts a less-than-fair settlement because he knows how badly you need the money now? How will you feel about your friend of relative then? Keep your family members and friends out of your legal business. You will be very wise to remember this when deciding which Houston trucking accident lawyers will represent your liability insurance claim or lawsuit to your greatest benefit.

The Mantra of Insurance Companies: “No, No, No”

The federal government requires that trucking companies purchase sizable insurance policies to protect against accidents when they occur. And many of you faithfully believe that trucking insurance compensation is quick and comes with few surprises. All you have to do is file a claim and that expected fair compensation check from that bighearted, insurance company will be in your mailbox in no time, right?

Well dream on. All insurance companies are in the business of collecting premiums every day and not paying out claims. Since insurance policies for commercial trucking companies involve huge sums of money, the insurance company’s mission in life is to complicate yours by avoiding to pay you fairly. By doing that they increase their already high profits which generates those big dividends to their investors. So it comes as no surprise that insurance companies deny every claim they can, whenever possible and for as long as possible. They do this simply because they can. And without the right attorney on your side, collecting a fair settlement from an insurance company is like pulling hens teeth.

Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Codes grant anyone who has been injured in a commercial trucking accident the right to bring suits for damages, or the family of one who was killed to be compensated for their loss, that’s no guarantee that reimbursement is automatically granted when a victim files that claim or lawsuit. Insurance companies want you to think they’re on your side, until it’s time to pay. Then you find out the hard way by having to deal with an arbitrary denial by an insurer.

You, as plaintiff, must first prove the liability of all responsible parties for the accident and the injuries you suffered from it. What's more, in any liability case, the plaintiff holds the burden of proof. So you must clearly show that the money you’re asking for fairly reflects the loss you’ve experienced from those damages and injuries, once you prove liability, which isn’t always easy. The insurance company and the lawyers who represent them, does everything possible deny a plaintiffs claim, or argue that the amount of restitution you seek is excessive and unreasonable, or that the accident was caused by you. And often, they’ll try and claim all three, because if they can succeed in denying only one of these, they’re off the hook and you’re stuck.

Insurance Adjusters are a Powerful Weapon against Your Commercial Accident Claim

Insurance adjusters are just as dangerous to an accident victim as the defense lawyers who represent their companies. They help their employer, not you. That’s their job and they do it very well. They save their companies untold millions by denying your claim or underestimating the cost of the accident by any means necessary. An adjuster behaves like your long-lost friend and bends over backwards to convince you that everything’s all right and all of your needs are met. Then they turn around and stab you in the back. Insurance adjusters cleverly act like your “good neighbor” auto insurance agent and create the illusion of security. Often they ingenuously try and record you saying something that is later twisted into sounding like your admitting liability and devastate your chance to receive any sort of fair compensation. The trucking company’s insurance adjuster and the insurance companies conspire to further their own interests, not yours. Some unscrupulous adjusters will even try to deceptively convince uninformed commercial trucking accident victims to sign away their legal right to sue in exchange for a shoddy settlement that could never approach fair compensation to them for injuries or other losses from a commercial trucking accident.

Corporate insurance adjusters and defense lawyers love nothing more than to find a victim who tries to represent his or herself. It’s easy for them to a legal novice down the primrose path disappointment and defeat. The underhanded behavior of most insurance adjusters alone should be proof-enough of why you need an aggressive Houston trucking accident lawyer who knows how to combat the tactics of the insurance companies and win the fairest injury compensation for you. Only the history of success and experience of Grossman Law Offices will combat these unscrupulous insurance adjusters and frighten their insurance company employers into either a fair settlement, or their defeat in court if they insist on a trial.

Insurance companies are even prepared to fight injury claims before the accidents even occur. Their attorneys are either on staff, or permanent retainer. They’re good, and just waiting to take on personal injury claims. They specialize in cases like yours and know every trick in the book. Insurance lawyers race to the scene of an accident and begin investigating to build a case against you while you are still trying to figure things out. This is why you mustn’t hesitate in finding a Texas 18 wheeler accident law firm to help you. You only get one bite at the apple. Once it’s lost, there are no do-over’s.

It’s Not a Good Idea to Trust a Commercial Trucker to Tell the Truth in an Accident

With so much at stake, it’s no better than even-money that you can trust the trucker to tell the truth if he or she causes an expensive accident. If truck drivers are found to be liable for an accident, not only can they be fired, it could become very difficult for them to land a new job after costing his or her previous employer enormous damages due to negligence. Sometimes the trucking company will fire them outright and make the driver the “fall guy.” Then they try to cover themselves of respondeat superior, or their direct negligence that caused the accident. The truck driver knows this and does everything possible to deflect the blame in another direction, mostly in yours.

And if this driver has been in previous accidents, it’s possible to lose either his state trucking drivers license, or his DOT certification. If that happens, this now (former) trucker has to find a new line-of work. And with high unemployment in the U.S., the temptation for that driver to lie, cheat or behave dishonestly to save their job is just too great to ignore since that driver risks losing the paycheck that supports his or her family.

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After suffering an injury in a trucking accident in which the driver of the truck claimed that our client was driving with his lights off at night, our investigators quickly examined the scene. They discovered a security camera outside a convenience store that was pointed directly its parking lot and the accident scene behind it. The video clearly showed our client’s headlights shining brightly. We proved that the truck driver boldly lied. Witnesses and defendants can lie and or callously misrepresent critical facts in trucking accident cases. The lawyers with Grossman Law Offices know how to uncover the lies, and counter them with the truth to stop witness misrepresentations. Over the past 20 years, we have conducted thousands of commercial trucking accident investigations to get to the bottom of the case, and won fair and just compensation for our clients’ by shining the light on the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on the accident.

Self-Insured Truck Companies are a Pernicious Threat to Compensation

Some trucking companies protect against personal injuries from accidents by setting aside a percentage of their assets to pay accident claims, instead of purchasing coverage from an insurance carrier. And though federal and state governments monitor the commercial insurance industry and their license adjusters, as well as try to hold insurance companies to ethical standards as best it can, no regulations exist for self-insured trucking companies. Seeking compensation from self-insured firms, or self-insured independent truckers, can be far more difficult, chaotic and quite toxic to your legitimate compensation claims.

You will likely be forced to try and settle that claim with an officer of the company. Typically, this company officer’s salary is tied directly to company profits. Any amount paid to you for an injury comes directly out of the company coffers, which means that when the company’s officer decides on your compensation he or she is literally taking money out of their own pocket. So we’re never surprised at the depths a self-insured company officer will stoop to deny your claim and protect the company’s assets. Self-insured companies (and independent truckers) have been known to deliberately destroy evidence that proves your claim, bribe witnesses, and even intimidate their victims, sometimes physically. Some intimidation attempts were directed at our clients before they hired us. This is why every time our attorneys are hired against a liable self-insured party; the first thing we usually do is to prevent anyone with the company from behaving unsuitably toward our clients. Often, we are forced to file motions in court to demand that they completely refrain from communicating with our clients unless one of our attorneys is present.

As a Commercial Trucking Accident Victim, Your Best Chance is With Experience on Your Side?

Only after trying hundreds of cases can a lawyer understand, and use the intricacies of personal injury law to develop the perfect battle plan for success in negotiations or at trial against insurance companies in an 18 wheeler accident. Most people, and many inexperienced attorneys, don’t know the proper way to answer interrogatories, prepare demand packages, and conduct sophisticated depositions to get to the bottom of liability for the trucking accident that caused your injuries and pain. Experienced attorneys know how to conduct complicated accident investigations and respond to lists of admissions. Somebody who knows how to do all of this knows how to forcefully represent your interests.

Insurance companies only agree to fair settlements if you are protected by an attorney with a history of success in court. While insurance companies and their attorneys are eager to take on non-lawyers and inexperienced attorneys, they fear us. When our Houston trucking accident lawyers step-in the insurance companies often see the wisdom of settling with our clients for a fair amount. They want to avoid a trial, especially if they know we have a strong case. And a fair settlement, allows you to resume living your life again after we’ve secured that compensation on your behalf.

What Do We Need to do For Us to Begin our Trucker-Liability Legal Action Together?

You need to take steps to preserve the evidence in your case now, and to act quickly. You must hire a lawyer to investigate the accident scene immediately. Every moment that you wait, evidence is becoming compromised, witness memories fade, or their stories’ “mysteriously” change. The accident scene also becomes altered either by the passing of time or maybe your opponents do it themselves. Physical evidence that proves your case can also begin to “mysteriously” disappear. As soon as we are hired, Grossman Law Offices begins a thorough investigation of the accident scene to uncover the right evidence that proves liability of the truck driver, the trucking company and any other third-parties. We inspect all the vehicles involved, clearly survey the accident scene, measure distances, hunt for photographic and video evidence and amass it all to clearly prove your case. No stone is unturned to uncover all the evidence that proves your claim beyond a shadow of a doubt.

In one example, we were once hired by the families of two men who were involved in a terrible accident with a big rig. After the initial accident, the truck’s trailer was stretched across the unlit road on a moonless night. Only the taillights of the trailer hear the shoulder of the highway were visible to oncoming drivers. Our clients rounded a curve and unknowingly smashed into the trailer. One man died at the scene. The other was left fighting for his life.

The force of the collision ripped off the roof of the vehicle, killing the driver and critically injuring the passenger. The next day we were hired, flew to the scene of the accident and begin investigating that same day. Our client’s car had already been towed to a salvage yard by the time we arrived. After examining the vehicle, we noted its strange lack of headlights. Finding this odd, our investigators spotted a security camera on the premises and we asked to view the video. It showed an official of the trucking company illegally removing the headlights. When the company tried to claim our client had been driving a car without headlights, we produced the video that caught them red-handed. You can guess who won this case. But what you don’t know is that both law enforcement officials and the U.S. Department of Transportation found this video very interesting. And you get a better idea of what we mean when we say that evidence can sometimes “mysteriously disappear.”

If the love ones of these two men drove down the road, minding their own business when tragedy found them, had waited any longer to hire us, this crucial evidence would have been gone forever, because the salvage yard’s surveillance system didn’t save its video for more than two days. And you can’t think of a better reason why Houston, Texas victims of commercial trucking accidents need to find the right trucking accident lawyer now, so the investigation can begin while the case, and evidence, is still fresh. Lies and missing evidence will certainly cripple your legal right to fair compensation for a trucking accident from the moment it happens only if you allow it by your hesitancy.

We Can Help You Recover Your Life After an 18-Wheeler Accident

The best way for a victim in a commercial trucking accident is to retain a lawyer who knows how to clearly prove the defendant’s undeniable liability, and then win equitable damages

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The Houston trucking accident lawyers of Grossman Law Offices has over 20 years experience handling personal injury litigation in 18-wheeler accident cases. If you or a loved one has been in a trucking accident, we use every bit of our expertise to assure that you receive fair compensation for the injuries and pain you have suffered. We’ve helped deliver millions of dollars to hundreds of Texas truck accident victims. So if you or a loved one has been involved in a trucking accident in Houston or anywhere in the Gulf coast let an experienced personal injury and accident lawyer win the best compensation possible for you.

Call us today at 1-855-392-0000 (toll free), or send us an email by clicking this link, or fill out the form at the top of this page for a free consultation to continue your road to total recovery and resume your life.

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