Steps Following a Truck Accident

Answer:

Just recently I got off the phone with a potential client who had been injured – actually, a family member had been seriously injured in an accident involving a commercial truck, an 18-wheeler, here in Mississippi. The family member asked what they should do. Their family member was in serious condition after this wreck and getting medical treatment, but it was the trucking company’s fault, and they just didn’t know what to do in this situation. They were hoping we could answer their questions and help, which of course we were glad to do.

First of all, any wreck or injury that involves a tractor trailer truck, or, for that matter, any other large commercial vehicle, is a special type of personal injury case. In other words, it’s not a run-of-the-mill car wreck. Trucking cases are more complex because those vehicles are more heavily regulated. They’re bigger, they weigh more, they’re more dangerous, and so we have different layers of regulation on them. The people who drive those vehicles have to have a special license. The way that you work up one of those cases, the way that you deal with the insurance company or, oftentimes, with the trucking company themselves, if they are self-insured, is just different than a regular car wreck or some other type of injury case.

First and foremost, we want the clients to understand that a trucking case is just different than other personal injury cases; they are different than a car wreck case. The first thing, obviously, to do and to focus on is getting the person who was injured the medical treatment that they need for that injury. In this particular instance and, as is so often the situation when people contact us, that person was in the hospital, focusing on treatment first is important. Immediately after and sometimes even while they’re getting the treatment, just as this person had done, it is so important to contact an experienced trial attorney, who has had success dealing in tractor trailer cases, early on and immediately in these types of cases.

The trucking company and their insurance companies have their own teams that I assure you are immediately dispatched out to the scene. They are investigating. They are trying to figure out any way possible to show that that truck was not responsible for the wreck. It’s just critical in these types of cases that you have an attorney with experience in trucking cases so that they can put their team in action to investigate the claim, to secure evidence, to get experts involved, and to document the scene in order to protect your rights. That’s just the beginning. There’s also a special way that these cases need to be worked up to make sure that the person who has been injured has their rights protected and that they get full value for their claim.

If you’ve been involved in one of those cases, get the medical help you need and then immediately contact a qualified attorney to help. The Brad Morris Law Firm is here, available to do consultations on trucking and tractor trailer wrecks. Just contact us and we’d be glad and available to try to answer your questions.