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Common Mistakes After a Truck Accident
The number one mistake that people make or families make, if their loved one died and stuff – they’re in grief and shock, and it’s all they can do to deal with what’s happened – is they say, “Well, you know, the legal stuff, we’ll do that later.” While they’re in shock and grief, the trucking company and their insurance company and lawyers are going into damage control mode. As the attorney explained, this is all kinds of – anything that could hurt the trucking company or cause you, the client, to get a lot of extra money, they’re going to do their best to make it either – I mean, if they’re not required to preserve it, it’s gone, that evidence. Sometimes when they are required, they just go, “Oops, mistake. We don’t know how that happened.”
Have somebody in the family contact us so we can start investigating the case. There’s no cost to the family for us to start an investigation, and there’s no risk. If for any reason we don’t end up getting compensation for the family, you owe us zero, not even for costs. Just make sure someone in the family calls us, starts us on the investigation, while the family is dealing with recovery or grief. We have some great referrals and references we can make to help the family with that. Just remember, that’s avoiding the number one biggest mistake.
Beyond that, other mistakes are thinking that, “Yes, I got injured. The semi cut me off and rear-ended me. My vehicle might be messed up, but I’m not hurt that bad.” Well, you know, still call us. A classic example is you’re having headaches that you didn’t have before the accident, and you think, “Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep,” or something like that. If those headaches started after the accident, you didn’t have them before, especially if they’re at the front, top or side of your head, that can be the number one symptom of you suffering a concussion, and concussions are no laughing matter. The only time they’re a laughing matter is if you don’t call us and we don’t get you into an expert and get treatment because, at the end of your case, the insurance adjuster, if you get no diagnosis and treatment, they will laugh at you.
It’s important that you call us early, that we get you into the best medical experts. There’s nothing wrong with your local chiropractor, but they are not going to be the ideal medical specialists if you’re seriously injured in a major trucking accident. Call us. We’ll give you great reference, great referrals. Even if you haven’t decided you’re going to hire us, that’s okay. We provide that as a public service to help clients or potential clients from harming their case.
Claim Timeline
Typically, the damage to your vehicle is much more, and the insurance companies and the trucking companies treat these cases very differently. Instead of maybe $15,000 or $25,000 of insurance coverage, they’re going to have $750,000 in insurance coverage, a million dollars, two million, ten million, twenty million dollars in insurance coverage, so they make sure that they’re protecting their own interests – which, by the way, doesn’t include you. Because of that, you need an experienced truck accident law firm on your side because it turns into a battle; it’s like a war. Sometimes in wars, some people win and some people lose, so you want to make sure that you have experienced truck accident attorneys on your side. You do not want to go against a trucking company or their insurance company on your own because you’ll normally lose.
Differences Between Truck and Car Wreck Claims
First of all, yes, there’s a huge difference as far as how much insurance compensation is potentially available. Instead of maybe $15,000 or $25,000, or $50,000, there’s going to be at least $750,000 or a million or two million or ten million dollars potentially available. That’s one of the first differences.
The second is, even if you don’t feel like you have been injured, still call us, because another factor is the behavior of the driver and all the other drivers that drive for that company. If they’re on the so-called unsafe list – and you can call us and we can look that up really quick and tell you – your case can be worth more money just because of that, because of their bad record. Again, that’s another reason why trucking cases are different than the hit-the-car-down-the-street kind of situation.
Another big difference is, because there can be so much more money involved, insurance companies and trucking companies are a lot more likely to say, “Hey, you know what, this is all we’re going to offer you. Sue us.” They think that they’ve hidden enough stuff and they don’t have to worry. Well, we’re very good at uncovering things that they’ve been trying to hide. We had a trucking company that rear-ended our clients and killed several of them, and they were saying, “Oh, your van, the brake lights didn’t work. Your clients are at fault, not our driver.” It took a whole year for the results to come back and show the truth, then the insurance company said, “Okay, okay, we’ll pay all our policy limits.” Up to that point, they kept blaming our client for something, but that certainly wasn’t the cause of that collision.
There’s definitely a difference, and that’s a reason to call us early and have one of our attorneys analyze your case, specifically go through that with you. Even if you’re not quite ready to hire us, at least you’ll have that information available to help guide your decision in choosing the best trucking accident law firm for your case.
Have you or a loved one been injured in a crash and have questions about life after a truck accident? Contact experienced Gilbert Truck Accident Lawyers at Free Injury Advice today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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