Reasons to Hire a Truck Accident Lawyer in Texas
Although all auto accidents can cause serious harm, people involved in truck accidents have the highest likelihood of sustaining debilitating and disfiguring injuries. The greater weight, size, and stopping distances of trucks makes them more dangerous than smaller vehicles. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas had over 26,000 truck accidents in 2023 alone. From traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and serious spinal injuries to loss of limbs and loss of life, these events can be both personally and financially devastating. When submitting and negotiating your truck accident claim, it’s important to have a seasoned Texas truck accident lawyer on your team. The following are nine solid reasons why.
1. Insurance Adjusters Don’t Have Your Best Interests at Heart
When filing a truck accident claim, you could be contacted by an insurance adjuster within just days of your collision. In their efforts to minimize settlements or avoid them entirely, insurance adjusters contact claimants as early as possible and often rush the settlement process.
It’s difficult to make the right statements and avoid making the wrong ones while under the effects of mind-numbing pain medications. Unfortunately, what you say to an adjuster at any time could come back to haunt you. Even simply responding the wrong way to questions about your well-being can undermine your claim or affect your compensation amount. It’s always safest and easiest to have a truck accident lawyer handling all claim-related communication. If there ever comes a time when you have to speak to an insurance adjuster directly, your truck accident attorney can inform your answers and give you a heads up on questions to watch out for.
When appearing before the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee, former insurance adjusters cited insurance companies as being more focused on cost-cutting than consumer safety. They also cited common bad-faith tactics encouraged by insurance companies, including:
- Unreasonable claims delays
- Unjustified claims denials
- Insufficient claims investigations
- Underpayment of claims
- Misrepresentation of claims-related damages
The first loyalty of insurance adjusters is always to the insurance companies they work for. They don’t have your best interests at heart, but a Texas truck collision lawyer will.
2. A Delivery Truck Crash Attorney Will Understand the Nuances of Your Case
Handling commercial truck accident claims can prove far more complicated than handling personal truck accident claims. For instance, many big-name retailers hire third-parties to deliver their goods and many contracted drivers use their own vehicles. With app-based delivery services and countless private contractors on the road, you may face with a variety of stressful, insurance-related complications.
A delivery truck crash lawyer will have a history of dealing with all case and insurance types. Seasoned professionals understand the nuances and challenges of seeking high-value settlements from privately insured drivers with limited coverage. They’re also skilled in seeking high-value settlements from large companies with impressive legal teams of their own.
3. Avoid Common Missteps With a Truck Accident Lawyer in Texas
With all auto accident injury claims, claimants have just one chance to receive compensation for their damages. If you make the mistake of settling too soon, you might need additional medical or psychological care after your case has been settled. Unfortunately, you can’t return for more compensation after signing a settlement agreement and accepting cash. A truck collision lawyer will ensure that you aren’t settling before your injuries have been fully treated or before your long-term treatment needs are fully known.
A delivery truck wreck attorney can also help you avoid:
- Making potentially harmful statements about your case online
- Failing to receive sufficient medical care
- Engaging in physical activities that undermine your claim
- Delaying medical care
- Making admissions of fault or partial fault at any time
With the guidance of an experienced truck accident lawyer, you can easily avoid these and many other common mistakes.
4. Get the Help You Need By Hiring a Truck Accident Lawyer on Contingency
Don’t make the mistake of representing yourself when filing a truck accident claim simply because you can’t afford a delivery truck wreck attorney outright. Many truck accident lawyers are willing to take these cases on contingency. This means that they won’t get paid until you receive your settlement. Before a delivery truck wreck lawyer takes your case on contingency, they’ll review the details of your accident and make sure that you have a case worth pursuing.
The Extended Benefits of Hiring a Truck Accident Attorney on Contingency
In addition to delaying your lawyer’s payment until you receive your settlement, there are other financial benefits of working with a truck collision attorney on contingency. For instance, many medical and mental health professionals will also defer payment until your settlement arrives when you have qualified legal representation. Having a truck accident attorney legitimizes your case and gives healthcare providers assurance of compensation at a later date. Just after your settlement is paid out, a contingency lawyer will process their payment and make sure that all treating professionals are paid as well. For people who’ve been seriously injured in truck accidents, this makes it easier to handle all accrued medical and legal expenses.
Gain Access to More Essential Treatment Types
Truck accident victims in Texas are legally entitled to receive all of the medical and mental health treatment they need. However, when accident victims are paying for these services out of pocket and waiting for their settlements for reimbursement, accessing specialized care isn’t always easy. When hiring a delivery truck wreck lawyer on contingency, it’s often possible to receive contingency-based services from chiropractors, myofascial specialists, physical therapists, massage therapists, acupuncturists, and many other non-traditional medical practitioners as well.
5. Get Help Calculating Your Total Losses
You can’t get an accurate estimate of the true value of your losses by simply adding up your medical bills and lost wages. In the state of Texas, people who’ve been harmed by the negligence of others have the legal right to compensation for their pain and suffering. It isn’t easy to assign a fair dollar value to these damages, but truck accident lawyers can draw from past cases and hold your demands for compensation to the highest possible standards.
A delivery truck crash attorney will also consider losses that accident victims are prone to overlooking. For instance, if you’ve sustained lifelong injuries, your accident may have robbed you of future employment, future income, and your ability to maintain the quality of life that you and your family have grown accustomed to. If you were poised for promotion and are no longer qualified for a higher-paying position due to changes in your cognition or physical abilities, your attorney will account for this in your settlement demands as well.
According to the National Safety Council, Texas had the most fatal truck accidents in the nation in 2022. If you’re pursuing compensation for the negligence-related death of a loved one, an experienced truck accident attorney will have the best ability to accurately calculate the full monetary value of your losses.
Truck Accident Injuries Impact Familial Relationships
Statistically, TBIs and other debilitating injuries can also have a negative impact on spousal and other familial relationships. People with traumatic brain injuries often experience significant personality changes, dramatic changes in their needs for basic support, and other challenges that affect their interactions and connections with others. Severe neck, back, and spinal injuries can make it difficult if not impossible to play with, lift, or even hold small children. Working with a truck accident attorney is the best way to ensure that none of your losses are overlooked in your settlement.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Other Changes in Mental Health
Even if you survived your truck accident relatively unscathed, these events can leave lingering psychological scars. If you find yourself avoiding driving, avoiding driving on freeways, or having nightmares or flashbacks about your accident, it’s important to consult with a delivery truck wreck lawyer. Common psychological damages from truck accidents such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect your ability to do your job, complete essential errands, and take care of yourself and family.
When pushing truck accident victims to accept rushed settlement offers, insurance adjusters often overlook the psychological impacts of truck accidents entirely. Across multiple studies, PTSD, depression, and anxiety were found to affect victims of road accidents at rates as high as 50%. When truck accidents leave people too afraid to sit in the driver’s seat, accident victims deserve compensation for this as well.
6. Let Your Attorney Handle All Claims-Related Paperwork
There are many critical documents to complete when filing a truck accident claim. You’ll also have to track your medical bills, maintain all of your receipts, and submit your claim within a reasonable amount of time. Dealing with tight deadlines and the need for clear, concise, and factually accurate responses on documents can be overwhelming when living with intense physical and psychological pain. A delivery truck crash lawyer can take care of all these things for you and more.
7. Enjoy Peace of Mind and Ample Opportunity to Heal
Dealing with any personal injury claim is both time-consuming and stressful. With a truck collision attorney, you’ll have a better opportunity to focus on your recovery. You won’t have to worry about missing or taking important phone calls, making potentially harmful statements, or filling out complicated paperwork. Instead, you can focus on going to your medical appointments and getting all of the mental health support you need.
8. Bring a Seasoned Accident Lawyer to the Negotiating Table
A Texas delivery truck crash attorney will have an in-depth understanding of local injury law and the ability to leverage it to support your case. Truck accident attorneys are also highly skilled negotiators. Their history in personal injury law makes them adept in dealing with insurance companies and opposing legal teams. When accident victims negotiate with insurance companies on their own, they often settle for far less than what they’re cases are worth. In addition to accounting for damages and losses that claimants typically overlook, attorneys use past settlements from similar cases to inform their negotiations. They also use solid evidence to support their demands.
Insurance companies know that a delivery truck crash lawyer could deny unreasonable settlement offers and take your case to trial. When negotiating with attorneys, insurance companies recognize that it’s often in their best interests to make fair, feasible settlement offers rather than paying additional legal fees.
9. Accurately Determine Fault
When settling five and six-figure claims or greater, insurance companies often work hard to alter the assignment of blame. They’ll consider everything from whether your seat belt was on and your vehicle’s crash mitigation features were working to the maintenance and condition of everyone’s vehicle. Insurance companies do exhaustive research to avoid the 100% assumption of fault.
This can lead to frustrating claims delays and considerable stress for accident victims. You deserve to have a truck accident attorney who works just as hard at collecting evidence on your behalf. Your delivery truck wreck attorney can acquire witness statements and the related police report. As needed, they can also bring in expert witnesses, leverage accident reconstructionist reports, and acquire black box data. A truck collision lawyer can even obtain footage from nearby surveillance cameras.
Pinpointing the Source of Mechanical Failure
When motorists and pedestrians are struck by commercial vehicles, there can be many possible causes. In some cases, the companies responsible for repairing and maintaining delivery trucks are at fault. A truck collision attorney can demand copies of the responsible party’s automotive maintenance reports and use other investigative measures to determine and prove fault. It may be that you were struck by a vehicle with defective brakes or tires. Whether the tire or brake manufacturer is responsible or the delivery truck owner was deficient in performing routine auto maintenance, your legal team will make sure that the right party is held fully accountable for all your damages and loss.
There’s a lot riding on the outcome of your truck accident claim. These devastating events can cause people to miss weeks, months, or even years of work. Whether you walked away with light scrapes, broken bones, or a traumatic brain injury, a good truck accident lawyer will help you get the settlement you deserve.