Here is the straightforward truth. If you were
seriously injured in a crash with a tractor-trailer truck and want to seek a recovery, you
must retain a truck accident lawyer
immediately. This is not something we say in other types of cases - but in truck accident cases, it is absolutely true. The reason is because semi-truck wreck cases are very complicated and unlike any other type of injury case. They cannot be properly handled without a lawyer and any delay in bringing a truck accident lawyer onto the case will put you at a serious disadvantage.
First, because of their size, tractor-trailers often cause very destructive damage when they cause a wreck. This can lead to very catastropic injuries. Accordingly, the insurers for these companies prepare their defense much differently and more aggressively than what they would in a car accident case.
In many of our semi-truck crash cases, it is not uncommon find out from the emergency room doctors that the insurance company investigators were already on the prowl. They are doing everything they can to limit your recovery from the minute you were hurt. We will be the first ones to tell you in a car accident case that you may not need a lawyer. But in these cases, the simple truth is that you cannot handle the case by yourself if you want to be
fully compensated. To
maximize your recovery, you will need a first-class truck accident lawyer.
A Client's Story
How The Insurance Companies Will Play You For A Fool
As an example, our firm represented a man who was seriously injured when a commercial vehicle crashed into the rear of his sedan. He was very injured and eventually went through through surgeries, two on his spine for a herniated disc. As a result of the wreck, he was rendered permanently and totally disabled, meaning he could never work again. In insurance company contacted him immediately. They told him that if he did not retain a lawyer, they would replace his weekly paycheck and pay him a large settlement when his treatment was done. What he did not know was that they were using this money up front (a drop in the bucket for an insurance company) to buy time and build their case. They hired spies to hide in the bushes and record hour of videotape of him and his family. They also convinced him to sign completely unrestricted medical authorizations so that they could research his entire medical background.
Our client thought everything was taken care of and the insurance company was going to be fair. Then they dropped their bomb. Out of the blue, they called him up and said he was a liar and faker. They suddenly quit replacing his weekly paycheck. There was no warning. They said they had videotape of him doing regular work around the house. As it later turned out, they were relying on several minutes of videotape of him washing his car. This was out of the hours of videotape they amassed - much of which depicted him limping around. What they didn't bother to find out was that before washing this car, he had taken a good amount of Vicodin to kill the pain. Why? Because it was his son's race car. Racing was what brought their family together and for just one more time, he wanted to experience that old joy. So he washed the car and he was proud. What he didn't know at the time was that he would spend the next two days on the couch in pain, nor the insurance company would use it as an excuse to evade their responsibility.
When our Missouri Semi-Truck Accident Lawyers were brought on the case, the insurance company's settlement offer increased by 250%. When we mediated the case several months later, their offer was 500% more than what they originally offered.