Have you been injured in a crash and have questions about how to win your truck accident claim? Read our blog, then give us a call today!
Choosing a Lawyer
Choosing an attorney when you have a truck accident injury in Idaho is a process of investigation. You want an attorney who knows their way around trucking cases. Trucking cases are simply different; they’re not just big car cases. You want a trial lawyer who has experience in trying trucking cases, investigating and preparing trucking cases, and who understands the unique things about trucking cases that make them different. Those unique things include the regulatory system that applies to truckers and whether there is liability above and beyond just for the driver himself. If somebody’s driving their car and runs through a stop sign, they’re responsible for the damage they cause. If that trucker runs through a stop sign, there might be reasons why they got placed in this position where not only are they responsible but their company’s responsible because there’s brokers who put loads on trucks, and they might have liability. There might be enhanced liability issues.
Many things come into play in trucking cases that simply do not come into play when you’re dealing with a straightforward car collision case, so what you want to do is look for a lawyer who understands that. Look for lawyers with accolades on their resumes, who have been reviewed and evaluated by their actual clients online, who have received awards, who’ve worked and had leadership roles in professional organizations like the Trial Lawyers Association, and who work in the world of trucking collision cases.
Spend the time to do a little investigation into your Idaho trucking accident attorney and you’ll find that you’ll be far better off in the long run because, in the area of trucking collisions, getting the right attorney may be as important as it is in any other area of personal law to make sure you have somebody who knows what they’re doing. Don’t pick a generalist— somebody who does divorce work and wills and estates and business organizational stuff. These people are important and do important work, but they won’t know their way around or the first step to take in a trucking collision case.
If you have any questions about a trucking accident case, you want to learn about our backgrounds as attorneys to see if we can help you, give us a call. We’re happy to talk to you.
Differences Between Car And Truck Accident Cases
Commercial truck accident injury claims in Idaho and car accident injury claims in Idaho are very different things. It seems like a commercial truck accident case is just a big car collision case – it’s not. The reason for that is there are statutory standards that these drivers and trucking companies have to meet, and that makes sense because they cause so much damage when they are involved in collisions as opposed to cars. Obviously, cars can cause substantial damage, too, but when you have 105,000 pounds of rolling death on the interstate causing a collision, you want to follow up with all the regulatory evaluation. Why the wreck happened is a big question in any trucking collision case, not just did the driver not pay attention but the reason the driver didn’t pay attention.
Professional truck drivers have lots of standards they have to meet. There’s lots of regulations on the safety and the safety of the vehicles themselves and standards that limit what they can carry and how they carry it. We often find that inside one of these large trucking semi-truck collision cases there are things that have happened that raise the culpability of others above and beyond merely the driver. Sometimes, it’s the driver and the owners are just looking the other way while the driver is doing things that are not legal and not allowed, and they’re not allowed because they’re recognized by law as being unsafe. We want to be able to track those things down so all damages and full and fair compensation for your losses can be identified and obtained. As a driver gets beyond merely negligent to reckless or an extreme deviation of standards of behavior, the measures of damages change under Idaho law.
These complexities can only be evaluated by a competent personal injury trial attorney with substantial knowledge and understanding of the differences between trucking collision cases in Idaho and car collision cases in Idaho. We’re happy to consult with you on this and talk to you about the specifics of your situation, and we encourage you to call us sooner rather than later when you’re dealing with a semi-truck collision case in Idaho.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
People who have been injured in a semi-truck collision in Idaho make some basic mistakes that we see that ultimately can impact and reduce their ability to recover full and fair compensation. Among those mistakes are talking to the insurance company for the trucker right away before you’ve talked to an attorney protecting your interests. Why is that? Because they’re looking for ways to minimize the amount of money they pay, ways to blame you, ways to say that your injuries were not caused in this wreck or that your injuries are more minor than they are. A lot of times people, being the decent people that they are, will say things that they don’t understand can be used against them in the course of litigation or in the course of their claim for their Idaho trucking accident case. Don’t talk to an insurance company until you’ve talked to a lawyer. It’s a number one rule in cases like these and one of the number one things people do wrong.
Another thing people do is, when they’re talking to their physicians or their family members or their own insurance company, they’ll minimize the amount of damage or the amount of suffering that they’re going through and try to say, “I’m doing fine,” when in fact there’s a substantial problem going on. Again, this is just language or comments that can be used to reduce the amount of full and fair compensation you ultimately are going to be able to recover.
Before you make one of these mistakes or one of the other many mistakes that we see people make over the course of Idaho injury cases and semi-truck collision cases, you should give us a call, discuss your case so we can review and evaluate it and help provide you some guidance on the proper way for you to proceed forward, to make sure that your compensation is complete at the end of the day.
After The Accident
Following a commercial truck collision in which a semi-truck has caused injury to you, get the medical care you need first— that’s the most important thing. You need to make sure that you’re being taken care. Reach out to your family and your friends to make sure that they understand what’s going on with you.
Before you talk to an insurance company or anyone else, get a hold of an experienced Idaho trucking accident attorney. You’ll want an experienced trucking accident attorney to work with you early in this type of situation because many things are happening, that you probably don’t have an understanding of, that can ultimately impact your long-term outcome and the damages that you will ultimately be able to recover because of the injuries imposed on you in this Idaho trucking collision.
There are many things that need to be preserved and protected when it comes to the records of a trucking accident case that are different than in a car accident case. Once you’ve received your medical care and gotten in touch with your loved ones, get a hold of your attorney before you start trying to do anything else. That’s the most significant thing for you to do following a semi-truck collision that caused you an injury.
These collisions cause substantial and serious injuries. These trucks can be one-hundred and five thousand pounds of rolling death. You want to protect yourself from those who are trying to limit the amount of damages that the people who drive and put these on the road, particularly the dangerous trucks and the dangerous drivers on the road, you want to protect yourself from them limiting the amount of losses that you can recover.
We’re happy to come visit you in your time of need, if you’re in the hospital in the immediate post-collision recovery zone. We’ll come see you because it’s so important to be involved early in one of these cases to make sure that all the evidence is protected and that nothing is done that hurts you, as the injured person, and nothing is done that limits your ability to recover the damages you need. If you need to talk to us, just give us a call and we’ll be there for you.
Were you in a crash in Boise and have questions about how to win your truck accident claim? Contact our experienced Boise Truck Accident Lawyers at Hepworth Holzer today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
We are committed to helping individuals and families throughout Idaho navigate the world of personal injury litigation as quickly and efficiently as possible. Let us get results for you and your family.
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