What Should I Do After a Truck Accident?

There are many mistakes that injured people make after they are involved in a serious truck accident. Given the size and weight of most commercial and passenger trucks, many people suffer from serious personal injuries when hit by one of these vehicles. If the truck driver was negligent and drove in a careless or reckless manner, then you can potentially recover money compensation for your injuries. But there are certain things that should be done in order to ensure that you recover the most compensation that is legally allowed. The truck accident lawyers at Robert Bates & Associates want to point out some things to focus on after being seriously injured in a truck wreck.

Steps to Help Your Truck Accident Case Succeed

Here are some steps to take after being seriously injured due to the negligent driving of a truck driver. These steps apply if the case involved a professional, commercial truck driver such as a semi-truck or an 18-wheeler driver, or a private driver with a personal passenger truck.

1. Immediately hire an experienced car and truck accident personal injury lawyer. These are not the type of cases that you should handle yourself. If you are seriously injured, you need to focus on getting better. Let your lawyer deal with everything else. You should hire a lawyer that has the knowledge, skills, and resources in order to take on big trucking companies and their insurance companies. A lawyer who focuses their practice on representing truck accident victims will be able to fight for your rights to receive the full and fair compensation you deserve. Just hiring any old lawyer will do. Don’t hire a lawyer just because your Aunt Sally used the lawyer in some real estate deal or to write her will. A lawyer like that will not be able to get the best settlement or jury verdict for you.
2. At the scene of the accident do not admit that you were at fault. Often, after a serious, violent accident, people can be in shock and seriously shaken up. Try not to talk to too many people about what happened. Exchange insurance information with the defendant driver but that is it. If the police are called, then answer their questions as fully as possible. If you are able, take as many photographs of the accident scene as possible. Make sure to document the damage to all the vehicles involved in the collision.
3. Seek medical treatment as soon as possible. Some people have a tendency to minimize injuries and refuse to go to the emergency room after a truck wreck. Don’t be this type of person. The sooner you are checked over by a medical professional the better. Not only will this help you heal better and faster, it will also help your case against the negligent truck driver.
4. Limit what you post on social media about your physical condition and about the accident and case. What you post on social media can ultimately be seen by the defendant’s attorneys and potentially used against you. For example, if you are claiming that you are totally disabled from work due to injuries sustained in a truck crash, but you post pictures on Facebook of you rock climbing on your vacation, this will not help your case very much.
5. Do not talk to anyone from any insurance company without your lawyer being present. In many cases, people think that they can represent themselves and deal with the insurance company and insurance adjuster. Don’t do this. It is a huge mistake. Also, do not ever agree to a recorded statement without having a lawyer by your side. These statements can be used against you later on in the litigation. Often, defense lawyers can twist your words that were said in the recorded statement.

6. Don’t ever settle your case without hiring an experienced lawyer first. The insurance
adjuster’s job is to settle the case for as little money as possible. Do not believe anything
that the adjuster tells you about the average settlements of cases like yours. Unless you
do this for a living, you do not know the true monetary value of your case. But having an
experienced car and truck accident lawyer on your side who has handled these types of
cases for over a decade will know the true value of your case and what is possible.

Robert BatesRobert is a Kingsport trial lawyer who handles car, truck and motorcycle wreck cases across the Tri-Cities. Every client gets his cell number.