The author looks at the unique evidence a truck accident lawyer must gather to represent truck accident victims in California and how everything from the insurance involved to the causes of the accidents, and from the vehicle ownership to the defendants are all different in commercial and delivery truck accidents as opposed to car accidents.
Commercial truck and delivery truck drivers are responsible in California for serious and catastrophic injuries and wrongful deaths such that some personal injury lawyers and law firms such as this one believe that only an experienced truck accident attorney should be used when a person has been seriously injured in a truck accident.
Not only are there additional safety procedures required of truck drivers, the evidence to be gathered by the accident attorney you hire is more specialized, the layers of insurance on truck drivers and their employers is different but the defendants to be named in a lawsuit are also more complex and a minefield for the unwary or inexperienced attorney.<
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In the case of accidents involving commercial and delivery trucks, it matters even more than you think who you call for your truck accident. When it matters most to you, you need to hire a lawyer who specializes in truck accident representation.
Truck accidents are caused by, among other things, driver negligence, mechanical failures, improper loading, unsafe backing, unsafe turning, driver fatigue, items falling off or out of the truck, bad weather, as well as the typical causes of other vehicle accidents, namely speeding, and the use of alcohol and drugs.
In a truck accident, a truck accident attorney may need to look not only at the actions of the commercial or delivery truck driver, but also at the owner of the truck and the owner of the truck trailer, the leasing arrangements and the lessee of the truck and trailer, as well as the entities involved in the loading of the truck, the manufacture of the truck and trailer and their components and the entity responsible for their maintenance.
Today, truck drivers often maintain their information on electronic data recorders and other paperless methods of record keeping. It is therefore imperative that these records are obtained by the truck accident attorney when they have not been gathered by the accident investigation officers. These records will help to show the number of hours the truck driver was operating the truck prior to the accident, their periods of rest, maintenance records for the truck and in some cases even the truck’s speed based on the dates and times when the truck was loaded, fueled and based on the distance traveled.
In the case of delivery trucks such as UPS and FedEx trucks, additional factors need to be considered by the truck accident lawyer you retain for your case. As with pizza delivery vehicles and car part delivery vehicles, delivery truck drivers are routinely under enormous pressure to deliver their packages by a certain time. When traffic conditions makes them run late, one can understand the temptation to exceed the speed limits when possible.
But it is not just speed that causes commercial and delivery truck accidents. Other truck accidents occur when truck drivers under the pressure of their commitments forget the simplest safety measures, like setting the brakes, making sudden lane changes, braking, or backing up maneuvers when they miss the address they were looking for, or when they pass other trucks and force other drivers to yield to their trucks in order to get to where they’re headed more quickly.
Not every case is a big one but it takes experience to recognize what makes a good one. A law firm or a personal injury lawyer who has years of experience in handling truck accidents can and often will obtain outstanding results in cases other attorneys haven’t even been interested in.
If you’ve been injured in a commercial or delivery truck accident, call a law firm with the experience to gather the evidence necessary to obtain all of the compensation to which your entitled.
