What to Do When You’re in an Accident with a Truck

If you were unfortunately in an accident with a Truck, you need to speak with a truck accident lawyer that is experienced and is results oriented, like former FBI Special Agent Jason T. Brown, of Brown, LLC, Jersey City, NJ (but handling cases all over the country such as King of Prussia, PA, Rochester, NY, Chicago, IL).  First of all, it’s important to take care of you first!  One of the questions truck accident defense lawyers like to ask is, “Who did you call first – your lawyer or your doctor?”  If you’re badly injured from a truck accident, of course, you need to seek medical treatment first, but they key is not to wait.  Don’t delay.  Delay favors the Truck Carrier.

From the moment of collision, the truck companies have insurance people and defense attorneys working on the case to try to insulate themselves from liability and to minimize the payout to the trucking accident victim, if anything at all.  They will try to reach out to you and lock you into your version of what occurred, even while you’re still in the hospital or on medicine that makes you loopy.  You have to avoid making statements before retaining counsel.  Even the most innocuous thing can hurt you.  For example, one of the most common questions a sly insurance investigator may ask you just a couple days after the truck accident, is something along the lines, “Hi – I’m John Smith with ABC Trucker’s Insurance, I just have a few questions, so we can find out what sort of compensation if any we’re going to offer you.  Before we begin, how are you doing today?”  As soon as you answer politely, “I’m doing great, how about you,” they will memorialize that the injured person indicated they were doing great only two days after the accident and use it against you.

Truck Accidents are serious business and the trucking insurance company has learned to spend big bucks up front to try derail your case before it begins which can save them the hundreds of thousands or millions you might be entitled to if you retained a truck accident injury lawyer shortly after the accident occurs.  Why are they such big cases?  First, the injuries are much more severe.  Truck accidents easily cause death, broken bones, concussions, and other life-altering injuries.  Also, under most state laws, the legislatures have recognized the potential for a truck injury to create major injuries, so they make the trucking company hold larger insurance policies than just a normal vehicle.

Ride-share accidents are on the rise, since the ride-share services promote individuals to carry passengers in a commercial setting, even though they may be brand new without being trained in ride-along fashion or familiar with the roads they are driving on. Since ride-shares like Uber Accidents and Lyft Accidents are commercial in nature when the are carrying a passenger, even though the smaller vehicles may not cause the extent of injury that a trucking injury would, they carry commercial policies and its best to retain ride-share counsel to deal with those entities as well.

Once you’ve retained your truck accident lawyer, he or she will guide you regarding the next steps, but acting quickly is the key.  You want to identify the police who took the report and obtain a copy (which counsel can do for you), find out if any tickets were issued, potentially photograph the scene of the accident to see if there are any factors that led to the accident, and put the truck on notice of the pending claim and to preserve all relevant evidence.  There’s many factors that need to converge to make your case a success, that is why if you were unfortunately in an accident with a truck or a ride-share, you should speak with Brown, LLC, Jersey City, NJ to know your rights and receive a free consultation.