Legal Representation For 18 Wheeler Accident Cases in Georgia
Throughout Douglasville, Georgia and neighboring communities, large tractor-trailers roll through Interstate 20 and U.S. Highway 78, many of them bound for Atlanta or other parts of the country.
As a final stop just outside of Atlanta, Douglasville is quickly becoming a major hub of tractor-trailer activity. While this may be great for the industry, it can mean many more trucking collisions that have serious consequences for people in and around Douglasville.
At the law firm of Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., we pride ourselves on offering friendly and local legal representation to people who have suffered injuries in catastrophic truck crashes. For help after an accident, call us to speak with a truck accident lawyer right away. The claim review is free and comes with no obligations on your part.
Why Are Truck Accident Claims in Georgia More Complicated?
A number of factors make trucking crashes far more complicated than a typical car accident. Here are a few considerations:
- Bigger injuries – Tractor-trailers and other massive commercial vehicles are significantly larger and weigh more than cars. This means the impacts are greater, and the injuries are generally much worse – especially for the occupants of a smaller car or other vehicle. This means a lot of money is at stake.
- Complex federal regulations – Ordinary traffic rules are fairly simple for most people to understand, including juries. But when it comes to the rules that apply to trucking companies, the rules are anything but simple. For example, truck drivers are subject to federal and state hours of service regulations that dictate how long a driver can operate a truck without a break. There are also regulations for:
- Performing proper pre-trip and post-trip inspections of a tractor-trailer
- How much a truck can weigh loaded or empty
- Which roads and bridges a truck can use, depending on weight, height, and width
- The use of certain toll roads
- The use of a cell phone or other device by a truck driver
- How maintenance logs must be maintained
- Proper and adequate electronic or paper logbooks
- Proper labeling and hauling of hazardous chemicals
- Training and CDL requirements
- DOT requirements for a driver’s physical and mental condition
- Trucking companies have a lot more resources – When you are engaged in a dispute with another driver, you both have a fairly equal playing field. The insurance policy that is involved will usually have limits somewhere between $25,000 and about $250,000. This means the insurance company’s risk is limited to its policy. But for a trucking company, they may have a policy in excess of $1 million, or they could be self-insured. Therefore, the stakes are huge for a major trucking company, especially when someone is seriously injured or killed by one of their drivers.
How Our Semi-truck Accident Attorneys Can Help You
After a crash with a tractor-trailer or other heavy truck, the clock is ticking to gather evidence while it’s still fresh. Major trucking companies will move very quickly to clean up wreckage, investigate, and in some cases, even destroy helpful evidence. You need to act fast if you’re going to protect your rights. When you call our firm, we can get to work protecting your interests. This means:
We Launch Our Own Thorough Investigation
We don’t leave it to the insurance company or even the police to do our investigations. Instead of accepting their conclusions, we work closely with highly trained private investigators, talented forensic engineers and crash reconstruction experts. They have years of experience putting the pieces together to understand how a crash really took place and why it happened.
We Don’t Stop at Just the Scene of the Crash
Great accident lawyers know that while much of the crucial evidence may still be on the side of the road at the crash scene (wreckage, skid marks, signs, etc.), a lot of evidence needs to be discovered through a painstaking process of careful investigation. Our law firm can track down witnesses, uncover driver’s logs and other records, and even look for traffic cameras and police investigation reports that may help to clarify details.
We Keep the Insurance Company and Collections Companies Away
The last thing you and your loved ones need after a tragic accident is to deal with insurance adjusters and bill collectors. Our firm will work on resolving medical liens and protecting your rights. This also means making sure the insurance company has to talk to us instead of you.
Our Injury Lawyers Can Help You Get the Medical Care You Need
In many cases, medical providers will choose not to bill health insurance, or you may not have the right kind of insurance coverage to get the care you need. In some situations, we may be able to put you in touch with skilled doctors and physical therapists who can treat your injuries, even if you don’t have health coverage.
Our Injury Law Firm Will Handle All of the Settlement Discussions
There’s no substitute for a professional negotiator. Things that may sound important may have little effect on a trucking company’s willingness to settle. At the same time, an injury law firm in Georgia well-versed in personal injury laws can usually identify the keys to the case that will make the difference when discussing the value of your case with adjusters.
We Are Prepared To Fight the Trucking Company at Trial
If we can’t get the insurance company and negligent trucking company to see reason, and they won’t pay a fair settlement, there are times when it may be best to take the case to trial. Our experienced trial lawyers have fought and won many cases, and they’re not afraid to make a trucking company answer for its actions in court.
Dispatchers/brokers – Sometimes dispatchers and freight brokers could be liable if they push drivers to perform beyond their reasonable limits or even the legal hours that they are allowed to drive, leading to asleep-at-the-wheel crashes.
After a trucking fatality, it can be very hard for a family to think about the legal ramifications of the accident. All that surviving loved ones want is to grieve, heal, and spend time with family and friends.
