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Damages You can Seek after a Serious Flatbed Trucking Accident.
Your tangible (or obvious) financial losses are called special or economic damages. Most of the time, examples of special damages include lost wages, loss of earning capacity for the period of time you can’t work because of the injury, and your medical bills. Sometimes, the cost of medical treatment can be easy to calculate. Other times these costs are not, especially if your medical treatment continues longer than expected or the full extent of your injuries is unknown. Then the task of calculating special damages is more complex. Calculating loss of earning capacity is often a complicated matter. Suppose you’re unable to return to work. In that case, you must account for the time-value of money you’ve lost, as well as hypothetical promotions, raises, and career changes when calculating how much you’ll demand that the defendant compensate you for the income you are unable to earn in the future, regardless of whether it takes months or years for you to recover. Intangible non-economic losses are called general damages. These damages include compensation for your emotional suffering associated with the accident. The amount of general damages a case is worth depends almost exclusively on the injury’s circumstances and the degree of pain and suffering. This is why general damages can vary greatly from case to case, even if the physical injuries are very similar.
After you’ve been injured, personal injury legal advice you find online is rarely sufficient to help you understand the number of general damages you may be entitled to. Because general damages are relative and subject to many different factors, call our Law Office for a free consultation to find out what your case is worth. After we ask you some critical questions about your situation, we’ll be in a position to give you an understanding of how a jury will put a price tag on your pain and suffering and other emotional losses or the amount that may be recovered through aggressive negotiation with those liable for your injury.
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Is Self Representation an Option? Why Do I Need A Lawyer to Protect My Family and Me?
A non-attorney has difficulty accumulating all the knowledge required to successfully represent him or herself in court or negotiate a fair settlement with insurance companies effectively. Representing yourself is possible, but winning is simply out of the question when you get down to the heart of the matter. Litigation in trucking accident injuries can be highly complex. And effectively negotiating with insurance companies is problematic at best. Inexperienced attorneys have little chance of recovering any amount of reasonable compensation. And non-lawyers have virtually none. Would you attempt to duplicate the abilities of another skilled professional? Would you perform a complicated surgery on your beloved family dog or build your own house on a vacant lot you purchased? You know you wouldn’t. You would leave that to the professionals, just like successfully litigating a personal injury case involving an 18-wheeler accident. Why would you even entertain such a foolish idea, especially when hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake? Everyone has heard the old adage: “Those who represent themselves in a court of law have a fool for a client.” Such insistence is almost always disastrous in any personal injury case, much less one involving an 18-wheeler, because the laws and procedures involved are so complex. Those who oppose you have deep pockets and years of experience winning these kinds of cases. You’re playing their game by their rules, and on their playing field. The outcome is a foregone conclusion even before the kickoff. It’s not good for your team unless you have an experienced flatbed accident lawyer at quarterback.
We’re going to let you in on a little secret. Legal knowledge comprises only about 25 percent of the tools required for success in personal injury cases. In truth, successful litigation requires knowledge of procedure and the ability to develop the perfect strategy necessary to battle insurance companies and defense lawyers. Having your opponent’s respect doesn’t hurt, either. This is why you are an experienced, respected 18-wheeler accident attorney who has spent years taking on the insurance companies and their lawyers and beating them. Also, if you have a relative or friend who is a lawyer, even though he or she might be looking out for your best interests and might be inspired to fight hard for your rights when an 18-wheeler accident has befallen you. That person might have difficulty disassociating him or herself emotionally from issues surrounding your case. A specialized truck accident lawyer must be pragmatic, focus solely on the facts of a case, and be coolly decisive if you are to be successful. What happens if that friend or relative attorney doesn’t win the case or accepts a less-than-fair settlement because he knows how badly you need the money at the time? How will you feel about your friend or a relative then? Keep your family members and friends out of your legal business. Let them do what they do best, and that supports you in how they know during you and your family’s time of trial.
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Determining the Level of Insurance the Defendant has, and Even If He or She is Insured (or not).
All Texas drivers must have liability auto insurance. Several powerful technology tools and driver databases are now available, allowing law officers to know immediately if a driver has insurance. This enables them to dispense instant “street justice” by towing non-insured vehicles on the spot and giving their drivers expensive tickets if they cannot prove they are insured. With all of that, 25 percent of Texas drivers still drive uninsured. Whether or not an insurance company is involved in your case makes a huge difference in the outcome of your claim and how it is handled. Suppose that both drivers involved in your accident are insured. This is generally good news because at least some money will probably be available to compensate you for your injuries and financial losses when filing your claim. Yet, most drivers with “cut-rate” insurance coverage carry minimum liability if needed after a car wreck. Such insurance policies may not fully reimburse you for your total losses if your accident is especially severe. Minimum coverage policies cannot fully compensate an accident victim with $100,000 for total damages (replacement or repair of an expensive auto and accident-related medical bills).
Additionally, just because insurance money is theoretically available to compensate you doesn’t mean it will be easy to get your money. The simple fact is that some minimum coverage insurance companies pay better (and quicker) than others. With claimants and their customer’s in-general, most aren’t responsive to anything other than sending out those monthly bills and taking in the monthly premiums. Many of them drag their feet when it’s time to pay up. In almost any accident claim or civil case involving an insurance company, you’ll be up against aggressive adjusters, accident recreation specialists, defense attorneys, and other investigative specialists who all work to ensure you lose and keep your money. Then there’s the 25 percent chance (at least!) that the driver whose negligence caused your wreck was uninsured. Hopefully, you have uninsured motorist coverage on your policy. But that doesn’t relieve that driver from compensating you or paying the difference between what his policy covers and your actual damages (or if your coverage falls short of the actual damages). Aside from the possibility that the other driver is uninsured, that negligent defendant will probably be judged liable for directly paying your damages when coverage falls short. So your primary interest is whether this driver who hit you is solvent. If a defendant is insolvent, it means that he or she does not have enough money to compensate you for your injuries, pain, suffering, and other legal damages. When a defendant is insolvent, there’s little value in pursuing litigation against him, no matter how strong your case is. Sadly, some accident victims cannot recover compensation from insolvent defendants.
Sometimes, a driver who has caused a wreck will take desperate steps to hide his assets to appear insolvent. He or she might also try and hide this accident from their insurance company, threatening to drop coverage if this person gets in one more wreck. No matter the reasons for this defendant’s behavior, our Law Office regularly performs asset checks on any accident defendant to determine their worth. If there’s money available, we’ll find it and work to ensure you get what is rightfully coming to you.
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PEDESTRIAN / CYCLING ACCIDENTS
Have You or Someone you Love Been Struck by a Vehicle While Walking, Jogging, or Cycling?
As the cost of gasoline continues to rise steadily, Texans continue to search for ways to move around their communities more affordable. This has led to a significant increase over the past few years in “pedal power,” Several studies in the past few years show that the number of bicycles being used for general transportation purposes, in addition to recreation, has increased almost fivefold in the past 15 years. Cycling is also a handy way to quickly get to, from places. Whether a motor vehicle and bike or a motor vehicle and a pedestrian or jogger, the lack of traditional safety protection often results in severe injury, or even death, to the cyclist or walker during a mishap. These injured pedestrians or bike riders may have legal recourse to recover their incurred financial losses due to a bicycle wreck or pedestrian accident through a personal injury lawsuit. Family members of those killed in pedestrian collisions or bicycle accidents may seek compensation for their loss through a wrongful death lawsuit. In addition to the compensation that can be awarded as a result of a successful civil suit, a plaintiff in such cases can also hold the negligent parties accountable for their careless or reckless behavior and help assure that future injurious or fatal accidents might not happen to another person or family.
With two decades of practice in personal injury and wrongful death cases, our bicycle accident attorneys can help you seek compensation and justice against a liable party through this time. Aside from the fact that cyclists are not as easy to see on the road, many drivers cut it too close when passing a cyclist on a city street. Many don’t even move out of the cyclist’s lane of traffic. We’ve seen many instances when a car or truck “clipped” a cyclist, causing an accident. When that happens, the only injured one is often only the poor bicyclist. Sometimes the injured bicyclist starts out with two strikes against him/her because insurance adjusters naturally assume that the cyclist is at fault. There’s a certain understandable logic to this. The fact of the matter is simple. Suppose you’ve suffered an injury from someone’s negligence while riding your bike safely. In that case, you deserve the expertise of a knowledgeable bike accident attorney if you expect to win damages for your injuries, regardless of what kind of vehicle hit you.
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Seeking Legal Action Through a Personal Injury Lawsuit
You’ve been seriously injured in a bike wreck or suffered an injury due to a pedestrian accident; you have certainly suffered some financial loss. The goal of any viable personal injury lawsuit is that you, the injured victim, can seek and be awarded compensation from a liable defendant (or defendants) for those financial losses, also known as damages. Damages refer to the financial losses incurred due to an injury, i.e., medical bills, property damage costs, lost wages, etc. In such instances, the burden of proof lies with you, the plaintiff. This means you must pursue legal action to compel a defendant to either pay your fair compensation through negotiation or at trial if an equitable amount cannot be reached. At the trial, you must prove that the defendant’s negligence caused or significantly contributed to your injury, which is the sole reason for your economic loss, which can also include disability and lost future income if the injuries are catastrophic. Such damages can also include your pain, suffering, and other financial losses incurred due to your bicycle injury. Three aspects must exist for an injured pedestrian or bicyclist to bring a legitimate personal injury lawsuit against a negligent defendant: liability, damages, and solvency.
Liability refers to the negligent actions of the defendant or defendants responsible for causing or contributing to the accident. Liability is assessed when a defendant has violated a legal duty against the plaintiff. A legal duty is a standard of general care that we all owe each other not to harm others. The defendant’s legal duty must be proven to have existed between you and that liable person, and it must be shown how that legal duty was violated by the defendant, resulting in your bike accident injury.
Solvency refers to the financial means of the defendant. If a defendant is insolvent, they will not have the financial means to compensate you as the injured plaintiff. However, some defense attorneys will attempt to claim that their clients are insolvent, so a personal injury lawsuit will not be pursued. Strong cases come from solid investigations. So, in addition to your pedestrian injury lawyer having the means and resources to thoroughly investigate all facets of the accident, but also to perform a thorough asset check of all defendants to pay you for your injuries once the lawsuit ends in your favor: for there’s not much point in suing someone who cannot pay. So your bicycle accident attorney must be adept at conducting thorough and meaningful asset checks of the defendants.
Who’s At Fault and How Many Liable Parties Are There?
The first issue that must be properly assessed in any personal injury or wrongful death case is a liability. Who is responsible for the accident that has caused serious injury or death? Contrary to what many thinks, by definition, bicyclists do not necessarily have the right-of-way on a Texas road. Our state right-of-way law’s can often be complex and highly contextualized. So an experienced defense attorney will try to utilize these laws’ lack of clarity to their client’s benefit. However, we’ve learned through extensive experience the right way to litigate such cases based on the facts revealed by our investigations and the rules of the law. Both can work against a defense lawyer’s” shell-game” arguments by providing relevant evidence which places the burden of liability where it belongs: the defendant’s lap. Furthermore, due to the many ways in which pedestrian and bicycle accidents can happen in Texas, it is not unusual to have multiple defendants who may be forced to share in the liability for the accident that seriously injured you or took the life of a loved one. For example, drunk driving accidents that kill innocent bicyclists may have the driver as a defendant and a negligent alcohol-serving establishment if the driver had been over-served past intoxication at that bar or restaurant before the drunk driving pedestrian accident occurred. If that happens, the bar or restaurant is legally liable through the Texas Dram Shop Act. As another example, an 18-wheeler (or any commercial vehicle) that strikes a bicyclist would likely include the driver as a defendant and the driver’s employer. The legal term for such a civil suit is “respondent superior,” which establishes that employers are responsible for the actions of their employees while they are at work. In such instances, enlisting the help of an experienced and well-rounded personal injury attorney help bring all liable parties to justice. Our Texas personal injury lawyers have over two decades of experience in all forms of personal injury and wrongful death, including cyclists and pedestrians.
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