In any personal injury case, you need evidence that shows the other party was to blame to be in line to receive financial compensation for your injuries. There are many more sources of this evidence in a trucking accident case. To stand the best chance of building the strongest possible case, you should hire an experienced truck accident lawyer at the outset of your case.
Lawyers can conduct a full investigation that you may not have the capacity to perform on your own. If you or a loved one have been hurt in a truck accident case, contact the experienced Jacksonville, NC, trucking accident attorneys at Horton & Mendez Injury Attorneys to learn more about how to pursue financial compensation.
A Truck Accident Report Is Often Not Enough to Prove Your Case
The police come to the scene of any motor vehicle accident to investigate what happened.
When there is a serious truck accident, the National Transportation Safety Board will also launch its own investigation, which will result in an accident report.
You cannot necessarily rely on these reports alone to establish responsibility for your accident.
First, if your case goes to court, what is in these reports could be considered hearsay and may not be admissible.
Second, your lawyer would be the one who is devoted to uncovering the most possible evidence that could actually help your case. The authorities do not have an interest in your litigation.
In addition, the trucking company will conduct its own investigation designed to absolve it from responsibility for the crash to the fullest extent possible. Their investigation may spin the facts in its own way to keep it from owing you money.
You need someone in the process whose main interest is protecting you and working to secure your financial compensation at every step of the way.
Truck Accident Investigations Are More Complicated
There are far more moving pieces in a truck accident investigation than there are in other types of motor vehicle crashes. Not only is the truck itself a far more advanced and complex vehicle, but there are more pieces of evidence that may be in the hands of the trucking company.
Without an attorney to uncover these pieces of evidence, there is a chance that you can lose evidence that could be crucial to your case.
Your lawyer may focus both on the truck’s technology and company records to help build your case. Their truck accident investigation could lead them to the following:
- Data from the truck’s electronic event recorder
- Maintenance and inspection records held by the trucking company
- The driver’s employment record
- Testing results from certain parts that could have been defective
Much of this evidence is actually gained through the litigation process. Since the trucking company is in possession of this evidence, your lawyer would need to request it during the discovery process of the trial. This evidence is not necessarily something that you can gain possession of on your own simply by asking.
How an Attorney Will Investigate Your Case
There are several phases of a truck accident investigation. In the initial days after your accident, your lawyer will work to obtain physical evidence that can be used to begin your case. If you filed a truck accident lawsuit, you would need enough knowledge and evidence to get you over the bar for the case to continue.
In the early days after a truck accident, your attorney may do the following:
- Speak to witnesses who saw the accident
- Review photographic and video evidence from the scene
- Work with accident reconstruction witnesses to get an opinion on what happened during the crash
- Review the initial reports of the accident
It is only after you file the truck accident lawsuit that your lawyer can get more detailed about the evidence that they would request from the other party. At the outset, your attorney would send a letter to the trucking company directing them to preserve certain key evidence in anticipation of litigation.
If your attorney does not send this letter, there is always a risk that the trucking company could somehow “lose” this evidence. If the trucking company is found to have destroyed or failed to preserve evidence, they could be subject to serious sanctions and consequences in litigation.
However, without an attorney, you may never even know what evidence they had in the first place.
How a Truck Accident Investigation Can Help Your Case
In a truck accident lawsuit, much of your efforts are focused on getting the upper hand over the insurance and trucking companies, either in litigation or settlement negotiations. If you can uncover a culture of non-compliance through a truck accident investigation, there is a greater chance that a jury can make a punitive damages award.
Juries are often angered when they see that the trucking company has a history of ignoring federal trucking regulations and putting motorists like you at risk. This scenario is what trucking companies greatly fear.
With so much money on the line, truck accident cases are all about leverage and pressure points that you can bring to bear on the insurance and trucking companies. If they are afraid of what a jury could do to them, they may be more likely to settle your case on advantageous terms. There have been numerous cases in which a jury has put a trucking company completely out of business by a substantial verdict.
Contact a North Carolina Truck Accident Attorney Today
Horton & Mendez Injury Attorneys have experience on the other side of the table, defending large insurance companies, so we know how to bring pressure on insurers. We pursue justice for you when a trucking company has injured you.
Reach out to us today to begin the legal process of getting accountability and compensation for what the trucking company did to you or a loved one with their carelessness. You can schedule an appointment to speak with one of our lawyers by messaging us online or by calling us today at 910-405-7751.
