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Why Hire a Georgia Truck Accident Attorney For Your Truck Accident in Georgia

Georgia truck accident lawsuit lawyers

Four Ways Hiring an Experienced Georgia Truck Accident Attorney Can Maximize Your Damage Claim

Our lawyers often are asked about the importance of hiring an attorney to provide legal representation when pursuing a personal injury claim.  While there are many reasons to have a lawyer on your side, one of the more important reasons is that the attorney can increase the value of your case.  Although only a small percentage of civil cases proceed to trial, you gain a distinct advantage by retaining an attorney with the experience and expertise to take the case to trial rather than a law firm that settles every claim.  In this blog, we review the ways that a proven Atlanta personal injury lawyer can increase the value of your case.

Insurance companies have more of an incentive to reach a fair settlement with a trial lawyer on the other side.

If an insurance company does not have a reasonable belief that a case might proceed to trial, the insurer has almost complete control over the settlement negotiations.  This ability to settle the case by offering the minimum acceptable amount of money means that the insurance carrier is in control of the value of your case at least to a certain degree.  The prospect of a jury verdict takes control over the value of your case and shifts that role from the insurance company to twelve unknown decision-makers.  During settlement discussions, insurance companies frequently rely on software programs and databases to estimate the value of a claim, but a jury can replace these tools that predictably generate lowball settlement values.  When a talented lawyer presents your case to a jury, the attorney will know how to demonstrate the most significant factors the jury will employ to determine the value of your claim.

Effective communication of the severity of your injuries and hardships

Insurance companies do not proceed into litigation blindly.  They know that an attorney is skilled at communicating the harms and losses suffered by a plaintiff to the judge or jury.  The insurer has more of a motive to settle when your attorney has a track record of success at trial that reveals an understanding of how to help a jury to empathize with the plaintiff’s ordeal.

Trial Attorneys Have Expertise in the Effective Use of Experts

When you do not have an attorney representing you, the task of locating and retaining appropriate experts is difficult.  A trial attorney will have the knowledge to identify the precise type of experts you need and to locate those experts.  Depending on the facts of your case, you might need an expert in the grieving process, a life care planner, economist to explain future damages, or very specialized medical experts.  If your injuries are not easy to see on an objective scan like an X-Ray or MRI, a proven trial lawyer will recognize the questions to ask your doctors to facilitate the jury’s understanding of what you have been through due to the negligence of the defendant.  If the insurance carrier believes you attorney can skillfully influence the jury regarding the hardships, pain, emotional distress, and other harm you have suffered, the insurer has a stronger incentive to make a more generous settlement offer.  Trial lawyers also recognize that experts can be expensive, but they are not afraid to invest in this valuable litigation resource when the benefits merit the expenditure.  Since our personal injury attorneys usually advance such costs when handling a personal injury claim, hiring our trial attorneys provides access to experts that otherwise might not be feasible.

Ability to Refute Insurer Efforts to Shift the Blame

In many personal injury lawsuits, the insurance company will explore the option of contending the plaintiff should bear some responsibility or all of the blame for his own injuries.  Insurers will have more incentive to settle if they know that your attorney will exhibit an expert presentation of the evidence, use of experts, and skilled advocacy to refuse efforts to shift financial responsibility for an accident to the plaintiff.

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Preservation Of Evidence From A Truck Crash

Georgia truck accident lawsuit lawyers

Preservation Of Evidence From A Truck Accident in Georgia

A vital component of preparing a claim against a truck driver and the driver’s employer is finding evidence that the driver and company complied, or failed to comply, with state and federal regulations. Proof of that may be found in the driver’s log, which he or she is required to maintain by law and the on-board data recorder. The onboard data recorder is often referred to as the “black box.” It operates in a fashion similar to that of a black box installed in commercial airliners. Obtaining and interpreting the information contained in the event data recorder could be incredibly helpful in many heavy truck crashes.

Event data recorders are not always recording. They do not record the entire trip. Rather, they sit dormant until some pre-condition triggers it to wake up and then record information. Information is always running through the machine, but the actual recording and preservation of an event are not recording constantly. The event data recorder maintains the information passing through it for a short time until the triggering event occurs. The event that triggers recording is some electrical signal, run by an algorithm, which instructs the event data recorder to start working. An example of an electrical signal could be the airbag deployment, a hard stomp on the brake, or seatbelt pre-tension. The recorder can preserve the data generated by the vehicle within a few seconds before, during, and after the crash. Unlike a black box on an airplane, a motor vehicle’s event data recording system cannot record voice or sound.

After a crash, law enforcement investigators can remove the event data recorder from the truck and extract the information. An expert may be needed to decipher the data and determine its significance. Insurance companies might also have access to the information. Upon extraction and interpretation, there could be information that might be very helpful to a victim. The information could contradict the driver’s account of what occurred. Additionally, the event data recorder’s information can supplement traditional crash investigation techniques.

Another important source of information is the driver’s log. A driver’s log should contain information regarding hours on duty, hours driven, sleep hours, hours in the sleeper berth, hours off duty and hours on duty but not driving. Federal regulations require drivers to record this in their log. Truckers and trucking companies also have a log for truck maintenance. Regulations require drivers and trucking companies to record information in the maintenance logs when repairs need to be made and when the repairs are made.

As with the event data recorder, accessing this information as soon as possible when filing a claim could be very helpful. Even if the driver was in compliance with federal hours on duty mandates, the log could show the driver operating at all different times of the day and night, varying from day to day. Working shifts that frequently change will adversely affect a person’s sleep and rest. Consequently, the driver could be fatigued despite not working over the allotted time. However, federal regulations mandate that drivers who feel fatigued must get off of the road.

Drivers and trucking companies might have an incentive to try to conceal this information. There are a couple of legal maneuvers that seasoned truck crash attorneys can use to preserve the information. The first is to file a letter with the truck, the trucking company, and regulatory agency demanding that the information is preserved. Secondly, the claimant’s attorney can file a motion for injunctive relief in court seeking a court order that the event data recorder and the log books be identified and preserved. Failing to do so is called spoliation of evidence, and it can greatly prejudice a claimant, creating tremendous injustice.

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Sources:

https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/event-data-recorder

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http://www.meaforensic.com/hs-fs/hub/45635/file-14138109-pdf/docs/mea_event_data_recorders_david_king.pdf?t=1498087741173