Take the Necessary Steps to Protect Your Rights
If you or someone that you love has been involved in a serious truck or commercial vehicle accident in North Carolina, there are important steps that you must take to preserve essential evidence, and to ensure your right to full compensation from the truck driver, the driver’s employer, and all other parties who contributed to causing the crash. The first thing that you should do is to immediately speak with an experienced attorney to help you protect your rights and secure case-specific legal advice and guidance about your truck crash or commercial vehicle accident.
At Nagle & Associates, P.A., our personal injury lawyers stand ready to provide prospective clients with a detailed explanation of the legal landscape they are suddenly facing, a step-by-step plan on how to deal with immediate medical needs/bills, and how to secure full and fair compensation for all legal claims arising from a truck or commercial vehicle accident. Contact us for a detailed telephone consultation by calling (800) 411-1583.
Accident Victim Plan of Action
It is recommended that the following plan of action be followed immediately after an accident with the assistance of experienced counsel.
Seek thorough and immediate medical care:
Your health is our first priority. Securing medical care of any injuries suffered in your accident is the first step to recovering your health and protecting your rights to compensation for your injuries. A common error in seeking medical treatment is to only seek treatment for the more severe injuries, and not mentioning less severe injuries that may get worse later on. Insurance companies will usually claim that injuries must not have been related to an accident if they are not immediately reported. It is the victim's burden to prove the extent of his or her injuries and the relationship between the injury and the accident. It is essential to report even the slightest changes in physical or mental behavior to your medical professional after an accident.
Always follow your doctor’s advice, attend all scheduled appointments, and work directly with medical professionals in the effort to restore your health. You should photograph/video all visible injuries to secure proof of the extent of your suffering. Use all available health insurance coverage along the way to ensure that medical bills are paid when incurred, and to allow open access to all medical care options.
Preserve any evidence related to the accident:
Proving how an accident occurred is crucial to obtaining full compensation and this is achieved through the proper preservation of evidence. Evidence can disappear quickly, so immediate investigation and preservation of evidence is vital to your case. This is done by photographing or video taping vehicles at the scene, including multiple angles of the accident. North Carolina State Patrol officers will thoroughly document collision scenes and these and other police investigative photographs should be obtained and secured by working directly with the investigating police agency. If a subpoena is required, we notify the office immediately to ensure that all investigative notes and photos are retained, and we then have time to work with the courts to issue the subpoena which mandates police disclosure.
In addition, it is important to identify and secure statements from all available witnesses, including law enforcement; request an immediate inspection of the tractor and trailer by a qualified expert; secure detailed photographs of all external injuries and bruising; and request information from black box data recorders.
We also force immediate disclosure of:
- The identity of the shipper of any cargo (even if the truck is empty and on a return trip)
- The driver’s trip logs and receipts
- The driver’s pre-trip truck inspection report
- All maintenance records for the truck involved in the accident
- The complete driver qualification file (which includes the driver’s training records, accident history, traffic violations, employment records, etc.)
These steps allow us to understand why your accident occurred. Commonly, we identify evidence of willful safety violations which support an additional claim for punitive damages against the profit-minded trucking company that is not mindful of state and federal safety requirements.
Avoid Talking to Trucking Company or Insurance Representatives
After a truck or commercial vehicle accident, trucking company and insurance representatives will send out adjusters who are looking to either avoid your claims entirely, or minimize your payments. When Mr. Nagle worked as an adjuster for a large national insurance company, he accepted on-call assignments for their commercial-lines/trucking division. The insurance company was contacted by the truck driver immediately after the accident, and they would actually fly the adjusters to the scene of the accident immediately. The goal was to identify defenses, and establish reasons to minimize claim payments to all accident victims.
Don’t Take Legal Advice From Those Who Oppose Your Claim
Please don’t take legal advice from the adjuster who is paid to oppose your claims. Do not sign any authorizations and do not give recorded testimony! It is in your best interest not to discuss your case with insurance adjusters until you have the representation of experienced legal counsel on your side. Even if you choose not to hire an attorney, take the time to learn your rights and options from experienced counsel.
Demand in writing by certified mail that the truck driver, the trucking company, the insurance company and the cargo shipper preserve all evidence relating to the accident.
You should send an Evidence Spoliation Letter to all parties who might be liable for your damages, including the truck driver, the trucking company, the insurance company and the shipper who placed cargo in transit and put the truck driver on the road. The letter should be sent to each party by Certified Mail – Return Receipt Requested demanding that the truck driver and trucking company collect and preserve trip inspection reports, daily trip logs and other important information that could be legally discarded without this letter. Under North Carolina evidence law, if the defense fails to preserve and later produce requested evidence, the Court instructs the jury that they can presume that the evidence, if available, would have been harmful to the defense’s case.
Research the Truck Driver’s and Trucking Company’s History
When trucking companies are bad, they are really bad. Some companies regularly employ unqualified, dangerous drivers and put them on the road for long hours in poorly maintained tractor trailer rigs. The Department of Transportation maintains a Web site that provides extensive access to public records pertaining to trucking companies’ safety history.
Once suit is filed (which typically occurs relatively early in trucking cases to ensure that victims’ rights are protected), we gain access to the Court’s mandatory discovery process. Thus, we can force disclosure of all internal documents, safety policies, driver employment files, and all other evidence which helps to establish why your accident occurred. We are also able to take depositions (in person questioning under oath, and preserved for use at trial) of the truck driver, the maintenance crew and the trucking company’s Safety Director.
Before doing anything, consult an experienced lawyer at Nagle & Associates, P.A. Contact us for a free initial consultation by calling toll-free at (800) 411-1583.
