There’s plenty that a truck accident attorney in Los Angeles from our firm can do for you. We can help you through the process every step of the way. From the moment you sit down with us, we can go over your case and figure out the best, most compelling way to present it. After a thorough investigation of the facts, we can construct a case for you that gets you all of the compensation you deserve. Many of our clients ask us “how can I help my own case, too?” In this blog, we’ll go over some ways that you can help your trucking accident case. The best way you can help your case is to contact our attorneys; these are some other ideas that you might want to consider.
Perhaps the best way to help your case is through documentation. Getting as many pictures as possible can help your case significantly. This might seem like a small thing, but it can be vitally important. Pictures, as an argument, can’t really be argued with. They aren’t open to interpretation. They’re a true record of what actually happened. When you have visual documentation of what occurred, that can make your case all that much more compelling. In fact, taking pictures is one of the best, most cost-effective ways to help your case.
You might be asking: “take pictures of what?” The answer is, well, everything. Take pictures of the accident. Take pictures of the crash site. Be sure to take as many pictures as possible of your injuries, as well. It’s reasonable to ask “why,” and the truth is because things change. Evidence, even compelling evidence that can reveal the truth, can disappear. This disappearance is not always through malfeasance, however. For example, say your trucking accident occurred on a highway in the woods. Maybe the truck crashed into your vehicle, went through a guard rail and hit a tree. All of that debris could make for quite a bit of evidence.
Of course, all of that debris is going to be cleaned up very quickly. That’s a highway, with many cars passing over it daily: the authorities can’t afford to let that evidence just sit there. It’s going to have to be moved. So, you can help your case quite a bit by getting as many pictures as possible of all of that debris. That way, when the other side’s attorneys take up the case, they can’t minimize what happened there. They can’t present an argument of “oh, the truck couldn’t have been going that fast,” because there will be pictures of the tree, the guard rail and more. These pictures can serve as a counter argument for what the other side will say. For that reason alone, documentation is important.
To be clear, we’re only saying to document the crash site if you’re physically able. If you are able to move around after the crash, then yes, taking pictures can come in quite handy. However, as with every other part of the injury process, your health is what’s most important. You can’t afford to hurt yourself further just because you’re trying to get a better picture. If you can move, do so. If you can’t, that’s all right, too. If you’re recovering from your accident and can have a loved one or close friend take pictures of the crash site, that can achieve the same objective. As with everything else, always put your health first.
You may have read the above portion and thought: “OK, I get taking pictures of the crash site, that makes sense, that changes. However, why take pictures of my injuries? They aren’t going anywhere.” This is a great question. The reason to take these pictures is the same reason that you want to take pictures of the woods and guard rail above: you want to show how severe the injury is. Moreover, you want to do so in a way that can’t be argued with.
Consider: say you’re hurt in an accident involving a large truck. It severely injures you, but you do recover. In fact, you recover fully before the case was settled. In this scenario, you did not document all of your injuries. You didn’t document them right after the accident, nor did you document them as you recovered. So, the other side may be able to say, “could these injuries have been that bad? I mean, the injured party doesn’t show any results of injuries. All we have is their word that they were hurt.” That’s the last thing you need to deal with. That’s not to say that it makes your case unwinnable or anything of the sort. However, you don’t want to make your case more difficult. You want to make it easy as possible to get all of the compensation that you deserve.
So, to do so, document your injuries from the very beginning. Then, continue to document them as you heal. It’s totally fine to take pictures of your injuries as you get better; in fact, it’s encouraged. That way, when the other side says “your injuries aren’t so bad,” you’ll be able to come back with pictures that show just how bad the injuries were. Then, you can make the argument even more compelling by pointing out how long it took for you to recover fully. The pictures of your healing process can be just as helpful (if not more so) than the ones from when you were originally injured. These forms of documentation can help you every step of the way.
This can be trickier than it might seem at first glance. The insurance company, for one, is definitely not on your side. Indeed, they do everything they can to make sure that you receive as little compensation as possible for all of your injuries. They only make money when you get less than what you deserve. Indeed, if the insurance company pays out all of the compensation you should get for your trucking accident, they don’t make money. That’s exactly the opposite of how our business works. We only make money when you do. That should show you, in no uncertain terms, who exactly is on your side.
If you were hit by a professional truck driver, then the trucking company they drive for is definitely not on your side. In fact, we’ve encountered many stories over the years of trucking companies doing everything they can to have to pay less for injuries their drivers cause. In fact, sometimes trucking companies delete all of the info that’s relevant to your case just a couple weeks after the accident. On top of that, sometimes trucking companies are liable for the accident, too.
In a trucking accident, we just assume that the driver was at fault. Sometimes however, it’s the fault of the trucking company as well (if not solely the trucking company’s fault). That could mean that the trucking company didn’t properly inspect the truck, or vet the driver, or they committed some other form of negligence. When you sit down with lawyers who are experienced with big rig accidents, we can help you to figure out not just how much compensation you deserve, but who you deserve to get it from.
By sitting down with you to figure out who’s liable, we can get you as much compensation as possible. The first step in a case like this can often be the hardest. We understand that, so we wanted to make the process as easy on you as possible. Just give us a call at (818) 240-1800 or head to our site and we’ll set up a free consultation to talk about your trucking accident.