00:04
trucking accidents are kind of their own
00:07
animal even though they seem like
00:10
any other roadway accident like a
00:12
motorcycle or a car and the reason is
00:14
that
00:15
a lot of special rules apply to truck
00:18
companies
00:19
federal rules and a lot of special
00:21
duties applied to truck companies
00:24
as what they call common carriers and a
00:27
truck company
00:29
that is traveling the highways carrying
00:32
a lot of
00:33
cargo often doesn’t have the kind of
00:36
financial accountability that you would
00:40
expect
00:41
of a company that’s got such a big
00:43
dangerous vehicle on the road
00:46
so a lot of the tricky part of handling
00:48
truck accident cases
00:51
is very legalistic it’s figuring out
00:54
how have they structured these companies
00:56
because they they have all
00:58
different ways of creating different
01:01
entities different corporations that are
01:04
look related but maybe aren’t related
01:07
one of the tricks in handling a trucking
01:09
accident case is really to get to the
01:11
bottom
01:12
of the responsibility among the
01:16
different
01:17
trucking entities or companies that are
01:19
involved
01:20
someone may be a distributor someone may
01:22
be providing the cab
01:24
someone may be re providing the trailer
01:27
someone may be
01:28
directing the truck there may be three
01:30
companies involved
01:31
and they play a shell game to try to
01:34
avoid being responsible
01:36
for the accident in trying to get full
01:38
compensation for one of my clients now
01:42
who lost his wife and and his two
01:44
children
01:46
in an accident on highway 5 in
01:48
california
01:49
we sued the trucking company but
01:52
they’ve only got a million dollars of
01:54
insurance so
01:55
in investigating the accident we were
01:58
able to develop a case
01:59
against the manufacturer of the vehicle
02:03
that my client was driving in was a
02:05
rented van
02:07
and now we’re going up against the
02:08
manufacturer with the possibility and i
02:11
would say probability
02:13
of obtaining millions and millions of
02:15
dollars that we wouldn’t have been able
02:18
to get for our client and we’ve still
02:21
got to do it but we will
02:23
without understanding that a deep
02:26
analysis of the root causes of the
02:29
accident is necessary
02:31
to know whether even being hit by a
02:34
truck
02:35
a car should or shouldn’t have burst
02:37
into flames
02:38
another often missed issue in trucking
02:42
accidents is that there can be
02:44
layers of insurance that are hidden that
02:47
you have to find out about by going back
02:49
to court and making a motion and telling
02:51
the judge
02:52
i haven’t gotten all the information yet
02:54
they’re not giving me something
02:56
and you can tell if you’ve been at it
02:58
long enough that the way they’re
02:59
answering questions
03:01
they’re hiding something so some of
03:04
being a trial lawyer is more about
03:07
ferreting out or digging out where the
03:10
money is
03:10
because ultimately we can’t heal you
03:14
we can’t bring anyone back to life our
03:17
first goal
03:18
is really to get enough compensation for
03:20
you and so
03:22
we need to know how to dig and find out
03:24
where the gold is
03:26
it’s not really about being
03:29
all about money it’s about remembering
03:32
that what your client has lost
03:36
is huge and what it takes to
03:40
properly compensate your client under
03:42
the law
03:43
when it’s a death case or a serious
03:45
injury case
03:46
may well be more than the first target
03:50
who seems most obviously the one to pay