Attorneys often limit their areas of practice to a few specialties, but attorneys generally don not narrow the specialty into sub specialties. Personal injury attorney handles claims arising from someone s negligence. Negligence means failing to exercise the degree of care that a reasonable person in that situation would have exercised. If the wrongdoer drives at 50 miles per hour in a school zone and strikes a child, he would be considered unreasonable and therefore negligent. When it comes to injury claims there is not much distinction between injuries caused by a commercial truck accident or a bus, or a dog attack, or a train.
The primary difference between a commercial truck accident and a typical car accident is that the severity of the injury is likely to be worse in a truck accident and therefore the need for a truck accident attorney would be greater. A truck accident attorney would be helpful where the injury is severe. A typical car accident injury is generally minor and will go away over a few months, so there is no need to hire an car accident attorney.
A typical car accident results in whiplash injuries, meaning neck injuries that result in severe soft tissue injury pain that tends to go away over time. In a typical truck accident at the very least the damage to the victim s vehicle is much greater than in a typical car accident. A commercial truck accident is also likely to cause severe injuries often resulting in fractures, closed head injuries, herniated disc, or death and therefore a truck accident attorney would be very helpful in reaching a reasonable resolution to an injury claim. Most truck accidents also have greater coverage for injuries, meaning there is insurance coverage that is much greater than insurance required for car accidents. This makes perfect sense, because the probability of severe injury or death is much greater in truck accidents than in car accidents.
If a law firm has 18 wheeler accident lawyers, it would probably be a personal injury lawyer. Most personal injury law firms, if not all of them, accept truck accident injury claims. Where there is some degree of sub specialty is in the severity of the injury. There might not be a commercial truck accident lawyer, or a train accident lawyer, or a bus accident lawyer, or even a motorcycle lawyer, but there are law firms that limit their practice to severe injury cases. This in turn generally means that the accident law firm would only accept cases that are severe, which are generally a result of 18 wheeler accidents, train accidents, bus accidents, and motorcycle accidents. Most severe injury claims arise from these types of accidents. Car accidents can and do result in severe injury claims, but are less likely to result in severe injuries such as brain injury, closed head injury, herniated discs, fractured bones, or death.
The need for a lawyer also rises as the severity of the injury rises. A whiplash injury case may or may not warrant hiring an attorney. Often insurance companies refuse to pay medical bills incurred in whiplash injury cases, because the physical evidence is minor and suggests there is no injury. This leads injury victims to seek an attorney, but for the most part the fact that it is a small matter makes hiring a personal injury impractical, because there would not be a sufficient recovery to pay the medical costs and attorney fees.
Severe injury cases tend to require an attorney in most situations. A commercial truck accident can cause severe injury and some insurance companies attempt to seek a quick settlement and there is where a truck accident attorney can help. Insurance adjusters knowingly or neglectfully mislead the injury victim to believe that it is in the victim s best interest to refrain from obtaining a truck accident attorney. Once an agreement is reached the insurance company has not further risk of financial loss on the claim and the injury victim often finds himself or herself a victim a second time.
Injury victims are also surprised when they receive a bill from their health insurance company following the settlement. The bill is often equal to or greater than the settlement. Sometimes the injury victim discovers that significant medical treatment is required such as a surgery and then attempts to renegotiate with the insurance company and is quickly rebuffed.
Sometimes insurance companies keep promising that a good personal injury settlement will follow and keep making the promise until there only a few weeks remaining before the statute of limitations runs out. The victim then receives a letter advising the statute of limitations will run out in two weeks. The same personal injury settlement promises continue, until the statute of limitations runs out. Meaning the victim has lost the right to file a personal injury lawsuit, because too much time has lapse.
The best advice for a truck accident victim is to speak with a truck accident attorney, as soon as possible. The truck accident attorney s job is to protect the rights of the client, the job of the insurance adjuster is to pay as little as possible or nothing at all.