The assistance of Trucking and Insurance Companies Might Even Benefit Your Case

Generally, in a commercial truck accident injury claim, this combination of different parties can include the trucker, the company he or she works for, the company that loaded the trailer and the person who planned the truck’s route just to name a few. An applicable legal precedent in Texas personal injury law is called “respondent superior.” It states that employers of those liable for the wreck their employee cause are, by legal-definition, every bit as responsible for the action or inaction of their employee.

So normally, one would think that the employer’s insurance company would fight very hard against you. And maybe they will, especially if it turns out that the trucking company was aware that their driver has a drinking problem. But the fact that this is a DUI case could also work in your favor when it comes to dealing with the trucking company’s insurance carrier. Insurance companies and trucking companies are just as likely to cooperate with us for two reasons. First, such cooperation will allow them to be seen in a positive light if they work with us on your behalf to not only help remove a menace to society represented by that intoxicated big rig driver. But also, if the trucking company and their insurer see the handwriting on the wall and know they could lose a lot of money, they’ll be inspired to settle for much closer to the damage amount we ask they pay you.

Also, because we have a track record for aggressively investigating such accidents and then forcefully representing our client victims’ cases, they don’t want to face us in the courtroom. The truck accident and DUI attorneys at our Texas Law Firm will do everything we can to investigate your case, fight tooth-and-nail for your deserved compensation, and make sure you get back on your feet after this type of accident. So if you have been hurt by an intoxicated truck driver, contact our truck driver accident attorneys today.

Building a Persuasive Case and “Reading” the Jury is Important if your Civil Suit ends up in Court

Many think that knowing the law is all that’s necessary if they end up in court. And your trucking and dram shop negligence lawsuits mean only as much as the amount of money a jury can ultimately award you based on the quality of your evidence. We admit that it’s not very difficult for a lawyer, or some other intelligent person who might have read the law, to explain to a jury many of the technicalities of liability in an 18 wheeler drunk driving case or dram shop violation civil action. And it’s not all that hard to prove damages or to satisfy a reasonable burden of proof for the jury to understand that the plaintiff deserves compensation.

What juries have a hard time within drunk driving liability cases is a clear understanding of the shared liability for the accident, relative to the Dram Shop Act and respondent superior, and not think this double whammy of both criminal and civil liability upon the bar or restaurant, or the trucking company seem somewhat “over the top.” If a bar or restaurant has already paid a very stiff fine or lost its liquor license: and if the owner or someone else is facing criminal charges for serving the drunk driver, some can see this is rather excessive. The same goes for the trucking company. Even though some jury members might agree with the respondent superior and believe the driver – and maybe the food and beverage establishment – deserves the full weight of the law, they might hesitate in throwing the driver’s employer into the pot of “equal liability.” So in the final analysis, your experienced dram shop attorney must make the jury feel your pain more, and on a visceral level, than they do the defendants.

Juries must be made to understand that bars can often act at cross-purposes to public safety and that they must take responsibility for their actions. They also must appreciate just how tragic a price, both monetarily and physically, drunk driving accident victims, regardless of who hits them, must pay because of the actions of those bar or restaurant employees who placed that drunk driver behind the wheel: as well as those of the driver and his employer. The one who “loads the gun” is just as responsible as the one who “fires it.” And all of this must be proven to a group of 12 people who sit in judgment of you and the defendants: because they weren’t able to avoid jury duty.

The only way to defend your rights as a DUI accident victim against all who were negligent is with an experienced drunk driver, 18 wheeler and dram shop accident lawyer who speaks in a manner that appeals to a jury and makes them clearly understand that you must receive fair compensation for your damages in order to get back on your feet. Bringing any drunk driver to criminal justice is one thing. But until the damage drunk they, their negligent employers, and the equally negligent “dram shops” that began the events that led to the big rig DUI accident is repaired and the lives of the victims return to normal, justice is still denied them.

If you or someone in your family is suffering as a victim of a big rig drunk driving accident, or if you have lost a cherished loved one due to such negligence, don’t leave money on the table that is rightfully yours. Contact our Texas drunk driving and 18 wheeler accident attorneys now at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation. Our Law Firm can help you win the fullest and fairest compensation that you need to resume your life and give you justice, and the peace of mind, you deserve after a drunk driver, and the dram shop that over-served them, has injured you.