What You Need To Know If You Or A Loved One Was Involved In An Illinois Trucking Accident Or Auto Accident
I. ILLINOIS TRUCKING ACCIDENT
Motor vehicle accidents caused by large trucks (over 10,000 pounds) and buses involved in interstate or intrastate commerce are not your typical personal injury case. Large trucks and buses are bigger and heavier, and are known to cause catastrophic personal injuries and/or fatalities. Both Illinois and federal law heavily regulate the industry. Often drivers and/or trucking/bus companies violate Illinois and federal regulations causing collisions. If you or a loved one were injured in a collision caused by a large truck or bus you will need an experienced Chicago trucking accident lawyer or Chicago trucking accident attorney to represent your interests against an industry that is well prepared. You and/or your loved one will need an experienced Chicago trucking accident attorney or Chicago trucking accident lawyer experienced in the governing Illinois and federal law to immediately start gathering evidence to prove the negligence of the driver and the busing/trucking company.
Due to the known probability of death or catastrophic personal injury in large truck or bus accidents, most trucking/bus companies carry better insurance. Since the insurance company has a greater exposure for damages resulting from injuries or fatalities from bus or large truck accidents, they have aggressive Chicago trucking accident attorneys or Chicago trucking accident lawyers on call to immediately start limiting the liability of the trucking/bus company and/or the value of the claim. The insurance company’s Chicago trucking accident attorney or Chicago trucking accident lawyer will attempt to take your statement or the statement of your loved one and try to commit you or your loved one to their version of the facts. The insurance company’s Chicago trucking accident attorney or Chicago trucking lawyer will immediately attempt to take the statements of any witnesses to the collision to try and commit them to their version of the facts. You will need the assistance of a competent Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer even more since the insurance company has aggressive Chicago trucking accident attorneys or Chicago trucking accident lawyers immediately involved within hours after the accident working to eliminate the liability of the driver and the bus or trucking company and/or significantly reduce the value of you or your loved one’s claim.
A competent Chicago truck accident lawyer or Chicago truck accident attorney will immediately file a lawsuit against the driver and the bus/trucking company to prevent the trucking/bus company and/or insurance company from legally disposing of evidence necessary to prove their negligence in causing the collision. You and your loved one are at a distinct disadvantage because most of the evidence necessary to build a good claim against the driver of the trucking/bus companies are in their possession and control. Most large trucks and buses engaged in interstate and/or intrastate commerce have a “black box” similar to airplanes called an electronic control module. This black box records important evidence such as engine speed, brake application, throttle position, hard stops, and vehicle speed immediately before, at the time of, or immediately following a collision. If you or your loved one do not timely hire a competent Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer to protect your interests, evidence in the “black box” will be lost because the data storage is limited. When the truck or bus is operated following the accident, new data is written over old data in a continuous loop. Truck drivers are required by law to keep logs. However, the driver and the trucking company are only required to keep these logs for 6 months. You need a competent Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer to file suit as soon as possible to prevent the driver and trucking company from legally destroying the logs. These logs can be used to prove negligence in causing the collision. Additionally, in conjunction with other evidence your Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer may be able to prove that the driver, with the blessing of the trucking company, falsified the logs. Your Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer may even be able to use this evidence to establish that the trucking company acted willfully and wantonly in causing the collision justifying punitive damages.
The insurance company’s Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer may try to get you or your loved one to settle the claim immediately after the accident. You should know that insurance company’s Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer are skilled at saving the insurance company as much money as possible by settling claims for much less than they are worth. The insurance company’s Chicago trucking accident attorney or Chicago trucking accident lawyer know every excuse for paying less than full value. If you sign the release drafted by the insurance company’s Chicago trucking accident attorney or Chicago trucking accident lawyer and it turns out that the amount you or your loved one settled for is not enough to compensate for all the damages sustained, you will not be able to file any lawsuit against the responsible parties and the insurance company to make up the short fall. You or your loved one should never settle a claim without having it reviewed by your own competent Chicago trucking accident attorney or Chicago trucking accident lawyer to be sure that you are getting full and fair compensation.
There is a high probability that the insurance company’s Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer will attempt to obtain video surveillance of you or your loved one following the collision to try and reduce the value of your claim. The insurance company’s Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident attorney will also perform an ISO search (vast pool of past insurance claims compiled by participating insurance companies) on you or your loved to significantly reduce the value of your claim.
Hopefully you now have some idea about what you and your loved one are up against in a collision involving a large truck or bus. It is very important that you immediately hire a competent Chicago truck accident attorney or Chicago truck accident lawyer to investigate the accident, preserve the evidence to prove the negligence of the driver and bus/trucking company, and obtain full and fair compensation.
II. ILLINOIS AUTO ACCIDENTS
If you or your loved one have been involved in an auto accident you should consult with a Chicago personal injury lawyer as soon as possible to represent your interests against the responsible parties and all insurance companies. However there are several things that you should know to prevent both the insurance companies and certain medical providers from taking advantage of your loss:
1. You are responsible for all medical expenses you incur for treatment of your injuries caused in an auto accident even if it is somebody else’s fault. The person that caused the auto accident and their insurance company are not obligated to pay for your medical expenses unless you obtain a judgment against that party in a court of law. Since your medical providers want to be paid you should provide them with your health insurance information and/or the necessary information for Medicare if applicable. Your health insurance company and/or Medicare will be paid for those medical expenses paid when you claim settles or goes to judgment.
2. Be careful of some hospital administrators because they will try to take advantage of the fact that you or your loved one was injured in an auto accident. There are greedy administrators may not want to file a claim with your health insurance company or Medicare because they will get dimes on the dollar under their contract with your health insurance provider or Medicare. It is best that you or your loved one demand they file claims with the health insurer or Medicare or else you or your loved one could be responsible for the full medical bill that would otherwise have been covered by health insurance or Medicare. This is especially important since it liability of the person that caused the accident may not be clear.
3. Do not provide your medical providers with the name of your own auto insurance company because they may try to take advantage of you by taking all of your medical pay benefits under your own auto insurance policy. You may have medical pay benefits under your own auto insurance policy that can be used to pay any set-offs or medical expenses not covered by your health insurance. Some greedy healthcare administrators will try to get the limits of your medical pay benefits before submitting the medical expenses to your health insurance company so they can get more than money than they agreed to accept under the contract with your health insurance carrier.
4. Do not give any statements to the insurance company. The insurance company has Chicago auto accident attorneys or Chicago auto accident lawyers who will try to get you or your loved one to answer questions you don’t understand or admit to something you do not fully understand to eliminate the liability of the person that caused the accident or significantly reduce the value of your claim.
5. Have a friend or family member take pictures as soon as possible of the damage done to the vehicles. Without photographs showing the severity of the damage done to the vehicles, the insurance company will have its Chicago auto accident attorneys or Chicago auto accident lawyers claim there was a minimal impact between the vehicle and you or your loved one could not have been injured to the extent claimed.
6. Have a friend or family member take photographs of you or your loved one’s injuries as soon as possible after the accident and throughout the course of rehabilitation. It is significantly harder for the insurance company’s Chicago auto accident attorney or Chicago auto accident lawyer to contest photographic evidence of your injuries.
7. Get the names, addresses, and phone numbers of any witnesses to the accident. If you are too injured and if it’s is possible have a loved one, friend, or other witness get you the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the all witnesses to the accident. Sometimes the investigating police officer is busy and does not get the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the witnesses.
8. You should go to traffic court if the person that caused the accident got a ticket. If the person that caused the accident sees you in traffic court they may plead guilty to the traffic ticket. A guilty plea to the traffic ticket could be used against the person that caused the accident. However, if the person that caused your accident pleads not guilty and is found guilty it cannot be used against them in a later civil suit.
9. Do not sign any releases allowing the insurance company or their Chicago auto accident attorney or Chicago auto accident lawyer to get copies of your medical records.
10. Do not settle your personal injury claim without having it reviewed by a Chicago personal injury lawyer, Chicago auto accident attorney, or Chicago auto accident attorney. The insurance company and its Chicago auto accident attorney or Chicago auto accident lawyer are in business to make profits by saving the insurance company as much money as possible by settling claims for less than they are worth. If you sign a release drafted by the insurance company’s Chicago auto accident attorney or Chicago auto accident lawyer settling your claim and you later discover that the settlement is not enough to cover al your damages you are forever barred from coming back and seeking the difference.
It is in your best interest to meet with an experienced Chicago personal injury Lawyer as soon as possible following any auto accident so that steps can be taken to immediately investigate your claim and protect your interests.
Brian Graber is the founder of Brian J. Graber, Ltd., and is a Chicago personal injury lawyer handling litigation involving any Chicago Trucking Accident or Chicago Auto Accident. Brian Graber can be contacted at (312) 854-8011 or e-mailed at info@graberpersonalinjury.com for a free consultation.
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