An Alabama Truck Accident Lawyer Can Add Value to Your Case

by Aaron Gartlan

September 10, 2011 | Truck Accidents

Alabama Truck Accident Lawyer Aaron Gartlan outlines for you in this article the seven steps to increasing the chances of success in truck wrecks in particular as well as other accident cases in general. These seven steps are applied in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability, injuries and damages that add value to your case and maximize recovery for you.

Truck wreck and accident cases must be approached, prepared, and handled differently than most automobile wrecks and accident cases. Typically, in a truck wreck involving an eighteen-wheeler or commercial driver, you are dealing with a large powerful trucking company and insurance company. Those companies will immediately employ a team of attorneys, insurance adjusters and other experts in an effort to minimize their financial exposure, and sometimes not pay anything to the injured person or the family of the deceased, if they can get away with it. In some cases, they will even appear at the scene of the wreck in an effort to negate or minimize their liability. This is true even if the injured person is rushed to the hospital.

There are also State and Federal Laws that apply to make truck wreck and accident cases different, as well as the potential for substantial injuries and damages and even death. Therefore, it is important to have an experienced Alabama truck accident lawyer handling your case from the very beginning in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability, injuries, and damages, add value to the case and maximize recovery for the injured person. Each case is different and decisions must be made based on the unique facts, circumstances, and law that apply to that case.

Alabama Truck Accident Lawyer Outlines Seven Steps

However, the following are seven steps used by an experienced Alabama truck accident lawyer to increasing the chance of success in truck wrecks and accident cases in an effort to maximize recovery for you:

1. In many cases an investigator and possibly an accident expert must be deployed to the scene to help the experienced Alabama truck accident lawyer locate, interview, and evaluate witnesses as well as to locate, preserve, collect and evaluate evidence before the trucking company legally destroys evidence or it disappears or memories fade in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability and injuries and damages, and maximize recovery for the injured person, and in other cases the experienced truck wreck and accident lawyer will undertake this effort;

2. Often, the lawyer needs to file a lawsuit immediately to exercise the subpoena and discovery power of the Circuit Court, especially when dealing with a large powerful trucking company, insurance company and severe extensive injuries or death. This allows an experienced truck wreck lawyer to demand the computer data from any on-board computer (black box), driver log, driving and criminal history as well as other employment records such as hiring, training, safety and disciplinary records in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability and injuries and damages, add maximize recovery for you;

3. An experienced Alabama truck accident lawyer will hire and advance the payment of all necessary experts, including legal, medical, psychological, accident, economic, investigators and all other experts and sheppard and guide medical and psychological treatment and care in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability, injuries and damages in an effort to maximize recovery for you;

4. The experienced truck Alabama truck accident lawyer will evaluate liability, injuries and damages under Alabama Law which include:

a. Compensatory damages such as medical bills and any out of pocket expenses;

b. Pain and suffering and mental anguish;

c. Future medical bills;

d. Lost wages;

e. Loss of future income;

f. Punitive damages;

g. Loss of consortium of a spouse;

h. Vehicle and other property damage in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability and damages as well as add value to the case and maximize recovery for you.

5. The above steps are just part of thorough trial preparation, which the experienced Alabama truck accident lawyer should begin as soon as possible in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability and damages. Thorough trial preparation is important in cases that do not require the filing of a lawsuit or trial.

6. The experienced truck wreck attorney should only conduct settlement negotiations after the above steps have been completed. Corporations like insurance and trucking companies are not in the business of just writing checks to injured people out of the goodness of their heart. Again, liability, injuries, and damages must be demonstrated and proven. After the above steps have been completed, any settlement negotiations should be done in an effort to add value to the case and maximize recovery for you rather than just settling the case.

7. If necessary, the experienced Alabama truck accident lawyer must be prepared to go to trial in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability, injuries, and damages, add value to the case and maximize recovery for the injured person.

Experienced Alabama truck accident lawyer Aaron Gartlan of Gartlan Injury Law take great pride in using the above approach and seven steps in an effort to prove and demonstrate liability, injuries and damages, add value to cases and maximize recovery for you in truck wreck and accident cases.

Want to learn more about your unique situation? You can via a free consultation with experienced Alabama truck accident lawyer Aaron Gartlan.

Aaron Gartlan

Aaron Gartlan is a graduate of Troy University and the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law who focuses his practice exclusively on representing those injured by the wrongdoing of others. He is member of the National Trial Lawyers Association’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers, Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. In addition to his legal practice, Aaron teaches Business Law as an adjunct instructor at Troy University’s Sorrell College of Business and serves as a field artillery sergeant in the Alabama National Guard.

"When my husband was wrongly accused of a serious crime by a very disturbed family member, we hired Mr. Gartlan for representation on the recommendation of another. It turned out to be the best choice we could have made. From the beginning, Aaron listened to our story with the open mind of someone invested in not only earning his money or winning his case, but in truly helping our family. It became obvious to us early on that he genuinely believed in my husband's innocence, which was extremely important to us going forward. What was even more helpful and important to us was that Aaron was very familiar with the justice system in the county in which my husband was charged, so he was able to explain to us how and why things had proceeded the way they had. He helped us somewhat comprehend a situation that was completely illogical in the way it had been handled by law enforcement and the District Attorney's office. Thanks to the experience that Aaron has, he and his assistant, with the partnership of another attorney and the help of a private investigator, were ultimately able to put together a tremendous amount of evidence that contradicted nearly every detail of the prosecution's case, and proved that the alleged victim's entire story was a complete fabrication. All of this was done prior to the trial date, and fortunately Aaron maintains a relationship with the District Attorney's office that allowed him to communicate with them prior to trial about the facts in the case and what evidence we had that would destroy their case. That, combined with the fact that the alleged victim did not want to return to the state for trial so would have to be brought forcefully, ultimately led the District Attorney's office to dismiss all of the charges. While it would have been ideal for the law enforcement officers involved to have actually done some sort of investigating prior to charging my husband solely based upon the story of a disturbed person, we are thankful that when he was arrested and charged, we were given Aaron Gartlan's name. We are thankful to have moved past the horrible experience and are grateful for the hard work that Aaron and his team did to help us do so."

– anonymous