Early and Thorough Trial Preparation
Since trucking companies are notified within minutes of the commercial truck wreck, they use that knowledge to gain a huge advantage over the injured automobile crash victim’s lawyer. In fact, Goliath wants the battle to be one-sided. Therefore, he has a team of defense attorneys and experts at his disposal. You can believe they are deployed to the scene of commercial truck wrecks and industrial workplace accidents, serious motorcycle and automobile wrecks to manipulate the investigation and protect their financial interest at your expense. Goliath has the latest and greatest technology at his disposal. As previously discussed, commercial trucks are now equipped with black box devices that can reveal items like speed, mechanical conditions, driver behavior and weather conditions. Industrial work sites often have cameras and the machinery often has mechanisms that will reveal the facts and circumstances that lead to personal injury or death. Goliath is quick to use this data to help his case, and as we said earlier, Goliath can also attempt to hide this data if it hurts his case. Goliath does not seek justice. Goliath will selfishly destroy and hide evidence. Since we know these cover-ups take place, we need to look for them throughout the discovery process.
It is not uncommon for Goliath to blame the victim in the case for his or her own personal injury or accident. Think again about the disadvantage you are at if you are involved in a commercial trucking accident or industrial accident and the corporation and the insurance company have their attorneys and experts at the accident scene immediately building their case against you, while you are being rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance or, even worse, transported to the morgue. For example, usually, the commercial truck driver involved in an accident will be the only witness to tell the troopers what happened. Oftentimes, not only will the commercial truck driver stretch the truth, but he or she will omit facts. Then, to add insult to injury, the insurance company will send representatives and adjusters to the hospital or funeral home to butter up you or your family. We have seen it all too often. This is why it is important to prepare your cross-examination as you go through the discovery process ferreting out facts for impeachment.
You see, without you there, Goliath can control the automobile wreck scene and the investigation, and you can not do anything about it or even say what happened. It is amazing how many injured workers are blamed by the company for an accident, and how many people that are hit by a commercial truck get the finger pointed at them, but it is no wonder with a one-sided investigation done or manipulated by Goliath. Without David seeking justice for you after a personal injury, wrongful death, or an accident, it can be insurmountable.
A motorcycle wreck case with a commercial driver that we settled at mediation after early and thorough trial preparation demonstrates this. Our client and his family were informed at the hospital, shortly after the wreck, that we must file a lawsuit to preserve evidence and to exercise early the discovery and subpoena power of the Circuit Court. We then filed the lawsuit and went to work building our case with the help of an accident reconstruction expert and an investigator. We located, interviewed, and then deposed all of the important witnesses, as well as gathered all of the necessary documents and evidence. We retained the services of a life care planner to evaluate the medical needs of our client and an economist to show the financial loss suffered. During this time, we learned that the insurance company sent an accident reconstruction expert to the scene and an investigator to the hospital to talk to the family. Do you think the automobile insurance company paid money to an expert and sent an investigator to the hospital to seek justice for this man that was recovering from multiple medical procedures and unable to work to provide for his family? Certainly not! Those experts were deployed to protect the bottom line of the automobile insurance company at the expense of our client. Thank God, they were prepared for it and turned the motorcycle wreck case over to us.
Visit Our Alabama Personal Injury Law Offices
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.
