Truck Injury Lawyer Blog : Truck Accident Lawyer & Attorney: Morgan Adams : Contingency Fee Truck Accident Lawyer

A new organization for lawyers who represent victims of truck, bus, and commercial motor vehicle accidents was recently founded. The organization is limited to those lawyers who represent individuals against these large companies and their huge insurance companies. See:  www.aitlamerica.com/CrashVictims.aspx 

AITLA is the counter to the long established Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA) whose members are allowed to only represent trucking, bus, and commercial motor vehicle companies, insurance companies, and at fault commercial drivers. If you represent individuals who have been harmed by the trucking industry you can't be a member. See their web site at: www.tida.org  TIDA was founded in 1993 and has 1,200 motor carriers, trucking insurers, defense attorneys and claims servicing companies as satisfied customers.

I previously posted a blog on how to choose a trucking lawyer. Let me now add that if the lawyer you are considering hiring for your case is not a member of AITLA, you should consider another lawyer. Trucking cases are complicated, hard fought, and require specialization and most lawyers simply don't have the depth of knowledge necessary to handle these cases.

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A few months ago I was invited to be the lawyer, out of all the lawyers in the state of Tennessee, to give the very first webinar for continuing legal education (CLE) sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association. A webinar is a live streaming video that you can watch on your computer in the comfort of, well wherever your computer has access the Internet. I was honored and accepted the invitation. I guess all the feedback the TBA received from the lawyers that have attended my past  presentations was more favorable than I had any reason to believe. Let me take a moment to thank all of the lawyers who were kind enough to listen to me, ignore my gaffes, and were then gracious enough to tell someone in charge that I knew what I was talking about. I really appreciated having this opportunity to make history.

On Thursday, May 15, 2008 , the Tennessee Bar Association's first webinar for CLE credit became a reality. I spoke into a camera for an hour (it was very weird not speaking to a roomful of people with whom I can interact. I had no feeling on whether I could move faster with the material or if I needed to slow it down and explain some of the more complicated regulations and issues). Regardless, history was made and I really feel like I am part of the twenty first century now. The seminar is now on line for anyone to see at: www.tnbaru.com/CLE/catalog_course_details.php  The TBA does charge for access to the presentation and materials.

My topic, as you might have guessed was "Handling the Tractor Trailer Case" and I barely scratched the surface in the hour. As part of the presentation there was a paper and I also provided over 150 pages of examples of critical documents that are necessary for any lawyer to be familiar with if they are handling a trucking case. Other than being sick at  the time, and the TBA having some slight technical glitches, the live streaming web broadcast was a success with a record crowd in attendance. OK, it had to be a record, it was the first one!

My next seminar will be a short national tele-seminar on Tuesday, May 20, 2008, for the American Association for Justice. I am speaking about a new bit of trucking technology, the Electric On Board Recorder. More on this later.

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First, if you were involved in a collision with a tractor trailer, you are probably reading this some time after the collision, probably a long time after the collision. That's OK. People understand that because of the significant forces involved with a crash involving tractor trailers, most people involved in the crash are either in the hospital or dead. In fact a majority of my clients are surviving family members who had to plan funerals and deal with the overwhelming grief of loosing a loved one and didn't even think of filing a lawsuit until some months after the collision. So what should you do if you, or a loved one, was involved in a collision? I previously posted on this but a reminder is in order because it is important. Please

1. Make sure you and yours are safe.
2. Get medical treatment, if needed, as soon as possible.
3. Get the names addresses, and numbers of any witnesses. If a witness calls you later to see how you are, or drops by the hospital, make sure you can contact them again. Make sure you copy down the DOT number on the cab AND the trailer. Remember to get the names of the driver of  the other vehicle and anyone they might have in cab.
4. Once you are safe and have sought medical care take photo's of your car, the truck, the  accident scene, and modest photo's (pretend we are showing them to your pastor) of the injuries.
5. Do not give recorded statements to anyone. You are probably on pain killers, may have memory problems as a result of a blow to the head, and generally are not trained to handle questioning by the well trained, highly experienced insurance adjuster assigned to these cases.
6. Get a copy of the accident report and check it for accuracy
7. Have someone take photo's and the measurements of any skid marks.
8. Have someone take photo's of the tractor-trailers' tires and any damage or paint scrapes on the tractor trailer.
9. Contact an experienced trucking lawyer as soon as possible. I have previously posted a blog on what to look for in an experienced truck injury lawyer if you decide to hire one.  Those comments remain as true today as they did then. An experienced lawyer will help you save important information which might show the trucking company created the conditions for the wreck and the driver is just the fall guy for the trucking companies willingness to cut corners. Information in a trucking case is quickly lost. For example: Pre and post trip inspection reports of the tractor trailer are required to be kept for only three months. see 49 CFR 396.11(c)(2) Some electronic information can disappear in as little as 14 days. An experienced commercial vehicle injury lawyer will be able to obtain this information and make sure it is available for trial.

The Truck Accident Lawyers at the Law Offices of Morgan Adams concentrate in protecting the rights of those who were seriously injured or lost a loved one in an accident with a commercial truck or bus. Our lawyers are based in Tennessee, but serve clients throughout the nation. If you or someone you love has been seriously hurt by a careless driver, don’t sign anything the trucking company gives you -- contact us as soon as possible at 800-580-4878 or by email to learn more at a free, confidential consultation.

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New Jersey has passed a law that makes it illegal, beginning March 1, 2008, to  talk on a hand-held cell phone while driving or to text message while driving. My truck driving friends tell me this is long overdue as they frequently see passenger car drivers oblivious to the danger they create when they are talking on the phone.

Washington was the first state to ban texting in a car back in 2007. Connecticut and New York also have bans on the use of cell phones, New York is apparently allowing the use of hands free devices.  The New York hands free approach was followed by California and D.C. Some states only limit the use of cell phones by school bus drivers, Arkansas and Arizona for example.

Expect the ban on cell phone use while driving to spread. Studies equate to driving while on a cell phone to driving while drunk. If you wouldn't drink and drive, don't call and drive. The studies started in 1997 and found someone talking on a cell phone is four (4) times as likely to cause accidents when engaged in cell phone conversation than when not engaged in cell phone conversation. The landmark epidemiological study is Redelmeier and Tibshirani (1997) “Association Between Cellular-Telephone Calls and Motor Vehicle Collisions.” New England Journal of Medicine, 336, 453. The study examined the telephone records of 699 auto drivers who had caused motor vehicle accidents and found that 24 percent were involved in cell phone conversations at the time of the accidents. The established four fold increased incidence of accidents in association with cell phone use is the same incidence associated with DUI drunk driving.

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