After you or a loved one have been in an accident with a semi truck or other large vehicle you will experience many emotions: fear, sadness, anger, and many more. But what should you do to best help your personal injury or wrongful death case? The following is a checklist to help you begin this difficult process.

  1. Pictures. Pictures. You or a loved one will need to get pictures from the accident scene. Trucking companies have people on call to clean up trucking accidents and help get rid of evidence. It is imperative that you get pictures or even a video of the accident scene. This is the first step of information and evidence collection of your case. The Brooks Law Group has an app for IPhone and Android devices that allows you send us pictures of your trucking accident scene and we can preserve those through your case, if something were to happen to your phone.
  2. If injured seek medical attention immediately! Medical treatment is the most important aspect of your personal injury case. The goal for any one in trucking accident is to get healthy and return to as close of health as they were before the trucking accident. The easiest way to do this is seek medical treatment immediately following your accident, when injured. Insurance companies as well as trucking companies look at a lack of treatment or gaps in treatment as a sign of no injuries. If you are injured, due to the semi-truck accident the best thing you can do for your case is see a doctor or physician. This will drive your personal injury case, as well as allow you to reach Maximum Medical Improvement.
  3. Get any witnesses to the accident contact information. Accident cases don’t come down to what actually happened, they come down to what you can prove happened. The easiest way to prove what actually happened is by having witnesses to the trucking accident. You or a loved one should gather contact information to witnesses to the accident. This will become instrumental when your case is heading to trial. You should try and get both a phone number and address for any witnesses as some peoples’ phone number or address will change but if you have both then we are much more likely to stay connected to the witness.
  4. Contact an Attorney. Trucking companies along with their insurance companies deal with accidents on a daily basis. They are professionals at this; you need professionals on your team. The trucking company is in the business of protecting their drivers, while your attorney is in the business of helping you. The Brooks Law Group has been handling trucking accidents for over 20 years and have helped many satisfied clients. We know how to deal with the trucking companies and their insurance companies. The Brooks Law Group has received verdicts in trucking accidents exceeding $2,000,000.
  5. Don’t give any statements before contacting your attorney. The trucking company will want to know what happened during the accident. As you already know, the trucking company is trying to win their case by getting a leg up on you early. Don’t let them! You are not obligated to give them a statement of what happened. Your attorney at the Brooks Law Group, after talking to you, will advise you whom you should speak with.
  6. Don’t take your time! In Florida the statute of limitations (the time within you must file a lawsuit) for personal injuries resulting from a trucking accident is 4 years and for wrongful death cases is 2 years. We have seen many families come in and try to file a case for a loved one but the statute of limitations has already run. Two years can go by fairly quickly. Don’t let the trucking company get away with the accident by you taking your time. Make sure to contact the Brooks Law Group as soon as possible and we can help you through this difficult time.

While this list is very helpful, it is very short. Trucking accidents are very complex and heavily litigated cases. You will have many more questions that we can answer. Contact us at the Brooks Law group at 1(888) WE-MEAN-IT (888-936-3264) to schedule an appointment with an attorney right away.

Stephen K. Brooks
Author: Stephen K. Brooks

Steve was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As was the practice for new doctors his father worked day and night during his medical residency at Charity Hospital there. Steve comes from a long line of doctors. His father, his grandfather, his great grandfather, even two uncles were all specialists and/or surgeons in their chosen medical specialties, including internal medicine specialist, obstetrics / gynecology, neurosurgery and general practice / surgery. His great-great grandfather was the Surgeon General of Ohio during the Civil War.