Recent Blog Posts
Filing a Wrongful Death Lawsuit After a Pedestrian Accident in Texas
When someone is killed in an accident, their surviving family members are left to pick up the pieces and try to come to terms with the tragedy. Losing a loved one is horrible regardless of the circumstances. However, losing a loved one in a pedestrian accident is especially traumatic.
Wrongful death claims allow certain family members of a deceased victim to seek civil justice through monetary damages if someone proximately caused the loved one’s death. If your family member passed away in a pedestrian accident, you may be able to take legal action on their behalf.
Texas Wrongful Death Claims
Texas Civil Practices & Remedies Code § 71.002 establishes that a wrongful death occurs when an injury causes a person's death and the injury is the result of another person or entity's wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness, or failure to act. Wrongful death claims are completely separate from any criminal consequences an individual faces for causing a wrongful death. For example, a drunk driver who strikes a pedestrian in a crosswalk may face criminal charges for his or her actions. However, the surviving family’s ability to bring a wrongful death claim does not depend on any criminal charges being filed or the result of those charges.
Pursuing Compensation After a Pedestrian Accident in Texas
When you are on foot traveling as a pedestrian, you become the most vulnerable of all road users. As a result, pedestrian accidents can often have devastating consequences, including catastrophic injuries or even wrongful death. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, in 2021, 5,366 crashes involved pedestrians. Several things can cause a pedestrian accident, such as stormy weather conditions or poor road design. However, for this blog, we will be delving deeper into pedestrian accidents caused by driver negligence and the resulting pursuit by injured pedestrians to obtain just compensation for their injuries and damages related to the accident.
Collecting and Preserving Evidence in Your Texas Truck Accident Claim
Commercial truck accidents often cause devastating injuries and property damage. If you or a loved one were involved in a truck crash, you may understandably be looking for answers. You want to know who to blame and how to recover financial compensation for the financial losses you have suffered. Finding, obtaining, and preserving evidence is crucial for any successful truck accident claim.
Types of Evidence That May Be Valuable in Your Case
To bring a successful case against a trucking company or other at-fault party, your attorney will need to demonstrate that the at-fault party’s negligent or wrongful actions caused the crash. Your lawyer will also need to show the direct connection between your injuries and the damages you suffered, such as medical bills and lost income.
Can I Recover Compensation After a Single-Car Accident?
When more than one car is involved in a crash, it is often fairly clear who is liable to who. One driver ran a red light, or decided to send a text message, and crashed into another driver who was driving responsibly. The careless or law-breaking driver is liable to the driver who got hit. In a single-car accident, recovering compensation can be a bit trickier because first, you will have to prove that someone else was responsible. This does not mean you cannot recover after getting into a single-car accident. There are other parties who may potentially be liable depending on the circumstances. Proving that another party is liable for your injuries when no one else actually crashed may be difficult, but it can be done.
If you got hurt in a car accident where yours was the only vehicle that crashed, you will need a skilled attorney to evaluate your case and determine whether you can pursue compensation from a third party.
Legal Options After a Truck Accident Caused by Texting and Driving
Smartphones have revolutionized our day-to-day lives. We use our phones for communication, social media, surfing the web, and much more. Unfortunately, some people use their phones when they should be concentrating on driving.
Operating a large commercial truck takes extreme focus and attention. Truck drivers who are texting and driving can cause commercial truck accidents in which others are hurt or killed.
Truck Driver Texting and Driving Laws
Semi-trucks can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds, and the damage caused in a semi-truck collision is often catastrophic. Texting and driving or other smartphone use behind the wheel significantly increases the risk of accidents. Because of these risks, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration prohibits the use of hand-held cell phones behind the wheel of a commercial truck or bus. However, not all truck drivers comply with this important rule.
Who is Liable for Secondary Car Accident Injuries?
As if being injured in a car accident is not bad enough, the aftermath of the initial crash can be just as dangerous. While people are attempting to exit their damaged vehicles, summon help, and assess the damage, there is a substantial risk of a second accident occurring. Often, the very same conditions–such as lack of visibility–that contributed to the initial crash also contribute to the ongoing danger.
If you get into an accident, it is important that you take steps to minimize the danger, such as moving away from the roadway and activating your emergency flashers if they are still operational. Call an attorney once the immediate danger has passed and it is safe to do so, but do be mindful that it is important not to wait too long. Important evidence can quickly be covered up, especially during winter storms.
Differences in Personal Injury Cases – Pre-suit vs Lawsuit
If you have been the victim of a personal injury incident or accident due to the fault of another, the best advice is to retain an experienced personal injury counsel to protect your interests while you focus on the healing process. A qualified legal team such as Burress Injury Law will help you understand the claim process, maximize the value of your case, and quite possibly keep you out of unnecessary litigation.
You may wonder whether your legal team will need to file a lawsuit. The Burress Injury Law team begins each relationship with new clients with a minimum two hour sign up meeting with the actual attorneys (not some investigator or intake person). Here, our attorneys personally explain all of the common elements of a personal injury claim and transfer a lot of their knowledge to our clients so that they understand “best practices” to help their claims go smoothly.
Understanding the Value of Obtaining and Preserving Evidence in Your Commercial Truck Accident Case
Victims of commercial truck accidents may be entitled to financial compensation for their damages. However, building a successful claim against a truck company or other at-fault party is complex. The strength of the personal injury claim or lawsuit largely depends on the strength of the evidence supporting the claim. Gathering, preserving, and effectively utilizing compelling evidence is essential to success.
Using Evidence to Develop a Robust Truck Wreck Injury Claim
To recover financial compensation for medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering, and other damages caused by a truck wreck, several elements must be proven. First, the injured party must prove that the truck driver, truck company, or other at-fault party violated its duty of care by acting negligently. Speeding, texting while driving, failure to properly maintain the commercial vehicle, and negligent loading and securement of cargo are just some of the ways a truck driver or truck company may breach its duty of care.
What if the Driver Who Hurt Me Was Breaking the Law?
Driving privileges come with a lot of rules to follow. You must keep working headlights on your vehicle. You must obey stop signs. You may not drive while you are intoxicated. There is a very good reason that so many laws exist to govern the way people can use the roads - it is to promote public safety. When a driver breaks a law that is designed to protect public safety, a legal concept called “negligence per se” comes into play. If you were hurt in a motor vehicle accident due to the illegal actions of another driver, an attorney may be able to help you recover compensation.
What Does “Negligence Per Se” Mean in Texas?
“Negligence” can be somewhat subjective at times. Reasonable people may disagree about whether a certain driving behavior truly reflects carelessness. However, the case can become much more objective when the at-fault driver was clearly breaking the law. It is often easier to prove that a driver violated a statute, such as by running a red light, than it is to prove that the driver was, say, distracted talking to their passenger.
Understanding the Risks of Not Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney After Your Car Accident
Nobody gets behind the wheel of a car and expects to get into a car accident. Unfortunately, car accidents remain prevalent in our society for various reasons. After a car accident resulting in serious injuries, you will no doubt find the experience overwhelming. Doctors and other medical providers, including your own long time family doctor, will likely not see you because they do not want to become involved in a motor vehicle accident case. If you have health insurance, you will learn that your health insurance provider will attempt to shirk responsibility and have you deal with the auto insurance carrier, who will not consider a dime until all treatment is concluded and a demand is made. If the health insurance company will agree to pay for crash related medical treatment, it will insist on all payments made being returned to it via a legal concept called subrogation.
In a nutshell, finding qualified medical treatment alone is a nightmare. Moreover, you will have sophisticated adjusters calling to attempt to take recorded statements from you in order to create liability issues, lock you into a narrative and minimize your damages and create causation issues by discussing all of your prior medical history.
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