The Best Detroit Truck Accident Lawyer Near You Is At Michigan Auto Law
An experienced truck accident lawyer near you is who you need when you or a loved one has been injured in a semi truck crash in Detroit, MI. An experienced personal injury attorney who specializes in trucking crashes can help you recover the full compensation and money damages you’re entitled to.
Fortunately, there is no lawyer or law firm more experienced than Michigan Auto Law when it comes to handling Detroit semi truck accident cases. Our law firm has recovered the largest trial verdict for a big rig crash in Wayne County Circuit Court more times than any other law firm in Michigan, as well as the largest tractor trailer crash settlement of any attorney or law firm in Michigan.
We are the only law firm in the state that has a board certification in truck crash law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, which is the highest designation of skill and experience available, and one of our attorneys, Steven Gursten, is a past-president of the American Association for Justice Truck Accident Litigation Group, and has been one of only three attorneys in the entire country to be awarded the Hall of Fame Award for truck crash litigation (out of approximately 110,000 attorneys in the country who say they handle truck crash cases).
Get the maximum settlement possible in your case. Get all of the No-Fault benefits the law entitles you so you can pay your medical bills and continue to support your family. Our Detroit truck accident lawyers prevent the motor carrier company from destroying the evidence you will need to fully uncover all their acts of negligence. Most importantly, our attorneys make sure that all of the responsible parties are held fully accountable for all of the losses and harms you have suffered.
Talk to one of our experienced Detroit truck accident lawyers today to find how he or she can help you.
Use our settlement calculator to find out how much your case may be worth.
What Should I Do After a Truck Crash?
After a truck crash, you should do the following: (1) seek medical attention for yourself; (2) seek medical attention for others; (3) report and document all of your injuries; (4) move to a safe area if possbile; (5) call the police; (6) refrain from making any statements or signing any releases; (7) file an application for No-Fault benefits; and (8) hire an experienced and specialized truck accident lawyer for your Detroit semi crash case.
Why Do I Need a Lawyer for a Truck Accident in Detroit?
You need an experienced Detroit truck accident lawyer because these trucking cases are more sophisticated and far more difficult than car crash cases. The problem is how few personal injury lawyers truly understand trucking. Most treat these as car crash cases but with bigger insurance policy limits, but they don’t understand trucking law and the federal and state rules and regulations that make these cases different. There can be multiple defendants and hidden layers of insurance. There can be broker-shipper liability.
The sad truth is that while there are plenty of lawyers on TV and on billboards throughout the Detroit metro area who advertise for truck accident cases, most have no experience and knowledge on how to litigate these cases.
Lawyers in Detroit can advertise for truck crash cases, but that certainly doesn’t mean they know how to properly handle them. Don’t let you or your loved ones pay for their mistakes.
How Can an Experienced Truck Accident Lawyer Help After a Crash in Detroit?
A lawyer who specializes in truck accident litigation can help your Detroit case by: (1) getting bigger settlements, faster; (2) stopping the motor carrier company from destroying key evidence once the mandatory retention periods have passed; (3) identifying the key safety violations that led to your crash; (4) finding the top experts to prove the various aspects of your case; (5) identifying and holding all responsible parties fully accountable; and (6) stopping the trucking company and its lawyers from sweeping acts of negligence under the rug by admitting negligence.
Here is More Information About How an Experienced Detroit Truck Accident Lawyer Can Help:
Bigger settlements in less time – An inexperienced personal injury attorney who doesn’t specialize in this area of the law can and will miss the crucial federal and state safety violations and will fail to identify all of the negligent parties – and all of the insurance coverage. This means your settlement will end up far less than it should have been. But a truck accident lawyer who understands this complex law can maximize settlement results in your Detroit case. The insurance industry’s own research shows that settlement amounts can be up to 4x greater when crash victims are represented by skilled, experienced attorneys who have a track record and a reputation for obtaining favorable settlements and trial verdicts.
Stop the motor carrier company from destroying key evidence – Motor carriers can and will legally destroy evidence that will prove your negligence case if they are not specifically asked to preserve the evidence within a certain amount of time once the retention period has expired. This can be as soon as 90 and 120 days after your crash, depending on what federal motor carrier regulations are at issue. Once that time has come and gone, so will your evidence as it heads to the shredder. An experienced Detroit truck accident lawyer will serve the necessary “preservation of evidence/spoliation” letters on the trucking company or can go to court to file temporary restraining orders to preserve this evidence that you will need to prove your case.
Show violations of federal and state safety regulations – Your Detroit truck accident lawyer’s extensive knowledge with the federal and state safety regulations that apply to trucks will allow you to identify every violation that led to your crash. When most truck crashes occur they are not random, unforeseeable acts. These are usually the results of broken safety systems that make these crashes not only foreseeable but even sadly predictable. The time and the place and the unfortunate person injured or killed may be by chance, but broken safety systems, unfit and unsafe drivers with terrible driving records, and little or no supervision, monitoring, and training make these types of crashes foreseeable.
Recruit the nation’s top experts to join your legal team and help build your case – The most commonly used experts in truck crash cases include: (1) crash reconstruction experts; (2) federal and state safety regulation experts; (3) driver training experts; (4) mechanics; (5) toxicologists who can speak to whether a driver was under the influence of alcohol, drugs, and/or prescription medication; and (6) life care planners who can explain to judges and juries what a crash victim’s life will be like going forward and what his or her medical needs will be.
Make sure all of the responsible, negligent parties are held accountable and legally liable – This is not as easy as it may sound. Seldom are all of the defendants in a tractor trailer crash case readily identifiable from the start. The motor carrier companies and the corporations involved in the industry create complex corporate entities so they can hide layers of insurance and assets. An inexperienced attorney won’t be able to find them in your case but an experienced Detroit truck accident lawyer will. Failure to identify and name a proper party as a defendant can mean the loss of millions of additional dollars in applicable insurance coverage that can be used to protect families when tragedy strikes.
Access liability insurance coverage and assets to increase your settlement – Just as it is vitally important to identify all of the parties whose negligence caused a truck crash, it is equally important to identify all of the financial resources that those parties have available to contribute to a settlement amount that reflects the true value of your case. Your lawyer will discover not only the insurance policies that the defendants readily admit, but also the corporate and umbrella policies that they try to hide. Your lawyer will also do asset checks on the defendant – many of whom are well-heeled corporations – to verify their ability to contribute to a settlement or trial verdict that exceeds their insurance coverage limits.
Who can be held liable after a truck crash?
The parties that can be held legally liable after a truck crash are those whose negligence led directly to the crash or played a causal role in the crash. This will always include the big rig driver, but it can include: (1) the tractor trailer broker or shipper; (2) the motor carrier company; (3) the owner of the tractor and trailer; (4) the maintenance company; (5) the loading company; and (6) the shipping company.
How long do I have to sue for a truck crash?
You have three (3) years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit for pain and suffering compensation and money damages. This is Michigan’s statute of limitations for all tractor trailer crash lawsuits, MCL 600.5805(2).
If you don’t file your lawsuit on time, you will lose all of your legal rights to sue the responsible parties and to hold them accountable for injuries, harms and/or deaths that their negligence has caused.
What types of evidence can be used in a lawsuit?
The types of evidence that a lawyer can use to prove your Detroit truck accident lawsuit include:
- Police reports
- Photos of the crash scene
- Surveillance video or dash cam video of the crash
- Witness statements
- Expert opinions
- Medical records
- The big rig driver’s electronic logging device (ELD) data which tracks the driver’s “hours-of-service,” i.e., the hours that he or she been driving and the hours that he or she has rested
- The “black box” or “electronic control modules” (ECMs) data which record data about the tractor trailer’s operation such as speed and braking
- The big rig’s vehicle maintenance and inspection records
- The motor carrier company’s employee file for the big rig driver
- The results of a post-crash toxicology test to determine if the tractor trailer driver was under the influence of alcohol, drugs and/or prescription medication
- Cell phone records from the big rig driver and the motor carrier company
- The tractor trailer driver’s and motor carrier company’s records of safety violations
Common causes
Our lawyers find that the most common causes of truck accidents in Detroit include:
- Speeding
- Fatigued driving
- Distracted driving
- Impaired driving (alcohol, drugs and/or prescription medication)
- Reckless driving
- Careless driving
- Violation of traffic laws
- Disregarding traffic signals
- Failure to use the ordinary care that a reasonably careful driver would use
- Following too closely
- Mechanical malfunction issues due to improper or inadequate inspection, maintenance and repair
- Failure to adjust to dangerous road conditions
- Failure to safely monitor and account for blind spots
- Cargo securement issues due to overloading and/or improper loading of cargo
- The motor carrier company’s negligent hiring, training and retention of unsafe big rig drivers
- Motor carrier companies forcing unsafe tractor trailers that should be kept out-of-service back onto the roads
Common injuries
Injuries that our lawyers frequently see from truck accidents in Detroit include:
- Neck Injuries including disc herniations
- Back Injuries including disc herniations
- Head Injuries including traumatic brain injuries, concussions, and brain bleeds
- Fractures, broken bones and dislocations
- Spinal cord injuries which can result in temporary or permanent paralysis
- Injuries to internal organs
- Internal bleeding
- Burn injuries
- Amputations
- Crush injuries
- Nerve damage
- Paralysis
- Lacerations
- Emotional trauma
- Psychological trauma
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Wrongful death