Odessa Truck Accident Lawyers

Why Choose Kemmy Law Firm?

After a commercial truck collision, your first thought may be to settle with the insurance company at the first opportunity. We understand this desire, and many other personal injury firms will push you to do so, as well.

We recommend you do not rely on a settlement that may never come. Instead, work with our experienced trial lawyers who will not hesitate to take your case to trial when an appropriate settlement is unavailable.

We are a family-owned and -operated law firm. With over 50 years of experience handling trucking accidents, our experienced trial attorneys have seen major trucking companies fight back hard against liability. And, insurers do everything they can to minimize your injuries and their expenses.

That is why, over the past five decades, we have acquired the skills and resources to defend your rights. Our West Texas truck accident attorneys know your case will require the right medical and accident reconstruction experts, careful planning, and aggressive negotiations.

We also know you need a law firm that will give your case its full attention. To that end, we intentionally limit our caseload to ensure we provide quality service over quantity.

By working with Kemmy Law Firm, you and your family will benefit from our decades of knowledge, experience, truck accident resources, and our unwavering desire to set things right.

Common Causes of Truck Accidents

Over the decades, we have been contacted by victims of all types of trucking accidents. We have seen it all and always fight hard for our clients’ recoveries.

Talk with our truck wreck attorneys as soon as possible after a:

• Jackknife truck accident
• Runaway truck accident
• Truck brake failure accident
• Override/underride truck accident
• Rear-end truck accident
• Head-on truck accident
• Tire blowout truck accident
• Distracted truck driver accident
• Impaired truck driver accident
• Drowsy truck driver accident
• Shifting cargo truck accident
• Lost load truck accident
• Truck rollover accident
• Wide-turn truck accident
• Truck blind spot accident
• T-Bone/side-impact truck accident

When you need to hire a truck crash lawyer, we recommend looking for someone who has handled your specific type of crash before. Different accidents contain nuances that need to be considered and addressed. An attorney who has never handled a distracted truck driver crash may miss something important, weakening your chances of recovering maximum compensation.

Types of Injuries from Truck Accidents

If you or a loved one were in an accident with a semi-truck, you or your relative might be experiencing serious and devastating injuries.

Kemmy Law Firm has worked on personal injury and truck wreck cases involving:

• Broken bones
• Soft tissue injuries
• Severe lacerations and scarring
• Face and eye injuries
• Dental injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries and concussions
• Neck injuries, like whiplash
• Back injuries, like herniated discs
• Crush injuries
• Nerve damage
• Spinal cord injuries
• Paralysis
• Amputation
• Organ damage
• Burns
• Post-traumatic stress disorder

If you’re experiencing new medical symptoms after a truck wreck, you should seek medical treatment as soon as you can. This is to ensure any internal injury is diagnosed. You may not be able to see you have a brain injury or a lacerated organ, but a doctor will know the signs.

Receiving medical care that you need right away also lets you begin documenting your injuries right away. Understanding the type and severity of your injuries helps you and your truck injury attorney calculate the value of your claim.

Fatal Truck Accidents

We also understand that your loved one’s injuries may have been too severe to recover from. When you lose a relative in a fatal truck accident, talk with us immediately.

Depending on the circumstances, your relative’s personal injury claim may have survived their death. Also, the law may entitle you and other surviving relatives to wrongful death compensation.

Who is at Fault for a Truck Accident?

Liability in truck accident cases is often more complex than in a personal vehicle collision.

Potentially liable parties include a:

• Truck driver;
• Trucking company;
• Cargo owner;
• Cargo loader;
• Maintenance provider; or
• Third-party.

Determining who caused the crash directly and who is liable for your injuries requires carefully collecting and scrutinizing the evidence.

An 18-wheeler accident lawyer will collect all of the evidence that is immediately available, including the police report, photos of the crash, video footage from other vehicles, traffic cameras, and businesses’ surveillance cameras, eyewitness accounts, physical evidence, and more.

Your personal injury lawyers may also recommend filing a personal injury lawsuit as soon as possible. By naming the potentially liable parties in the lawsuit, your truck accident attorney can take full advantage of the discovery process. Through depositions, requests for documents, interrogatories, and other legal tools, your lawyer will gather the truck driver’s employment records, the driver’s logs, the trucking company’s inspection and maintenance records, the truck’s electronic data and more.

Compensation in Truck Accident Cases

When another party’s negligence or recklessness caused your injuries, the law may entitle you to compensation. The injuries for which you can be compensated for are known as damages. You should talk with an Odessa truck accident lawyer about the type of damages involved in your claim and the potential value of your claim.

Typically, 18-wheeler accident settlements in Texas include compensation for your past and future:

• Medical Expenses
• Lost Wages
• Physical Pain and Suffering
• Mental Anguish
• Scarring and Disfigurement
• Physical Limitations
• Reduced Earning Capacity
• Reduced Quality of Life

You must present proof of the type and value of your damages, which is why you should work with an accident attorney experienced in truck accident cases. You can present straightforward documentation of your economic damages, including the medical bills and lost wages.

To prove the value of your pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of normal life, we recommend taking photos of your injuries every day. Thoroughly document the recovery process. We also recommend you make daily entries in a journal regarding your physical pain and discomfort and the emotional consequences of the truck accident injuries.

Additionally, if the other party’s actions were reckless or egregious, we may pursue punitive damages. These are intended to punish a wrongdoer, not compensate you for a specific injury. Texas’ law caps punitive damages as the greater of two times the amount of economic damages, plus an amount equal to any non-economic damages up to $750,000; or $200,000.

Permian Basin Truck Accident Claims

To demand compensation from a truck driver, trucking company, or other party’s insurer, you must be able to establish the policyholder is liable. Doing so typically requires establishing that party’s negligence.

Negligence is a breach of duty that causes another party harm. Truck drivers and trucking companies, as common carriers regulated by federal and state law, have a high duty of care toward others on the road. They should be very careful in hiring and retaining competent drivers, inspecting and maintaining the trucks, and in operating the trucks safely. A failure to act carefully and reasonably that causes a crash is negligence.

When that negligence has caused you and your family harm, you need a Odessa truck accident lawyer to guide and represent you through the claim process.

The claim process entails:

• Collecting Evidence from Crash and injuries: We must secure the evidence surrounding the crash and evidence of your injuries.
• Diagnosis and treatment: You are examined by a physician who diagnoses your injuries and recommends a course of treatment.
• Notification of claim: We must notify your insurer and the other party’s insurer of your claim for compensation.
• Crash investigation: We continue our thorough investigation into the truck accident.
• Filing suit: We will file a personal injury lawsuit and name several potentially liable parties as defendants, including the truck driver and trucking company.
• Discovery: We will fully utilize discovery to investigate the cause of the crash further and identify the primarily liable party.
• Settlement negotiations: During or after discovery, the insurance company may reach out with an initial settlement offer. This offer will likely be less than your claim is worth and will begin negotiations.
• Resolution or trial: If the insurance company refuses to negotiate a fair settlement, your lawyer will prepare for trial.
• Appeal: If the jury rules in the defendant’s favor, your lawyer will analyze your case for grounds for appeal.

You cannot rely on receiving a fair settlement quickly. Winning a settlement for the full value of your claim requires a great deal of work that we perform during our trial preparations. Without filing suit and going through the discovery process, your lawyer may not obtain the evidence you need.

You also must be prepared for a truck driver or trucking company to deny liability vigorously. When their insurer refuses to payout on your claim, you have to be ready to file a lawsuit and go to trial. This requires working with a Odessa truck accident lawyer with successful trial experience.

Texas Trucking Regulations

The trucking industry, its employees, and independent contractors are closely regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV).

Both the FMCSA and TxDOT restrict the size and weight of commercial vehicles. Semi-trucks can weigh up to 80,000 pounds. Each axle can weigh 20,000 pounds while a tandem axle group can weigh 34,000 pounds. However, when a truck must go over a bridge, then the federal bridge formula dictates the maximum weight allowed.

Other important trucking regulations control the training and licensing of truck drivers. Every trucker must have a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). To drive certain types of vehicles or haul certain types of cargo, truckers may need to acquire one or more endorsements on their licenses.

There are also strict regulations regarding inspections, maintenances, and hours of service. Truck drivers or companies that violate these rules put their drivers and other motorists in harm’s way. In addition, violations can be considered negligent under the law.

Commercial Trucking Insurance

Truck drivers and trucking companies must adhere to specific insurance requirements:

• Trucks weighing less than 10,001 pounds and carrying non-hazardous goods: $300,000
• Trucks weighing more than 10,001 pounds and carrying non-hazardous goods: $750,000
• Trucks carrying oil: $1 million
• Trucks carrying hazardous materials: $5 million

Minimum liability insurance coverage may differ under Texas law. For intrastate truck operations, the minimum requirement for commercial insurance coverage is $500,000.

After you suffer truck accident injuries, we will thoroughly review the case for insurance coverage. We look for whether the truck driver, trucking company, or third party has a relevant insurance policy that may cover your injuries.

We Take Truck Accident Cases to Trial and Win

Most truck wreck claims settle before trial, but we warn all of our truck accident clients that full and fair settlement offers only come when you and your accident lawyer are prepared and willing to take the company to trial. We recommend working with a law firm that is prepared to take your case all the way to a jury trial and win.

A lot can get in the way of a full and fair truck accident settlement. The trucker or company may deny liability entirely. The insurance company may use a loophole to try and deny your claim. The insurer also may try a number of tactics to minimize their policyholder’s liability and your settlement.

You have to be prepared to fight for what your case is worth. If the insurance company refuses to cooperate and agree to a fair settlement, we can and will take them to trial. Our family of trial lawyers at Kemmy Law Firm never backs down, and we have an impressive track record of winning trials for our clients.