Williamsport Truck Accident Lawyers
Strong Legal Representation When A Serious Truck Accident Has Occurred
Any vehicle crash can injure, maim and kill, but when trucks or large commercial vehicles are involved, the consequences can be disastrous. With its high volume of commercial traffic and significant heavy industry and mining, Pennsylvania has one of the highest occurrences of fatal truck accidents in the country. Large vehicles, such as tractor trailers, big rigs, semis and 18-wheelers, are difficult to maneuver, and when loaded with freight, they may take 20 to 40 percent longer to stop than a small vehicle. It is no wonder that when heavy trucks collide with passenger vehicles, the occupants of the smaller vehicles do not stand much of a chance.
If you or a loved one was injured or someone was killed in a Williamsport, Pennsylvania, truck accident due to someone else’s negligence or responsibility, you may be entitled to financial compensation.
Our seasoned Williamsport truck accident lawyers at Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters have helped hundreds of people file successful personal injury lawsuits due to vehicle crashes.
Call us at 570-796-7613 to schedule a consultation where we will examine the facts of your case and find the best approach to getting you the compensation you deserve.
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What A Truck Accident Attorney Can Do
Our Truck Accident Attorneys Can Investigate Your Claim
An important step in pursuing your compensation is to ensure evidence is collected and preserved. Our truck accident lawyers in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, can use legal tools to look into what happened in your case and can request and review:
- Truck driving logbooks and records
- Driving history of the vehicle and trailers
- Past accident and arrest records of the drivers
- Truck maintenance records
- Truck weigh-ins
- Records of Qualcomm, a satellite truck-tracking system which can approximate the speed of the vehicle at the time of the accident. These records must be acquired quickly, as they are often expunged after 30 days
- Black box and other electronic recordkeeping
- Cell phone communications
- Accident reports by police, the driver, and any owner or trucking company
If you or your loved one has been injured, or someone has been in a crash involving trucks, help is available from a skilled and compassionate Williamsport truck accident attorney at Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters. We understand federal, state and local regulations, and legal standards, know how insurance policies work, and can handle all aspects of an insurance claim. If death is involved, we will seek financial restitution for the family members left behind.
A Williamsport Truck Accident Lawyer Can Go After Multiple Parties
Truck accident lawsuits are particularly complex, with multiple potentially responsible parties. Most often the trucking company will be sued, but the driver may also be liable. There is often a disagreement as to whether the truck driver is an independent contractor or an employee of the trucking company. This is a legal issue and a Williamsport truck accident lawyer can help resolve it.
Not only do you have to examine the driver’s behavior or inactions, but you also need a skilled attorney to investigate the employer, too.
Pennsylvania law allows employers to be held responsible for negligence in:
- Hiring
- Retention
- Training
- Supervision of their truck driver employees
A trucking company needs to make sure their employees are properly qualified and do not have a history of accidents, tickets or other legal violations. They may test drivers for drug use. Finally, employers are responsible for ensuring their vehicles are safe and properly maintained. If the trucking company has failed to live up to their responsibilities, they may be sued for negligence.
You have the right to sue any person or entity whose negligence caused your truck accident. In addition to the driver and the employer, a truck or parts manufacturer could also be liable. A contracted loading company could have been negligent by overloading the trailer. A road maintenance crew could be responsible for not properly marking a construction zone. Your Pennsylvania truck accident lawyer will seek to hold all liable parties accountable.
Our Williamsport Truck Accident Lawyer Manages The Legal Process
An experienced truck accident attorney in Pennsylvania can determine whether regulations have been violated. An attorney can also help with the following:
- Finding and interviewing witnesses
- Completing and filing forms correctly
- Handling insurance companies
- Establishing liability for the crash
- Addressing lien and subrogation issues
Regardless of how your injuries were sustained in your trucking accident, our attorneys at Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters can clearly explain how the law relates to your situation. Your options may include filing a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.
Our Truck Accident Attorneys Stand Up To Insurance Companies
When you choose to pursue a claim against a trucking company, you will likely be going up against a large insurance company with deep pockets and a team of attorneys. They are interested in denying your claim or compensating you for as little as possible. At the end of the day, the insurance company will see you as a claim, not a person, and you represent an obstacle to them from earning big profits.
Our truck accident lawyers in Williamsport will represent you so you do not have to fight the big companies alone. We are familiar with their methods. We will not let them take advantage of you or undervalue your damages and injuries.
A Truck Crash Lawyer Can Recover Damages For You
Recovering optimal compensation is one goal of any truck accident lawsuit. Sometimes an insurance company will offer to cover your medical bills, which could sound fair. However, you could be leaving money on the table. A truck accident lawyer is best suited to identify all the categories of damages you may be legally entitled to, which goes beyond just bills. You may be able to ask for:
- Medical and hospital expenses
- Future medical expenses
- Rehabilitative expenses
- Past, present and future lost wages
- Past, present and future loss of economic horizons
- Property loss
- Pain and suffering
- Disfigurement
- Loss of life’s pleasures
Some of these expenses and costs are not easy to estimate. Our Williamsport truck accident attorneys have experience valuing and recovering noneconomic damages for victims.
Our dedicated Pennsylvania truck accident lawyers have the skills needed to hold trucking companies and others responsible for the harm they caused you and make them pay a fair settlement. Call us at 570-796-7613 for a consultation.
Why Choose Us
Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters Provides Quality Representation
It is important that you retain a law firm that is reputable for your truck accident claim. Our attorneys at Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters have successfully represented clients in all kinds of truck accident cases. We will handle your case in a professional and compassionate manner. We understand that this is a difficult time, and we want to help you recover from your tragedy. This is why our truck accident lawyers in Pennsylvania offer tailored representation and are available to address all your concerns.
Our truck accident lawyers have decades of legal experience in Williamsport and the surrounding areas. Our credentials are impressive, as we have recovered large settlements for our clients. We are knowledgeable in negligence, and write, teach and testify about legal matters. This gives our truck accident attorneys an edge, because we can strategize to overcome legal hurdles and argue competently on your behalf.
Attorney Cliff Rieders wrote the book on Pennsylvania’s Financial Responsibility Law, which may come into play, and on wrongful death and survival actions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Should I Do After A Truck Accident?
After a truck accident you should do the following:
- Stay at the crash scene
- Call 911 for help and report the crash
- Seek medical treatment
If you are in reasonable medical condition you should:
- Check other vehicles for injuries
- Document the crash – take photos, videos and audio recordings
- Get names and information from any witnesses
- Exchange information with other drivers
Do not make any statements or speak to insurance adjusters until you consult a personal injury attorney.
What Should I Do If The Trucking Company Calls?
If you have been involved in a crash with a truck, do not speak to anyone from the trucking company until you consult with your attorney. Even if the representative sounds sympathetic, the trucking company has its own interests at heart and will try to get you to say something that can be used against you or persuade you to accept the lowest settlement possible.
Where Do Trucking Accidents Happen Most Often?
Surprisingly, most trucking accidents occur in rural areas. This is due to the fact that in city limits truck drivers generally reduce their speed and pay more attention to the other vehicles and pedestrians around them. Rural areas have higher speed limits, are more boring and may have long stretches that are hypnotizing to drive. Drivers may become less attentive, be distracted, start eating, talk on the phone, fiddle with some equipment, or they may become drowsy and fall asleep.
How Much Is My Truck Accident Case Worth?
The exact value of your claim is hard to determine until you speak with our Williamsport truck accident attorneys. Some things you can do to maximize the value of your case are to call our truck accident lawyers so we can begin investigating, seek medical attention and follow up on all your treatment.
If you do not see an answer to your question, feel free to call us to schedule a telephone consultation to discuss your case at 570-796-7613.
Contact Rieders, Travis, Dohrmann, Mowrey, Humphrey & Waters To Speak To A Pennsylvania Truck Accident Attorney
With decades of experience handling many types of vehicle accidents and an excellent reputation in the legal community, we are well positioned to take on the most difficult cases. We offer consultations on personal injury cases to examine the facts of your case and find the best approach to getting you the compensation you deserve.
If you have been in an accident, time is of the essence, so do not delay. Call us at 570-796-7613 or use our online contact form. Based in Williamsport, we serve clients throughout the state of Pennsylvania. More than that, we offer you experience, knowledge, compassion and a long history of results.
Attorney Cliff Rieders
Cliff Rieders is a nationally board-certified trial lawyer practicing personal injury law. A large part of Cliff’s practice are serious personal injury matters involving vehicles, trucks, medical and hospital malpractice, products liability claims involving personal injury, and multi-district litigation including cases related to pharmaceuticals, vitamin supplements, and medical devices. He is admitted in several state and federal courts, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. Rieders is the past regional president of the Federal Bar Association and is a life member of the distinguished American Law Institute, which promulgates proposed rules adopted by many state courts. He is a past president of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, formerly the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association. As a founder of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, he served on the Board for 15 years.
Not only has Rieders held many highly esteemed, leadership positions, but he has also authored legislation related to the Patient Safety Authority and the Mcare Act, which governs medical and hospital liability actions in Pennsylvania. He authored texts upon which both practitioners and judges rely, including Pennsylvania Malpractice Laws and Forms, and Financial Responsibility Law Issues in Pennsylvania, the latter governing auto and truck collisions in Pennsylvania. In addition, he wrote several books on the practice of law in Pennsylvania regarding wrongful death and survivor actions, insurance bad faith, legal malpractice claims and worker rights, among others.
As recognition of his wide range of contributions to his profession and of his dedication to protecting the rights of his clients, he received numerous awards, among them the George F. Douglas Amicus Curiae Award, the Milton D. Rosenberg Award, the B’nai B’rith Justice Award, and awards of recognition from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers. [Attorney Bio.
Highly Credentialed Trial Lawyers
Why We Say, “WE WROTE THE BOOK”
Attorney Clifford Rieders has written a leading textbook on medical malpractice, which is used in Pennsylvania by lawyers who work in the field. He has also authored books on several other topics, including financial responsibility law issues in Pennsylvania, laws and rules pertaining to settlement of death actions, bad faith law in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania’s laws and statutes on attorney’s fees, legal malpractice claims in Pennsylvania and workers’ rights in Pennsylvania. Cliff is a well-known teacher, media authority, speaker and writer who testifies frequently and who has helped write Pennsylvania legislation.
To schedule a meeting with an attorney, please call us at 570-796-7613 or complete the intake form below.