Arizona Truck Accident Lawyer

Leveling the Playing Field Against Trucking Corporations

Video Transcript:

Ryan Skiver: 

Their main goal is to try to pay you as little as possible. That's why it's so important to have someone fighting for you, to try to make sure that you get full and fair compensation to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Rob Rosenthal: 

If you have been involved and injured in a crash with a big rig, could you have a case for a lawsuit and where do you turn for help? We're gonna find out right now on this episode of Ask The Lawyer. My guest is Arizona attorney, Ryan Skiver. I want you to keep in mind that at any time, if you'd like to ask Ryan questions about your situation, it's easy. Just go to askthelawyers.com, click the button up the top that says Ask a Lawyer and walk you right through the process, doesn't cost anything to ask your questions, or of course, you can call the phone number you'll see on the screen during our conversation. Ryan, good to see you. Thank you for helping us out today.

Ryan Skiver: 

Good to see you too.

Rob Rosenthal: 

So truck accidents, big rig, 18-wheeler commercial vehicle accidents, how big of a problem are those in your area?

Ryan Skiver: 

They're actually a very big problem. There are approximately 500,000 truck crashes per year, and about 5,000 of those end up with someone fatally injured unfortunately and passing away, and that's according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. They keep track of those numbers to understand what types of dangers we have on our roadways and unfortunately, truck crashes are one of them.

Rob Rosenthal: 

And you've had some experience, you've had a lot of experience handling these sort of cases?

Ryan Skiver: 

I have. I've handled many trucking cases. I've handled cases against big rigs, 18-wheelers, semis, whatever you may wanna call them, as well as straight trucks, bus crashes, all types of commercial motor vehicle crashes. And it's important to hire a lawyer that's familiar with those because the companies and the commercial drivers have special rules or regulations that they have to follow. They don't just follow the same rules that we follow as drivers on the road, they do have to comply with those. But they actually have a higher standard as well that they have to comply with. So it's important that you find a truck crash lawyer or commercial motor vehicle lawyer who's familiar with those laws and doesn't just treat it like a car accident case.

Rob Rosenthal: 

Now, the trucking company, the trucker who may have been in the crash, they've got a team on their side. I've heard about these response teams. Tell me a little bit about them and how do those work.

Ryan Skiver: 

Yes, absolutely. They have what's called Rapid Response Teams. So when a truck driver gets into a crash, oftentimes, nowadays the trucks are so advanced, they will notify the company through some of their systems in the truck that it has been in a crash. Even if the company isn't notified by the truck, usually they tell their drivers, the first thing that they should do is call the company. And as soon as they call the company, they activate their rapid response team, which includes insurance defense lawyers, crash investigators, photographers, and they go out to the scene immediately. Oftentimes, they're out there within an hour or two hours of the crash. They're looking for evidence and trying to make sure that they can tell the best story possible to defend the driver and defend the trucking company. So it's crucial that you get a truck crash lawyer involved in your case as soon as possible before some of that evidence starts to disappear.

Rob Rosenthal: 

It seems like more and more these days, Ryan, personal vehicles, but I would assume commercial vehicles have dash cams. Are those something that you can use to help your case if you're injured and what happens to that video generally?

Ryan Skiver: 

Yeah, absolutely. So the trucks sometimes are fitted with dash cams that we're all familiar with. They also sometimes have other systems that are driver-facing cameras, so you can see what the truck driver was doing immediately before the crash. Not all companies have those. A lot of times, if it's a safe company, they will have those to be able to use them to exonerate their drivers, or prove that they didn't do anything wrong. The problem is, is many times it shows that they did do something wrong. So it's very easy for that evidence to get lost or for additional recording to go over the top of it, so that the camera and the video have been removed from the truck, and unfortunately lost for your case going forward.

Ryan Skiver: 

One of the important things about getting a truck crash lawyer involved right away is making sure that you get the evidence preserved. So one of the first things we do is get a preservation of evidence letter out so that we can make sure we can inspect the truck, look for those dash cams or places where they may have been located before, try to figure out which type of system they were using, because we may have other sources to be able to obtain that video footage as well. So it usually won't be turned over in the pre-litigation process, and almost certainly not to a lay person, unfortunately. That's why it's important that you get a lawyer involved who understands the system and how to obtain that evidence to help support your case.

Rob Rosenthal: 

Some people may think, Ryan, that the insurance company who's involved, say the trucking company's insurance company, they wanna look out for me too, they wanna make sure that I get what I'm owed and what is due to me. Is that the way the system works?

Ryan Skiver: 

That would certainly be nice if that's the way the system works. I would love to not have to do this, but unfortunately, that's not the way insurance defense works. They get paid to try to save as much money for the insurance company as they possibly can and/or for the defense in the case. So their main goal is to try to pay you as little as possible. That's why it's so important to have someone fighting for you to try to make sure that you get full and fair compensation to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Rob Rosenthal: 

And these insurance companies, these are giant companies, of course, some of these trucking companies are big corporations. Getting someone like yourself to help, is that kind of leveling the playing field a little bit?

Ryan Skiver: 

Absolutely. These companies, like you've mentioned, are gigantic. Obviously, we all are familiar with insurance companies and how big they are. We see their advertising all over the place, and their goal is to make more money. And the way that they do that is by hanging on to the money that they have. So even when they have these crashes, they have these insurance defense lawyers and those rapid response teams who are gonna be working to protect their money. You need someone working to fight to get that money for you so that you can get that full and fair compensation. And it's important to have someone who knows what they're doing and someone who doesn't just treat this truck crash as an accident, because there's lots of other important factors that go into truck crashes versus a regular car accident.

Rob Rosenthal: 

And Ryan, you mentioned earlier that most of these accidents, many of these accidents have serious injuries, some fatal injuries, very catastrophic injuries, so the driver very may well be in the hospital and recovering. Is this kind of thing that family members or other witnesses, can they contact an attorney on their behalf? They don't have to wait till somebody's out of the hospital to do that, right?

Ryan Skiver: 

Absolutely. We've actually represented, unfortunately, widows and other family members that were damaged because of what happened to their loved one. The sooner anyone gets in contact with us, the better. We are even willing to go and meet with you in your home or go out to the hospital to talk to your loved one to make sure we get all of the evidence and information as quickly as we possibly can, so we know the story and can start doing the proper representation and preservation of evidence that we need to do to make sure we tell your story in the best way possible. It also helps us to get to understand our clients and their families, and the way that they're really affected by these horrible crashes and tragedies that happen to them. It gives us the ability to really connect and understand what you're going through, so we do a better job of presenting that when we are presenting your case, and representing you.

Rob Rosenthal: 

That makes perfect sense. Lots of really helpful information, Ryan. Thank you for making some time to answer our questions.

Ryan Skiver: 

No problem.

Rob Rosenthal: 

That's gonna do it for this episode of Ask The Lawyer. My guest has been Arizona Attorney, Ryan Skiver. I'll remind you if you'd like to ask Ryan questions about your situation, go to askthelawyers.com, click the button up at the top that says Ask a Lawyer and it's a very simple form and it doesn't cost anything to ask your questions. Thanks for watching everybody. I'm Rob Rosenthal for Ask The Lawyers.

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