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When big rigs and tractor-trailers are involved in accidents the result is often huge collisions and massive injuries.
The main reason for the scale of the damage is the size and weight of these trucks. The seriousness of the injuries that often come from Norfolk/Portsmouth, Virginia, truck wrecks means that these cases are fought hard by the insurance companies acting for the trucking companies.
In order to fight for everything that you are entitled to if you are hurt in a Virginia truck accident on Interstate 64 or Interstate 264 in Norfolk or Portsmouth, Virginia, you need to have an experienced Virginia truck accident lawyer on your side. John Cooper has handled numerous cases against truckers and trucking companies and knows the industry. Often John has represented a rider or driver of a separate commercial vehicle that was hit by a driver in a different truck who made a mistake or did not follow the safety rules for operation of a truck.
One of the keys to success in big rig litigation is to send an immediate letter by certified mail to the trucking company and trucker who caused the wreck, demanding that they hold on to all evidence that may be necessary to pursue the case in a lawsuit.
Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Regulations which govern big trucks the company only has to keep some information for a limited period of time. The purpose of the preservation letter is to put the at-fault company on notice that if they throw out any of the information that the injured party and their lawyer will ask the court to assume the worst that the destruction was deliberate to get rid of favorable evidence.
Some of the materials in a standard preservation letter from the Cooper Hurley office would be seeking all of the log books of the tractor-trailer driver, the safety manuals, and training materials used by the trucking fleet safety manager to instruct the drivers and the CDL (commercial driver’s license) physicals done by doctors periodically to see whether the driver has anything wrong with their eyesight or health, like diabetes, which could cause a collision. These Virginia trucking accident cases are some of the most important files that I work on because the families have often been so devastated by the loss of a loved one who may have lost their life or suffered a horrendous injury like the amputation of a limb or brain injury in the crash.