They were very patient with me, worked with me, they filled me in on details, they stayed in communication, and they let me know what was going on. 
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H. Lindquist
Workplace Accident Case
Fatal Recreation Vehicle (RV) Accidents
Attorney Michael Grossman Explains Your Legal Options After a Loved One has Been Killed in an RV Accident
For some Americans, the best way to retire is behind the wheel of a recreational vehicle, discovering this great land one day at a time. The problem is when you combine the roughly seven million recreation vehicles of all kinds believed to be on the roads in this country with the bulky and cumbersome nature of these vehicles, and the often advanced age of the drivers, accidents, injuries, and fatalities will inevitably occur.
While recreational vehicles can be just as difficult to drive as semi-trucks, the people operating them don’t have the training and years of experience of your average trucker. Moreover, senior citizens tend to have slower reflexes than most people. Thus, accidents involving recreational vehicles are very common. Considering the enormous size of RV’s, fatal accidents often result when recreational vehicles get into wrecks.
If your loved one died in an accident with a recreational vehicle, then you may have the right to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the party or parties responsible for the accident. However, in any given recreational vehicle accident, there may be multiple parties who caused or contributed to the cause of the incident. Determining who is at fault for the wreck and finding the evidence to prove the case against that entity or entities take experience earned through years of training. For the past 20 years, the attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been dealing with personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits involving recreational vehicles and all types of other motor vehicles. We’ve helped hundreds of other grief-stricken families, so we’ve learned what it takes to win a wrongful death lawsuit involving a recreational vehicle accident.
What Makes a Fatal Recreational Vehicle Accident Actionable?
When it comes to all interactions between people, everyone owes everyone else some form of duty to protect each other’s well-being. Exactly what that duty entails relies upon the given situation. When it comes to operating a recreational vehicle safely, there are several duties involved. The driver has the duty of adhering to rules of the road and not endangering other vehicles and pedestrian around the RV. The manufacturer of the vehicle has the duty of designing and assembling a vehicle that performs as it was intended safely.
When a party ignores his or her duty to other people, this is called a breach. When that breach causes injury or death, then the victim or the victim’s family, known as the plaintiffs, have the right to pursue compensation. However, the burden of proof falls on the plaintiffs to establish that negligent party caused the accident and the harm that resulted. Additionally, the plaintiffs must be prepared to prove the financial value of the harm they’ve suffered, known as damages.
Damages that may be Pursued in Wrongful Death Cases Involving Fatal Recreational Vehicle Accidents
So soon after you’ve lost a loved one in a fatal recreational vehicle accident it may seem impossible to think about a lawsuit and money. That’s why we’re here. We understand the emotional pain and overwhelming confusion you’re feeling right now, but we also understand the necessity for economic recovery. You’re not going to heal emotionally right away, but you can right your family’s financial ship. If the victim was your family’s main wage earner, then you’re going to need compensation to keep your family going.
When filing a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas and Arkansas, your family will seek survival damages and wrongful death damages in one comprehensive lawsuit. In Arkansas, families have the additional responsibility of naming an executor of the estate to act as the family’s personal representative before any legal action can be taken at all.
Survival damages are intended to allow the closest living relative of the estate to seek the compensation the victim should have been due for his or her wrongful death. This right is initially held by the spouse, but if no spouse is available, then it passes down to children, then parents, and finally siblings. Compensation for survival damages may be sought for:
- Medical bills charged to the victim before he or she died.
- The victim’s pain and suffering.
- The victim’s mental and emotional anguish.
- Property damage.
Wrongful death damages, conversely, can be sought by every member of the immediate family – spouse, children, and parents – who experienced emotional or financial harm as a result of the victim’s death in a fatal recreational vehicle accident. Wrongful death damages may include compensation for:
- Lost income the victim previously provided to the family.
- Funeral bills.
- Lost familial love, companionship, and parental guidance.
- Emotional and mental trauma felt by the surviving family members.
Some of these damages are easy to prove up on court – medical and funeral expenses can be easily shown by the bills and receipts. However, only a wrongful death attorney who has spent years handling cases of this ilk can correctly estimate compensation for less concrete damages like mental anguish and loss of familial love. If you attempt to handle your own case, you risk losing hundreds of thousands of dollars by incorrectly estimating your losses.
Challenges to Wrongful Death Lawsuits Involving Recreational Vehicle Accidents
In both Texas and Arkansas, all drivers are required to have insurance. Thus, in most cases, you will have an insurance policy from which to file a claim for wrongful death damages. A lawsuit will only be in order to pursue compensation from a driver who violated the law by not purchasing insurance, or if the accident occurred as a result of defective RV, allowing the plaintiffs to seek compensation from the manufacturer via a product liability lawsuit.
Unfortunately, just because the driver of the RV was insured doesn’t mean that your family will be compensated fairly and quickly. RV insurance policies can be enormous, and that often inspires the insurance company to try to protect its assets by attempting to reject the claim. If the insurance company or the other driver’s lawyer can prove your loved one was more than 50 percent responsible for the accident, then they can avoid compensating you. Therefore, an aggressive insurance adjuster may call you with a litany of questions designed to get you to make your loved one appear as if he or she was a negligent driver who caused the accident instead of the RV driver.
In other instances, insurance adjusters may try to get a family that is completely preoccupied with its grief and suffering to accept a settlement that is far less than it is due for the loss it has endured. In so doing, the family must surrender its right to sue in the future.
When it comes to uninsured motorists, they may claim insolvency – that they cannot afford to pay the damages due to a lack of assets – in order to avoid a lawsuit. You need a skilled and seasoned fatal recreational vehicle accident attorney to protect you from these obstacles and make sure you get the compensation you deserve, punishing the party or parties responsible for your loved one’s death in the process.
How You Know You Need an Attorney
When dealing with a recreational vehicle accident that merely caused a personal injury, we usually include a list of indicators that you need an attorney at this point of the article. However, if you’ve lost a loved one in a recreational vehicle accident, then you need a clever trial-tested lawyer to get what your loss merits. You owe it to your lost loved one and to every other person who may lose a family member if the negligent behavior is permitted to continue unpunished.
At Grossman Law Offices, we’ve helped deliver millions and millions of dollars to the families of people who have been wrongfully killed in all types of motor vehicle accidents in the Lone Star and Natural States. The insurance companies and defense firms in this area all know about our long history of success. Since the only thing these people fear is losing more money, they’re often eager to negotiate with our clients, allowing them to avoid additional pain and stress.
Thus, if you’ve lost a family member in a fatal RV accident, you should call us now for a free consultation at 1-855-589-5645 (toll free). You can tell us the story of how your loved one died, and then we can give you an idea of the legal venues you have available and field any questions you may have.
Recovered for client who was rear-ended by an 18-wheeler resulting in soft tissue injuries and chiropractic treatment.
$60,000.00
$20,000.00
$1,050.00
Recovery for motorcyclist who suffered a back injury in an 18-wheeler accident.
$200,000.00
$80,000.00
$5,709.00
(policy limits) Our firm was hired to pursue an intoxicated driver who killed an elderly school crossing guard. The fatal accident occurred as the decedent was escorting a woman and her child across the roadway through a crosswalk. The defendant then sped through the school zone, in an intoxicated a state, and struck the decedent who died on the scene.
The family hired our firm to investigate and pursue the defendant under a wrongful death cause of action. Following our investigation and preliminary vehicle inspection, our attorneys issued a Stowers' demand to the defendants. A significant factor in resolving this claim is that merely days before we submitted our demand to the defendant' insurance carrier, we won a large case against the very same insurance carrier, which was one of several such victories secured against the carrier in our firm's history. Our threats of litigation were therefore heeded and the defendants offered policy limits to settle the claim without the need to file suit.
Confidential
Confidential
Confidential
(policy limits) Our attorneys secured a recovery against a major trucking company for the daughter of a man who was killed after his vehicle collided into an 18-wheeler which was blocking the roadway. Litigation is ongoing against additional defendants.
Confidential
Confidential
Confidential
Major freight train company sued as the result of an incident which claimed the life of an employee. Our attorneys settled the case outside of court for a confidential amount.
Confidential
Confidential
Confidential
(policy limits) A father of two was killed on the job when he fell from a personnel platform atop an elevated piece of machinery. The defendant was initially afforded protection from a liability suit by virtue of their workers' comp policy. Upon thorough investigation, it became evident that gross negligence was at the root of the accident, and suit was filed accordingly. A successful outcome was obtained through litigation.
$550,000.00
$220,000.00
$40,000.00
(policy limits) Recovery for victim who sustained a broken femur in a motorcycle accident.
$100,000.00
$33,000.00
$0.00
Our client was injured in a motor vehicle accident when an employer driving a company vehicle failed to yield the right of way and collided with the plaintiff's vehicle. The defendant's employer was sued for negligence soon thereafter. The defendants alleged that the company should not be held liable for the actions of the employee.
They claimed that the employee was not in the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident. Through discovery, our attorneys learned that the defendants had a policy, both written and implied, whereby employees of the company were allowed to drive work vehicles after hours.
Furthermore, our attorneys argued case law that expanded the definition of course and scope which showed that the defendant was indeed "on the clock" when the accident occurred.
As a result, the defendants conceded liability and turned their defenses toward the alleged damages. They claimed that our client had a preexisting condition that was responsible for her current state.
We deposed the emergency room physician who assessed the client and recommended surgery regarding the medical necessity of the surgical procedure and the proximate cause of the plaintiff's condition. He testimony unequivocally defeated these arguments. The case was satisfactorily resolved through litigation.
$210,000.00
$70,110.00
$3,787.00
Recovery for driver struck from behind by 18-wheeler: Driver sustained back and neck injury.
$145,000.00
$48,333.00
$2,696.00
(policy limits) A young mother was killed in an accident involving two commercial vehicles, one an 18-wheeler. The accident occurred as the young woman was a passenger in a vehicle that was traveling down a highway in the early morning hours. Without warning, the vehicle in which she was a passenger collided with a stalled 18-wheeler that parked in the right of way, resulting in catastrophic injuries that claimed the young woman's life soon thereafter.
The authorities initially faulted the driver of the vehicle in which the victim was a passenger, stating that he was using an electronic device rather than paying full attention to the roadway. However, the 18-wheeler was indeed blocking the roadway and plaintiff alleged that the vehicle did not follow the requirements of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act in regard to providing adequate reflective or laminated warning at specific intervals. Further, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant failed to remove his vehicle from the roadway when he first noticed signs of mechanical failure.
Had he simply moved to the shoulder of the road, plaintiffs argued, his lack of adequate warning signs would have been inconsequential. An initial settlement has been obtained in this case, yet litigation has commenced in full against the remaining defendant, and is currently ongoing.
$250,000.00
$78,000.00
$370.00