Good morning, everyone. This is our Arkady Freckman, a New York City personal injury trial attorney. And today, I’m answering your FAQs, your frequently asked questions. And this question actually came in this morning at 8:47 AM. And the question is:

“I was involved in a car accident where a tow truck transporting a vehicle lost its tire and hit my vehicle. So far, I never got a call from the tow truck’s insurance. Been going to physical therapy for two or three months now. Is it possible this could be a lost case?”

That’s an interesting question. Actually, we have a case very similar, where a car was driving down the road and a truck lost a tire because the tire was balded and it wasn’t being maintained properly. And that tire hit our car, and it caused a serious injury to the client. So it’s similar to a case we have.

S o the liability phase of it, where the tow truck was transporting a vehicle, lost a tire, hit him, it sounds like that tow truck could be negligent. But, the bigger issue in this question is, now this is a big question that I would have if I was doing a consultation with this individual. I would ask them, “Do you have a lawyer representing you?” Because it seems from what the person is saying, is that they never got a call from the tow truck’s insurance. Maybe they don’t have a lawyer, because if they had a lawyer, the lawyer would send an initial letter of representation to the tow truck’s insurance. they would find out which insurance company, they would make a claim, the claim would be open, and you would be negotiating with them if he has two or three months of medical care. At the end of that medical care, you would get all the medical records, you would send it to the insurance company, open up negotiations, and work on the case that way.

Now, if the injury was serious, you would file a lawsuit. But you would have that adjuster assigned, you would have the insurance policy. They would set reserves, the largest amount that they would have to pay out, and the claim would be established. Whereas, if you don’t have a lawyer, which it sounds like maybe he doesn’t or she doesn’t, then it could be a problem because they may still know about the incident, they may. But they’re not going to contact you. You can’t just play the waiting game and expect them to take care of you.

I’ve talked about this in many other videos. Insurance and the entire lawsuits, personal injury lawsuits, civil lawsuits, the entire industry, the entire practice of personal injury lawsuits, is very adversarial. Meaning, you are opponents. You are trying to get justice, you are trying to get your medical care, you’re trying to get back on your feet, you’re trying to get to the same place you were before you had this car accident. And you’re trying to get financial compensation for your pain and suffering, for your loss of enjoyment of life, for your lost wages, for everything. And they are trying to minimize and control their risk and pay you as little as possible.

So I hope you don’t think that the truck insurances, the tow truck insurance is supposed to be like a public adjustment company where you apply, and they’re fair, and they’re neutral, and they sue your claim, almost like a government entity and then they send you a check. It doesn’t work that way. You need to get a local lawyer. Now, if you text me, 347-566-9595, I’m happy to jump on a call and talk to you personally, and talk about the specifics of your case. And then if necessary, we could find a local lawyer for you, one of the top trial lawyers, depending on where you are. If you’re in New York, I could handle it. If you’re in another state, I could partner with someone, and we could help you that way to get you the best-in-class medical care, continue going to physical therapy, but maybe you need to see a specialist as well. Get you that claim opened against the tow truck’s insurance.

Now tow trucks usually have pretty high insurance. Usually it’s a million, which is good. So you could open up a claim, you could file a lawsuit. So it sounds like you could have a good case. It shouldn’t be a lost case just because they haven’t contacted you in two to three months, but you really shouldn’t be expecting them to contact you. Because, like I explained, the important thing here is that it’s an adversarial system. You have to fight for it. You have to get a lawyer, you have to be aggressive, you have to file the claim, show them that you’re not afraid to go to trial, that you have your medical records, that you have your proof of lost wages, all your damages lined up. You may need to get an accident reconstruction expert or an expert like a truck safety expert to examine that tow truck, to look at that tire, to see why that tire blew out, and why it came off and hit you, to prove negligence and liability.

So there’s a lot of different things that you have to do. You have to build the case. You can’t just sit back and expect the tow truck’s insurance to contact you, because remember, their goal is to pay out as little as possible. So they may be thinking, “You know what? He just wasn’t hurt. Good.” They’re not going to follow up on your medical care or find out if you’re treating or not, they don’t care. They’re hoping that you are not hurt, and then they could pay you zero., or if you are just sleeping on the claim, then they’ll pay you as little as possible, nuisance value, like $1,500, so that’s usually what they’re trying to do. So if you want to fight that, and combat that, and get justice, you have to get a lawyer and you have to do that.

So I hope this has been helpful. Let us know what other questions you have. But I would say that a question like this, because there’s so many things that we don’t know, it’s the best thing to do is to just text me and we could schedule a call, and I would be happy to answer your questions with more specificity, because that’s a very involved question that I can’t answer just from that comment. Okay, but keep them coming.

Please send me your questions, and I’m happy to answer your question. Try to keep it a little bit specific, meaning, give me the facts of what happened and who you feel is at fault. Whether it’s a car crash, a slip and fall, whatever it is, give me the facts, almost like so I could see it. If I’m watching Netflix, I’m watching a movie, I want to be able to see your incident happening, then I could give you more advice. That’s number one. So tell me the facts.

Number two, tell me your injury, your medical diagnosis, your pain symptoms. If you don’t have an injury, if it just happened recently, you might just be feeling pain. That’s fine, but tell me a little bit about your damages, meaning your pain, your injury, your medical diagnosis, what the doctor’s talking about for the future, if you had any surgeries or broken bones. That’s always helpful.

And then the third thing is just tell me your city and your state. Like for example, I’m in Memphis, Tennessee, or I’m in Miami, Florida. Because then I can know a little bit about that law for that particular venue, and maybe I could see if I have a partner that I could give you somebody local who could give you a better consult. In addition to my consult, I’d give you a free consult from a local lawyer who’s an expert, who’s one of the top trial lawyers in that area then, so that’s always helpful.

So those three things. I actually create a little form and I’ll drop it in the description. That way you could just click the form and fill this out if you wanted a consult. And that would then allow me to have this information before the call, and then I could help you better. Because a lot of times people just text me and they say, “I want a consult,” and I say, “Hey, tell me a little bit about this, and then I’m happy to jump on a call, but I need a little bit of guidance. Maybe I need to prepare a little bit and then I can give you better help.” So, I’m all about helping serious injury victims and their families, helping you. So the more information I have, the more tools I have to help you. And if I don’t have it, then it’s just not as good for you, so that’s why I ask for it.

Okay, I hope this has been good, I hope this has been helpful. And please, like I said, like and subscribe to our channel. Please turn on the notifications. If you have any questions, drop them in the comment, fill out that form, we’ll drop the link in the description. Feel free to text me as well. Reach out in any way. And I want to be a resource for the community. Now the other thing is, if you just want us to do a video like this one for your case, just let me know what you want the video to be about. Also, try to be specific, so we know a little bit about what you are asking and what topic you want to see, because that’ll help us make a better video.