Forney Personal Injury Tag Archives

Published on: December 6, 2018

Kaufman County’s Trusted 18-Wheeler Accident Attorneys

Guest and Gray prides itself in being the largest and highest rated law firm in Kaufman county. We are number one because we care about our clients and their situation. Personal injury cases are just that: personal. They happen to real people and it causes REAL problems in their lives. No accident situation can bring more drama to a family’s life than an 18-wheeler accident. These are simply the most destructive types of accidents that can occur on Kaufman county roads. Every year, Kaufman county residents and passers-through die on our local highways due to negligent truck drivers and as our roads become more congested and traveled as a result of development, the numbers will only go up.

Kaufman county is one of the fastest growing counties in Texas. Growth in cities like Forney, Terrell and Crandall will lead the way over the next few years. All three of those cities are corridors in and through Kaufman county with interstate highways and state highways leading right through them. Forney and Terrell have the highly traveled highway 80 and interstate 20 passing right through them and Crandall, as sort of the gateway to East Texas has highway 175. All three cities are gearing up for exponential growth over the next few years as pastureland is converted to shopping, retail and most of all, homes. Crandall has the Wildcat Ranch Development that plans to bring nearly 3,100 unites, which would effectively more than double the population of Crandall alone. Travel anywhere in Forney and you will see new community development and shopping and retail going in, and Terrell leads the way in commercial development. The result of this population increase will be an economic boom. Increased economic out put means an increase in commercial traffic. Commercial traffic means 18-wheelers and other commercial vehicles traveling on our roadways will only increase to meet demand.

At Guest and Gray, our personal injury lawyers see this as being a potential problem for our local citizenry and those who travel our major highways to get to and from home and work. The greater the number of commercial vehicles means that our current and future citizens will be at a greater risk of being injured due to negligent commercial truck drivers as they come into our area. A semi truck, without the tractor-trailer, weighs around 80 thousand pounds, without a tractor-trailer attached. In comparison, the average passenger vehicle weighs about 5,000 pounds. When the two meet at high speeds, the results can be absolutely devastating.

Published on: May 22, 2018

Guest and Gray Law Firm: Leveling the Playing Field For Injured Victims

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Guest and Gray is a full service law firm, specializing in manner different areas of law. One of our core practice areas is personal injury and wrongful death. If you or a loved one is involved in an auto, truck or motorcycle accident, you are going to have to deal with the at-fault party’s insurance carrier. If you do not hire an attorney, you will be going into a situation where the other party is a multi-billion dollar insurance company who specializes in negotiating these types of claims.

So let me ask you this question: In any other type of situation, would you enter into negotiations with a multi-billion dollar company without hiring someone to represent you?

My hope is that the answer would be a no. Don’t be the fool that the insurance company thinks you are.

Published on: April 30, 2018

Why Every Motorcycle Rider Needs to Carry Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Motorcycle accidents happen in a blink of an eye. The biker is often left with very little time to maneuver to safety, causing them to lay the bike down or simply take the hit straight on. As a result, the injuries that motorcycle riders and passengers incur are regularly more severe than that of those in the vehicle that hit them.

Injuries mean hospital stays, lost wages, long recovery, hospital bills. Big ones. In a typical motorcycle accident here in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas, the amount of medical bills can exceed $100,000 in just the first few days of treatment. We have had countless cases where injured bikers have been in the hospital for weeks, and even months, at a time.

IT DOES NOT TAKE A BIG ACCIDENT TO GET BIG INJURIES IN MOTORCYCLE CASES

Published on: December 26, 2017

Client Focused Personal Injury Attorneys

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

At Guest and Gray, we understand that customer service and client satisfaction is key to our success. Keeping clients happy is business 101. However, it is easier to do that when you are genuinely happy to provide the service. It is easier when you have a top notch team in place that has been working together for years. It is easier when you care about the service you are providing. When people come to my office, they are hurting. They are worried about their medical bills as well as their light bills and putting food on the table for their family. Here at Guest and Gray, we do not lose sight of that fact. We focus our personal injury practice locally in the Rockwall, Kaufman and Dallas county areas. Why? because we care about this community and the people in it. We care because we live here. You are our neighbors. What a cool job to get to fight for your neighbors when someone has negligently harmed them!

It is a job with a lot of responsibility. Many local Rockwall, Terrell, Forney and other local residents come see me every week and tell me the story of how they have been injured and how that has affected them and their families. Accidents don’t just hurt the person, it hurts their families too. It effects everything they do. Spouses and parents have to spend additional time caring for an injured family member. Watch them receive treatments in the hospital. The worst is when a loved one has been lost due to an accident. That is truly a life-changing event for that family.

It is our goal to show this community the other side of personal injury attorneys. Not the side you see on TV that brags about cherry-picked cases where the clients have received large sums of money. Yeah, we have those but you are not just a dollar sign to us, and we hope we are not that for you either. The law only provides so much remedy to an injured party and the end result of each case is a cash-payout, but our goal is to make sure that you are brought back to where you were or as close to that as possible. We look at every avenue of recovery. Every angle.

Published on: December 8, 2017

Guest and Gray, P.C.: Commercial Truck Accident Attorneys

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Rockwall and Kaufman counties are major trucking routes with highways such as Interstate 30, Interstate 20 and Highways 80 and 175 passing through those counties respectively, along with other major highways intersecting them. Commercial trucking accidents are some of the most severe and potentially fatal types of accidents imaginable. An 18-Wheeler truck loaded with thousands of pounds of cargo can weigh upwards of 40,000 tons, or 80,000 pounds. That is a massive amount of destructive force which is why trucking accidents often result in debilitating, life-altering injuries and even death.

Truck Accidents Can Be Fatal

Data from the US Department of Transportation shows 2,485 passenger vehicle occupants died in “large truck accidents” in 2014. The most deaths happened in 1979, when 4,226 people in passenger vehicles died in large truck accidents. That’s a 41.1% drop from 1979, which represents good progress, however, the number of deaths per accident has risen. This is true despite increased federal regulations on trucking companies and truck drivers, respectively. Quite often the cause of trucking accidents is due to a trucking company forcing drivers to violate federal regulations and drive for longer periods of time without sleep than allowed by law, truckers going against their own companies rules and regulations to meet strict delivery deadlines, and driver fatigue or equipment failure.

Published on: December 5, 2017

Personal Injury: No Fee Until We Win

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Have you been injured in an accident in Rockwall or Kaufman county? At Guest and Gray, P.C., we take all of our Rockwall and Kaufman county personal injury cases on a contingency basis. This means that there is no fee until we recover. We feel that this is the best possible way to ensure that all of our clients are able to receive the same great legal service regardless of ability to pay. Additionally, we know that our personal injury clients have often been severely burdened by the cost of their injuries, loss of income, or the loss of a loved one.

We also feel a deep sense of connection to our community. We want to protect the citizens of Rockwall and Kaufman county from negligent drivers and deep-pocketed insurance companies who do not have the victim’s best interests at heart.

DO NOT SETTLE FOR LESS

Published on: October 30, 2017

4 Things to Know About Truck Accident Cases in Texas

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Truck accidents have become what seems like an every day occurrence here in the Eastern Dallas-Fort Worth area. Rockwall and areas to the east along interstate 30, such as Royse City, are growing at a rapid pace. Along the highway 80 and I-20 corridors respectively in Kaufman county is developing from Forney to Terrell with new businesses springing up in the area on a weekly basis. On top of that, Rockwall, Forney and Terrell are also seeing a housing boom. Especially Forney. That brings construction traffic with cement trucks, work trucks, delivery trucks and everything else.

Growth is one thing, but the fact that the Texas’ economy and the National economy are both doing well means that shipping of products to market is also increasing to meet the demands of consumers. That compounds the issues here in Rockwall and Kaufman counties. Not only are we seeing massive growth, but our two counties fall within major trucking corridors. We have interstate-30 heading northeast through to Arkansas, highway 80 heading east Texas and Louisiana, and highway 20 which stretches straight through to Florida and is the single largest trucking corridor in Kaufman county. Kaufman county also has highway 175 to the southeast towards east Texas and Cedar Creek Lake and beyond. All told, hundreds of thousands of vehicles pass through Kaufman county highways each day and much of that traffic is big rigs carrying all sorts of products and equipment to their destinations here in Rockwall and Kaufman counties and all throughout the country.

That being said, here is a quick primer on the 4 things you need to know about trucking accidents:

Published on: September 29, 2017

Guest and Gray: Kaufman and Rockwall County Slip and Fall Attorneys

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

It happens all the time. The typical scenario is where a person enters a store and due to some sort of defect in the premises or a condition on the property, a person slips or trips and falls and becomes injured. In this sort of case, who is at fault? Well, it is not quite as easy as it sounds.

If the store allowed a dangerous condition or defect in the premises to exist, they had actual knowledge of the defect on the premises or a dangerous condition, and failed to correct it, or they had reason to know that a defect or dangerous condition existed and failed to take corrective action, then you will have a viable claim for damages after a slip and fall accident.

So What is a Dangerous Condition or Defect?

Published on: September 1, 2017

What About My Pain and Suffering?

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Here at Guest and Gray, that is a common question when talking to new and potential clients. Pain and suffering is a real thing. It can be the pain from recovering from a broken arm, but also the suffering you feel as your body tries to heal. So, if you have been injured in a motor vehicle or motorcycle accident, and it was not your fault, you are likely going to be able to recover for not only your injuries sustained in the accident but also for the pain and suffering associated with those injuries. David HagEstad and Scott Gray, our Dallas, Forney and Rockwall county personal injury attorneys are well versed in the area of pain and suffering and have successfully obtained favorable settlements for our clients over the years and have put together this short guide to help you understand the process of recovering monetarily for your pain and suffering.

How Much is My Pain and Suffering Worth?

The funny thing about Texas law is that there is no set method for calculating pain and suffering in any given case. It is determined on a case by case basis. Some firms may try to get you to click their website because of a calculator they supposedly have to determine how much you should get for you injuries. Those are likely not going to be accurate because no attorney can ever guarantee how much you should get in any given case. This is especially true early on when the full extent of your injuries, and the overall time period of your recovery, are still unknown. However, as experienced personal injury attorneys, we can tell you that the two main indicators of pain and suffering that you should be aware of are the extent of your injuries and the amount of your medical bills. These key indicators will help guide us in determining a fair dollar figure for your pain and suffering, i.e. calculating your pain and suffering.

Published on: March 27, 2017

Car Accidents Suck

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Let’s be honest for a minute. Car wrecks suck. They really do. They hurt our bodies. They destroy our property. We miss time from work. Insurance companies. Hospital bills. Rental cars. Rehabilitation. Did I mention insurance companies? Because they suck, too.

Hold on a second….

Sorry, I just went and asked an associate who was in an accident last August and she confirmed it. Accidents suck. See, its unanimous.