Alcohol is an integral part of American life and is one of the most readily available consumer products on today's market. It is cheap and often marketed toward young people as an acceptable part of popular culture. However, while drinking is a normal accompaniment to most social events, our society no longer considers drunk-driving crashes as unavoidable accidents. More than 100,000 deaths are attributable to alcohol consumption each year, and the economic costs associated with alcohol problems total more than $100 billion annually.

For victims who survive a drunk-driving crash, the crash itself is just the beginning. In a split second, their lives are changed forever and it becomes a daily struggle emotionally, physically, and financially. In many cases, the offender often walks away with minor injuries or no injuries at all and receives an insignificant punishment or is sentenced to a few months in jail. The victim, on the other hand, often sustains serious injuries that result in paralysis, coma, traumatic brain injury, or life in a vegetative state.

For the families of a loved one involved in a serious drunk-driving collision, life is suddenly interrupted, and tragic consequences soon follow. Life becomes a prison, not only for the seriously-injured victim, but also for the care-giving family members who must adjust to the day-to-day challenges of becoming an around-the-clock caregiver. Their life is put on hold. They lack the energy to maintain normal activities, become overwhelmed with emotion, and struggle to cope with the unrelenting demands of day-to-day life.

Financially, the costs for medical treatment can be astronomical, as the offender often has no insurance. Prescriptions, therapy, and respite care can become all consuming. In many cases, the injured person will end up permanently disabled and begin receiving disability payments much less than their regular income.

As if the sorrow that follows is not enough, dealing with the legal ramifications can be overwhelming. Many victims of these tragic collisions describe life afterwards as a scream that will not come, forever haunted, because life is never again the same as it was before the wreck. The right lawyer can help alleviate the worry and stress that comes with the legalities of the situation. Law Offices of Gary Green has the right attorneys for you. We are a corporate sponsor of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). MADD's mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. Law Offices of Gary Green contributes to MADD in honor of every victim it represents against a drunk driver.

If you or a loved one has become the victim of a drunk driver, or if you have questions or need additional information, call Law Offices of Gary Green toll free and without obligation at 1-888-442-7947 or send us an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Representing victims of truck accidents and tractor-trailer wrecks presents a challenge and complexity not experienced in other types of wrecks. The attorneys of Law Offices of Gary Green have risen to that challenge many times. The resulting catastrophic injuries alone make trucking accidents and tractor-trailer wrecks distinct from all others, but the resulting compensatory offers make these wrecks dangerous to the unwary even after the wreck. Our experienced lawyers know what you can expect to face and can help you find justice—no matter how evasive it may seem.

A trucking accident and tractor-trailer wreck that involves a motor carrier regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has built-in protection for an injured consumer. The problem is that the carriers will not disclose that they have excess insurance policies beyond the primary policy without your filing a suit:

• They will not tell you that the driver of the DOT-regulated vehicle is their statutory employee, regardless of the fact that the driver might be an owner-operator and might have a contract with the regulated company, which refers to the driver as an owner-operator.
• They will not tell you they are responsible for the actions of that driver as long as the driver acted within the scope of that statutory employment.
• They will not tell you they have valued your claim at 5 times or 10 times the set amount when they are really only offering you the base amount for a full release of your right to sue.

Before sorting out all the experts for proving the catastrophic injuries, experts should be consulted regarding liability. It is not an accident when the risks for tractor-trailer wrecks are well established and can be avoided. A reconstruction expert should be called while evidence is still fresh. Reliance on old evidence can disqualify an otherwise good expert and keep the video reconstruction that helps the jury follow your theory of liability out of evidence. Satellite GPS records and electronic control modules must be identified and read before they are destroyed - usually within 90 days as a standard operating procedure for most companies.

Almost every 18-wheeler case should plead negligent supervision, negligent hiring, and negligent retention, as these facts usually are usually borne out through discovery all the way up to trial. The driver's logs, driver qualification file, and driving record should be reviewed. Then depositions should be taken of the trucking company's safety director, corporate representative, relevant dispatcher, and others having knowledge of the wreck.

The condition of the tractor-trailer and its brakes should be considered. Trucks are often poorly maintained and driven by truckers with serious safety deficiencies. An alarming number of these drivers are fatigued, under the influence of drugs, or medically disqualified to drive a truck.

We have handled claims against

• Watkins & Shepard Trucking, Inc.
• Cal-Ark International, Inc.
• USA Motor Express
• J&P Trucking
• Autobahn Freightliners LTD
• National Bus Carriers LTD
• Weston Transport
• Woody Bogler Trucking
• USA Truck, Inc.
• Landstar Ranger, Inc.
• Graham Trucking, Inc.
• Stuart Small Trucking
• Star Transportation, Inc.
• A&J Transportation
• West Florida Transport
• Clarksville Refrigerated
• D&H Trucking
• Werner Enterprises
• All American Bottling Corporation, LLC
• Callaway Transfer and Storage
• PSM, Inc.
• Gail Stuart Trucking, Inc.
• Willis Shaw Express, Inc.
• Paccar, Inc.
• Central Hauling Company
• J.L. Trucking
• Jacobson Transport Company, Inc.
• Strimbu Transport, Inc.
• Lance Trucking, LLC
• Roadway Express
• Schneider National, Inc.
• JNJ Express

There is a lot of work to be done, and it takes a lot of money and people to do it. Law Offices of Gary Green has been there before. If you have questions or need additional information, call Law Offices of Gary Green toll free and without obligation if we can help at 1-888-442-7947 or send us an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Every day parents put their kids on school buses assuming they are safe and in good mechanical condition. On any given day, approximately 47 million elementary and secondary school children board a yellow school bus, yet remarkably few of these buses have seat belts, and an alarming percentage have either not been properly inspected or failed inspection altogether.

While responsible parents would never put their children in an automobile with bad brakes or allow them to ride in an automobile without the use of a seatbelt, the ubiquitous yellow school bus is a vehicular dinosaur.

Though most states have proposed legislation mandating seat belts on school buses, only a handful actually have them. Even fewer mandate their usage. Studies show that students riding on belt-equipped buses roam the aisles less frequently and are more likely to remain seated. Additionally, bus drivers report being less distracted because they have to spend less time handling student misbehavior and can concentrate more on driving safely.

Seat belt opponents argue that school buses already are the safest form of transportation on the road and that equipping buses with seat belts would reduce overall capacity. Private contractors, as well as many school officials who operate a third of the nation's school buses, have fought the installation of lap belts on school buses for more than 30 years. For the most part, federal and state governments have gone along with them.

Parents should also be reassured that when they put their children on a school bus each day that the vehicle is safe and has passed a recent inspection. Yet surprise inspections throughout the country have shown that nearly 80 percent of these buses fail inspection—over half of which fail for mechanical reasons.

In a recent survey of school bus mechanics, the braking systems were the most common concern expressed. While the effect of wear and tear may seem obvious, many brake problems are concealed. The brakes may appear to be functional when actually little force is being applied to the brake drums. Ideally, all wheels should be doing an equal amount of work, applying and releasing at the same time. Something as simple as maintaining air pressure in the braking system, can prevent a catastrophic failure. Misalignment or brakes that are out of balance are unseen problems, but certainly can be felt by the driver. It is not enough to repair a problem once a defect is found because of the inspection process; inspection programs must be thorough and preventative in nature, and drivers need to know how to recognize a problem before it becomes an incident. In the event of a serious injury, defective brake issues should be thoroughly explored by experts who have full access to the brakes before changes are made.

School buses should be designed to ensure the safety of the millions of children they transport annually and maintenance and proper inspection of these buses should be the rule and not the exception. Any school bus wreck that transpires is not an accident if the problems that cause them are well known. The National Coalition for School Bus Safety found that some operators are making money by running unsafe buses by waiting for state inspectors to identify defects rather than doing preventative maintenance because it would mean removing the bus off the road for a period of time.

Parents have a right to expect that buses are designed and maintained to minimize student injuries. If a member of your family or someone you know has been injured as a result of a collision involving a school bus, call Law Offices of Gary Green toll free and without obligation at 1-888-442-7947 or send us an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Some people can and should handle their own personal injury motor vehicle collision case, keeping the lawyers out of it, reducing costs and making things happen quickly. A good example of when most lawyers would agree with me on this proposition would be on the property damage part of the personal injury claim. To get the lawyers involved to settle the value of your wrecked car usually slows down the process - they are in the middle between you and the adjuster, and things just do not move as quickly when you have to consider a third party’s schedule. But will the adjuster treat you fairly on the property damage claim? Well, never forget that our civil justice system operates as an adversarial process; and educate yourself as to the value of your property damage claim. If you realize it is the adjuster’s job to settle the claim as inexpensively as he can, and you know what your claim is worth, there is no good reason that you cannot get close to the value of the property damage by dealing directly with the adjuster. If you cannot, then bring in the lawyers (but perhaps at a price). Now is a good time to mention that Law Offices of Gary Green does not charge a fee for handling the property damage portion of a personal injury claim. If you do not like the stress of dealing with an adjuster and you are not in a rush that a third party attorney could slow down, you might want to just let us handle it for free. Having said that, if you find the handling of the property damage claim stressful or distasteful, you certainly will not enjoy handling the personal injury part of your motor vehicle collision case! For the more adventurous, I will offer some general pointers: 1. Put the offending party and the insurance companies on notice, in writing, that you will be handling your own claim. Keep a paper trail. 2. Go ahead and collect the documents that will not change. E.g., get the hospital bills and records if you have been released from the hospital; but do not get your doctor’s bills and records until the doctor has released you. (You do not want to pay for a bunch of records and then have to do it again after more treatment). 3. Realize that before the negotiation is complete you should have compiled every piece of paper, every item that possibly relates to your case - the police report, newspaper articles, medical bills and records. If in doubt about whether you need to get something, get it! 4. Once you are in a position to evaluate the case, send a demand to all possible insurance companies and defendants. This might be the week after the wreck if your bills are high and the available insurance/assets are low. Be careful here! If you are dealing with more than one insurance policy (whether liability, underinsured motorist coverage or uninsured motorist coverage) you should hire a lawyer. Settling with one company or one defendant can inure to the benefit of all defendants or insurance companies! Remember, it is an adversarial system! 5. Negotiating a claim can be like negotiating for other things of value. A first offer and a “final offer” usually are not the last offer you can coax. 6. Evaluating the claim is the hard part. “Comparable sales” reasoning can apply, but cases are unique - more so than real estate is unique. The value of claims can vary greatly based solely on the conduct of the defendant. (If a drunk driver caused the wreck you will receive more than if the same injuries had been caused by a sober driver). Beware of formulas! If someone is in a wreck and dies in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, do not tell me the value of their case is a multiple of the ambulance bill! 7. Realize when you sign a release, it is over. You cannot go back if the money you accepted turns out not to be enough to cover your future needs. If you are ever going to consult an attorney, do so before you sign a release! When I pay my taxes, I hire a CPA to prepare my return. Could I do it myself? Of course, but doing it only once a year does not keep me sharp enough to know what all I might be missing. While my CPA is expensive, I am convinced he saves me more in taxes than what I pay for his services. Most of the time, particularly with the more serious cases, the same applies to hiring a lawyer. The lawyer’s fee can be a bargain when it comes to the added value the lawyer can bring to the case. At least, consult a lawyer. You can consult with us for free. At Law Offices of Gary Green there is the no recovery, no fee promise. No recovery, no fee and no expenses. And when there is a recovery, we promise our fee will not be more than your recovery.