Truck Accidents

Truck Driving Injury Attorney Southfield Michigan

I have represented Teamster and non-union truck drivers and warehouse workers since 1978, including:

• Members of Locals 51, 243, 247, 299, 337, 372, and 614;
• Employees of YRC (Yellow Freight and Roadway), UPS, Cassens Transport, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, SMART, Waste Management, Republic, Doan, Jack Cooper Transport, Diamond Automation and many more.

A truckdriver injured on the job in a moving vehicle accident is entitled to no fault insurance benefits in addition to workers compensation. A truckdriver hit by a vehicle while walking on the job is also entitled to no fault benefits in addition to workers compensation. Monthly no fault benefits might be $2,000 a month tax free, just for wage loss benefits, and the injured person might also get “replacement services” of $20 a day plus attendant care for a serious injury.

A truckdriver might also have a negligence claim if the accident was someone else’s fault (another driver, a railroad train), or due to hitting bad pavement. However, if a truckdriver slips and falls on ice or on a visible pavement defect in Michigan, while making a delivery or pickup, or while stopping to buy gas, he can’t sue the property owner for negligence. That’s because the Republicans on the Michigan Supreme Court have ruled in favor of insurance companies and big corporations and against injured people and their families.

If you are sent by an insurance company for an “independent medical examination” as part of a workers compensation or no fault insurance case, CALL ME for free advice. Many of the doctors the insurance companies pick for so-called “independent medical examinations” (IMEs) are prostitutes who make $500,000 a year lying for insurance companies. I urge you to secretly record the conversation, so you can detect any lies in the doctor’s report.

In Michigan, if you’re injured on the job you have the right to treat with a doctor of your choice after 28 days – and you should use that right. Too many doctors chosen by the insurance company or its case manager bend over backward to help the insurance company. Call me for a list of worker-friendly doctors in various specialties such as orthopedic or neurosurgery. These doctors, in my experience, are straight shooters when they treat injured workers.

Insurance company fraud is a huge problem in Michigan for injured workers and consumers. Insurance companies and their so-called “independent medical examiners” are free to commit fraud against injured workers and consumers. Michigan law does not punish fraud committed by insurance companies or the prostitute doctors they hire to do “independent medical exams.”

There is a possibility, though, that a medical care provider or attendant care provider who has been denied payment due to fraud by a no-fault or workers compensation insurance company or an IME doctor may be able to sue the company and doctor under the federal RICO law (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization law). If you google my name, or the cases Jackson v Sedgwick Claims Management and Brown v Cassens Transport, you’ll see that I pioneered this type of RICO claim. Unfortunately, the Republican-dominated United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (which includes Michigan) has ruled that an injured worker or consumer cannot use RICO to sue an insurance company or a prostitute IME doctor; however, a federal judge in Detroit has since ruled that a care provider (doctor, attendant care giver, therapist, replacement services provider) can use RICO to sue the insurance company and IME doctor for fraudulent denial of insurance benefits.

I’ve represented Teamsters for 40 years, members of all the Detroit area locals, and I can help you or your family, for an injury on or off the job. Are you entitled to no fault benefits for an on-the-job injury involving a truck, in addition to worker’s compensation? I can help. How much money can you get from a drunk driver that injured you? I can help.