Attorneys often limit their areas of practice to a few specialties, but attorneys generally don't narrow the specialty into sub-specialties. Personal injury lawyer handles claims arising from someone's negligence. Negligence means failing to exercise the degree of care that a reasonable person in that situation would have exercised. When a driver drives at 70 miles per hour in a school zone and strikes a child, he would be considered unreasonable and therefore negligent. When it comes to injury claims there is not much distinction between injuries caused by tractor trailer accident or a taxi cab, or a dog attack, or a bus.

The primary difference between a tractor trailer accident and a typical auto accident is that the severity of the injury is likely to be worse in a tractor trailer accident and therefore the need for a tractor trailer accident attorney would be greater. A tractor trailer accident attorney would more helpful where the injury is severe or catastrophic. A typical auto accident injury is generally minor and will go away in a few months, so there is no need to hire an auto accident attorney.

A typical auto accident results in whiplash injuries, which usually means cervical spine injuries that result in soft tissue injury pain that tends to go away. In a typical tractor trailer accident at the very least the damage to the vehicles is much greater than in a typical auto accident. A tractor trailer accident is also likely to cause severe injuries often resulting in fractured bones, brain injury, herniated disc, or death and therefore a tractor trailer accident attorney would be very helpful in reaching a reasonable resolution to an injury claim. Most tractor trailer accidents also have greater insurance coverage for injuries. This makes perfect sense, because the probability of severe injury or death is much greater in tractor trailer accidents than in auto accidents.

If a law firm has tractor trailer accident lawyers, it will likely be a personal injury lawyer. Most personal injury law firms, if not all of them, accept tractor trailer accident injury claims. Where there is some degree of sub specialty is in the severity of the injury. There might not be a tractor trailer accident lawyer, or a boat accident lawyer, or a taxi cab accident lawyer, or even a motorcycle lawyer, but there are law firms that limit their practice to severe injury cases. This in turn generally means that the accident law firm would only accept cases that are severe, which are generally a result of tractor trailer accidents, boat accidents, taxi cab accidents, and motorcycle accidents. Most severe injury claims arise from these types of accidents. Auto accidents can and do result in severe injury claims, but are less likely to result in severe injuries such as brain injury, closed head injury, herniated discs, fractured bones, or death.

The need for a lawyer also arises as the severity of the injury rises. A whiplash injury case may or may not warrant hiring an attorney. Often insurance companies refuse to pay medical bills incurred in whiplash injury cases, because the physical evidence is minor and suggests there is no injury. This leads injury victims to seek an attorney, but for the most part the fact that it is a small matter makes hiring a personal injury impractical, because there would not be a sufficient recovery to pay the medical costs and attorney fees.

Severe injury cases tend to require an attorney in most situations. A tractor trailer accident can cause severe injury and some insurance companies attempt to seek a quick settlement and in these type of situations is where a tractor trailer accident attorney can help. Insurance adjusters knowingly or neglectfully mislead the injury victim to believe that it is in the victim's best interest to refrain from obtaining a tractor trailer accident attorney. Once an agreement is reached the insurance company has not further risk of financial loss on the claim and the injury victim often finds himself or herself a victim a second time.

Injury victims are also surprised when they receive a bill from their health insurance company following the settlement. The bill is often equal to or greater than the settlement. Sometimes the injury victim discovers that significant medical treatment is required such as a surgery and then attempts to renegotiate with the insurance company and is quickly rebuffed. Sometimes insurance companies keep promising that a good personal injury settlement will follow and keep making the promise until there only a few weeks remaining before the statute of limitations runs out. The victim then receives a letter advising the statute of limitations will run out in two weeks. The same personal injury settlement promises continue, until the statute of limitations runs out. Meaning the victim has lost the right to file a personal injury lawsuit, because too much time has lapse.

The best advice for a tractor trailer accident victim is to speak with a tractor trailer accident attorney, as soon as possible. The tractor trailer accident attorney's job is to protect the rights of the client, the job of the insurance adjuster is to pay as little as possible or nothing at all.