Since 2005 Eckert & Associates, PA, a law firm based in Fleming Island, Florida, has specialized in one mission: helping drivers, owner-operators, and fleets recover the lost income and property damage that insurance companies try to minimize or deny.
“We’re basically downtime claims specialists,” said Elizabeth Vogel, the business operations coordinator for the firm. “Our attorneys gather earnings records, work directly with carriers and repair shops, and submit detailed, well-supported demands to the at-fault insurer.”
In short, the law firm has a unique niche: providing trucking-focused legal guidance to help truck drivers and owner-operators recover lost income.
“We basically handle every step of a trucker’s downtime claim, from documentation to negotiation, so they can recover lost profits while their commercial vehicle is out of service, Vogel said.
Eckert & Associates recently took advantage of the CareerSource NEFL Customized Training Program, which initially caught the attention of the firm’s operations manager, Brenda Vasquez.
Among its staff of 12, seven employees recently completed one training project and will begin a second training project in May.
“We used the funding to provide additional training for transportation risk and insurance,” Vogel said. “We’re all licensed adjusters, so it just helped us further our education for our adjusters licensing…it allows us to stay current on any changes and do our jobs better in identifying cargo risks.”
Vogel said the training took between four to five weeks to complete, with hourly employees working on the training in-office while its salaried employees trained both in-office and after hours.
The firm will access Customized Training again to upskill a group of employees for case management development.
Vogel said the funding helped the firm expedite the training sooner that it would have otherwise.
“We were able to upskill our employees sooner thanks to CareerSource Northeast Florida’s help,” she said. “And, the process couldn’t be easier.”