Your Damages In A Truck Accident Case
You may be entitled to significant financial compensation if you have suffered an injury in a truck accident.
Many factors have led to large settlements and jury awards after truck accidents, including:
- Truck accident injuries are more serious because of the size disparity between the truck and the car involved.
- Trucking companies have larger insurance policies and more assets to cover settlements and jury awards.
- Trucking companies may be hit with punitive damages because they deliberately cut corners in the name of profits.
How To Win Your Truck Accident Case
Before qualifying for a financial settlement or award, you must show that the truck driver or trucking company caused the acident. In every truck accident case, liability depends on negligence.
To win your case, you need a truck accident lawyer who can prove:
- The truck driver owed you a duty of care
- The truck driver violated the duty of care by doing something unreasonable under the circumstances
- You suffered an injury
- You would not have suffered an injury had it not been for the wrongful actions of the truck driver
Examples Of Negligence In A Truck Accident Case
If your attorney learns that the truck driver or trucking company violated a federal trucking regulation, it can be negligence per se. You will not need to prove anything further to be in a position to receive financial compensation.
Negligence in a truck accident case may include:
- A distracted or speeding truck driver rear-ended you.
- A truck sideswiped you because the driver did not check their blind spot when changing lanes.
- The truck driver lost control of their truck because they drove drowsy.
- The truck malfunctioned because of a maintenance problem that the owner ignored.
- You suffered an injury from cargo that flew off a truck because someone did not properly secure it.
How Your Truck Accident Attorney Can Investigate And Prove Your Case
Prompt and extensive investigation is crucial after a truck accident. You need to call an attorney from Silva Injury Law as soon as possible after the accident to get them to work. If you are too injured to make the call, your family members should do it on your behalf.
Your truck accident attorney can use multiple sources of evidence to prove what happened in your accident. Like any motor vehicle accident case, you can use physical evidence and witness testimony to show that the truck driver caused the crash. In a truck accident case, there are additional sources of evidence that can be helpful to your case that the trucking company does not want you getting in your possession.
Relevant evidence can include:
- Black box data that shows how the driver operated the truck before the accident
- Electronic service logs that show whether the driver was following the hours of service regulations that limit the operation of the truck
- The employment and driving records of the truck driver involved in the accident
- The maintenance records for the truck show when inspections happened and what actions they took to fix any problems
Your Attorney Can Aggressively Obtain Even More Evidence During A Truck Accident Lawsuit
Although you may not get this evidence immediately, your attorney can obtain it during a truck accident lawsuit. First, your lawyer will need to direct the trucking company to preserve this evidence in anticipation of a trial. If the trucking company destroys or loses the evidence, it may face serious consequences.
If you can prove that the truck driver was negligent, you can sue the trucking company for your accident injuries. A truck driver is an agent of the trucking company that employs them.
Whatever the truck driver does is an act of the trucking company. Even if a trucking company tries to classify its driver as an independent contractor, you may still sue the trucking company, depending on the realities of the arrangement. The trucking company can also be liable for negligent hiring and retention for not properly vetting their drivers.
Trucking Companies Will Usually Have Large Insurance Policies
Insurance companies will not write an insurance policy for a commercial truck for less than $1 million. Trucking companies often have even more insurance, given the severity of truck accident injuries.
One serious accident can put them out of business without sufficient insurance coverage. Angry juries have issued verdicts that ended trucking companies because they had to pay their own assets to the plaintiff.
Even though there is a large amount of potential liability, insurance companies are still not in a hurry to settle your claim. They know that a large amount of money is on the line, and they will employ their usual tactics and brinkmanship to wear you down. You need a truck accident lawyer to negotiate a truck accident claim with the insurance company.
Besides gathering the necessary evidence, the other important part of preparing for your truck accident legal case is knowing how much your claim may be worth. Even though the value of your case is high, hundreds of thousands of dollars still is not a rounding error. You and your family will need money to compensate for the injuries you have already suffered and will continue to deal with in the future.
You can expect a difficult process before getting a check for your accident injuries. You need to follow this process, and you should always have an attorney leading you.
As a rule of thumb, insurance companies do not like to write large checks. They will drag their feet and delay to keep their money for longer and cut what they need to pay you in a settlement.
Patience and pressuring the insurance company to settle the case will get the best financial compensation.
In the end, the insurance company may need to up its settlement offer out of fear of massive jury verdicts that can include punitive damages.
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