Everyone faces different challenges as a result of truck accidents. These collisions are far more dangerous than most, so your first step is to get medical attention. You can tell a doctor what happened to you during the accident and alert them to all abnormal symptoms you’re experiencing. They should provide diagnoses and treatment plans for all of your symptoms, and you should insist that they do.
You should also find a truck accident lawyer with a history of securing large financial recoveries for clients like you. Also, consider the lawyer and firm’s reputation among former clients, and the firm’s proximity to you.
Your Moves After a Truck Accident Could Have Long-Ranging Effects
For many, the overwhelming instinct after a truck accident is to rest. You have been through a traumatic event, and you should certainly make rest and recovery a priority. First, though, you should:
- Get treatment and documentation for all injuries: When you’re seeking compensation, your lawyer must show that you’ve suffered an injury because of the truck accident (and the parties that caused that). Therefore, it’s important that you get medical treatment as soon as possible after the collision, as this will vividly prove the direct effects of the collision.
- Get an evaluation for mental health symptoms: Mental health challenges like post-traumatic stress disorder are common in truck accidents. More importantly, these challenges can impair your quality of life and put you in immediate danger. Get any treatment you need for mental health deficits, both because your health and your case demand it.
- Hire your truck accident lawyer so they can take over your case and protect your rights: Finding a truck accident lawyer is another priority for every truck accident victim. Insurance companies typically require accident victims to report injuries soon after their accident, and laws also require attorneys to file truck accident lawsuits within a certain time period. Your lawyer will take the burden of your case off your hands, and they will waste no time fighting for the financial outcome you deserve.
While emergency medical services are often life-saving after traffic collisions, they are not always enough to ensure your safety and document your injuries. A truck accident lawyer will help with your case, but they will also ensure you receive the medical and mental health treatment you need.
What You Risk If You Delay (or Make the Wrong Moves) After Your Truck Accident
Not to belabor the point, but you should know the risks you run if you wait to seek medical attention or hire a lawyer. Delaying in either of these undertakings can:
- Allow liable parties (like insurance companies) to question whether your injuries are truly accident-related
- Allow injuries to heal before you get imaging and other medical documentation, which may misrepresent the severity of those injuries
- Allow insurance companies to successfully execute bad-faith tactics, like convincing you to accept a lowball settlement
- Prevent you from filing an insurance claim or lawsuit if you miss critical reporting or filing deadlines
Any of these outcomes can prevent you from receiving the money you deserve. This can cause severe financial hardship, lost quality of life, and difficult choices between getting the care you need or saving money—choices no truck accident survivor should have to make.
Your Truck Accident Attorney Will Immediately Begin Building Your Case
Attorneys understand the time-sensitive nature of truck accident claims and lawsuits. As soon as you sign your firm, your attorney will start:
Identifying Parties Who Owe You Compensation
Your lawyer’s strategy will revolve around who owes you money for accident-related losses. Some commonly liable parties include:
- Insurance companies, which may represent a truck driver, trucking company, you, or other parties
- A trucking company
- A truck driver
- The manufacturer of a truck or cargo trailer
- The municipality in which the accident occurred
Attorneys understand how to establish liability in quick order. Once your attorney knows who is obligated to pay for your damages, they will determine how to seek fair compensation from those parties.
Proving Who Caused the Truck Accident
Proving fault for your accident proves who should cover your damages. Your lawyer may rely on witness testimony, photographs of vehicle damage and the accident scene, video of the collision, expert testimony, reconstructions of the accident, and other resources to prove fault.
Composing Their Settlement Demands
Truck accident lawyers often deal with disabling injuries, lasting trauma, wrongful deaths, and other long-term challenges. Therefore, your lawyer’s settlement demands will account for:
- Property costs and other one-time damages you’ve already suffered
- Past, ongoing, and future medical services
- Past and future professional damages
- All other current and future damages resulting from the truck collision
Your lawyer will also calculate pain and suffering, which can be a substantial portion of their settlement demands.
Completing Any Settlement Negotiations Your Case Requires
Liable insurance companies may present a settlement offer to your lawyer. These companies can also deny your claim or take other actions to spare them from financial responsibility.
Your lawyer will:
- Prepare settlement demands that detail your current and future losses
- Explain within their demands why the target of the settlement demands is liable for your losses
- Engage in any necessary negotiations, as you can expect liable parties to try and pay you as little compensation as possible
Statistics indicate that most truck accident victims eventually accept a settlement. However, this does not indicate that every truck accident victim receives a fair settlement. Fight to ensure you receive the compensation you deserve by letting a lawyer negotiate for you.
Drafting and Filing Any Necessary Truck Accident Lawsuit
Most truck accident attorneys intend to avoid a lawsuit. If they can secure fair compensation from liable insurance companies, they will.
However, insurance companies may leave you and your lawyer no choice but to sue. If you do not receive the settlement offer you deserve, your attorney should be willing and ready to sue on your behalf. A trucking company is among the most likely defendants in a truck accident lawsuit.
Preparing For and Completing A Necessary Trial
Many truck accident victims decide to sue, but their lawyer is able to secure a fair settlement offer before trial starts. This can be the path your case takes, but it’s also possible that no fair settlement offer materializes.
If going to trial proves to be the best decision for you, trust that an attorney will present your personal injury case and demand fair compensation in the courtroom.
Never Assume Insurance Companies Will Honor Their Financial Obligation to You
Some accident victims mistakenly assume that the insurance claims process always ends up in a fair and just manner. To understand why some truck accident victims do not receive the money they deserve from insurance providers, you must recognize that:
- Insurance companies are for-profit businesses (many of them are even beholden to stockholders)
- For-profit businesses have a mission (and, in some cases, a duty to their stockholders) to make as much money as possible
- Paying money to accident victims like you means the insurance company loses money
- If it can, the typical insurance company will underpay you, and may even try to avoid paying you altogether
An insurance company may use several bad-faith tactics to avoid financial responsibility for your losses. These tactics include:
- Denying your claim
- Contesting the nature or severity of your injuries (or even claiming that your injuries happened before the truck accident)
- Contesting the financial value of losses you’re seeking compensation for, which may include medical treatment
- Claiming that you caused the truck accident (which, in no-fault states, can absolve the insurance company from paying you money)
One particularly common and insidious tactic is offering a lowball settlement. Insurance companies know that accident victims are often not of sound mind and are also under immense financial pressure. Therefore, they may quickly offer a lowball settlement and convince the accident victim to accept.
Once you accept an insurance company’s offer, that’s generally the extent of your financial recovery from a truck accident. This is why it’s important that you hire a lawyer to fight for a full and fair recovery and advise you before you sign anything.
Will My Lawyer Need to Sue After My Truck Accident?
Your lawyer will help you decide whether to file a lawsuit related to your accident. While suing is not always necessary, it’s an option you want to have (and an option you always have with a lawyer representing you).
A lawsuit may be necessary if:
- The party or parties responsible for your accident do not have insurance; while most trucking companies have substantial insurance, uninsured parties are a possibility your lawyer will be prepared for
- Liable parties insist that you are at fault for the truck accident
- Insurance companies that owe you compensation are not negotiating in good faith
Truck accident attorneys work to resolve their clients’ cases as soon as possible. Even more importantly, though, your lawyer will strive to secure all the money you deserve. In some cases, obtaining fair compensation for truck accident victims means taking a case to trial.
Those in the Trucking Industry Have a Duty of Care
Everyone involved in the trucking industry has a duty to exercise good judgment and caution, and this includes:
- Truck drivers: Truck drivers have a duty of care to protect others on the road, including you. They must know that their vehicle takes longer to stop, has large blind spots, and has other features that make it a serious hazard. If a truck driver sped, tailgated, drove while impaired or distracted, or engaged in any other dangerous act, they may be liable for your damages.
- Trucking companies: Trucking companies must ensure their drivers are adequately skilled and trained, monitor and discipline their drivers as necessary, ensure safe vehicles, and take all other necessary precautions to reduce the likelihood of accidents.
- Truck and trailer manufacturers: If a defective truck or trailer played a role in your accident, the manufacturer can become a defendant in your lawsuit.
- Municipalities: If defective traffic signals, flawed roadways, poor lighting, or other hazards under a municipality’s control contributed to your accident, your attorney may sue the liable municipality.
These parties may have insurance policies that apply to your accident. You may also be eligible to sue these parties directly. Your attorney will attain all relevant information and conceive a personalized strategy for securing the money you deserve.
There Is No Out-of-Pocket Cost to Hire Your Lawyer
Truck accident victims do not have to lose sleep over hiring a lawyer, partly because your attorney will almost certainly use a no-risk fee structure. More specifically, your lawyer will likely use a contingency fee.
Clients generally love contingency fees because these fees mean:
- You don’t pay a dime upfront or out-of-pocket to your law firm
- Your law firm pays for expert services, filing costs, and all other expenses related to your case
- Your attorney only gets a fee if they obtain compensation for you (therefore, they have significant motivation to win)
You face enough financial uncertainty after a truck accident. Your law firm will ensure their services are a source only of hope, not financial concern.
What Damages Can a Truck Accident Victim Receive Compensation For?
Expect your lawyer to account for every type of harm that your accident causes, which may include:
- Healthcare costs, including any future bills you will face
- Pain and suffering, as well as the cost of any treatment for your pain and suffering
- Property expenses, including the cost of repairing a damaged vehicle
- Lost income and other professional harm
Truck accident lawyers also represent clients facing lifelong disability. Each case is unique, so allow a lawyer to evaluate your damages and fight for the money liable parties owe you.
Identify and Hire Your Truck Accident Attorney as Soon as Possible
If you have suffered an injury or lost a loved one in a truck accident, you should always speak with a skilled personal injury attorney. Use the internet or other resources to find a law firm with resources, case results, and client testimonials that impress you. Hire that law firm as soon as you can.