If you have suffered an injury in a truck accident that wasn't your fault, you need a truck accident attorney immediately. Big rig accidents are generally more complex and time-consuming than other motor vehicle collisions. You need a legal professional familiar with semi-truck claims to navigate statutes properly, preserve evidence quickly, and negotiate with multiple liable insurers for maximum payouts.
Schedule a free consultation with an experienced truck accident lawyer to determine a legal strategy to recover financial compensation today.
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Reasons You Need a Truck Accident Attorney
In addition to the complexity involved in tractor-trailer collisions, there are many reasons why you need a truck accident lawyer. These include serious injuries, missing work, multiple sources of liability, denied or disputed liability, bad-faith insurance tactics, and complex evidence and case investigation.
You Are Injured
Due to factors such as trailer size and speed, truck accidents generally result in more severe injuries. The severity of your injuries can rack up astronomical medical and rehabilitation bills that aren't covered by one insurance policy. Your lawyer will explore all possible liable parties to ensure your expenses are paid.
You Missed Work
If you've lost income because your injuries forced you to miss work, those damages are recoverable in your insurance claim(s). You should not absorb the costs of any of these standard income losses:
- Annual salary or wages
- Tips or commissions
- Benefits—healthcare, retirement, or pension
- Sick leave and vacation time
- Lost bonuses and promotions
- Diminished earning capacity or future earnings
Your truck accident attorney will fully access every area where you experienced income losses and calculate the damages before sending a demand letter to liable insurance companies. You can prove income losses with pay stubs, loss of earnings statements from employers, bank statements, profit and loss documents, and tax returns.
Multiple Liability
Semi-truck drivers and companies have additional licenses and regulations holding them accountable for safety on the road. Truck collision cases often present the complexity of navigating multiple liable parties. These parties include:
- Truck drivers
- Trucking companies
- Cargo loaders
- Cargo loading companies
- Truck safety inspectors
- Government contractors and agencies
Determining who is responsible for what can be challenging when you have multiple liable insurance companies. Insurers will attempt to shift and negate blame onto each other to minimize their company’s payouts. This back-and-forth makes it difficult for unrepresented truck accident injury victims.
It takes extensive investigation and accident reconstruction to help pinpoint negligence and determine liability percentages. Your attorney will utilize both to maximize your financial settlement by holding every liable party accountable.
Bad-Faith Insurance Tactics
It's common for insurance companies to employ a multitude of bad-faith tactics to minimize their company's losses. Having a truck accident attorney eliminates this practice. Typical bad-faith tactics insurers use on unrepresented victims involve:
- Failing to investigate
- Misrepresenting or intentionally misinterpreting policies or claims
- Delaying payments
- Denying claims without a valid reason
- Undervaluing and underpaying claims
- Refusing reasonable requests for documentation
Making threats to intimidate truck accident injury victims into settling for lowball offers or before they have recovered from their injuries is another bad-faith tactic. Bad-faith insurance tactics constitute fraud. Policyholders can sue insurers to recover economic and non-economic damages. If you are a victim of bad-faith insurance tactics, consult an attorney to determine a strategy to secure compensation.
Complex Evidence and Case Investigation
Another reason why you need a truck lawyer is due to the extensive evidence involved in a large truck crash. In addition to standard evidence, like police reports and witness statements, truck collisions have evidence, including:
- Electronic logging devices and event data recorders
- Black box data
- The trucker’s cell phone records—at the time of the accident
- The truck driver’s GPS data—at the time of the accident
- The truck's inspection and maintenance records
- The truck driver’s logbook
- Video footage from the dash, traffic, and business cameras
Gathering and extensively analyzing the data is an empirical part of why you need a truck accident lawyer. They can work with experts, including accident reconstruction specialists, to prove liability and damages in your case.
Why You Need a Truck Lawyer to Secure a Financial Settlement
An experienced truck lawyer handling your accident claim is the best way to ensure you receive a fair settlement. Truck accident injury victims who are unrepresented often deal with delayed or denied claims because insurers know they can get away with it.
An attorney will demand liable parties pay or file a lawsuit on your behalf. Additionally, they will provide a comprehensive valuation of your damages and negotiate maximum settlements.
Provide Comprehensive Valuation of Your Truck Accident Claim
A comprehensive valuation of your claim is an invaluable service truck accident lawyers provide. In addition to the mentioned income losses, there are many damage types your attorney will consider to ensure maximizing your compensation, such as:
- Medical Expenses—ambulance and emergency services, hospitalizations, surgeries, diagnostics and imaging, primary care, mental health, home health services, and future medical expenses.
- Rehabilitation Costs—physical therapy, massage, chiropractic care, orthopedic care, vocational rehabilitation therapy, and speech and language therapy.
- Property Damages—vehicle repairs, replacements, rental vehicles, and personal property damaged in truck accidents, including cell phones, electronic devices, clothing, and car safety seats.
- Household Services—hired services to accommodate your inability to perform them due to injuries, such as housecleaning, cooking or meal delivery, daycare or in-home childcare, and grocery and prescription delivery.
- Pain and Suffering—intangible losses including chronic pain, sleep disturbances, emotional distress, PTSD, loss of enjoyment of life, physical impairment, shortened life expectancy, substance misuse problems, and loss of companionship.
Family members suing for wrongful death after the tragic loss of a loved one may recover additional losses. These wrongful death damages include final arrangement costs, final medical expenses of the decedent, loss of consortium, loss of guidance, loss of inheritance, and loss of financial support.
Negotiate With All Liable Insurance Companies
After valuing your claim, your truck accident lawyer will send a demand letter to all liable insurers. This is typically when the negotiations begin. Negotiations usually involve a back-and-forth before liable insurance companies and your attorney agree on settlement terms.
You will be actively involved in reports on all settlement offers and advised on how to proceed. You make the final decision on whether or not to accept a settlement.
File a Truck Accident Lawsuit as a Final Demand for Fair Compensation
If your truck accident lawyer and liable insurance companies cannot come to an agreement, it doesn't end there. Your attorney will file a truck accident lawsuit to demand you receive fair compensation for financial losses and other damages incurred from the accident.
Schedule a free consultation with an experienced truck accident lawyer to discuss your right to financial compensation.