Accidents between commercial trucks and passenger vehicles can have devastating consequences, including severe injuries and significant property damage.
Because these collisions involve commercial vehicles, they also have complex legal considerations that can be difficult to navigate.
If you suffered injuries in a collision with a commercial truck, an experienced truck accident attorney in San Diego can help you understand your legal rights and handle every aspect of your case. They can build a robust case, negotiate with the other parties involved, and seek the maximum compensation on your behalf.
Importantly, their efforts allow you to focus on fully recovering after an accident.
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The Basics of Truck Accidents
Truck accidents often differ significantly from accidents between passenger vehicles in some notable ways. Chief among these is the likelihood of considerable destruction simply due to the size of commercial trucks compared to passenger vehicles.
How Truck Accidents Happen
Accidents involving commercial trucks occur due to a variety of causes. Some of these factors aren’t unique to truck accidents, such as driver distraction, driver impairment, reckless driving behaviors, speeding, and mechanical issues.
Other causes, however, are either unique to commercial trucking or have more significant implications when the accident involves large trucks.
For example, while fatigue is a factor in many passenger vehicle accidents, the nature of trucking makes it more likely to occur—truck drivers work long hours—and the sheer size of commercial trucks makes the potential consequences that much more significant.
Some other possible causes of truck accidents include improper cargo loading and inexperience or lack of training on the driver’s part.
Truck accidents differ from passenger vehicle accidents in that multiple parties may be at fault, from the driver or their employer to manufacturers, mechanics, cargo loaders, and others who may have contributed to the accident through earlier action or inaction.
Types of Truck Accidents
Trucks can collide in many ways, both in terms of the types of accidents and the vehicles involved.
Types of collisions unique to or more likely to involve commercial trucks include override and underride collisions, jackknife accidents, and accidents involving improperly secured cargo loads.
Some types of commercial vehicles that may get into truck accidents include utility company vehicles, tow trucks, delivery trucks, tractor-trailers, rental trucks, construction trucks, and more.
Understanding a Truck Accident Attorney’s Role
Commercial truck accident lawyers have the experience and knowledge necessary to handle every facet of these complex, stressful, and time-consuming cases. They will gather crucial evidence, negotiate with the insurance companies, meet critical legal deadlines, and keep the case progressing toward a successful resolution.
Many federal and state laws apply in a truck accident case, and an attorney’s job is to analyze how these laws may affect your claim. By researching your accident, examining all the evidence, and applying the laws, they will determine which party or parties you can hold liable for your injuries.
Truck accident lawyers must consider the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations that govern the trucking industry to determine whether the truck driver, trucking company, or another party ran afoul of them and, if so, the implications for your case.
Negotiating with insurance companies is a vital part of an attorney’s role, especially in truck accident cases, because various insurance providers and policies may factor into a case. This is because multiple parties and entities bear liability for these accidents, such as the trucking company, the truck’s owner, a vehicle or parts manufacturer, a third-party mechanic, or a cargo loader.
Throughout the legal process, your truck accident attorney will advise you on your legal options, inform you of new developments, and help you make informed decisions to lead you to the best possible outcome.
What an Attorney Does for You After a Truck Accident
Due to the complicated factors that enter into a truck accident case, you’ll benefit from the insight and experience of a skilled attorney. Your lawyer can help you understand your legal rights and consider all options as you pursue the compensation you deserve.
Gather Evidence
A critical factor in any truck accident case is liability. Determining who is liable for injuries, property damage, and other losses is crucial to developing a solid legal strategy.
However, proving liability in a truck accident case often requires collecting, analyzing, and preserving copious evidence. This is why gathering evidence is the first important task your truck accident attorney must take on.
By investigating the accident, your attorney gains insight into the factors that directly caused and indirectly contributed to it. They will examine evidence from the accident scene, including photos of vehicle damage, skid marks on the road, traffic signs, and property damage. They will also review footage from traffic cameras, nearby surveillance cameras, and dashcams.
Importantly, your lawyer will collect data from the truck’s black box, or electronic logging device (ELD), which records driving time and can show whether a driver violated federal hours of service (HOS) regulations. Your attorney will also research the truck’s maintenance records to see whether the driver or company ignored maintenance requirements.
Your truck accident attorney will interview eyewitnesses and potentially bring in accident reconstruction experts to offer their insight into how the collision occurred. Your lawyer might hire other experts, including those in the medical or trucking industries.
They’ll collect other evidence as well. Your medical records, documentation related to your employment—including how much work you’ve missed and how much income you’ve lost as a result—and other records related to the collision help your attorney determine how much compensation you deserve.
Review Insurance Policies
In a collision between passenger vehicles, the role of insurance is often straightforward—the at-fault driver’s insurance policy compensates the other driver for medical expenses, vehicle repair costs, and other losses.
However, insurance coverage in an accident involving a passenger vehicle and a commercial truck is more complicated because multiple parties might be liable, including:
- The truck driver
- The trucking company
- The mechanics responsible for maintaining the truck
- The truck manufacturer
- The party who loaded the cargo
While driver error causes many truck accidents, various factors can complicate liability, and your attorney may need to deal with several different insurance companies, all of which will have their own attorneys engaged to avoid paying you what you deserve.
Your truck accident lawyer will review these policies to ensure you’re pursuing the maximum compensation.
Negotiate With Insurance Companies
Insurance companies tend to move quickly after a truck accident. They’ll likely send you a settlement offer in the hopes that you’ll accept it and they’ll be able to close the claim.
However, these initial settlement offers rarely rise to the level of fully compensating victims for their injuries. Insurance companies rely on victims’ desperation and lack of understanding of their legal rights to avoid paying them more money.
This is where a truck accident attorney’s experience and knowledge make a real difference. Your attorney will be able to look at the settlement offer, recognize that it falls short of fully compensating you for your injuries, and counter with the amount you’re seeking.
While rejecting an insurance company’s offer can be challenging, it pays to leave the process of communicating and negotiating with insurance companies to your truck accident lawyer. They’ll fight for fair and full compensation on your behalf.
Provide Peace of Mind
The legal process isn’t just complex—it’s also stressful. When you’re recovering from a truck accident injury, you deserve to focus on healing and not have to deal with the intricacies of your legal case.
Your commercial truck accident lawyer provides reassurance and peace of mind, allowing you to rest easy knowing your case is in skilled hands.
Compensation for Commercial Truck Accident Injuries
When you work with a truck accident lawyer to pursue compensation for your injuries, your attorney will review the details of your case and determine what compensation to seek.
You may recover compensation for various economic and non-economic damages, depending on the circumstances surrounding the collision and your injuries.
Medical Expenses
Your medical expenses are likely to account for a large percentage of the compensation you seek, not least because accidents involving commercial trucks are more likely to result in severe injuries.
Brain and spinal injuries, fractures, internal injuries, lacerations, burns, and soft tissue injuries are just some of the many medical issues you may suffer in this type of accident.
Medical costs can add up very quickly, and many severe injuries require ongoing, long-term treatment. Your attorney will review your medical bills, estimate your likely future medical expenses, and arrive at a dollar amount that will fairly compensate you for your injuries and pay for your recovery.
Lost Earnings
A truck accident is likely to take you away from work, especially if you require emergency treatment or a lengthy stay in a rehabilitation facility. It may inhibit your ability to work in the same role, industry, or capacity in the future, and in some cases, a truck accident can cause permanent disability.
Your attorney will seek compensation for lost earnings and the loss of future earning capacity.
Pain and Suffering
Truck accidents can be devastating and traumatic, and experiencing one can have a lasting effect on your life and comfort. Your attorney can seek compensation for the physical and emotional pain and suffering you experience as a result of a truck accident.
While calculating non-economic damages is less straightforward than determining economic damages like medical expenses, doing so can help you seek compensation that truly reflects how much the accident affected you.
Property Damage
A truck accident can obviously cause significant damage to your passenger vehicle—in most cases, your car will be a total loss. But it can also damage or destroy any personal effects you might have in your vehicle at the time of the accident. Your attorney will seek compensation for these losses.
Loss of Quality of Life
The effects of a truck accident can be devastating and permanent. Severe physical injuries, chronic pain, the inability to continue working, the loss of the ability to enjoy hobbies and activities, and other effects can significantly diminish your quality of life.
Your attorney can seek compensation for this loss of enjoyment.
How to Choose a Truck Accident Lawyer
Your choice of an attorney makes a difference in the outcome of your case. A lawyer with experience handling truck accident injury cases will bring their understanding of the law and the knowledge they gained in previous cases to your legal fight.
Choose an attorney who has successfully negotiated with insurers and recovered compensation for their clients.
You should also choose an attorney who understands your situation and listens to your concerns. Every truck accident case is unique; no two injury victims are alike. An attorney who can empathize with you and provide reassurance backed up by confidence in their abilities is likely an attorney you can trust to put their energy and commitment into your case.
Finally, consider their fee structure and whether they work on a contingency basis. As a truck accident injury victim, you’re likely facing considerable financial challenges due to your medical bills and lost income.
You shouldn’t have to worry about legal fees while your case is in progress. Find an attorney who offers a free initial consultation and collects fees only if they recover funds for you.
Contact a Truck Accident Attorney
Going through the legal process to seek compensation for your losses following a truck accident is a complex undertaking, and it’s not one you should feel like you have to go through alone.
An experienced truck accident attorney will help you understand your legal rights, review your options, and guide you step by step through the process of seeking justice.
Reach out to a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible following an accident to learn more about your legal options for pursuing compensation.