The large commercial trucking industry is unfortunately responsible for some of the most devastating car accidents on the roads of America today. In comparison with your average car accident, which can be dangerous enough, truck accidents are much more likely to incur serious injuries that can lead to life-long complications or even death. The weight, size, and bulk of a large truck often mean an increased risk of crushed vehicles, multiple car pile-ups, and cargo debris littering the road.
If you have been involved in a truck accident, the team of lawyers at The Law Place can help you to get the compensation that you deserve for your damages. Our injury lawyer team has over 75 years of combined experience helping the victims of trucking accidents to recover compensation that is fair. Don’t settle for inferior legal representation. Let an attorney from our law firm give you the best chance for a successful case.
For a free consultation over the phone, contact an attorney from The Law Place today. All calls come at no-obligation, and our lines are always open. Contact a personal injury lawyer on (941) 444-4444 as soon as possible!
What Makes Truck Accident Cases Such a Common Problem in America Today?
Motor vehicle accidents involving a commercial vehicle such as a truck, semi-truck, or tractor-trailer motor carrier are unfortunately all too common on the roads of America. This is due to several reasons.
The following sections will detail why trucking companies are so often the cause of a personal injury or accident case.
The Average Truck Accident Case Is More Severe Than a Car Accident
Truck drivers often fall victim to the same risks that commonly cause car accident cases. Unfortunately, due to the difference in scale between a regular car and a truck, semi-truck, or tractor-trailer truck, these accidents are much more likely to have devastating consequences.
Situations and circumstances that often cause personal injury on the roads include:
- Environmental hazards, such as adverse weather conditions or wildlife on the roads.
- Road maintenance issues, such as potholes or unsafe road surfacing.
- Reckless driving by other road users violating their duty of care.
Additional Risks Involved in Working for a Large Trucking Company
As well as the regular personal injury risks detailed above, a truck driver is also the cause of additional accident risks. Many of these are the fault of the trucking company and not the truck driver directly.
The risks that are indirectly incurred by the trucking company often correlate with the way they treat their drivers. A truck driver is often paid per mile, which puts pressure on them to minimize time spent not driving. This increases the risk of a trucking accident in the following ways:
- It encourages fatigued driving. If a truck driver is encouraged to drive for as much time as possible, they may minimize their sleep time and break periods. This increases the risk of a truck accident case due to falling asleep at the wheel or losing focus.
- It also encourages intoxicated driving. If break and rest periods are minimized, some commercial vehicle drivers resort to illegal stimulants to maximize the time they can spend driving. This leads to an increased number of driving under the influence cases.
- A commercial truck driver who is minimizing their time not spent driving will also be encouraged to rush additional risk-reducing tasks, such as properly loading their cargo, planning their routes, and performing routine maintenance on their vehicle.
All of these factors increase the risk of a truck crash.
Other Aspects of Corporate Negligence Often Seen by Truck Accident Attorneys
There are other ways a trucking company can be negligent and therefore liable for damages, which are not the direct responsibility of the truck driver.
Examples of trucking company negligence often seen by our trucking accident attorney team include:
- Negligent Hiring on the Part of the Trucking Company – Many corporations skip background checks, which would reveal whether their drivers have a history of reckless or intoxicated driving.
- Negligence in Terms of Truck Maintenance – Large vehicles such as a semi-truck or tractor-trailer truck are complex and need regular upkeep. If the company fails to do this, then mechanical faults can cause large scale devastation and personal injury on the road.
It is both easy and understandable for accident victims to simply blame the truck driver after an accident involving commercial trucks. However, trucking companies often violate state and federal laws and regulations.
Your attorney can help you to get the compensation you deserve if you are injured in an accident. They can also help to hold large trucking companies accountable for the additional risks they inflict on America’s drivers.
For more information on how an attorney can help you, call The Law Place for a free consultation and free case evaluation today.
So What Can an Experienced Truck Accident Lawyer Do for You?
There are many things that injury lawyers can do for accident victims following a truck, tractor-trailer, or semi-truck accident.
These things range from assistance dealing with insurance companies, negotiating final settlements, and pursuing different types of damages to get you the compensation you deserve.
We’re here to serve you. Our phones are open 24 hours a day. Help Dealing With Insurance Companies Following a Commercial Truck Accident
Following a severe accident, you are obliged to contact your insurance company. Usually, insurance companies require that you call them within 24 hours of the accident. However, this may vary. The details for your specific insurance company will be found in your policy document.
Insurance companies often try and lower your potential claim amount right from the outset. This is because it is in the interest of the insurance company to lower the amount they are required to pay you for your damages.
The following sections will detail the tricks that insurance companies often employ to lower the claim amount for those injured in a truck accident and what your injury lawyers can do to help you mitigate this.
The First Phone Call With Your Insurance Company
As mentioned above, you are obliged to contact your insurance company following an accident.
Unfortunately, insurance companies may take advantage of the fact that you will be shaken from your truck accident. They could attempt to get additional details from you in a recorded phone call to use as evidence to devalue your claim. Even the most innocuous admission can damage your compensatory payout.
Make sure that you give out as little information as possible during this phone call and ensure you never sign anything without discussing it with your lawyer first.
In fact, our law firm would advise you to take up a free consultation with your injury lawyers before contacting your insurance carrier at all. This way, your personal injury lawyer in Tampa, FL can brief you on exactly what to say and outline the bare minimum of disclosure to the insurance company.
Help Negotiating a Settlement With Your Insurance Company
It may be the case that you do not need to file a lawsuit. In certain situations, it may be more beneficial to simply negotiate a settlement with your insurance company.
Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. This is where your truck accident lawyer will come in especially useful. They will collect and collate a solid body of evidence for use in these negotiations. Insurance companies almost never accept the first offer and have teams of claims adjusters, specifically to lower the amount they payout for your case.
Every attorney working for The Law Place is a skilled and shrewd negotiator. We know all the tricks employed by these insurance companies. We also have the tenacity and drive needed to fight tooth and nail for your compensation, no matter what the opposition.
Help With the Collection of Evidence to Present to Your Insurance Company
A personal injury claim will need to be accompanied by evidence relating to your truck accident. Accident victims with more evidence are more likely to receive a higher payout.
There is also evidence unique to truck accidents that your truck accident attorney can help you to access, such as the black box located in the truck.
The Presence of the Black Box in the Case of Truck Accidents
One thing which sets a truck, tractor-trailer, or semi-truck accident apart from a regular car accident is the presence of the black box.
Commercial trucks over a certain weight are required to have a black box installed, much like in an airplane, these record information that is vital in the event of a truck crash.
The black box records the following information about your accident for use by your truck accident lawyers:
- The speed at which the truck was traveling.
- The breaking patterns of the truck, along with speed, can be used by your truck accident attorney to figure out if the truck driver was driving recklessly or erratically.
- The force of impact of the truck accident can be used to prove the level of potential damage and related personal injury.
- The presence of any mechanical failures or warning lights can be an indicator of negligence, which leads to truck accidents.
Recovering this black box in the event of a truck accident can be a difficult process. Obviously, most large trucking corporations are not exactly forthcoming with potentially damning information.
This is where your injury lawyer comes in. All of the attorneys at our law firm have experience recovering these from trucking companies, along with the determination to pursue this avenue no matter what roadblocks the trucking company may throw up to attempt to prevent an accident lawsuit.
Access to Accident Recreation Teams to Collect Evidence After the Accident Scene is Cleared
If you have been injured in a truck accident, it is understandable that evidence collection was the furthest thing from your mind at the accident scene.
Luckily, our law firm has access to specialist teams who can recreate the circumstances of your injury in order to gain key evidence for your accident lawsuit.
Like all aspects of a personal injury case, you will pay nothing for the accident recreation team’s time until the conclusion of your case, when fees will be taken as a portion of your final settlement.
How Our Personal Investigators Can Help You Collect Proof
Sometimes it is unavoidable that evidence from the scene of your truck accident can become lost. The same is true of potential valuable eyewitness accounts.
Luckily, your truck accident attorney will have access to a tried and tested team of personal investigators. These people work with our law firm often and have a proven record of tracking down and recovering both evidence and witnesses to help provide proof for your truck, semi-truck, or tractor-trailer truck accident.
We’re Florida’s top litigation team with over 75 years of combined experience So What Evidence Can You Help to Provide for Your Attorney?
As covered above, your attorney will have access to various resources to help collect evidence for your case. However, there are several things that you can do to help build the most solid case possible.
Evidence that you can collect includes:
- Detailed photographs of the crash scene from multiple angles. These should include photographs of all vehicles involved in the truck accident, any damage to the surroundings, and any tire skid marks on the road surface.
- Photographs of any injury you may sustain. These should be taken immediately after the accident, again after you have received medical care, and then again at every significant step in your recovery process.
- The name, contact details, insurance carrier details, and license/registration/plate numbers of everyone involved in the accident.
- Copies of all medical bills and other documentation concerning any medical expenses that were a result of your accident.
- A copy of your full medical history, if possible. This can help to prove that any complications from your injuries were not actually pre-existing conditions, which is a position often taken by insurance companies.
- Copies of any correspondence with your employer concerning any time you have had to take off work to recover from your injury. This can help your lawyer to recover damages for your lost wages.
If you collect all of this information and proof, you stand the highest chance of receiving a maximum payout whether you choose to negotiate with the insurance company or to file a lawsuit.
For more information on how we can help you or what steps to take following your truck accident, phone The Law Place today for a free consultation.
From the initial call to updates on your case status, we are here to get you answers. What Damages Can Your Truck Accident Attorney Help You to Recover?
There are several different types of damages that your attorney can help you to recover following a truck, semi-truck, or tractor-trailer truck accident.
The following sections will discuss these different types of damages. They will give you a good idea of which of these damages will apply to your unique truck accident case.
Claiming for Property Damage
Property damage may be the least life-threatening aspect of a truck accident, but that does not mean it should not be taken extremely seriously.
Accident and personal injury cases are often fraught with financial instability. Your car is highly valuable to you, and if it is destroyed, you could be out of pocket by a large amount. Furthermore, if you cannot afford to replace your vehicle, you may lose access to your ability to get to and from your job as well as carrying out daily tasks.
Your attorney can help you to recover compensation for any property damage you may have sustained in your truck accident.
Claiming for the Cost of Your Medical Care
It is no secret that medical bills are a common cause of bankruptcy in America today.
Luckily, one of the damages that your attorney can help you to recover is medical bills.
If you required medical treatment for any injury sustained in your accident, ensure that you retain all of the bills and documentation that are relevant to it. This way, your attorney can stand the best chance of recovering the full cost of the treatment.
Claiming for the Pain and Suffering Caused by Your Injuries
Pain and suffering is actually a specific legal term. These damages deal with the recovery process of your injuries and any other complications you may receive as a result.
Pain and suffering damage is calculated by considering the length of your recovery process and the level of pain involved.
It also considers the following factors:
- The level of emotional distress, trauma and other mental health complications as a result of your truck accident.
- The presence of any lifelong disability or impairment. This includes difficulty in moving, cognitive impairments, and more.
- Any scarring or disfigurement you may have received as a result of your truck accident.
Claiming for the Lost Life of a Loved One
Unfortunately, truck accidents are often a cause of lost life. We fully understand that no amount of monetary compensation can help with the level of grief you will be feeling.
However, losing a loved one is unfortunately expensive. There is the cost of burial and funeral expenses to be considered. Furthermore, it is more than likely that you will have lost a contributor to your household income.
All of this can massively complicate your grieving process. Wrongful death action following truck accidents is designed to take the financial burden off you so that you can have the time, space, and energy needed to mourn your loved one, as is appropriate.
Wrongful death actions take into account the following factors:
- The lost income your loved one would have provided to your household.
- The loss of consortium.
- The level of emotional distress caused to you and your family.
- The cost of burial and funeral expenses.
Also, as mentioned above, the truck drivers are not always explicitly at fault for a truck accident. However, this should not put you off seeking wrongful death damages. This compensation is achieved through a civil court so that you do not have to worry about potentially labeling anybody a murderer for something that was not entirely their fault.
Florida Statute 768.21 lays out the legal details for wrongful death actions.
If you would like to know explicitly whether or not any of the above damages apply to your specific case, contact The Law Place today for a free telephone consultation.
How Much Will the Truck Accident Lawyers From The Law Place Cost You?
The simple answer to this question is nothing. All our work takes place on a contingency basis.
This means that you will pay nothing until your case has concluded with a final settlement. The fees will be then taken from this settlement amount. If your case is unsuccessful for whatever reason, the process will cost nothing.
All our contingency work is monitored by the State Bar Association, so you can rest assured that there will be no hidden costs or fees.
What Does a Truck Accident Lawyer Do? FAQ
What is the role of a truck accident lawyer?
Truck accident lawyers work to represent truck accident victims in their legal battles for compensation. They handle all aspects of a truck accident lawsuit, from investigating the accident to negotiating with insurance adjusters and representing the victim in court if necessary.
How do truck accident lawyers gather evidence for a claim?
An experienced truck accident attorney will gather evidence by reviewing police reports, interviewing witnesses, and obtaining data from the truck’s black box and any available surveillance footage. They may also collaborate with experts to reconstruct the accident scene and identify any mechanical failures or negligence by the truck manufacturer.
Why is a thorough investigation important in a truck accident claim?
A thorough investigation is crucial because it helps identify the liable party and build a strong case. This investigation can uncover details about the truck driver’s behavior, the condition of the truck, and other factors that contributed to the accident. Personal injury lawyers use this information to hold the right parties accountable and seek compensation for the victim.
What kind of injuries do truck accident victims typically suffer?
Truck accident injuries can be severe and life-changing, including traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, broken bones, and internal organ damage. These injuries often require extensive medical treatment and long-term care, making it essential for victims to seek fair compensation to cover these costs.
How do truck accident lawyers help victims seek compensation?
Truck accident lawyers help victims seek compensation by negotiating with insurance adjusters and filing lawsuits against the liable parties. They aim to secure compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages. An experienced truck accident attorney will ensure that all aspects of the victim’s losses are considered to achieve a fair settlement.
What makes truck accident cases different from other personal injury cases?
Truck accident cases are more complex due to the involvement of multiple parties, such as the truck driver, trucking company, and truck manufacturer. Personal injury lawyers handling these cases must navigate federal regulations, gather extensive evidence, and often deal with more severe injuries. This complexity requires a dedicated approach to ensure truck accident victims receive the compensation they deserve.
How can truck accident lawyers assist with dealing with insurance companies?
Most truck accident lawyers work on behalf of the victims to handle all communications with insurance adjusters. This includes negotiating settlements and ensuring that the insurance companies do not undervalue the claim. By dealing directly with the insurers, the lawyers protect the victims’ interests and work towards securing a fair compensation.
When should truck accident victims seek legal advice?
Truck accident victims should seek legal advice as soon as possible after the accident. Early involvement of a personal injury attorney can help preserve crucial evidence, ensure timely filing of claims, and prevent costly mistakes in the legal process. Prompt legal action increases the chances of a successful truck accident claim.
Contact The Law Place Today
If you are a truck accident victim seeking compensation for your injuries and losses, contacting an experienced truck accident attorney can significantly impact the outcome of your case. These personal injury attorneys are dedicated to helping you navigate the complexities of your claim and achieve the justice and compensation you deserve.
If you would like the highest chance of receiving maximum compensation, contact The Law Place today. We can offer you a free consultation at no-obligation, and our lines are always open. We are waiting for your call.
Don’t let legal complexities or insurance companies get in the way of you receiving the appropriate level of compensatory justice. Start your legal journey today. The sooner you begin, the less chance there is of key evidence becoming los,t or the lawyer teams of your insurance company getting a head start on your case and lowering your potential claim amount.
If you are interested in making a claim or want free, impartial legal advice, call our office any time of the day or night on (941) 444-4444.
