Trucking Accident Lawyers

Trucking Accident Lawyers: Do you know there are over eleven million vehicles working actively throughout the USA, many with overworked drivers carrying hazardous supplies? In 2016 alone, there have been 475,000 giant truck accidents with human error accounting for roughly ninety p.c of them.

Trucking Accident Lawyers

And, although a Harvard study found that about a quarter of drivers fall asleep behind the wheel, 50 percent of professional truck drivers have experienced the same thing.

With so many cars relying on highways to get to work every day, it only takes one overworked truck driver to completely change your life. Vehicles, on the other hand, weigh 20-30 times more than a regular car, potentially amplifying the impact and consequences of an accident.

If you or a loved one is involved in a truck accident, it is critical that you seek the services of a legal practitioner. Because truck drivers are frequently insured in the tens of thousands of dollars, and because a couple of parties may be held vicariously liable for a driver's negligence, having a lawyer on your side as soon as possible can aid to ensure that your case is handled in the most expert approach.

In trucking accidents, figuring out all of the numerous lines of insurance coverage can be difficult because the truck and trailer are sometimes covered by different companies, with either or both of them potentially liable for carelessness.

Continue reading to learn about the various options available to you or a loved one following a truck accident, and to fill out a free case evaluation form to see if our team of attorneys, investigators, and expert witnesses can assist you with your case.

Trucking Accident Attorneys

Documentation — To begin, your assigned legal team will gather information about your claim, such as medical information, medical payments, and insurance coverage coverage information.

These documents will aid your lawyer in determining the extent of your injury and building your compensation case.

Investigation - Your attorney and legal team will thoroughly investigate your accident in order to get the necessary evidence.

They may examine dashcam footage, security camera footage, police records, and other sources to help you build your case.

Outside of the courtroom, your attorney will negotiate with the defence to help you obtain the compensation to which you may be entitled.

If settlement negotiations fail, your lawyer is prepared to take your case to trial and present it in the strongest possible light.

What to Do Following a Truck Accident?

The amount of confusion that follows a truck accident might be quite high. You'll want to make sure the police and any other necessary emergency personnel are notified as soon as possible in case of an accident or burns.

As part of their accident report, the police will gather detailed notes, statements from all parties involved, and photographs of any witnesses. You'll also want to document as much as you can, including witness statements, if at all possible.

If the digital camera on your phone is working, remember to take as many images as you can of the damage to your car and any incidents you and other passengers were involved in.

What Are The Main Causes of Truck Accidents?

• Driver Error – Regardless of the magnitude and impact of truck accidents, truck drivers are notorious for driving carelessly. They frequently drive tired in order to meet mileage targets established by their employers, and they may be operating their vehicle while inebriated or preoccupied.
• Poorly Maintained Vans – Vans are frequently driven thousands of miles per week, and if they are not properly maintained, they will quickly become dangerous. Whereas worn brake pads or a broken windshield must be dealt with if they occur in a smaller vehicle, they are frequently the cause of a serious site visitors accident in a truck.
• Gear Failure – Faulty vehicle components may or may not be the responsibility of the driver, but they can be deadly. Your lawyer will be able to tell you if a trucking company or manufacturer, in addition to the truck driver, is responsible for your accident.
• Improperly Loaded Cargo – Loading the beds of commercial trucks must be done meticulously and in compliance with the law. If they're loaded incorrectly, the contents of the truck could flow out onto the street, causing collisions.

How Truck Accidents Are Totally different From Automobile Accidents

Business freight vehicles (also known as "big rigs") typically weigh 80,000 pounds or more, which is twenty times the weight of passenger cars.

Despite the fact that there are laws in place to ensure that truck drivers do not drive for more than ten hours each day, they are frequently given monetary incentives for travelling long distances faster, which may immediately jeopardise the safety of other drivers.

• Bigger Insurance coverage Insurance policies – Truck drivers' insurance policies are up to fifty times more expensive than car accident insurance policies. This usually puts the total value of insurance coverage in the thousands of dollars, so you can assume that the many insurance coverage carriers implicated in a lawsuit will go to great lengths to establish they were not at fault. 
• Veteran insurance adjusters will be summoned and will employ complex strategies, such as offering an apparently high compensation when your case is actually worth much more. Having a competent lawyer on your side might make the procedure a lot less aggravating.
• Elevated Property Harm – An 18-wheeler industrial freight truck, as previously stated, has a far larger cargo and overall dimension than a regular car. This means that any nearby property will be impacted significantly more than in a collision involving two automobiles.
• Extra Critical Accidents – Similarly, the injuries that are common in car accidents are far more severe and may necessitate extensive medical treatment and expenses. Accidents following a truck crash can result in serious whiplash and broken bones, as well as brain trauma and severe lacerations.
• A lot Bigger Medical Payments – The time spent in a hospital is typically substantially longer than the time spent in a car accident. Truck accident victims are unable to return to work for an extended period of time, if at all. Working with an experienced attorney at Morgan & Morgan allows us to more exactly quantify your current and future pain and suffering, allowing us to obtain the compensation you deserve.
• Better Likelihood of Loss of life – A collision involving a large industrial truck is far more likely to result in death than a collision involving two passenger automobiles. According to the Federal Motor Service Security Administration (FMCSA), truck accidents cause between 3,000 and 5,000 deaths each year.

Given the numerous variables involved in truck accidents, as well as the substantial assets wielded by trucking companies and their insurance, obtaining a free case evaluation is a wise first step when determining whether or not to hire a lawyer.

Who’s Liable for My Truck Accident?

If you were wounded or lost a loved one in a truck accident, there are a number of parties who could be held responsible for your losses. It's not uncommon for these incidents to deny blame or legal responsibility for a collision. The following are examples of accountable events:

• Truck driver
• Truck firm
• Proprietor of the truck
• Firm leasing the truck
• Firm leasing the trailer
• Shipper who needed the load transported
• Truck, trailer or components producer

Truck accidents can result in severe injuries, including brain trauma, spinal cord damage, deformity, burns, broken bones, lacerations, paralysis, and even death.

The following are examples of truck accident lawsuits:

Negligence: Most lawsuits seeking better compensation for injuries experienced in a truck collision are based on the truck driver's negligence. The following are some common signs of negligence:

• a scarcity of truck driving experience
• Vehicles that are overloaded
• Working with large cars on narrow roadways
• Due to the truck's massive blind area, it is impossible to see other vehicles.
• Failure to follow the legal standards for site visitors
• Without taking a break, you've been driving for far too long.
• Failure to keep track of the truck driver's driving hours
• Failure to keep the tractor and/or trailer in a safe, operational condition
• Hiring a truck driver who is unprepared or unfit
• Inadequate supervision of the truck driver
• The truck driver was not well prepared.
• Choosing a trucking company that is unqualified or incompetent

To win a negligence claim, the injured must show that the truck driver had a duty of care to other vehicles on the road, that the driver breached this duty by some action or failure to act, that damage was inflicted, and that the breach of duty caused the damage.

After a collision, the owner of the trucking company and supervisor, the owner of the truck, the employer of the driver, and their separate insurance coverage companies may all be held accountable.

Product Legal responsibility: If a flaw in the truck or one of its components contributed to the accident, there may be grounds for a claim against the manufacturer (s). In order to bring a product liability claim based on a manufacturer's carelessness, the injured party would have to show:

• The faulty truck or a selected half was “unreasonably harmful”
• The truck was being operated because the producer meant
• The truck’s efficiency had not modified since its preliminary buy

Product liability claims can also be filed under strict legal responsibility, which does not require proof of negligence; nevertheless, claimants must establish the flaw occurred during the manufacturing process to win. This may necessitate consultant evaluation, testing, and testimony.

Wrongful Loss of life: In many cases, vehicle accidents are so severe that the victim does not live. In rare cases, the family may file a claim on behalf of their loved one in order to obtain better compensation for their losses.

Wrongful death lawsuits require the family to present the same information that the dead would have presented if they had lived and filed a claim on their own. An attorney can assist relationships in obtaining better financial, non-economic, and, in some cases, punitive damages for the loss of a loved one.

What Will My Legal professional Do To Assist Me?

Our truck accident attorneys at Morgan & Morgan are not only well-versed in the various strategies used by insurance companies to reduce the amount of compensation you get, but we also have a large network of skilled witnesses and investigators to examine all aspects of an accident.

Following a collision, the trucking company and their insurance company will immediately begin an investigation of the incident. They could take witness statements, photograph the accident scene, and examine the vehicles to determine the level of injury caused by the collision.

State authorities may also conduct their own investigation into the accident, which could be beneficial to your claim. When you hire a Morgan & Morgan truck accident attorney, we immediately get to work evaluating all aspects of your case.

Our attorney may take witness accounts, photograph the accident scene, and examine the vehicles to determine the level of injuries caused by the collision. These steps include the following:

• If video from a digital camera is available, examine it.
• Inquire with witnesses
• Examine required police and accident experiences.
• Analyze and evaluate health-related data
• Medical personnel should be interviewed.
• To reconstruct the accident scene and recreate the accident, seek the guidance of professionals.
• Assist in ensuring that critical evidence is kept by the trucking company and the driver.
• Getting the truck driver to submit to an alcohol and drug test
• Get information from the truck's Digital Management Module (ECM; sometimes known as "black field").

Our attorneys can also protect any important evidence from being tampered with by sending a spoliation letter to the trucking company before any important evidence is misplaced or destroyed. Following receipt of this letter, trucking companies must legally keep evidence of the case, such as driver logs and black field information. However, because trucking companies may discard this information as part of their normal business practises, this miss is sent immediately after an accident.

How Compensation is Decided Following a Truck Accident

The types of compensation available to those harmed as a result of a truck accident fall into two categories, similar to other private damage lawsuits: financial damages and non-economic damages.

The purpose of monetary truck accident damages compensation is to cover the precise financial costs, which include the following:

Current Medical Bills: This will most certainly include expenses for visits to the emergency room, hospitalisation, surgical procedures, assistive units, and appointments with recognised medical specialists.

Future Medical Bills: Reimbursement for further medical attention and care.

Wages Lost: Compensation for wages lost between the time of the damage and the end of the case.

Compensation may be available if the victim can demonstrate that their ability to earn a living has been negatively harmed. The awarding party will try to figure out how much the victim would have earned if the car accident hadn't happened.

Ache and Struggling: This includes compensation for personal harm received as a result of the collision's accidents. The type of injury, the severity of the pain, and the length of time the victim is expected to be in pain are all factors in determining the compensation.

Psychological Anguish: Compensation for emotional pain caused by a truck accident, including fear, embarrassment, uneasiness, fear, grief, and other sorts of mental anguish caused by the accident.

Lack of Consortium: Compensation is given to a partner, father and mother, and minor children who are deprived of providers, assistance, society, and companionship/care from a loved one, a baby, or father and mother.

Punitive damages may be appropriate in addition to monetary and non-monetary damages if the defendant's actions were willful, malicious, fraudulent, or reckless. Punitive damages are meant to punish the perpetrator and, hopefully, discourage similar behaviours in the future.