Road accidents are fatal and more disastrous when the accident involves trucks. The crashes are usually so because trucks are heavily loaded with goods making a huge impact when a crash happens. When you are hit by a truck, there is a likelihood of suffering from catastrophic injuries and even wrongful death. It even gets worse when you have to individually search for the parties that were responsible for the mishap.
Therefore, the best action to take when you are a victim of a truck accident is seeking an experienced attorney's services to guide you appropriately and see whether you are eligible for compensation for misery. Because of the truck crashes' destructive and fatal nature, victims should be well compensated to carry on with their lives even after the deadly occurrence.
The Los Angeles Car Accident Attorney Firm fully understands your predicament and is willing to extend our service gratitude. The process of fighting a huge company or insurance company when seeking compensation for your injuries or losses can be a daunting task. It is essential to keep in mind that the companies are in business and settle for the little amount in damages as possible to move past the incident. Our legal team understands this trick well and will help you bring to book the responsible parties and help you fight until you get the best compensation bargain.
Why are Truck Accidents, Serious, and Threatening?
For a fact, all accidents can be fatal. But in cases where a truck is involved, the injuries are severe and catastrophic. Nature points to why most trucks carry a heavy load and, when they lose control, cannot be stopped like the case in cars and therefore impacts heavily on other road users. An 18-wheeler truck has a massive size and momentum, making anything that it collides with not to stand a chance of being unharmed. For this reason, you should reach out to an experienced attorney immediately to guide you before the vehicle is towed. The attorney will develop the best strategy based on assessing the injuries that increase your chances of getting better damages.
Causes of Truck Accident
For you to win a truck accident lawsuit, you must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that indeed there was fault or negligence. When you can determine the accident's cause, it becomes easier to identify and prove the particular party that breached their duty of care and are accountable for the injuries and damages.
Some of the common causes of truck accidents include:
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Speeding
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Overloading
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Driver fatigue from driving for consecutive hours without adequate rest
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Reckless driving
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Novice drivers
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Defective roadways
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Defective equipment
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Trucking company negligence
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Poorly maintained truck or commercial vehicles
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Unbalanced loading of cargo
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Intoxicated drivers
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Failing to check blind spots
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Distracted driving
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Falsifying driver logs to exceed maximum hours allowable on the road
Most of the truck collisions usually occur due to the reasons listed above. You can prevent them in some instances, for example, a truck driver transporting gasoline and chatting on his phone while driving can cause a disastrous accident. Secondly, injuries experienced from the incident are severe because of the good carried. So, if you can involve an attorney to establish the crash's cause, it will be a piece of cake to prove the defendant's fault.
What Role Does Trucking Company Play in Truck Accidents?
Truck accidents are complex crash cases than other motor vehicle accidents because more parties can be potentially found negligent. Trucking companies are one of the parties followed by truck drivers, truck owners, equipment manufacturers, and government entities. Whereas trucking companies are not directly causing the accident, they are a contributing factor.
Maybe they negligently hired a driver or failed to maintain the truck, adding the trucking company to your case may have a greater likelihood of maximizing your compensation. Here are the negligent ways you can use to secure your damages:
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Failure to properly vet truck driver candidates during the hiring process
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Inadequate training and support for new drivers
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Failure to review driver performance regularly
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Failure to provide truck maintenance
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Careless loading of truck cargo
What to Do After a Truck Accident
After you're involved in a crash, there are critical steps to take to ensure you get compensation for the injuries and even wrongful death of a loved one. It would be best if you acted fast to get help in fighting for your rights.
Before reaching out to a skilled lawyer for legal representation, you must first:
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Seek medical care
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Stay at the scene if you're not seriously injured
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Relocate to a safe place
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Preserve evidence from the crash scene
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File a detailed report with the police at the scene
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Gather contact information from parties involved in the accident
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Notify the insurance company
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Contact competent Los Angeles truck accident attorney
How to Win Your Truck Accident Case?
There are essential things a truck accident lawyer will do for a lawsuit to be won. First, of fall, the lawyer must collect evidence and anything that can add up to your case to ensure it wins. Depending on the severity of the damages and the crash situation, the lawyer may opt to assign expertise in reconstruction, mechanical, and even biomedical to help them get enough evidence to show the perpetrator's negligence. Besides, the evidence will help in determining the amount of compensation ought to be paid to you. To some extent, the compensation amount will cover expenses, including that will incur in the future due to the crash.
For any truck accident, the following parties may be held accountable; the truck driver, trucking company, truck owner, equipment manufacturer, and government entities. If you are involved in this kind of accident, you have to demonstrate that the said parties' negligence caused the crash.
As the defendant truck attorney will work tirelessly to establish evidence that their client was not negligent and your carelessness caused the accident, you must counteract them by providing the necessary evidence to work in your favor. If you don't have the knowledge to face the defendant yourself, you will lose the case and suffer the injuries. This is why you must rely on an attorney's services with a proven record to increase your chances of winning and get the most deserved compensation.
Establishing a Legal Claim for Negligence in Truck Accidents
In order to win a legal suit on a truck crash, you must be able to prove that the truck driver operated the 18-wheeler negligently that eventually caused the accident. The injuries you're having are a direct cause of the perpetrator who must be guilty of their wrongdoing.
To establish negligence, you must prove these four elements;
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The perpetrator had a duty to care for other road users by acting responsibly on the road.
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Breach of conduct: The attorney must prove that the defendant breached the duty of care.
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The defendant's actions are the direct cause of the accident.
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Damages: The attorney must prove that all the injuries you suffered from are due to the accident.
Getting Evidence of Negligence in Truck Accident Case
When involved in a crash, the best time to collect evidence is immediately after the accident. You can contact the law enforcement agencies while stile at the scene to ensure that crash is appropriately surveyed and documented. You may also add some of the evidence by taking videos and pictures of the crash scene to add value to the police report's evidence.
Some of the crucial features to be considered when documenting includes:
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Location of all vehicles after the accident
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The internal appearance of your vehicle and signs of external or internal impacts
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Impact locations on all vehicles involved in the truck accident
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Presence of skid marks, road hazards, and obstruction on the truck accident scene
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The weather conditions at the time of the crash
Besides, it is essential to collect contact information from witnesses and first responders to the crash scene. Your attorney will interview them on the occurrence. You must also ensure the police locate the computerized black box to act as evidence of your case. The gadget stores vital information regarding the speed the vehicle was at the time of the accident.
The other piece of evidence is the driver's logbook indicating the activities involved in before the crash. You have to make haste to secure this vital information to ascertain whether the driver breached the trucking regulations to reduce truck accidents. If you do not get these pieces in time, it will be hard to get them later.
Obstacles Hindering Obtaining Truck Accident Evidence
The law requires the truck driver and trucking company to preserve crucial evidence after a truck crash. However, this may not be the case with most of these parties. The parties have other issues like the rising cost of fuel; that's why they are taking a shortcut to save money. If the truck accident were due to federal laws violation, the parties would connive to incriminate the evidence away from you and your attorney. To avoid unnecessary struggles with the truck driver and the company, consult a truck accident lawyer to help you out. The lawyer masters the trick and knows how to overcome these obstacles by engaging the following professionals:
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Truck accident reconstruction expert or engineer to know the cause of the crash
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Computer specialist to access the black box and avail information on it
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Other relevant professionals to discuss the psychological, physical, and financial damages accrued from the accident.
The Predicament of Agency in Truck Accident Cases
Some trucking companies engage in games to evade legal responsibility when a crash happens. Most of the time, they hire drivers as independent contractors, so once an accident happens, they will defend themselves, arguing that the truck accident was caused by the driver's negligence outside the working scope of the employment. At this moment, truck drivers have less money to pay for damages and, at times, can declare bankruptcy to avoid compensating a victim.
If presented with a scenario like this, your truck accident attorney may challenge the argument by stating that the driver is a de facto employee making him or her an agent of the company. Therefore, the trucking company will be held liable for the damages incurred during the crash and the careless hiring of a person prone to accident.
However, if a driver was intoxicated before the crash, they will be guilty of the crime. Besides, if the company permitted the driver to engage in negligence like working past the legal allowable on-duty hours, the defense will fail. An experienced truck accident attorney understands the complexity of situations surrounding truck accidents and will do due diligence to ensure you win the case.
Compensation to Get in Truck Accident Cases
Truck crashes are catastrophic because they are more serious injuries experienced compared to other types of accidents. The 18-wheeler vehicles are usually about 25 times heavier than cars. The heavy weight causes more harm when they lose control while being driven at 55-70 miles per hour to passenger cars and motorcycles.
If you are involved in a truck accident today, the medical bills are likely to be high, amounting above $100000 to treat the injuries alone. Some of the injuries may be severe to add salt to the injury to result in permanent disability.
If you get yourself in this situation, you can potentially sue the truck driver and other liable parties to compensate for both financial loss and emotional distress incurred due to the injuries. Here are some types of compensation you are going to recover in the damages accrued.
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Economic Compensatory Damages
These types of compensation cover specific losses you incur during the truck accident. They are given to a victim depending on various factors. Majorly the monetary compensation you are entitled to get depends on the conditions of the accident and they may include:
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Medical Expenses
If you are injured in a truck crash, you are likely going to face huge medical bills. At some point, your health insurance cover would have been depleted, and need to raise cash from your pocket to offset the medical bill. Besides, you can recover all the medical expenses through compensatory damages. It is also important to consider hidden expenses related to medical care. You can seek compensation for travelling in and out of the hospital during treatment, cost of caregivers at home, medical supplies, and other miscellaneous costs you may incur because of the accident.
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Income Loss
Trucking accident victims do get life-changing injuries. You may be unable to work due to the injuries or mental state and are eligible for compensation because of income loss. From the time the accident occurred to when a victim gets discharged from the hospital, it's a matter of months of recoverable income even if the injuries do not lead to permanent deformity.
You should seek compensation for suffering from reduced wages and time taken in hospital while nursing injuries due to a trucking accident. An experienced attorney will lead you through the course and help you recover the necessary damages.
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Diminished Earning Capacity
Catastrophic trucking accident victims suffer a permanent disability at times. It may not be possible to resume back to work or find a similar placement elsewhere. Therefore, it's ideal to get compensation if you are forced not to work or do a lesser pay job for the difference between the previous and current earning capacity. Remember that as you move forward with life, the disability is significantly impacting on your earning capacity.
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Property Damages
Despite having damage to your car, a truck accident may also cause property damage on the items that were on the car at the time of the crash. You can file for compensation on the belongings damaged, such as electronics like mobile phones, prescription glasses, and clothing.
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Disability and Disfigurement
A trucking accident can leave you with permanent deformity or lifelong disability. You are at liberty to seek the various forms of compensation for disfigurement depending on the location or impact of the scar or mark.
Other than that, the accident can also leave you with injuries in the spinal cord, amputations, or brain injuries requiring continuous medication and, worse of it, prevent you from working altogether. With such disabilities, you can have lasting mental and physical impact on your life and are worth seeking compensation.
Non-Economic Compensation
These compensatory damages are for intangible issues related to the truck accident. It implies that you are going to get compensation for psychological harm brought by accident and may include:
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Pain and suffering
If injured in a trucking accident, the amount of physical and emotional suffering you encountered cannot be quantified. But, just like you seek compensation for the economic damages, do so too for the psychological harm. However, calculating these damages can be a daunting task that requires a lot. The amount you can get in damages will depend on the period of the suffering and the extent to which you’re going to experience the pain and the future life. When facing situations like these, an experienced lawyer will use their skills and historical knowledge from past cases to help you get valuable monetary compensation for the damages.
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Emotional Distress and Mental Distress
The injuries in a truck crash may lead to acute long lasting psychological injuries that furthers extraordinary levels of mental pain, humiliation, sorrow and anguish. If the crash happens to cause mental illness or makes you seek mental care, you should file for this anguish compensation. The mental trauma may occur during the accident but can later manifest in other forms of suffering. For example, you may get post-traumatic stress when using a vehicle or thinking about vehicles and the crash you encountered. In other ways, you can lose the ability to sire children or enjoy affection, companionship, and sexual relations with your spouse, which causes great mental anguish and equally entitles you to a compensation.
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Punitive Damages
In odd cases, courts investigate punitive damages in situations where a trucking company or driver behaved maliciously or intentionally causing the accident to happen. Being a rare case, awarding punitive damages makes trucking accident cases focus on negligent behaviors compared to malicious behavior. However, punitive damages are not heard of in wrongful death cases or when victims receive severe, life-changing injuries.
Suppose a truck driver or company is proven to have exhibited a willful and blatant disregard to safety and regulations to the vict, in that case, courts use the parties as an example by imposing hefty punitive damage costs on them to serve as an example to discourage similar behaviors in the future.
Factors Affecting the Value of Your Claim
When filing a lawsuit on a truck accident, your main aim is to get justice. When in monetary, the amount of compensation depends on specific circumstances of the case and a variety of other factors. Some of the factors that can impact the value of your trucking accident claim are:
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The injury sustained – The sustained Injury should be accessed in terms of severity, duration, and nature.
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Liability of parties involved
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Age of the injured party
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Occupation of the injured party
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Pre-existing medical conditions or injuries before the accident happened
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Amount of medical bills
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Quality of evidence presented in support of the claim.
Find a Los Angeles Car Accident Attorney Specializing in Truck Accident Near Me
Several losses are incurred when a truck accident occurs. If a careless driver makes you incur severe injuries or permanent disability, you can file a petition with our experienced attorneys' aid. We can help you compensate for your mental anguish, property damages, medical expenses, income loss, etc.
Seek help with our team of lawyers who ensures you rest while the attorneys attend to your case on your behalf. If you got injured during the incident, there's a need to rest as we follow the defendants and the court proceedings till the end.
At a Los Angeles Car Accident Attorney, high profile lawyers with proven record await you. Our aggressive team is ready to work tirelessly around the clock to fully satisfy you in the legal suit. Don't hesitate to reach us; we are prepared to serve you if you're a Los Angeles resident.
Call us today on 424-237-3600 at any hour to get help with your truck accident queries. We are eager to receive you and ensure you get the best service in Los Angeles, CA.
