The Process of a Truck Accident Lawsuit
Accidents with trucks can cause severe and permanent injuries. These can lead to significant medical expenses, lost wages and psychological damages.
Your attorney will file an Summons and Complaint against all parties liable. This process can take several years. Your lawyer can help determine whether the shared responsibility has been properly assessed and allocated.
Investigations
If someone is injured in a truck crash, there is a lot more at stake than an auto collision. The consequences of a truck crash can be devastating and the impact can be more complex due to the weight and size of commercial trucks. These accidents also require more complicated investigation.
To protect their interests in the event of a crash, trucking firms or insurance providers will often conduct their investigations as soon as they are aware of the accident. The issue is that the injured are left to take care of their injuries, and aren't able to collect evidence. This puts them at a disadvantage when compared to the insurance company and trucking companies.
A seasoned attorney for truck accidents will seek evidence from numerous sources which include police reports witness statements and inspections of vehicles. A seasoned lawyer won't just rely on police reports however, as these reports are not always sufficient for civil litigation purposes. Police officers might not be properly trained to conduct an investigation properly and might not gather all the evidence needed for a lawsuit.
Other kinds of information could include logbook and maintenance records and service records from the truck. The data from the device for recording events (also known by the name black box) is also available. A skilled attorney will ask the truck driver and the trucking company for these and other kinds of evidence, and then examine them to determine the cause of the accident.
Expert Witnesses
A truck accident expert witness can aid your lawyer in proving different elements of the case. new york truck accident attorney is a good example. They can provide proof to your lawyer that the crash caused your injuries. Experts can also testify as to how your injuries affect your future quality of life. Expert witnesses can help your lawyer calculate the value of your injuries, which includes lost income and loss of earning capacity in the future.
A medical professional can examine physical evidence and explain the impact of your injury on your future. For instance medical experts can demonstrate how your accident will affect you in terms of mental and physical well-being. A metallurgist is another type of expert who can determine the causes behind why a component failed. There are also experts who examine the way in which weather conditions could have contributed to the crash.
The role of an expert witness is to provide an unbiased and objective opinion after examining the evidence. However, some expert witnesses can become a liability risk for your case if they're biased or have ties to the defendants' businesses. Your attorney can perform an investigation into the background of the expert witness to find out any risks.
Apart from expert witnesses, your attorney will also interview you as well as other eyewitnesses, such as witnesses who witnessed the crash take place before it occurred. You should be aware that the insurance companies of the defendants will try to convince you to acknowledge your responsibility or provide statements that they can twist and deform to make it appear as though they are trying to undermine your case.
Litigation
Just like other drivers truck drivers also have a duty to obey traffic laws and to exercise reasonable care when they travel. If they fail in this obligation and their negligence leads to a crash, they may be held accountable for the damage to the victims of that collision.
Our attorney will collect evidence from eyewitnesses and seek written or oral evidence to prove that the defendant was negligent. Our team will also look at other evidence like skidmarks and points of impact and conduct crash testing.
Sometimes the cause of an accident involving a truck is complex with multiple parties. For example, if the truck crash was caused due to defective equipment or insufficient maintenance, we might seek to sue the producers of that equipment or the trucks themselves. We could also bring a lawsuit against the mechanic that performed the repairs or the repair shop.
We will attempt to resolve your case without going to the courtroom. If, however, the trucking company or its insurance company refuses to negotiate a fair settlement or offer, we'll prepare to go to trial. In the trial the judge or jury will rule on disputes like who was the culprit and what amount of compensation you should receive. The amount of your legal damages will be determined based on your documented losses that include financial, physical, and emotional pain.
Statute of Limitations
Knowing how these cases typically proceed can help prepare you for what lies ahead and provide you with an idea of how long it will take to resolve your case.
Establishing liability is one of the most important steps. It is likely that a trucker who was drunk, distracted, or otherwise impaired will be held responsible for the harm you suffered. There could be other parties equally responsible. For instance, if a crash resulted from poor repairs such as a mechanic who completed the work or a company who made the truck or its parts might be held responsible in the legal concept of respondeat superior.
You could also be entitled to damages for punitive if the guilty party acted with recklessness that was a lot more serious. To do this, we must establish that they acted in a reckless and impulsive manner that was reckless and in disregard for your safety and that of others.
It is important to work with an attorney who understands the complexities of truck accidents. Insurance firms and attorneys for the at-fault parties are often sheepskins in wolves and will try to force you to give statements that they can later use against you. If you hire an attorney to handle all communications, it is possible to avoid these pitfalls.