Getting into an accident with a truck can spell trouble for you. Not only will the risk of injury be severe but getting the proper compensation will also be a long-fought battle. This is why you’ll want to work with an accident lawyer as they will be able to help you through your legal predicament. If you need more convincing, read on for five notable reasons why you need a truck accident lawyer.

Truck and Trucking Companies Are Tricky to Deal With

A typical semi-truck weighs about 20 times as much as a typical passenger car. Your chances of getting seriously injured in an accident involving a car and a truck are much greater than your chances of getting seriously hurt in a collision between two automobiles. If you decide to sue the trucking company that employed the driver that hit your car, you will need someone knowledgeable to represent you in court; large trucking companies can afford big budgets to spend on legal representation, but individuals can't. Without a personal injury lawyer, you are at a major disadvantage in a personal injury case.

Insurance Companies May Not Offer You Enough Compensation

“Don’t sign” is practically a cliché in personal injury law. You might even have heard the banality in personal injury commercials, but what does it mean? After an accident, the insurance companies gather information from the drivers involved and consider police reports and other evidence. They decide who is at fault and how much the other party should be compensated; then they typically offer compensation to that party. If you sign an offer letter from the insurance company, you lose your right to file a lawsuit about the accident, even if the amount of compensation seems like too little for your injuries. You should speak with a trucking accident lawyer if you are unsure about whether to accept an offer from the insurance company.

You May Make Mistakes About How You Handle Your Case

When an accident occurs, sometimes multiple parties are involved and will be in touch to gather details. Accident claims adjusters are often the first to call with questions. They might ask you to say more than what you understand about the circumstances surrounding the accident. Accident claims adjusters often hope to catch you saying something that will make you look like you were partly at fault. If you have chosen a lawyer to handle your truck accident case, just tell anyone who calls that they should talk to your lawyer instead. Your lawyer can give you peace of mind even before your case is resolved. Your problems become our problems.

Truck Accident Issues Are Complicated

If you were injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, you have the right to seek compensation from the party that caused the injury. To prove that you are entitled to compensation, you must show that the party with fault had a duty of care not to put other people in danger and that they breached that duty of care by creating unsafe conditions. For example, if a trucking company failed to conduct a background check on their truck driver and it was revealed that he or she had a history of substance abuse, this would be considered a breach of their duty of care and would entitle you to compensation for your injuries.

The trucking company seems to be the most obvious defendant in this accident, but it is not the only possible one. As a truck manufacturer, it might be liable if a part in the truck malfunctioned because of a manufacturing defect; this is called product liability in legal terms. The loading company might be liable for overloading or loading the truck unevenly. The city might even be liable if there were dangerous, but preventable, conditions on the road; this is called premises liability in legal terms. The defendants are not always one and the same, however; some injured plaintiffs file separate lawsuits against multiple defendants for the same accident.

Truck Accident Lawyers Will Help You Recover Non-Economic Damages

If the insurance company offers to cover all your medical bills in connection to the truck accident, do not accept the settlement. Your losses in connection to the accident are much bigger than just medical expenses. If you file a truck accident lawsuit, you might be able to recover the income you lost because of the accident. Even if the insurance company settles your case or it goes to trial, you might be able to get compensation for future lost income. If you become disabled by the accident or are unable to work because of medical issues related to the accident, you might be able to get compensation for future lost income, as well.

Those are just the monetary costs of the accident. In addition to these losses, the plaintiff may be awarded non-monetary damages for any issue that did not involve money, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, or loss of companionship (if the plaintiff’s spouse or child died or was seriously injured in the accident). The amount of non-economic damages is not capped so it is up to a jury to decide how much money to award for these issues. We regularly ask juries for more damages than actual monetary costs based on how much the accident changed your life for the worse in ways other than money.

Conclusion

We hope this article proves to be useful when it comes to helping you navigate this tricky situation. While getting into an accident with a truck may seem daunting, it becomes more manageable with the help of an accident lawyer. Be sure to keep everything you’ve learned here in mind so that you can make the most informed decision if you ever find yourself in this situation.

If you are looking for experienced accident lawyers in Los Angeles, CA, then we at Mendez & Sanchez Law are at your service. Our attorneys and team members are here to help you through the difficult legal landscape as we pursue the compensation you deserve. Call us today and let us discuss your current accident-related situation.