Most commercial truck accidents occur due to the carelessness of drivers. Some causes of these accidents include speeding, drunk driving, driving through a red light, overfatigue, and inexperienced drivers.
Meanwhile, you can file a compensation lawsuit if you suffered an injury in a commercial truck accident. Personal injury law requires the at-fault party to the accident to compensate you for the damage you sustained. However, you must prove that the other driver’s negligence caused the accident and your injuries.
Types Of Compensation To Seek
You’re entitled to seek compensation if involved in a commercial truck accident. Here are some types you can pursue:
- Hospital Bills: One of the common damages you’re entitled to collect after a commercial truck accident is medical bills. You must seek medication once you get involved in a truck accident. This way, doctors can examine your body for injuries and provide proper healthcare.
Failure to get medical attention may worsen your condition or affect the quality of your life. On the other hand, the at-fault party to the accident should compensate you for all the costs associated with the medication.
Medical expenses may include ambulance rides, hospitalization expenses, prescription medication, hospitalization costs, surgery charges, at-home healthcare costs, therapy bills, and doctor’s appointments.
- Property Damage: If your vehicle gets damaged in an accident, you may be required to spend a considerable sum on repairing it. However, if the damaged car is beyond repair, you can replace it with a new one. The at-fault party or your auto insurance company should pay if you want to repair or replace the damaged vehicle.
In addition, you can get compensation for any damaged or lost personal items following the commercial truck accident. If your phone, laptop, or watch got destroyed in an accident, you should include it when determining the case’s value.
- Pain And Physical Suffering: Pain and suffering are other typical damage you can recover from in commercial truck accidents. They involve anything that negatively affects your life. Examples include physical pain and impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, and loss of quality of life.
- Punitive Damages: Sometimes, the judge may consider awarding you punitive damages. They can do so if the court has proven that the party who caused the accident was driving or acting carelessly on the road. This compensation aims to punish the at-fault party to the accident so that they can become more careful and diligently observe traffic rules when driving.
Understanding the abovementioned damages can help you calculate your lawsuit’s value and maximize compensation. However, collecting them isn’t always guaranteed. Judges will scrutinize proof that the other driver’s negligence caused the accident, your injuries, and further damage or financial losses.
How To Seek Compensation
Filing a commercial truck accident case and seeking compensation can be daunting. There are several steps you must follow immediately after the accident. If you’re filing such a lawsuit for the first time, you might not know what to do after the accident.
Here are the steps when filing a commercial truck accident case and seeking compensation:
- Call An Attorney
Filing a commercial truck accident can be complex for anyone without a legal background. If you go through it alone, you might miss some crucial details, which can affect your compensation negatively. Therefore, it would be best to hire an attorney if you’re injured in a collision with a truck to walk the case with you.
A lawyer can help you seek compensation in many ways. For instance, they’ll help you file the case on time. Every state has its timelines for filing a commercial truck accident. Therefore, delaying filing and commencing your case may hurt your compensation. Hence, filing your lawsuit within the specific timeline is best.
If you pursue the case independently, you can fail to file it on time. In most cases, victims had to wait for their injuries to heal. Fortunately, a lawyer can file your claim as you seek medication. As your lawyer strengthens the lawsuit, you can focus on caring for your injuries and well-being.
Meanwhile, did you know that lawyers specializing in personal injury cases from reliable firms such as Good Guys injury Law or similar ones can help you compute your case’s value? There are many factors to consider when calculating accident case compensation. But you might need to know what to include or consider when computing the value of your lawsuit.
With a lawyer, you can streamline the process and increase your chances of getting fair compensation. They’re also equipped with negotiation skills during their professional training, enhancing their skills during practice. In addition, they can help you negotiate an adequate settlement. However, seeking an experienced attorney in commercial truck accidents is best to maximize your claim.
- Take Photos Of The Accident
Taking photos of the accident is necessary to preserve evidence of the accident. Judgment can favorably rule if you have enough evidence to show in court. You can take photos of the road, bruises, vehicle damage, and license plate numbers.
In case your lawsuit drags on, having photos of the scene, your clothes, and any road signs can help you remember the specifics of the incident. To begin with, take photographs of all the trucks and cars involved in the accident. From there, take photos of any injured part of your body. They’ll show what your injuries looked like immediately after the accident.
With proper care and medication, the injured parts of your body will eventually heal. Therefore, producing proof of your injury proving after some time can be difficult. So, having photos of the wounds is necessary to get compensation for your medical bills.
- Seek Medication
Seeking medication immediately if you’re involved in a commercial truck accident is essential to enhance your recovery. Ensure you visit the nearest hospital even if there’s no sign of physical injury. Most people injured in accidents have no idea they’re bleeding internally. You’ll never know the severity of your injuries unless you go to a hospital.
Doctors will examine your entire body to determine whether you sustained any injuries. From there, they’ll provide medication to help boost your recovery process. Also, they can provide support to prevent mental health problems like trauma following an accident.
Another reason to visit a hospital is to maximize your compensation. It helps to produce evidence of your injuries for judges to consider your case. The hospital you visit will provide the medical reports you need in court as evidence of the accident. Additionally, doctors will produce official medical bills you can use when computing the total value of your case.
You can seek compensation for the medical bills from the at-fault driver. However, medical bills can serve as evidence to get the compensation you deserve. In addition, medical bills from the hospital will play a significant role when calculating the value of your case. Hence, you can strengthen your case and maximize your compensation.
- Call The Police
Another important step when seeking compensation is to call police officers. They know traffic rules and help determine the party responsible for the accident. It’s a standard protocol for them to write an accident report. You can present it to the court as additional evidence.
Police reports are necessary when seeking compensation from your auto insurance company. Before approving accident compensation claims, most truck insurance companies ask for a police report on the accident. Therefore, contacting the police immediately after a commercial truck accident can simplify the process.
- Find Witnesses
It helps to find eyewitnesses for the accident. These may be people who were present at the scene of the accident. They can testify in court to help judges determine the party responsible for the accident. A witness can help strengthen your commercial truck accident lawsuit.
Immediately after the accident, look around to see if there are a few people you can consider as witnesses. Once you get two or three, take their contact information. This step makes it easier for you or your lawyer to contact them when your case starts.
Takeaway
If you sustain an injury in a commercial truck accident, seeking compensation is an excellent idea. State law gives you the right to recover damages following an accident due to another person’s negligence.
You can cover both economic and non-economic damages in commercial truck accidents. Some of these compensations involve medical bills, property damages, physical and mental suffering, and punitive compensation. Meanwhile, it helps to list all your expenses so that you can include them in your claim.
On the other hand, filing a commercial truck accident lawsuit takes time and effort. It’s a complicated legal process for an ordinary person to handle. And if you’re not careful, you might lose the case or fail to get the compensation you deserve.
You can succeed in your case if you follow the proper steps. Hiring a personal injury lawyer, taking photos of the accident, visiting a hospital, calling police officers, and finding witnesses are the crucial steps when seeking compensation following a commercial truck accident.