The Process of a Truck Accident Lawsuit
Many truck accidents cause victims to suffer severe and permanent injuries. These accidents can result in significant medical expenses, lost income, and psychological injuries.
Your lawyer will issue a Summons & Complaint to all the parties responsible. This process could take many years. Your lawyer can help you determine whether the shared responsibility has been properly assessed and assigned.
Investigations
A truck crash can be more severe than an auto accident. A truck crash can have life-altering consequences. The consequences are more complex due to the weight and size. These accidents also involve more complicated investigation.
As a result, insurance companies and trucking companies often conduct their own investigations immediately following a crash to protect their interests. The issue is that the victims are left to take care of their injuries and are not capable of obtaining evidence. This leaves them at a disadvantage compared to the insurance provider and trucking company.
A seasoned truck accident attorney can find evidence from many sources that include police reports, witness statements and vehicle inspections. A lawyer who is well-informed does not rely on reports from the police since they are typically insufficient for civil litigation. Police officers aren't trained to conduct an appropriate investigation and may fail to gather all of the evidence required to file an action.
Other kinds of data include logbook entries, maintenance and service records for the truck, data from the event data recorder (also called a black box) and more. A skilled attorney will request these and other forms of evidence from the truck driver and trucking company and then carefully analyze them to determine the cause of the accident.
whittier truck accident law firm can aid your lawyer to prove different elements of your truck accident case. Medical experts is a good example. They can provide evidence to your lawyer that the accident caused your injuries. Your expert can also testify on how your injuries will impact your life's quality of living in the future. Expert witnesses can help your lawyer determine the value of your injuries, which includes lost income and loss of earning capacity in the future.
A medical professional can analyze the physical evidence and explain how your injuries will impact your future. For instance an expert in medical science can show how your accident can affect your physical and mental well-being. A metallurgist, for instance, is another kind of expert who can analyze the reasons why a car component failed. There are also experts who determine if the weather could have caused the crash.
The role of an expert witness is to provide an impartial and objective opinion after examining the evidence. Expert witnesses can be a liability to your case when their opinions are biased or they have connections to the defendants. Your lawyer can conduct an investigation of the background of the expert witness to determine any risks.
Aside from expert witnesses, your lawyer will also interview you as well as other eyewitnesses, such as witnesses who witnessed the crash take place before it happened. It is important to keep in mind that the defendants' insurance firms will attempt to force you to acknowledge fault or to make claims they can twist and distort to weaken your claim.
Litigation
Truck drivers are also required to observe traffic laws and drive with reasonable care. If they do not comply with this obligation and their carelessness causes an accident, they could be held accountable for the injuries incurred by the victims of the collision.
Our attorney will collect evidence from eyewitnesses, and get written or oral evidence to prove the defendant was negligent. Our team will also review other evidence, such as skidmarks and points of impact. They will also conduct crash testing.
Sometimes, the reason for an accident involving a truck is complex, involving multiple parties. For instance, if the truck accident was caused by defective equipment or inadequate maintenance, we might seek to sue the producers of that equipment or the trucks themselves. We might also bring a lawsuit against the mechanic that performed the repairs or the repair shop.
We will endeavor to resolve your dispute out of court, but in the event that the trucking company, or its insurance company refuses to make an acceptable settlement offer and we prepare for trial. During the trial, a judge or jury will decide on any disputed issues like who was responsible for the crash and the amount of compensation you must receive. The amount of your legal damages will be determined based on your documented losses, which include physical, financial and emotional suffering.
Statute of limitations
Understanding how these cases normally proceed can help prepare you for the future and give you an idea of the time it might take to resolve your case.
One of the most important actions is to establish liability. If the truck driver was tired or distracted, for example then it is likely that they'll be held accountable for your damages. However, there might be other parties also liable. For instance, if the accident resulted from poor repairs for instance, an individual mechanic who did the work or a business which made the truck or its components could be held responsible according to the legal doctrine of respondeat superior.
It's also possible that accountable party was guilty of a more serious act of recklessness, which might entitle you to punitive damages. In order to prove this, you must establish that they acted in a reckless and reckless way, and with a disregard for your safety and that of others.
It is vital to hire a lawyer who is familiar with the complexities of truck accident cases. Insurance companies and attorneys for at-fault party can be seen as the wolves in sheepskins who try to force you to give statements that they can later use against you. You can avoid these traps by having an attorney handle your communications.