The Process of a Truck Accident Lawsuit
Accidents with trucks can cause severe and permanent injuries. These can result in significant medical costs, lost wages and psychological damages.
Your lawyer will issue a Summons & Complaint to all parties that are responsible. This process could take a few years. Since New York uses comparative fault rules, your lawyer can ensure that any shared responsibility is correctly determined and assigned to defendants.
Investigations
A truck accident can be more severe than an auto accident. The effects of a crash involving a truck can be life-changing and the impact is far more complex due to the weight and size of a commercial truck. These accidents also require more sophisticated investigations.
To protect their interests the trucking companies and insurance companies often conduct investigations right after an accident. The victims are left to deal only with their injuries, and they are unable to collect evidence. This leaves them in a position of disadvantage compared to the insurance provider and trucking company.
A skilled attorney for truck accidents can find evidence from many sources, including police reports, witness statements and vehicle inspections. A lawyer who is experienced cannot rely solely on the reports of police officers alone, as they are often not sufficient for civil litigation. Police officers may not be trained to conduct an inquiry properly and may not gather all the evidence required for the court case.
Other types of information might include logbook records and maintenance and service records from the truck. The data from the event data recording device (also known as the black box) is also available. An experienced attorney will seek these as well as other types of evidence from the truck driver and trucking company, and then analyze them to determine the cause of the accident.
Expert Witnesses
An expert witness can aid your lawyer establish the various aspects of your truck accident case. Medical experts for instance, can provide evidence to your attorney that the accident resulted in your injuries. Experts will also testify on the impact your injuries could have on your life's quality of living in the future. Expert witnesses can also assist your lawyer determine the worth of your damages, which could include lost income and loss of future earning capacity.
A medical professional can examine physical evidence and discuss the consequences of your injury on your future. Medical experts for instance, can explain how your accident may affect your mental and physical health. A metallurgist is another type of expert who will analyze the reasons why a car component failed. Experts can determine whether the weather played a part in the crash.
The primary role of your expert witness is to examine the evidence and provide an impartial opinion. However, certain experts can be a liability risk in your case if they're biased or have ties to the defendant's companies. Your attorney can use a background check to find these risks and ensure that you have the best experts in your case.
Your lawyer will interview you, along with any other eyewitnesses that witnessed the accident prior to it taking place. You should be aware that the insurance companies of the defendants will try to convince you to admit guilt or make statements that they can twist or alter to reduce your chances of winning.
Litigation
Like any other driver truckers are required by law to adhere to a duty to obey traffic laws and to use reasonable care when driving. If they fail in this obligation and their carelessness causes a crash, they could be held accountable for accident damages suffered by those who were injured in the collision.
Our attorney will collect evidence from eyewitnesses and obtain written or oral evidence to prove that the defendant was negligent. Our team will also examine a wide range of other evidence, including skid marks and points of impact, and conduct crash tests.
Sometimes, the reason for an accident involving a truck is complex and involves multiple parties. For instance, if the truck crash was caused due to defective equipment or insufficient maintenance, we might be able to sue the makers of that equipment or the trucks themselves. We might also sue the mechanic or repair shop responsible for the repairs.
We will try to resolve your case outside of court, but should the trucking firm or its insurer is unable to make an appropriate settlement offer, we will prepare for trial. During the trial the jury or judge will decide on any disputed issues such as who was at fault for the crash and what amount of compensation you are entitled to be awarded. alhambra truck accident lawyer of your legal damages will be determined based on the losses you have documented that include financial, physical, and emotional pain.
Statute of Limitations
Knowing how these cases typically proceed can help prepare you for the future and provide you with an idea of the time it might take to settle your case.
One of the most crucial steps is establishing the liability. If the truck driver was tired or distracted, for example the chances are that they will be held responsible for the damages you suffered. However, there could be other parties equally responsible. If the crash was the result of poor repairs and/or a mechanic, then the company that manufactured the truck or its components could be held liable under the legal theory respondeat superior.
You could also be entitled to punitive damages if the responsible person acted in a manner of recklessness that was more acrimonious. To do this, we must establish that they acted in a willful and wanton manner with a disregard for your safety and the safety of others.
It is vital to hire an attorney who is familiar with the complexities involved in truck accident cases. Insurance companies and the attorneys representing the parties at fault are frequently sheep in sheep's clothes and will try to obtain information from you that they can use against you later. You can stay clear of these pitfalls by hiring an attorney to manage your communications.