Stephen Hasner | Truck Accidents | February 13, 2025
How long you have to file a claim for a truck accident depends on factors such as the state jurisdiction and deadlines the insurance company outlines in its policy. An experienced truck accident attorney can clarify jurisdictional statutes. Schedule a free case consultation to have a lawyer evaluate the circumstances of your claim. After reviewing the specifics, they can determine a legal strategy for securing a reasonable financial settlement for your damages.
Statutes of Limitations on Filing Truck Accident Claims
The statute of limitations (SOL) is the time limit within which an injured person or victim can initiate an insurance claim or lawsuit. It varies from one to six years. Georgia imposes a two-year statute on bodily injury and a four-year statute on property damages. Each state has unique statutes that may be reduced or extended based on specific restrictions. For example, most states toll or suspend the SOL for civil actions when the claimant is a minor. A local and experienced truck accident lawyer knows all legal deadlines and will ensure you meet them when handling your claim.
Types of Truck Accidents
Truck accidents include large trucks, 18-wheelers, semis, tractor-trailers, dump trucks, and other commercial trucks. Due to the significant size difference between commercial trucks and standard vehicles, these collisions generally result in significant injuries and damages. Standard truck accidents include the following:
- Head-on collisions
- Jackknife accidents
- Truck rollovers
- Sideswipe accidents
- Wide turn accidents
- Underride accidents
- T-bone collisions
- Cargo accidents
Common causes of truck accidents involve distracted driving (cell phone use), driving while under the influence of alcohol or medications, drowsy driving, and violating hours of service regulations. While driver error is a leading cause of truck accidents, your lawyer will investigate all possible parties of liability to ensure maximum compensation for your claim.
Who Is Liable for Damages in a Truck Accident?
Before you can file an injury claim for a truck accident, it’s vital to know who is liable for your injuries and damages. Truck accidents often involve multiple parties of liability. This is primarily due to a legal doctrine known as respondeat superior, which holds employers vicariously liable for their employee’s negligent actions or wrongdoings—provided the accident occurs within the scope of their employment.
Most truck accidents involve claims with the truck driver’s and trucking company’s insurance companies. However, some circumstances of a collision may find other parties liable, such as:
- Truck Manufacturer: Suppose it is determined a defective part caused or contributed to the collision. The vehicle or part manufacturer may be liable for your damages. A study gathering information on accidents involving at least one large truck and evident injuries found that post-crash inspections demonstrated at least one mechanical violation in 55 percent of commercial trucks—violations most frequently involved braking (36 percent) and lighting (19 percent) mechanical systems.
- Cargo Loading Company: Cargo companies have strict weight and securement requirement guidelines. When cargo isn’t properly loaded and secured, rollover accidents can occur. In that case, the cargo loader and the cargo loading company may be liable for your damages.
- Truck Maintenance: Though less common, sometimes, a truck inspector who misses a mechanical issue that causes an accident or a truck maintenance company who provides inadequate repairs may be liable for damages.
Having an experienced truck accident lawyer is beneficial for investigating all possible liable parties. A comprehensive investigation can take time, depending on the accident’s severity and injuries. You’ll want to ensure maximum compensation for your monetary and intangible losses following a truck accident.
Benefits of Hiring a Truck Accident Attorney for Your Claim
Given the complex nature of truck accidents, navigating the insurance claims and legal process is considerably more manageable with the help of an experienced attorney. They can provide peace of mind when handling these aspects while you focus on your health and recovery. A truck accident attorney also offers protection against insurance company tactics and a thorough investigation into your claim. Finally, lawyers will value the damages in your case before negotiating a reasonable settlement or filing a lawsuit and litigating your case when insurers refuse to pay valid claims.
Provide Peace of Mind
Most truck accident attorneys work within contingent fee arrangements. Working for contingency allows anyone to retain legal counsel without paying any upfront or out-of-pocket costs. Instead, your attorney will collect their contingent fee (percentage of your settlement) when they win your case. You owe them nothing if they do not secure a settlement on your behalf (unless otherwise stipulated). Contingency provides peace of mind for truck accident victims who maybe wouldn’t otherwise seek legal assistance.
Protection Against Insurance Company Tactics
Don’t be fooled by the friendly voice on the other line feigning compassion for your truck accident and injuries. Insurance companies hire adjusters to maximize profits. To do that, they must minimize company payouts by denying partial or total liability of truck accident claims. When they call, they intend to get you to say anything incriminating or that they can twist to fit their narrative of downplaying injuries and denying liability.
Having an attorney protects injured parties from dealing with that fiasco. Liable insurers are no longer allowed to contact you after retaining legal counsel. Your attorney can pursue a bad-faith insurance claim if they continue to call and harass you. If you provided a recorded statement to insurance companies, it’s vital that you speak to an attorney immediately. They can provide valuable legal insight into what to do (and not to do) next.
Thorough Investigation Into Your Truck Accident
Your truck accident attorney will thoroughly investigate your claim to determine fault and damages. An investigation can take several months or longer, depending on the accident’s severity, the severity of your injuries, and the length of your treatment and recovery. During their investigation, your lawyer will complete the following:
- Gathering Evidence: Commercial trucks have additional evidence to collect and analyze in addition to standard evidence, such as the police report and video footage of the accident from traffic and dashcams. Evidence in truck accidents may also entail the driver’s GPS and cell phone records at the time of the collision, the driver’s toxicology report, their hours of service logs, truck inspection and maintenance records, cargo or freight manifests, and the truck’s black box or event data recorder (EDR).
- Interviewing Witnesses: Witness statements taken at the accident scene will be attached to the police report. Your attorney will contact and reinterview eyewitnesses to confirm their statements and future testimonies. They may also turn up new witnesses during their investigation and gather critical evidence in their statements.
- Identifying Liable Parties: It’s common for medical costs to exceed policy limits through a trucker’s private insurer. Your attorney will work diligently to find a way to secure a settlement for your total damages. Because truck accidents generally cause severe injuries and disability, it’s especially important to investigate and identify all liable parties to maximize compensation.
- Consulting Expert Witnesses: Depending on the nature of your truck accident, your attorney will consult with expert witnesses for their insight and testimonies. Some experts they may seek advisement from include healthcare professionals, trucking industry safety experts, commercial vehicle mechanics, traffic pattern analysts, and financial experts who can assess the value of your economic and non-economic damages.
- Reconstructing Accidents: Accident reconstruction specialists are pivotal in pinpointing negligence and liability. Using their analysis of the accident scene and the evidence from your collision, they can determine critical factors needed to prove fault. They use mathematics and scientific principles to cement liability. Furthermore, they create 3D models and computer graphics through simulations that help insurance companies, judges, and juries understand their findings.
A prospective attorney should explain your role in the investigation during your free initial consultation. If they don’t, it’s important to ask. Typically, it’s important that you keep a record of everything, document your pain and suffering, and provide them with any evidence relevant to your case—such as medical bills, vehicle-repair invoices, and receipts for out-of-pocket expenses.
Comprehensive Claim Valuation
Calculating the economic damages is the first step in determining non-economic damages in your truck accident claim. Most attorneys use the multiplier method to estimate them by multiplying the total economic damages by a multiplier number between 1.5 and 5. Your multiplier number is assigned depending on the severity of your injuries and their impact on your life. The more life-altering the injuries, the higher the multiplier. Damages your attorney will calculate and value after a truck accident may include the following:
- Medical Bills: All medical costs are economic damages that are recoverable after a truck accident. These expenses may include emergency care, surgical and post-operative services, hospitalizations, primary and follow-up care, prescription medications, copays, deductibles, and future medical costs.
- Rehabilitation Care: When injuries warrant rehabilitation services, those costs are recoverable monetary losses. They often include physical therapy, orthopedic care, speech and language therapy, and occupational and vocational therapeutic services. Alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic care, may also be calculated.
- Property Damages: Vehicle repairs and replacement and the rental car or rideshare services used while your car is being repaired are standard property damages in a truck accident claim. Mailboxes, fences, and damages to structures are also viable damages. However, you can file for any property damaged in the collision, including cell phones, computers, car seats, jewelry, clothing, and other personal belongings.
- Lost Income: When injuries cause you to miss work, your lawyer will calculate all lost earnings. Income losses may entail income or salary, non-salary compensation (tips, commissions, bonuses), vacation pay and sick leave, lost job opportunities and promotions, and lost medical and retirement benefits. When injuries prevent you from returning to work at full capacity, your attorney will calculate your diminished earning capacity. If you cannot return to work, they can determine your loss of future earnings.
- Household Services: Hired assistance to complete daily chores and tasks you cannot perform due to injuries are recoverable expenses in your claim or lawsuit. Recoverable household expenses include housecleaning and laundry services, cooking and meal delivery, in-home childcare and out-of-home daycare, yard maintenance, and grocery and prescription medication delivery services.
- Disability and Disfigurement: People who become disabled or disfigured in a truck accident can seek compensation for those damages. Commonly compensated disabilities include loss of a limb, hearing and vision impairments, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, burns, and scarring. The costs of modifying vehicles and homes for mobility are economic damages calculated in your attorney’s demand letter.
- Pain and Suffering: The physical pain and mental anguish following a truck accident are non-economic damages in your claim. You must document them in a post-accident journal to prove these damages. Psychological trauma, such as anxiety, post-accident depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), qualify as pain and suffering and can be compensated for when they accompany physical injuries and damages.
- Decreased Quality of Life: Your post-accident journal and detailed medical records should also document a decreased quality of life when applicable. Your lawyer will value this damage when you demonstrate how your injuries negatively impact your life. For example, limitations or restrictions on daily tasks or hobbies you once enjoyed. It also reflects how injuries affect your happiness, personal relationships, and ability to maintain social connections.
- Loss of Consortium: A loss of consortium is a non-economic damage describing the intangible losses in a relationship due to injury or disability. These losses may include loss of companionship, affection, and physical intimacy for spouses or partners. Children may seek compensation for the loss of parental care and guidance.
Families who lose a loved one in a truck accident may file a wrongful death claim to seek compensation for damages, including the funeral and burial costs and final medical expenses of the victim. They may also pursue a loss of financial guidance and lost prospect of inheritance. Surviving spouses and children may seek compensation for loss of consortium and loss of guidance and support after wrongful death.
Insurance Company Negotiations
After valuing the damages in your truck accident claim, your lawyer will send a demand letter outlining the details of the collision, the extent of your injuries, and the need to compensate your claim. This starts the negotiation process. Due to multiple liability, insurers may attempt to negate liability onto each other. However, your attorney will negotiate until all liable insurance companies reach reasonable portion agreements to secure a substantial settlement.
Lawsuit and Litigation
If your case cannot be settled outside of court, your lawyer may file a civil lawsuit and litigate your case before a judge and jury. However, insurance companies and attorneys settle most truck accident cases without trial. Ask your lawyer about the chances of your case going to trial and if there are any additional expenses involved with litigation.
Speak to an Experienced Truck Accident Lawyer
Consult a reputable and experienced personal injury lawyer if you or a loved one has suffered an injury in a truck accident. You’ll want to determine a strategy to recover financial and intangible losses suffered from the accident. Schedule a free case evaluation today.
