9 Reasons You Need a Truck Accident Attorney

9 Reasons You Need a Truck Accident Lawyer

If you’ve been injured in a collision with a commercial truck, you may be wondering whether you need to hire a truck accident lawyer. There’s no law that says you have to be represented by an attorney: you can file a claim directly with the trucking company’s insurance carrier. But, there are good reasons to work with an experienced truck accident lawyer, and to hire your lawyer as soon as possible after your accident.

Some of the reasons you’ll want to hire an attorney are the same whether you’re in a car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident or other motor vehicle crash. Others are specific to truck accidents.

Reasons to Hire an Attorney after a Motor Vehicle Accident

1.   Insurance companies don’t always play fair.

Insurance companies don’t like to pay out any more money than they absolutely have to. That means virtually everyone you interact with at an insurance company will be working toward one goal: to reduce the amount they have to pay you, or even to avoid payment completely. Some common tactics include tricking you into making statements that they will take out of context and use against you later, asking leading questions to get you to provide the answer that benefits them, trying to rush you into a quick settlement before you know the full extent of your damages, and dragging their feet to put pressure on you. Some will even continue discussing the claim with you over time, hoping you won’t notice the statute of limitations is about to run out or that you’ll think it doesn’t matter because you’re going to make a deal.

In other words, trying to negotiate your own settlement–or even discuss your claim–with the insurance company can put your claim at risk.

2.   Personal injury law is complicated and technical.

Your accident case may seem straightforward to you. Maybe you were hit by a driver who ran a red light, so it seems clear that the other driver is responsible. Unfortunately, in the law, nothing is that straightforward. Filing a motor vehicle accident lawsuit will require an understanding of a wide range of rules and requirements, from establishing jurisdiction of the court to properly formatting pleadings and getting your complaint served on the responsible driver.

Then, you’ll have to follow discovery rules to obtain evidence and provide evidence to the other side, ensure that you don’t miss deadlines found in dense procedural rules, and more.

An experienced local motor vehicle accident lawyer will know and take responsibility for the rules and procedures, so you won’t have to worry about the complex details.

3.   Missing a responsible party can seriously reduce the damages you receive.

After a motor vehicle accident, it may not be immediately clear who is legally responsible. It may be either driver involved in the crash, or both, or others may share liability. For example, another driver on the road who swerved into the driver’s path may share responsibility, or the entity responsible for road maintenance. If the vehicle was owned by someone other than the driver, the owner may be wholly or partly responsible. And, in some cases, the manufacturer of one of the vehicles or a vehicle part is to blame. 

An experienced injury attorney can identify the possible responsible parties in your case and assess whether there may be an argument that you were partially responsible.

4.   Expert witnesses may be required to prove liability or damages.

Depending on the specifics of your case and the type of damages you’ve suffered, one or more expert witnesses may be required. For example, you may need an expert to reconstruct how the accident happened to show who was at fault, or to explain how a poorly-maintained vehicle played a role in the crash. You may need a medical expert to speak to any need for ongoing medical care, whether the injuries put you at risk for future complications, and whether life expectancy has been affected. Or, you may need an economic expert to project long-term loss of income capacity.

If you have no experience working with experts, it can be difficult to find the right expert. You may not know what information the expert will need to be effective, or not know how to get that information. And, experts can be costly. When you work with an experienced truck accident lawyer, the attorney can draw on their knowledge and their existing network to choose and work with the best expert for your case.

5.   Insurance companies don’t always take pro se claimants seriously.

The only incentive an insurance carrier has to make a settlement offer is that they want to avoid the expense of a trial and the risk of a jury entering a larger verdict. But insurance carriers know that most people don’t have the time, knowledge, or resources to take a personal injury case to trial on their own. They even hope–and in some cases that hope pays off–that the injured person doesn’t know about all of the types of compensation they may be entitled to. That can impact the amount they’ll offer to settle the claim, and even whether they make a settlement offer at all.

These are just a few of the most common risks an injury victim faces when they try to handle a motor vehicle accident claim on their own. Commercial truck accidents tend to be more complicated, and the stakes are often higher. That means it’s important to work with an attorney who is experienced not just with injury cases, but with trucking accidents.

Here’s why:

6.   It may be especially difficult to determine who is responsible for a truck crash.

As you saw above, determining liability for any motor vehicle accident can be more complicated than you might expect. With a commercial truck accident, that question is further complicated by the fact that the driver’s relationship to the trucking company plays a role. In most cases, a trucker who is an independent contractor will be liable for their own negligence on the road, while the company will be responsible if the driver is an employee. But, there are exceptions.

There is also a wider range of other parties who may be responsible, such as the person or company that overloaded a vehicle or loaded it incorrectly, a company that pushed a driver to ignore hours in service limitations, or the entity responsible for vehicle maintenance.

7.   Truck accident cases often involve out of state defendants

Suing people and companies in other states can mean a maze of complicated procedural requirements. The same may be true if you need to obtain evidence from out-of-state entities or subpoena out-of-state witnesses. Because truckers often drive all over the country, this issue is much more common in commercial truck accident cases than other types of motor vehicle accident cases.

An experienced truck accident lawyer will know how to navigate those procedures and achieve service on out-of-state defendants.

8.   Truck accident cases often involve significant damages.

Of course, every truck accident case is different. But, commercial trucks are much larger and heavier than passenger cars, and that means injuries are often severe and fatalities are more likely. You already know that insurance companies will work hard to reduce the amount they have to pay out. When the stakes are higher due to a combination of higher commercial insurance policy limits and serious injuries, they’ll pull out all the stops to avoid paying the compensation you deserve.

9.   Truck accident cases often involve a web of state and federal laws.

Most motor vehicle accidents are governed entirely by the laws of the state where the accident happened. While a commercial truck accident case is still filed in state court under state injury law, federal laws and regulations may also be in play. That’s because the federal government regulates commercial trucking, and violation of federal standards can help to establish negligence in a truck accident case.

Not every injury lawyer is familiar with the federal regulations or how they can impact a commercial truck accident case.

Get the Help You Need Today

Attorney Kevin P. Broderick has extensive experience with motor vehicle accident cases. He knows it’s important for you to have knowledgeable guidance right away, and for you to have the opportunity to connect with the best truck accident lawyer for you. He offers free consultations so you can get your questions answered and make sure you’re making the right choice for you and your family. You can schedule yours right now by calling 978-459-3085 or filling out the contact form on this site.