The Process of a Truck Accident Lawsuit
Many accidents involving trucks cause serious and lifelong injuries. These can lead to significant medical costs, lost wages and psychological trauma.
Your lawyer will make a Summons and Complaint to all the parties responsible. This process could take a few years. Because New York uses comparative fault rules, your lawyer can ensure that any shared liability is properly determined and assigned to defendants.
Investigations
A truck crash could be more serious than an auto accident. A truck crash can have life-changing consequences. The consequences are more complex due to the size and weight. These accidents also involve more complex investigations.
Because of this, insurance companies and trucking firms often conduct investigation immediately following a crash to protect their interests. The issue is that victims are left to handle their injuries, and aren't able to collect evidence. This puts them at a disadvantage when compared to the insurance company and trucking company.
A skilled truck accident lawyer will seek evidence from a variety of sources such as police reports, witness statements, and inspections of vehicles. A lawyer with experience will not rely on only police reports as they can be insufficient for civil litigation. Police officers are not trained to conduct an effective investigation, and they may fail to gather all the evidence needed for an action.
Other kinds of information could include logbook entries and maintenance and service records from the truck. The data from the device for recording events (also called a black box) is also available. A competent attorney will ask the driver of the truck and the trucking company for these and other kinds of evidence and then carefully examine them to determine the reason for the accident.
Expert Witnesses
A truck accident expert witness can help your attorney prove different elements of the case. An expert in medicine for instance, can provide proof to your lawyer that the accident caused your injuries. Experts can also testify as to the impact your injuries will have on your future quality of life. Expert witnesses can also help your lawyer calculate the value of your damages, including lost income and loss of future earning capacity.
Experts can review physical evidence and explain the impact of your injury on your future. For example, a medical expert can explain how your accident can affect you in terms of mental and physical well-being. A metallurgist, for instance, is another kind of expert that can examine the reasons behind why a vehicle component failed. There are experts who can determine if the weather was a factor in the crash.
The primary role of your expert witness is to review the evidence and give an impartial opinion. However, certain experts can be a liability risk for your case if they're biased or have connections to the defendants' businesses. Your lawyer can conduct an investigation of the background of the expert witness to find out any risks.
In addition to expert witnesses, your lawyer will also question you and other eyewitnesses, such as witnesses who witnessed the crash occurring before it occurred. You should be aware that the insurance companies of the defendants will try to get your to admit guilt or make statements which they can twist and deform to reduce your chances of winning.
Litigation
Truck drivers are also required to follow traffic laws and take reasonable care when driving. If they do not comply with this obligation and their negligence causes a crash, they could be held liable for the accident damages suffered by the victims of that crash.
To demonstrate the defendant's culpability, our attorney will gather a number of eyewitnesses who witnessed the crash and give oral or written evidence of the manner in which the collision took place. Our team will also review the various other evidences, including skid marks and points of collision, and conduct crash tests.
Sometimes, the cause of an accident on the road is complicated, involving multiple parties. For instance, if a truck crash was caused by defective equipment or improper maintenance, we could seek to sue the producers of that equipment or the trucks themselves. We could also sue the repair shop or mechanic responsible for the repairs.
We will try to resolve your case outside of court. However, if the trucking firm or its insurance company refuses to negotiate a fair settlement and we are unable to reach a fair settlement, we will go to trial. During the trial the judge or jury will decide on the merits of the dispute such as who was responsible for the crash and what amount of compensation you must be awarded. The amount of your legal damages will be based on the losses you have documented that include physical, financial and emotional pain.
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Understanding how these cases typically are handled can help you prepare for what's to come and provide you with an idea of how long it could take to settle your case.
One of the most crucial steps is to establish the responsibility. If the truck driver was tired or distracted, for instance then it is likely that they'll be held accountable for your damages. However, there may be other parties who are accountable as well. For instance, if a crash occurred due to poor repairs for instance, an individual mechanic who did the work or a business who made the truck or its components could be held accountable under the legal theory of respondeat superior.
It's also possible that the accountable party committed a more severe reckless act, which could be grounds for you to receive punitive damages. To be able to prove this, we must to establish that the liable party acted with reckless disregard to your safety, or that of others.
It's crucial to work with an attorney who is familiar with the complexities of truck accident cases. Insurance companies and attorneys of the at-fault parties are frequently sheep in sheep's clothes and will try to obtain information from you that they can use against you later. By having an attorney manage all communications, it is possible to avoid these pitfalls.