After a Truck Accident
Anyone who’s been injured in a truck accident needs to get medical treatment. Number two, contact an attorney with experience in truck accident cases. Sometimes, the insurance companies that represent these trucking companies will send somebody to the scene within minutes of it occurring, and so it’s important that you get a hold of an attorney who understands the urgency of investigating the scene. They will be getting statements from witnesses, taking photographs of the vehicles involved and tire marks, making sure that the truck complied with all of the requirements under the law, that the driver was properly disposed to driving the vehicle, and that they weren’t intoxicated.
Truck Accident Claim
First and foremost, you need to be getting your medical care and treatment to get well and try to recover from your injuries, damages, and losses. That is the most important thing for you to do to make sure that you’re getting better.Truck Accident Claim
Sometimes we have clients that say they’re tough. They say, “I can heal on my own. I don’t need to see doctors.”. Generally speaking, that’s not a good idea. You need to get medical care and treatment, and you need to follow the recommendations and advice of your doctors. They’re your trusted healthcare providers and they want to help you, so don’t try to tough it out alone. Get that medical care and treatment. That’s step number one, and we’re going to be making sure that you’re doing that.
Step two, we’re going to be doing our investigation about how the accident occurred. We’re going to make sure that the vehicles are photographed. We’re going to make sure that the scene is preserved and photographed. We’re going to be making sure that witness statements are obtained. We’re going to be looking to GPS information that’s available from the truck company. Many commercial truck carriers have GPS information on their vehicles, and we’re going to be obtaining the vehicle black box information. That’s the event data recorder that you probably have in your vehicle and don’t even know it and is likely also in the truck vehicle as well. We’re going to be using our trusted investigators to obtain that information because that’s very critical.
The third step is we put this all together once we know the full extent of your injuries and damages. That’s when we’re going to be pursuing your rightful claim to injuries and losses for what you have sustained to make sure that you, indeed, are fully and fairly compensated for what you have gone through.
Truck Accident Settlement Offers
The injuries from a commercial trucking accident can be completely devastating and life-long. Usually, it’s not a minor injury when a commercial truck in involved. There’s usually not some kind of low limitation of available funds to pay for a commercial trucking injury. That means that the person who’s been injured in a commercial truck accident has to hire a law firm that knows how to prosecute commercial trucking negligence, which can be wide-ranging. The accident might not have been caused just by the negligence of the truck driver; it can be the negligence of the industry that he works in, including the supervisors, and everybody that goes into making decisions about how freight is being transported on the highways of our country.
What’s important to understand is that under no circumstances should anybody even contemplate a first offer or even talking to somebody – a commercial trucking representative or the insurance company – about resolving a claim. What’s important is that they call our firm and let us work up all the damages. They can be life-long, and they can be absolutely devastating. You don’t want to leave money on the table.
Truck Accident Case Value
A truck accident injury claim can have value, not only because of what the losses are that our clients suffer, but sometimes because of egregious conduct by the trucking industry itself. In a commercial trucking claim, the rules about how long drivers can be awake, how long they can be on the road and everything else all play into the negligence of how an accident occurred. What’s critical for us is that, when we get a commercial trucking claim, we look to the various factors as to how that accident occurred.
A commercial trucking claim can result in severe injury because of the amount of mass that is usually impacted on another motorist when that happens. In terms of assessing the value in what can be recovered, it’s going to include the full medical bills, the full way that it’s affected the person’s life, the way it’s affected their relationships and their family, and their ability to earn money in the future. What is really important is to understand how the accident happened, because there are ways in which the negligent drivers of commercial trucks can be held to the higher standard that can result in greater compensation for our clients.
Truck Accident Expert Witness
I recently received an email from a woman whose husband was injured, where a truck was driving right here in St. Petersburg, Florida and ran her husband off the road. He was in the hospital. She asked me, how are we going to prove that my husband didn’t do something wrong to cause this and that it was the commercial truck that did it? I assured her that we are extremely practiced at proving fault of negligent truck drivers.
Now, it’s not because of what I say; it’s because we pursue the best evidence to prove the liability of those who are negligent. What does the best evidence mean? It means scientific forensic analysis by qualified experts, experts who are the top in their field about putting together crash accidents and being able to go to court and give testimony of their opinions. Our law firm throughout the entire state of Florida has gone to court with experts who will testify about the science behind accidents.
Sometimes it can be where we get the records of the truck driver who we find was violating the regulations about driving too much and not taking time to sleep. We have experts analyze the records of the driver’s employment history. Then, of course, the real science about accident reconstruction: everything from downloading the electronically stored data on the vehicles that are involved, having forensic engineers analyze that data, and then arrive at conclusions to hold the negligent people responsible.
There are some cases where a lawyer might tell, you don’t need all of that information. That’s a waste of money. If you or a loved one has suffered a severe and tragic injury from a negligent truck driver, would you ever leave it to chance or would you want to be able to put together your evidence, ironclad and bulletproof in the court of law to hold those negligent people responsible? Our law firm will do that. We will retain the best experts and we will prove the best evidence.
Partial Fault Truck Accident
You really don’t have to worry about the fact that you may have contributed to the accident if there is also evidence that this accident could have been avoided if somebody else on the roadway was not negligent. When we got into the facts of her case, it became obvious to me what she may have done to partially contribute to the accident was very minor in comparison to the truck driver who caused the accident in large measure.
The long explanation about how this works is really summed up by the idea that Florida recognizes that more than one person can be responsible for an accident. It’s the jury’s responsibility to apportion the fault among anybody who has a hand in causing an accident. If you’ve been seriously injured, we are not going to be deterred to hold another person accountable for your injuries because we all recognize we’re human. A jury can apportion fault on another driver. That can be enough to recover for your injuries when we put all the evidence before the court.
I told my client then and I’m telling you if you’re listening to this today, it is not uncommon to even have a minor role in an accident, but that does not prevent you from still being able to pursue justice for the negligence that another driver engaged in if that resulted in the accident. If your injuries are bad, and of course, oftentimes, they’re horrific, you owe it to yourself and your family to set aside any concern that you may have been partly responsible and hold everybody else to account for your losses. It’s going to be fair. We’re not trying to get away with something or tell you that the jury doesn’t care about what role you may have had to play. It all gets sorted out in the courtroom.
Suing The Trucking Company
A gentleman walked into our offices last week. He had been seriously hurt. He told me that he was driving on the interstate, I-275 here in Tampa, when a commercial truck, a semi-truck, veered into his lane and ricocheted his vehicle into the guardrail.
The police came. They found out that this truck driver had actually been drinking. It was a horrific accident. When my client described this driver, his Number One concern was, how is this guy going to pay for all of my injuries?
What I explained to him is that a commercial truck driven by a driver has the responsibility for the company who hires that driver, whether it’s what they’re shipping or the commercial trucking company itself, has full responsibility for all the injuries that are caused by their negligent drivers. Obviously, this can become much more severe if they know that their drivers have problems with alcohol or drug use. If that were the case, then they could even be responsible for more damages than just the losses that any person suffers from virtue of an injury in an accident like that.
What I explain to my client that everybody needs to know is that Florida recognizes that companies who hire drivers to drive freight for them on our roadways are fully responsible for any injuries caused by those drivers’ negligence. At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we have a record of holding those companies accountable when their negligent drivers have caused injury on the roadways. I assured my client that I meet with that we were going to pursue justice on his behalf and that it was not going to be limited to just the driver; we were going to find every corporation or entity that was responsible whether by virtue of the fact that they were using this driver to ship freight or it was commercial trucking company itself. They were going to be responsible for all the injuries.
Statue of Limitations for Truck Accidents
If a person is injured in a trucking accident case, the question, is there a difference in terms of the statute of limitations to bring that claim or to file that lawsuit? In Florida, a trucking accident claim is the same statute of limitations that would be used in an automobile injury accident case or what we would call a general negligence claim. In that instance, the statute of limitations is four years from the date of the accident to file the claim or the case properly and timely.
Four years is a long period of time; many states have lower or shorter statutes of limitations. What I also advise my clients is you would never want to wait until the end of that four-year period of time. It’s always advisable to seek legal representation right away if you or your family member is injured in any kind of an auto or truck accident injury claim. Don’t wait until the four years or right before the four years expires.
That’s what I advise and that’s what we do. We handle these claims very diligently. We don’t wait until the last minute to file these claims. If you’re injured in a trucking accident claim and you have any questions about the statute of limitations that applies here in Florida, please call us at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys. We’re here to help you and your family make sure you get the full compensation that you deserve.
Were you involved in a a truck accident? Read these 8 Truck Accident Tips. Then, contact our experienced Tampa Bay Truck Accident Attorneys.