We all rely on large trucks to supply groceries, household items, and other essentials to our local stores. But these tractor-trailers can weigh up to 80,000 pounds fully loaded, and driving one is a serious responsibility.
If anything goes wrong, a collision with a passenger vehicle can have life-altering consequences for riders in the smaller car.
Unfortunately, large truck crashes often result in severe injuries, including head or traumatic brain injuries (TBI), broken bones, internal bleeding or damage, back or spine injuries, lacerations and scarring, and more.
If you or a loved one have suffered a truck crash, you may struggle with high medical bills, a lack of income from missing work, physical pain or emotional distress, and many other difficulties tied to your accident. At the same time, your bills still come due every month.
What Can a Gwinnett County Truck Accident Attorney Do to Help?
The financial toll of a truck accident, combined with physical and emotional pain and suffering, can be devastating. You need help getting your medical bills paid, your income replaced, and your other losses addressed.
It would be nice to think that you can simply file an insurance claim with the trucking company’s insurer, but this kind of insurance claim is a complicated process in which the accident victim is at a disadvantage for several reasons:
- The insurance company, and usually the trucking company and driver, are all likely to claim the driver and trucking company were not at fault. They might be right—there can be a number of liable parties in a trucking accident. (We’ll discuss this topic more later in the article.) But even if the driver is at fault, or the trucking company itself was negligent, it’s still in their best interest to claim no responsibility.
- The trucking company and the insurance company both have very large legal departments dedicated to reducing their liability. Almost as soon as they receive an accident report, they go to work building a case to protect their interests, often blaming the injured car driver.
- Even if it’s clear the truck driver and/or trucking company were at fault, the insurance company will still try to reduce their liability by undervaluing your claim. They might make an offer that seems sufficient at the time but ignores many of your damages and is nowhere close to what your claim is actually worth.
An experienced truck accident lawyer can help you with all these challenges. We’re not afraid to take on big insurance companies, and we have the experience and knowledge to do so.
As soon as we take your case, we’ll start gathering evidence and building a strong claim. We’ll also discuss your injuries and losses and help you accurately value your claim so you’ll know if and when you receive a fair offer from the insurance company.
We’ll also discuss any offer with you, answer your questions, and explain your options so you can make an informed decision. If an offer isn’t close enough to the value we discussed, we can negotiate with the insurance carrier for a better settlement.
Most of the time, we can reach a resolution with the insurance company, but in the event that they won’t agree to a fair deal, we are prepared to argue your case in court.
What Damages Are Available in a Truck Accident?
Here are some of the damages we’ll consider when determining your claim’s value:
- Medical bills: Unfortunately, truck accidents frequently result in very large medical bills due to the severe nature of the injuries involved. Even with a robust health insurance policy, you may have out-of-pocket costs in the tens of thousands or even higher. Additionally, many truck accident victims require weeks or months of care, including recurring appointments for physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc. As a result, their medical bills may accumulate while they struggle to recover enough to return to work.
- Lost income: People injured in a truck crash are often hospitalized for weeks and may be unable to work for longer periods. Some use all their paid time off or PTO, then have to take an extended unpaid leave. You deserve to be compensated for any missed time at work, including both path and unpaid time off.
- Lost earning potential: Due to the severity of many truck accident injuries, some people suffer a permanent disability as a result. If this prevents you from continuing to work in the same job at the same pace, you can seek compensation for your lost earning potential.
- Permanent disability or disfigurement: Whether or not you can still work, a permanent injury can affect your leisure time, social activities, and other areas that impact your quality of life.
- Pain and suffering: A truck accident is a profoundly traumatic event that can have long-term consequences for your physical and mental health. Many people develop anxiety, depression, insomnia, or PTSD following a truck collision, while others may have chronic physical pain, and some may have both. Although this isn’t damage that comes with a specific cost like a medical bill, you still deserve compensation for your pain and suffering.
- Property damage: Often, passenger vehicles involved in these accidents are completely totaled. If not, you will likely have an expensive repair bill. Additionally, there may be damage to any valuables you had in the vehicle, such as a phone, tablet, or laptop.
- Wrongful death: In 2020, there were 4,444 fatal truck crashes, and the overwhelming majority of fatalities were people in passenger cars. If you’ve lost a loved one in such a tragic accident, you may be working through your grief while also facing a difficult financial reality. You should not be forced to look for a second job while grieving or otherwise struggle to pay the bills your loved one contributed to when they were alive. We can seek compensation for funeral and burial expenses, final medical bills, lost financial support, and more.
Who Was at Fault in Your Truck Accident?
For many of our clients, the immediate answer is, “The truck driver.” Often, they’re right, but as we discussed earlier, there are many other parties who may have caused or contributed to the accident. Here are some examples:
- Sometimes, the truck driver is at fault, but the trucking company may be the root cause. For example, if a trucking company pushes its drivers to meet unrealistic expectations, a driver might falsify the logs to say they don’t drive too many hours without rest. Or, the trucking company may have been guilty of negligent hiring—for instance, failing to thoroughly screen the driver’s background and driving history and missing potential red flags, like a DUI conviction.
- In some cases, an accident looks like the truck driver’s fault but is actually due to a mechanical problem or malfunction. Again, there can be several liable parties. A manufacturer that produced a defective component or a mechanic that made an error when working on the truck could be at fault. The trucking company might also be responsible if they were repeatedly informed about a problem but put off servicing the truck.
- One common cause of truck accidents is the overloaded or improperly loaded trailer. Trailers are boxy and prone to flipping, especially if they are loaded in a top-heavy way. For this reason, freight should be arranged with the heaviest items on the bottom, and all items should be secure so they can’t slide around as the truck moves. A heavy item that comes loose can shift the weight in the trailer and increase the risk of a turnover. In cases where the trailer was loaded incorrectly, there can be several potential parties at fault, depending on who loaded the truck—sometimes the trucking company does its own loading, but in other situations, the truck may be loaded by workers at a third-party company, like a warehouse.
But What if the Truck Driver or Insurance Company Blames You?
Disagreements about faults happen all the time in motor vehicle accidents. With trucking accidents, the stakes are often higher because of the large amount of medical bills and other damages.
While most truckers are required to carry at least $750,000 in liability insurance, that doesn’t mean that the insurance adjuster is eager to pay your claim. At the same time, the truck driver doesn’t want an at-fault accident on their record, and the trucking company doesn’t want their insurance rates to go up.
What Does the Law Say About Fault in Your Truck Accident?
Under Georgia law, two parties in an accident can share fault, known as modified comparative negligence. The party who is less than 50 percent at fault can recover damages from the more-at-fault party.
However, the injured party will lose their own percentage of fault from the final settlement. A $500,000 settlement could become a $450,000 settlement very quickly if the injured person is even 10 percent responsible.
With this in mind, you can see why the insurance company would be so interested in blaming you. Even if the insurance adjuster knows you probably didn’t cause the accident or only contributed a small amount, they could still save money by claiming that you were at fault.
Some people who do not have a lawyer may even accept the insurance company’s version of things—they might be relieved to get any settlement at all. But in these situations, the injured party could lose the money they deserved for their injuries.
This is one of many reasons why having a truck accident attorney is essential after a truck accident. To protect your rights, we will go to work building your case and gathering evidence to show another party was at fault.
What if You Think You Were at Fault?
Keep these thoughts to yourself when speaking with the police. You should, of course, answer their questions honestly, but you are not responsible for determining who is to blame.
Keep in mind that you only have your own perspective on the accident and may not know everything that happened. Even if you made a mistake when driving, that doesn’t necessarily mean you were responsible for the accident.
One example would be a case where a passenger vehicle rear-ends a tractor-trailer. You may have heard that rear-end accidents are always the rear driver’s fault for following too closely, and that’s usually true.
However, there are some exceptions. For instance, if the truck’s taillights weren’t working and visibility was low, you may not have been able to see the truck before you hit it.
If we can show what happened, it will be hard to argue that you should have maintained a larger following distance from a vehicle you couldn’t see. In this situation, the fault would likely lie with the truck driver, who has a responsibility to regularly check and make sure lights and other components of the truck are in good working order.
If you suspect you were at fault or are being blamed for the accident by other parties, please contact a lawyer immediately so we can help you learn more about what really happened.
Where Can You Find a Gwinnett County Truck Accident Law Firm?
If you or a loved one have been injured in a truck accident, please contact the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm for a free consultation. We’ll review the accident report, answer your questions, and help you understand your options.
If we take your case, there are no upfront fees, and we won’t charge you anything until we win or settle the case.
Attorney Ali Awad founded the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm only a few short years ago and has quickly built it into one of the fastest-growing law firms in the country. He and his legal team have over twenty years of combined experience and have recovered millions of dollars in compensation for their injured clients.
When he’s not working on a case, you can find Mr. Awad delivering no-nonsense legal advice to more than a million followers on social media. Work with him today by calling (470) 323-8779.
