The Process of a Truck Accident Lawsuit
Accidents with trucks can cause severe and permanent injuries. These can lead to significant medical expenses, lost wages and psychological trauma.
Your lawyer will prepare an Summons and Complaint against all responsible parties. This process could take several years. Since New York uses comparative fault rules, your lawyer can ensure that any shared responsibility is appropriately determined and assigned to defendants.
Investigations
If someone is injured in a collision with a truck, there is a lot more at stake than in an auto collision. A truck accident could have devastating consequences for the person. The impact is also more complex due to its weight and size. These accidents also require more intricate investigations.
To protect their interests in the event of a crash, trucking firms or insurance companies will usually investigate immediately following the accident. The victims are left to deal with their injuries, and are unable to collect evidence. This leaves them in a position of disadvantage compared to the insurance provider and trucking companies.
A skilled truck accident lawyer knows to look for evidence from many sources which include police reports witness statements, and inspections of vehicles. A lawyer who is well-informed is not relying on reports from the police because they are usually not sufficient for civil litigation. Police officers aren't trained to conduct an effective investigation and might not gather all the evidence required for the filing of a lawsuit.
Other kinds of data include logbook records maintenance and service records for the truck, data from the event data recorder (also called a black box) and more. An experienced attorney will ask the driver of the truck as well as 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 aid your attorney in proving different aspects of the case. For instance an expert in medicine can give your lawyer proof that the crash resulted in your injuries. Your expert may also testify regarding the impact your injuries will have on your quality of life in the future. Expert witnesses can help your lawyer determine the worth of your injuries, which includes lost income and loss of earning capacity in the future.
Your doctor can look over physical evidence and discuss the consequences of your injury on your future. For example medical experts can demonstrate how your accident can affect your mental and physical well-being. A metallurgist, for instance, is another kind of expert who will analyze the reasons behind why a vehicle component failed. There are also henderson truck accident attorney who analyze how the weather may have caused the crash.
The main function of your expert is to examine the evidence and provide an objective opinion. Expert witnesses can be a liability for your case when their opinions are skewed or they have ties with the defendants. Your attorney can use an investigation into their background to determine these risks and ensure that you have the best expert witnesses available.
Your lawyer will question you, along with any other eyewitnesses who saw the incident before it occurred. It is important to remember that the insurance companies of the defendants will try to convince you to admit fault or to make statements they can twist and distort to diminish your case.
Litigation
Truck drivers are also required to obey traffic laws and operate with reasonable care. If they do not fulfill this obligation and their negligence causes an accident, they could be held accountable for injuries incurred by those who were injured in the collision.
To establish the defendant's negligence, our attorney will gather a range of evidence from eyewitnesses who witnessed the crash and provide written or oral evidence about the circumstances of the collision. Our team will also study other evidence such as skidmarks and points of impact, and conduct crash testing.
Sometimes, the cause of an accident on the road is complicated that involves multiple parties. For instance, if a truck accident was caused by defective equipment or inadequate maintenance, we might bring a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the equipment or the trucks themselves. We might also sue the mechanic who performed the repairs or the repair shop.
We will attempt to resolve your case without going to court. However, if the trucking firm or its insurer refuses a fair settlement and we are unable to reach a fair settlement, we will go to trial. During a trial, a jury or judge will decide on the dispute like who was the culprit and what amount of compensation you'll receive. The amount of your legal damages will be determined based on the losses you have documented, which include financial, physical and emotional pain.
Statute of limitations
Although the legal process following a crash with a truck can be a bit complicated, knowing the typical procedure for these cases will help you understand what is ahead and give you a better sense of how long your case could take.
The process of establishing liability is among the most important steps. It is probable that a driver who was drowsy, distracted, or otherwise impaired will be held responsible for the damages you have suffered. There may be other parties equally responsible. For instance, if the accident resulted from poor repairs for instance, a mechanic who performed the work or a company who made the truck or its components could be held responsible according to the legal doctrine of respondeat superior.
It's also possible that the person who is responsible did a greater reckless act, which might entitle you to punitive damages. To be able to prove this, we must to prove that the liable party was reckless for your safety or the safety of others.
It's important to work with an attorney who is familiar with the complexities involved in truck accidents. Insurance companies and lawyers representing the parties at fault are often as wolves in sheep's clothes and will try to collect statements from you that they could use against you later. You can avoid these pitfalls by having an attorney handle your communications.