Those involved in accidents with commercial trucks generally have a number of questions concerning their right to recover damages for their injuries. Truck accidents are litigated in the same basic way that any car accident is.
The major difference is that you will be filing a claim on a trucking company’s liability insurance instead of an individual’s personal auto insurance policy. In addition, if you can prove that the trucking company was negligent for some reason, you can also sue them directly.
Likely, you’re frightened and in shock. Truck accidents are often fatal. After a truck accident, you will want to be in touch with a truck accident attorney as soon as you are able. We’ll discuss why below.
After a Truck Accident, You May be Contacted by the Insurance Company
Insurance companies are for-profit businesses that pay out in the event that one of their policyholders is liable for an accident. Most businesses carry various insurance policies that protect them from various kinds of liability. In the case of commercial trucking companies, they carry auto liability insurance that insures their drivers in the case of an accident.
The insurance company’s job is to represent the interests of their policyholder with whom their own interests are aligned. Neither wants to see you paid large sums of money for your injuries and both want the accident to be your fault. Their job is to reduce their liability and, by extension, the amount of money that they have to pay you.
Insurance companies will attempt to contact the victims. You should not speak to them. Ideally, any communication between you and the insurance company would take place with your attorney who acts as mediator. The insurance company will ask seemingly harmless, though loaded, questions in an attempt to trip you up. They can then use this information against you during a trial.
Who’s Responsible for the Accident?
This is the question that both sides will want to answer. In some cases, trucking accidents can be traced to some negligence that the trucking company committed. For instance, they may have poorly trained and unqualified drivers working for them or their cargo may not have been loaded properly.
In addition, they may not have inspected the tires or other key components of the truck before sending it out on a delivery. In each of these cases, the trucking company bears a considerable amount of fault for the accident. It is in these cases where may make more sense to sue the trucking company directly.
Contact The Wakeford Law Firm Early in Your Accident
There are a number of reasons why you want to involve a lawyer early on in a trucking accident claim. While you probably are not involved in many car accidents, the insurance company and their adjusters and lawyers deal with these kinds of situations every day.
In other words, they know what they’re doing. You are not helping yourself by communicating with them. More likely, you’re harming your case.
The Wakeford Law Firm has handled a number of truck accident claims securing major settlements for our clients. Give us a call or talk to us online to set up a free consultation today.
