The wrong approach to an accident case involving a commercial vehicle could end with victims not getting the full compensation they deserve. There is a right way to handle these types of claims and to support victims during their financial recoveries, starting with confirming who is liable for their injuries.
Suppose the commercial vehicle driver was on the clock when the accident happened. In that case, you can most likely sue their employer for compensation. This could lead to larger settlement offers to keep cases out of court, particularly if punitive damages are a possibility. Evidence gathered during the initial stages of your case can be used to leverage better settlement offers or prove liability in lawsuits that go to trial. Your Queens car accident lawyer should be prepared to take your case to court from the get-go, even if it ultimately settles because you receive a fair offer.
It is also important for your lawyer to understand how commercial vehicle regulations may affect your case. These vehicles must follow strict rules regarding maintenance, load limits, and driver working hours. If your attorney finds violations in any of these areas, it could strengthen your claim and increase your chances of success. Having legal counsel familiar with transportation law and federal safety standards can make a significant difference.
How Should Attorneys Handle Accidents Involving Commercial Vehicles?
While accidents involving commercial vehicles appear similar to other wrecks initially, victims may quickly come to realize these crashes and claims are more complicated. Not applying the appropriate legal doctrines could lead to victims’ lower recoveries, and failure to preserve the right evidence could threaten their access to compensation.
Applying Appropriate Legal Doctrines
Lawsuits for accidents involving commercial vehicles, like trucks, might include more than one defendant. For example, your attorney should confirm the driver’s status as a regular employee or independent contractor. If they are a regular employee of a trucking company, the legal doctrine of respondeat superior would likely apply. This holds employers responsible for their employees’ actions while working, including commercial drivers who might cause accidents while transporting goods or other materials. Employers can be held liable for all damages victims incur, including medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Victims might not know they should get truck drivers’ employers’ information after accidents, and some must go straight to the hospital from crash sites, making this even harder. Your attorney should be able to get information about the commercial vehicle driver and their employer from the accident report written by law enforcement and made accessible several days after the crash. In some cases, legal teams might also subpoena additional records from the employer, such as driver logs, internal safety audits, or employment files, to help prove fault or negligence.
Gathering and Preserving Evidence
Your attorney should also know to take steps to preserve evidence from the company that employs the driver and owns the vehicle, such as vehicle black box data. This can provide useful information about a commercial driver’s actions just before an accident, like if they were speeding or not. Companies that hire drivers who do not have the necessary experience or licenses to operate certain vehicles, like semi trucks, for example, can bear liability for injuries suffered as a result. Your attorney may look deeper into the company’s practices in such situations.
Like with any collision, identifying and collecting evidence after an accident with a commercial vehicle is paramount. Many commercial vehicles are larger than passenger cars, potentially increasing the risk of severe injury to victims. As you physically recover, your attorney should prioritize gathering evidence that could degrade with time, like eyewitness statements. It’s common for witnesses to stick around after major collisions and for police officers to record their contact information in crash reports. Interviewing eyewitnesses should be a top priority, as should involving an accident reconstruction expert to piece together the crash’s sequence of events.
Photos from the scene, medical records, and surveillance camera footage from nearby businesses or traffic cameras can also support your claim. The more detailed the evidence, the better your chance of proving liability and getting the compensation you need.
Maximizing Compensation from Settlements or Jury Awards
Bringing a lawsuit against the commercial vehicle driver’s employer for an accident could yield greater damages. However, there is still the risk of victims accepting lowball settlements if they do not have capable attorneys by their sides. Your lawyer should plan to maximize your recovery when preparing for settlement negotiations and identifying evidence to leverage to get better offers. Trucking companies and others with drivers who cause accidents might want to keep lawsuits out of court, particularly if there is a high chance of them being found liable.
When presented with settlement offers, your lawyer should evaluate them based on your total damages and give clear advice about whether they are fair. Being honest about a plaintiff’s potential recovery if they were to go to trial is crucial, as this could influence their decision to settle or not.
Some investigations into accidents involving commercial vehicles reveal egregious conduct that lets victims get punitive damages at trial. States have different rules about when these damages are available, and your lawyer should evaluate the company’s conduct to see if they are a possibility. For example, pressuring commercial truckers to exceed driving limits could lead to drowsy driving accidents. This would be an example of a company acting with reckless disregard for the safety of others and could entitle victims to punitive damages. Punitive damages do not come from settlements, so you can only get them if you go to trial and the jury thinks they are prudent based on the defendant’s conduct.
