The Process of a Truck Accident Lawsuit
Accidents involving trucks can cause serious and permanent injuries. These can lead to significant medical costs, lost wages and psychological damages.
Your lawyer will make a Summons and Complaint against all responsible parties. This process can take several years. Because New York uses comparative fault rules, your lawyer will ensure that any shared responsibility is correctly assessed and allocated to defendants.
Investigations
A truck crash can be more severe than an auto accident. The consequences of a collision with a truck can be life-altering and the resulting damage is more complex due to the weight and size of commercial trucks. These accidents also require more complex investigation.
Because of this, trucking companies and insurance providers frequently conduct their own investigation immediately following an accident to safeguard their interests. The issue is that the injured are left to manage their injuries and are not capable of obtaining evidence. This puts them at a disadvantage comparison to the trucking company and insurance companies.
A truck accident lawyer who is skilled will look for evidence in a variety sources, such as police reports, witness testimony, and vehicle inspections. A knowledgeable lawyer will not rely solely on police reports, however, as these documents are not always sufficient for civil litigation purposes. Police officers are not trained to conduct an appropriate investigation and could not gather all the evidence required to file the filing of a lawsuit.
Other types of data include logbook entries, maintenance and service records for the truck and the event data recorder (also called a black box) and more. An experienced attorney will seek these as well as other types of evidence from the truck driver and the trucking company and then carefully analyze them to determine the cause of the accident.
Expert Witnesses
A expert witness for a truck accident could assist your attorney in proving various elements of the case. Medical experts is a good example. They can give evidence to your attorney that the accident resulted in your injuries. Your expert can also testify as to how your injuries affect your life's quality of living in the future. Expert witnesses can help your lawyer assess the value of your damages, which could include lost income and loss of future earning capacity.
A medical professional can analyze the physical evidence and explain how your injury will impact your future. An expert in medicine, for example, can explain how your accident might affect your mental and physical health. A metallurgist is a different kind of expert who can determine the reasons why a vehicle component failed. There are also experts who can assess the ways in which weather might have contributed to the crash.
The primary function of your expert is to examine the evidence and give an impartial opinion. However, certain experts can be an issue in your case if they are biased or have ties to the defendants' businesses. Your lawyer can conduct an identity check to identify these risks and ensure that you have the best experts on your side.
Your attorney will interview you, along with any other eyewitnesses who saw the incident prior to it happening. Be aware that the insurance companies of the defendants will try to get your to admit fault or make statements which they can twist or alter to make your case more difficult.
Litigation
Like any other driver, truck drivers have a duty to obey traffic laws and take reasonable care when they travel. If they fail in this obligation and their negligence causes a crash, they could be held accountable for damage to the victims of the collision.
To prove the defendant's negligence, our attorney will gather a array of evidence from witnesses who witnessed the crash and give either oral or written testimony regarding how the crash occurred. Our team will also review the various other evidences, including skid marks and areas of impact, as well as conduct crash tests.
Sometimes, the cause of an accident involving a truck is complex with multiple parties. For instance, if the truck accident was caused due to defective equipment or insufficient maintenance, we might sue the manufacturers of that 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 out of court, however in the event that the trucking company, or its insurer is unable to make an acceptable settlement offer, we will prepare for trial. During the trial, a judge or jury will decide on issues that are disputed, such as who was responsible for the crash and what amount of compensation you must be awarded. The legal damages you receive will be determined by the sum of your losses, which includes financial, physical, and emotional suffering.
Statute of Limitations
While the legal process following a truck crash can be a bit complicated, knowing how these cases usually go can help you plan for the future and give you a better idea of how long your case will take.
The process of establishing liability is among the most important steps. It is possible that a trucker who was drunk, distracted, or otherwise impaired will be held accountable for the damages you have suffered. There could be other parties equally responsible. For instance, if the crash was caused by poor repairs such as a mechanic who performed the work or a business that made the truck or its components could be held accountable in the legal concept of respondeat superior.
It's also possible that responsible party has did a greater risky act, which might entitle you to punitive damages. To be new york truck accident lawsuit to prove this, we must to prove that the responsible party acted recklessly for your safety or the safety of others.
It is vital to hire a lawyer who is familiar with the complexities involved in truck accident cases. Insurance companies and lawyers for the at-fault parties are often the wolves in sheepskins who attempt to convince you to sign statements that they later use against you. By having an attorney handle all communications, you can avoid these pitfalls.