As a truck accident victim, you may face a whirlwind of uncertainty and chaos, including financial ruin, debilitating pain, and a drastic change in your lifestyle. You want to pursue a truck accident claim, but it seems daunting.
Don’t add to your stress and anxiety. Contact a truck accident lawyer to help you recover the compensation you deserve. At The Zimmerman Law Firm, P.C., our seasoned personal injury attorneys will protect you and your family’s rights.
Read on to learn five reasons why you need a truck accident lawyer.
What Are the Reasons I Should Hire a Texas Truck Accident Attorney?
Attorneys are irreplaceable when filing a truck accident claim. Consider the following reasons for retaining one to handle your case.
1. Liability Determination
Truck accidents differ from other vehicular accidents because they likely involve multiple defendant parties. For example, suppose a truck driver fails to turn correctly and hits another car. The truck driver may be liable for the crash. However, an employer trucking company may also be held liable for failure to provide proper training to the truck driver.
Typical parties who can be held liable in a truck accident include:
- Truck driver,
- Trucking company,
- Truck maintenance company,
- Truck cargo loader, and
- Truck manufacturing company.
An experienced truck accident lawyer will review the facts to determine the appropriate allocation of liability. You don’t want to lose your opportunity for full financial recovery because you neglected to include all possible liable parties as defendants in your claim.
2. Insurance Company Negotiation
Never speak directly to an insurance company. You should always have a lawyer with you. Insurance companies will try to manipulate you into settling for less than your case is worth. They don’t care about your injuries and suffering. All they care about is their bottom line.
Therefore, they will employ deceptive tactics to achieve this goal. It’s common for an insurance company to quickly respond to a claim with a lowball offer. They hope you take the settlement and don’t proceed with the claim process further.
Mistakes can be made without an attorney. This first offer is usually much lower than the true value of your case. The insurance companies are trying to trick you into settling for less.
Or, they may try to drag out the proceedings, hoping to wear down your morale. Your expenses and income loss may also worsen over time. They’ll hope you accept a low amount after a while. An experienced attorney can help combat these predatory tactics.
An attorney also understands negligence laws in Texas. For instance, even if you are partly responsible for the accident, you may still recover some compensation. Texas is a modified comparative negligence state. You can recover compensation if you are 50% at fault for the accident or less, but your compensation will be reduced by your share of liability.
For example, if you suffered $500,000 in damages and were 10% at fault for the accident, you can still recover $450,000. But, if you were 60% at fault for the accident, you won’t be able to recover anything.
Insurance companies will try to push the blame for the accident on you. The more blame they can prove you’re responsible for, the less money they’ll lose. If they can prove you were over 50% at fault, then you won’t be able to recover anything.
At The Zimmerman Law Firm, P.C., we won’t let insurance companies profit from your hard times and suffering. We’ll hold them responsible and fight to get you the maximum compensation possible.
3. Evidence Collection and Preservation
Evidence is the key to proving a truck accident claim. Your attorney can assist you with the following:
- Collecting photos and videos of the accident,
- Taking witness statements,
- Hiring expert witnesses,
- Analyzing the truck black box data, and
- Obtaining the accident’s police report.
It’s imperative to hire an attorney as soon as possible so they can begin gathering evidence because some evidence may be lost over time. Surveillance videos may be taped over or erased from storage after a certain amount of time. Or, if you wait too long, the witnesses’ memories may fade.
4. Calculation of Damages
Before you inform the insurance company of the truck accident claim in the demand letter, you must calculate your damages. Truck accident damages are more difficult to calculate than other accidents. One of the main reasons is that truck accidents tend to cause more severe injuries because of a truck’s unforgiving size and weight.
Common catastrophic injuries include the following:
- Spinal cord injuries,
- Traumatic brain injuries,
- Severe burns,
- Disfigurement,
- Limb amputation,
- Paralysis, and
- Coma.
These injuries can significantly impact your ability to perform your job duties. You may have to cut your hours, take a lower-paying job, or stop working altogether.
An attorney can calculate your financial losses, including your loss of income and earning capacity. Any subjective expenses will need special consideration for calculation, such as the loss of consortium, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.
5. Timely Filing of Claim
You don’t have an unlimited amount of time to bring your truck accident claim. The Texas statute of limitations for personal injury claims, like truck accidents, is two years from the date of the accident.
If you fail to file by this deadline, you likely will not be able to bring a claim for your damages.
Hiring a lawyer is crucial to ensure you take advantage of your opportunity to recover. Even if two years have passed since the accident date, you should still contact The Zimmerman Law Firm, P.C. There are a few exceptions to the two-year rule. We can determine if you qualify for an exception during our free consultation.
Speak to the Truck Accident Lawyers at The Zimmerman Law Firm, P.C.
We have operated in Texas for over six decades, and our lawyers have over 100 years of combined legal experience. We know there’s nothing we can do to erase the pain and trauma of the accident. But our mission is to hold negligent parties accountable for their actions and get justice for you and your family.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a truck accident, contact the law office of The Zimmerman Law Firm, P.C. We can discuss your legal options in a free and confidential case evaluation.
Where You Can Find Our Waco Office
Michael Zimmerman
Michael was born in Houston, Texas. His education at Baylor and Texas State Universities earned him a Bachelor of Science degree in 1987. His major was in Biology with a Minor in Chemistry. He finished his legal education at Texas Southern University in 1990, earning a Juris Doctorate from Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1990.
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