You need a truck accident lawyer so you can prioritize the recovery process. With a truck accident attorney handling your case, you will have more time for rest, treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery.
You may also want a truck accident lawyer to lead your case for the sake of the lawsuit or claim. An attorney offers resources, experience, and training you may not have. Therefore, you may determine that a lawyer is in a stronger position to lead your case than you are, and you may hire a St Louis truck accident lawyer.
Hire a Truck Accident Lawyer for Multiple Reasons
When accident victims hire a truck accident lawyer, they generally do so for multiple reasons. You may entrust your case to an attorney because:
Truck Accident Lawyers Provide Financial Support to Their Clients
Truck accident victims have at least one thing in common—they frequently face great financial pressure because of their collisions.
Lawyers provide much-needed financial support, which generally means that the law firm:
- Covers the day-to-day cost of completing a lawsuit or insurance claim
- Pays experts to contribute to the case
- Covers filing fees and other administrative expenses
Capable law firms will spare no expense when building truck accident cases. If you were to handle your own case, you will likely have an extremely limited budget.
When You Hire a Lawyer, You Get an Entire Legal Team
While we often use the phrase “hiring a lawyer,” you hire an entire legal team.
This means you have multiple parties fighting for your financial recovery, potentially including:
- Multiple lawyers
- Paralegals (who may be critical in drafting and filing paperwork, fact-checking, and performing other important duties)
- Investigators
- Experts (who may testify about fault for the truck accident, reconstruct the collision, identify the nature of your damages, help calculate the value of your damages, and perform other important tasks)
- Doctors (who your lawyer may rely on to diagnose your injuries, identify your healthcare needs, and help value the cost of your care)
Hire a legal team to prepare and present your claim or lawsuit.
Time Is Running Out
Many truck accident victims do not have the time to handle their own cases, even if they want to.
They should focus on:
- Doctors appointments and rehab sessions
- Professional obligations (or occupational rehabilitation as you attempt to return to work)
- Personal obligations
- Therapy or other forms of mental health treatment
You deserve to focus on your recovery from physical and psychological trauma, and hiring a truck accident lawyer may afford you the necessary time.
Your Physical and Mental State May Prevent You from Handling Your Case
Many truck accident victims are psychologically and emotionally fragile after the collision. The smallest amount of stress may present a risk of worsening injuries or psychological conditions caused by an accident.
If you attempt to handle your own truck accident case without a lawyer, you may:
- Worsen the psychological effects of your accident
- Develop new psychological conditions due to the added stress of handling your case
- Fail to build the strongest possible case (and potentially fail to secure the compensation you deserve) because you are in a diminished state
In other words, your health and case may suffer if you choose not to hire a truck accident lawyer.
You Believe a Law Firm Has the Best Chance of Securing Fair Compensation
Trucks can weigh up to 30 times more than smaller vehicles, and passenger vehicle occupants are most likely to suffer serious injuries during a truck accident. Lawyers often encounter clients with severe (even disabling) injuries, and the recovery process deserves top-priority status.
Consider hiring a truck accident attorney rather than jeopardize your health or case for compensation. You need a firm’s experience, financial resources, personnel, and time to work on your case following a truck accident.
How Do I Choose a Truck Accident Lawyer?
Once you decide to accept a lawyer’s help, you must determine which law firm is best suited to lead your truck accident case. Considering that your case may involve hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation (or more), you want confidence in your choice of a law firm.
You can vet truck accident lawyers by considering:
- Case results: Consider whether a law firm has succeeded for other truck accident victims. This is a plus if a firm has secured many large settlements and verdicts in truck accident cases.
- Practice areas: Law firms typically list their practice areas on their websites. You should look for a firm that prominently displays “truck accidents” as one of its primary practice areas. This generally indicates that a law firm frequently handles truck accident cases and may have the degree of experience you seek.
- Reviews: Clients see the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to truck accident lawyers. Pay close attention to client reviews, noticing positive and negative feedback patterns. If a law firm faces common complaints or has overwhelmingly positive reviews, take this feedback to heart.
- Geographical location: Ideally, a law firm has an office near the site of your truck accident. While a law firm does not necessarily need an office in the city where your accident happened, distance should not affect the quality of their representation.
Take full advantage of free consultations. You can learn about a firm’s services and culture during your consultation, and it is one more data point to consider when hiring an attorney.
How Much Money Should I Receive After a Truck Accident?
Your lawyer will explain how much money you deserve for your car accident. Each case differs, though many truck accidents cause expensive damages.
As your lawyer calculates the cost of your damages, they will consider the specific value of:
Medical Bills
After suffering the force of a truck accident, a victim may need:
- Emergency medical care
- Hospital services
- Surgery
- Medications
- Extensive rehabilitation
These are only a few of the many medical services you may require. Your truck accident lawyer will determine the cost of your accident-related medical bills. They will include these expenses in your lawsuit or claim.
Pain and Suffering
Truck accident victims suffer many damages that don’t have an obvious financial cost but still entitle the victim to compensation.
Many of these damages qualify as pain and suffering and can include:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety (which can be generalized or specific to fear of motor vehicle accidents)
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Sleep difficulties
- Depression
- Lost quality of life
Many truck accident lawyers work with experts to diagnose their clients’ pain and suffering. Your attorney will use a legally accepted method of calculating the value of your pain and suffering.
Lost Income
If you miss work because of your truck accident, you may forfeit income, earning power, bonuses, promotions, benefits, and other perks of working. The details of your employment and the nature of your injuries will affect the cost of your professional damages.
Vehicle Repairs
Your lawyer will calculate the cost of your accident-related property expenses, which may include:
- Repairs for a salvageable vehicle
- Replacement of a totaled vehicle
- Temporary transportation expenses
- Replacement of damaged personal items (like phones and clothing)
Truck accident lawyers evaluate their clients’ property expenses on a case-by-case basis. Your attorney will total your property expenses and include them in your claim or lawsuit.
A Wrongful Death
Trucks are disproportionately represented in fatal traffic accidents.
If your loved one passed away from injuries they suffered during a truck accident, an attorney can seek compensation for:
- Loss of consortium
- Lost financial support
- The decedent’s pain and suffering
- Your pain and suffering
- Funeral costs
- Any other economic or non-economic damages caused by the fatal accident
Experienced attorneys handle wrongful death cases with compassion and urgency. As you work through your loss, you can trust a capable attorney to seek justice for your loss.
What Does a Truck Accident Lawyer Do?
Truck accident lawyers fight for their clients to receive fair compensation for accident-related damages. This overarching mission generally requires a truck accident attorney to:
Obtain All Relevant Evidence
Attorneys must seek evidence as soon as their client hires them. Evidence can disappear if a lawyer waits to secure it (or a client waits to hire a lawyer).
Useful evidence in a truck accident claim or lawsuit may include:
- Video footage showing how the accident occurred
- An expert’s digital or physical reconstruction of the accident
- Eyewitness testimony about how the accident happened (and who may have been at fault)
- Photographs of the accident scene (including but not limited to all vehicular damage from the accident)
Your attorney may work with professional investigators to build a compelling arsenal of evidence.
Establish Liability for Their Client’s Damages
After gathering facts and analyzing evidence, your lawyer will identify those liable for your accident.
In truck accident cases, liable parties may include:
- A truck driver
- A trucking company
- A truck manufacturer
- A car, SUV, motorcycle, or pickup truck manufacturer
- A municipality
- An alcohol-serving establishment
- A pedestrian
You can hold multiple parties financially responsible for your accident. Your lawyer will determine who owes you money and how to seek that money from each liable party.
Document Damages and Calculate a Fair Settlement Value
As they work to set a target for settlement negotiations, your lawyer will obtain all available proof of your damages.
Documentation of your damages may include:
- Photographs and medical images of your injuries
- Medical bills
- Doctors’ testimony about your injuries and healthcare needs
- Mental health experts’ testimony about the psychological and emotional toll of your accident
- Expert testimony about your damages
- Bank statements proving past income (which may help prove how much income you have lost due to the truck accident)
Your lawyer will identify your damages and seek all available proof of each.
Lead Settlement Negotiations for Their Client
Your attorney must secure the compensation you deserve, and settlement negotiations will provide their first opportunity to do so. You need a lawyer to take on the liable parties for you.
Evaluate All Settlement Offers
Your lawyer will inform you if liable parties offer you a settlement. Insurers often extend lowball settlement offers, which your lawyer should advise you to reject.
Your lawyer may need multiple rounds of negotiations to secure a fair settlement offer. Your attorney will prepare for trial if a fair offer never comes.
Go to Trial (When Necessary)
Though relatively few truck accident cases go to trial, your case could go to court.
Trials take longer than settlement negotiations but can result in significantly more money. Your lawyer will discuss the implications of going to trial, and you will have the final say of whether to accept a settlement or continue fighting in court.
Can I Afford to Hire a Truck Accident Lawyer?
All truck accident victims can afford a truck accident lawyer, and that is due to the contingency fees most personal injury law firms use.
A contingency fee structure means that:
- You don’t have to pay a truck accident lawyer upfront
- The law firm will pay the entire cost of completing your case
- Your lawyer only receives a fee if you receive compensation
Your law firm will inform you of their fee percentage during intake. Your lawyer will strive to secure a settlement or judgment that covers your damages and their fee.
Hire a Truck Accident Lawyer Sooner Than Later
Truck accident cases typically have a filing deadline. You do not want to risk missing this deadline, which can prevent you from pursuing the compensation you deserve. Further, evidence to support your truck accident claim gets harder to find the longer you wait to begin the process.
Identify truck accident lawyers in your area and call those capable of leading your case. They can evaluate your legal option at no cost.
