The accidents of 18 wheeler trucks and trailers are fatal in almost all cases. Even though all motor vehicle accidents can leave injuries on the persons involved in the accident, the severity of the accident can be more if at least one vehicle involved in the accident is a truck. The heavy weight and size of the truck can add to the severity of the accident caused.
If you or your loved one has ever faced such a situation, you will know how much disastrous a truck accident can turn out to be. The accident may not only leave you physically injured, but also it can bring mental trauma and emotional imbalances. Also assuredly you will have to undergo a huge financial expense for the medical treatments and the further proceedings of the case.
The first thing you should remember if you ever face such a situation is that you should consider the time element seriously. Every state will have its own laws on the timeframe in which the lawsuit must be filed. Also the trucking company involved in the case will start its work soon after the accident to build their defense by gathering evidences. The trucking company will have a top class lawyer hired to defend its case. In this position it is good for you also to hire an experienced truck accident attorney to plead your case. The help and support that he can give you might be crucial in the proceedings of your case.
Here are some benefits of hiring a truck accident attorney in your truck accident case.
He Can Help You Recognize The Liable Parties
There might be more than one party who are liable for the injuries you suffered in the truck accident. Identifying these parties by yourself can be a difficult task if you are not well versed with the state laws. An experienced truck accident lawyer can assist you in this situation.
The case will demand you to prove the negligence of the other party involved. The attorney can help you in searching the police report and studying the case to determine who all are at fault in the case. His study may help you to conclude that there are other parties like the third party broker or the part manufacturer who are also responsible for the accident. This conclusion will be crucial in your proper recovery from the accident.
He Can Collect And Preserve Essential Evidence
For the case to stand before the jury, there must be proper evidence shown proving the negligence of the defendant. If you are not able to prove the liability of the opposite party with proper evidences, you will not have a chance to win the case. Soon after the accident, you may not know what the evidences to be collected from the spot are. There is a chance that the trucker or the trucking company may try to destroy the evidences so that they can win the case.
If you appoint an experienced truck accident attorney soon after the accident, he can help you in collecting all the necessary evidences to make your case stronger. These evidences include black-box data, GPS data, drug/alcohol test results of the driver, driver logs, shipping records, maintenance records, video footage etc. In case if the defendant had destroyed any of the available evidences, the lawyer has the right to seek sanctions against him.
He Can Consult With The Experts If Necessary
In the truck accident cases, usually it becomes necessary to seek the help of the experts to prove the liability of the party at-fault. It will be very helpful if the help of the experts is sought soon after the accident. An accident reconstruction expert can help to understand exactly how the accident happened and this can be of great help in the lawsuit proceedings. This can be used to understand if a wrong statement was given to the law enforcement agency which first responded to the accident.
Some other experts regarding the truck can be used to inspect the black box data, driver logs and associated things. A trucking expert can also physically examine the truck which caused the accident to find out if there was any failure in the proper working of the vehicle parts.
In most of the truck accident cases where the driver is proved to be negligent, the injuries that the victim suffers can be very severe. The statement of the doctor proving that the person has suffered severe injuries from the accident will be necessary to build a strong case. There might also be need for further treatments which can be very costly. Sometimes the physical damage can be such that the plaintiff has lost his working and earning capacity. These things should be documented by the experts so that the case will be strong on the part of the plaintiff.
Undoubtedly, the help of a truck accident attorney in your truck accident case is important. He can take care of all the legal requirements of the case and leave you at peace and help you recover completely.