Trucks can weigh 30 times more than your standard passenger cars. What that means if you’re in an accident with one is that your chances of encountering serious injury or death are much higher than if you were to have been the victim of a standard accident.
If you’ve been in a collision with a semi-truck and have lived to tell the tale, consider yourself lucky. Then, after you’re done counting your blessings, call a semi-truck accident lawyer.
Semi-truck accident lawyers are tremendous purveyors of assistance when it comes to a variety of aspects that relate to finding compensation and justice post-collisions. If you’re curious to discover the exact benefits bringing a lawyer onto your collision case can provide, keep reading to discover more.
1. Your Insurer Might Not Issue You Enough Money
When you’re in a semi-truck accident, if you work with your insurer and they work with the truck’s insurance company, you’ll likely come away with some degree of compensation. Who’s to say that compensation amount is enough though?
Insurers are focused on tangible damages. Those damages often make up just a fraction of the hurt you’ll endure over your life after your accident.
A semi-truck accident lawyer knows to dig deeper which brings us to our next key benefit…
2. Lawyers Look Beyond Damaged Assets
It’s easy for an insurance company to look at the cost of your totaled car and medical bills to put together a picture of how much money you’re entitled to. But, as we’ve mentioned, damages go beyond that.
For example, consider if your accident made it so your legs get fatigued much faster when standing and you were a factory line worker. If you can’t stand by your station for hours, wouldn’t that hurt your ability to work? Maybe you’d have to take reduced hours or transition to a less lucrative job.
In either case, your lifetime earnings would drop which is something a lawyer can seek compensation to offset.
3. What You Say Won’t Diminish Your Case
One wrong word to an insurance provider and you may find yourself staring down a lesser settlement. That truth means caution is a huge priority when you’re in the middle of settlement negotiations.
If you’re untrained in accidents, it’s going to be easy to slip up and hurt your case. Alternatively, if you were to hire these lawyers, you could be confident that things that are said will only ever buoy your case’s efficacy.
4. Justice May Be Better Served
You were hit by a semi-truck… Maybe the truck that hit you just didn’t see you because they didn’t check their mirrors quickly enough. It happens.
What if though, the reason you were struck by a truck was that the driver was texting and driving. Certainly, that could help your compensation and might also lead to deserved criminal charges for the truck operator.
With a lawyer in your corner, they’ll investigate your case thoroughly perhaps uncovering hidden truths that may have contributed to your accident.
5. Injuries Could Linger Longer Than Expected
Just because you feel fine today doesn’t mean you’ll feel fine two weeks after your traffic accident.
Injuries are finicky in the ways that they showcase themselves. Therein lies the importance of talking to an experienced truck accident lawyer that can share how their former client’s lives ended up years after their collisions.
Armed with that perspective, you’ll be more proactive in chasing down longer-serving settlements.
6. Assistance Navigating Tricky State Laws
Not all states are created equal when it comes to the ease of getting an accident settlement. Some are downright difficult which makes it even more important to work with an attorney to navigate the process.
As an example, Texas has what is called comparative liability laws. These laws seek to determine the percentage that each driver was at fault for an accident.
If you’re the person that was struck by a truck, you’ll need to prove that the truck driver was at least 51% at fault to attain any sort of cash settlement. How exactly would you do that if you’re advocating for yourself?
Attorneys that practice in the states in which you were hit understand these intricate rules and know how to tilt them in their client’s favor.
7. More Focus on Recovery
As you sort through lawyers, debate hiring one, worry about money, and everything else, it’ll be easy to lose sight of the fact that you were hit by a truck. That’s a big deal.
We can’t understate the importance of being able to take a moment to recover from that traumatic event both mentally and physically. When you hire a lawyer, you give yourself the space to do that.
You’re able to stay off the phones, avoid prepping for negotiations, and above all else, you won’t have to worry about case outcomes because you can rest knowing you have talented individuals fighting for what you deserve.
Bring on a Semi-Truck Accident Lawyer Right Away
Most people we talk to that have been in truck accidents do eventually bring on a semi-truck accident lawyer. Not all of those people do so ASAP though and that has, in some cases, hurt their settlement prospects.
Give yourself the best chance of succeeding by not dragging your feet when hiring a lawyer. The sooner you can bring one on, the sooner you’ll be able to get your case on the fast track towards the best possible outcome.
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