Any victim of a truck accident is at an immediate risk of severe injuries. Trucks often outweigh the cars they hit by 8 times to 20 times the smaller vehicle, leading to trucks causing devastating damage and injuries.
In many truck accident cases, our lawyers can help you file against the driver, their insurance company, and the trucking company the driver works for, potentially seeking monetary damages from all of them. In these claims, we can look into whether the trucking company’s own mistakes – such as maintenance issues or regulatory violations – made them directly liable for the crash, alongside any mistakes their drivers made behind the wheel.
For a free case evaluation, call Rice Law’s truck accident attorneys today at (410) 694-7291.
Filing Truck Accident Cases Against Dangerous Truckers and Trucking Companies in Hancock, MD
Our truck accident attorneys help injury victims to get compensation from whoever caused the accident that injured them. In many cases, this means going after the trucker and the trucking company they work for.
First, a caveat: Sometimes truck accidents are in fact caused by some other driver. In those cases, we can sue the driver who caused the accident, but their insurance might be too low to cover the injuries and damages to a truck, the truck’s cargo, you, and your vehicle. As such, it is often better to bring in the trucking company when we can in these cases, especially if their actions were the primary cause of the crash.
Truckers can be held liable just like any other driver on the road, but we can often reach past them to the company they work for. If the crash took place within the scope of their duties – i.e., while they were driving for their employer – then we can sue the trucker’s employer in their place. This, again, helps us reach to the company, which is in the best financial position to pay your damages. However, the driver’s commercial driving insurance will often pay for most of the damages in these cases. If they were an independent contractor or owner-operator, they might not have an employer, and so their insurance will be the one to pay most of your damages.
If the trucking company made its own mistakes and errors to cause the crash, we can hold them directly liable rather than holding them liable in place of the driver. In these kinds of accidents, we often seek damages based on the trucking company’s vehicle maintenance issues, negligent hiring or retention of dangerous truck drivers, or other issues. Often, regulatory violations play a role in these cases, with trucking companies ignoring the law in favor of delivering more cargo.
Kinds of Truck Accidents Our Lawyers Help with in Hancock
Truck accidents can involve all sorts of large trucks. While tractor-trailers might be the most common vehicles we deal with, our lawyers can also help our clients get compensation for accidents involving any other commercial vehicles. This includes garbage trucks, construction vehicles, cement trucks, flatbed trucks, tanker trucks, and more.
Many accidents also involve box trucks, whether they are rentals or used commercially by a company. With box truck accidents, there is not always an experienced commercial driver behind the wheel, and these cases might involve everyday people renting these trucks to move or delivery drivers using them for work.
Damages for Injured Truck Accident Victims in Hancock, MD
Damages for a truck accident case will depend heavily on what effects you faced after the crash and what harm the at-fault trucker and trucking company caused you. In most cases, this involves at least the following three areas of damages:
Medical Expenses
If you were billed for any medical care related to your crash, it should not be your responsibility to pay for it. When someone else causes your injuries, they are the ones the law holds liable to cover your medical bills, including the cost of emergency treatment, follow-up care, rehabilitation, and more. If they hurt you, they pay to fix you.
Lost Wages
Truck accidents often involve serious injuries that can leave you in a hospital bed for weeks and facing interruptions in your day-to-day life for much longer. Many truck accident victims face long-term disabilities, potentially even including serious traumatic brain injuries or spinal cord injuries.
If your ability to work and gain income to support your family is affected, the trucking company can be held liable for your lost income. This includes not only the money you lost out on while you were in the hospital but also any reductions in wages going forward. If you can work with reduced income, they pay the difference between what you would have made without the accident and what you make now. If you are totally disabled, they pay for all the money you missed out on going forward.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages are often described very broadly because the courts can order non-economic damages for essentially any and all experiences that are not accounted for by bills and monetary harm. For example, if your injury stopped you from being able to participate in activities you did before the accident – such as long bike rides or playing in a sports league – then that loss can be compensated. Additionally, intangible things like “pain” or “emotional distress” are also covered by these damages.
Our lawyers can help you calculate the pain and suffering and other non-economic damages in your case using tested methods that courts generally accept. With these methods, a serious injury case can often result in pain and suffering damages equal to double or triple the other compensatory damages in your case – or more for very serious injuries.
How Long You Have to File Your Truck Accident Case in Hancock, MD
Under Maryland law, the statute of limitations for most injury cases is 3 years from the date of the accident. This means that your filing deadline for a truck accident case is 3 years after the crash, so you should always contact a lawyer well in advance of this deadline to give adequate time for case preparation and research.
Call Our Truck Accident Lawyers in Hancock, MD Today
Call Rice Law today at (410) 694-7291 for a free case assessment with our experienced truck accident lawyers.