If you suffered from injuries caused by a truck accident, you may be entitled to compensation. The path to claiming the compensation you may be owed is not a smooth one. In this article, we highlight six of the primary challenges you can expect to face if you are readying yourself for a truck accident claim.
The 6 Challenges of Truck Accident Claims
Claiming after a truck accident is no straight forward task. Here are the six biggest challenges you can expect to face.
Challenge 1 – Finding an Attorney
It is not as easy as it looks to choose an attorney. You should not just select one closest to you, nor should you select your family attorney to operate the mechanics of a truck accident claim. When you are in this type of accident, you should get representation specific to the accident itself. This means finding a truck accident attorney, not a standard lawyer.
Challenge 2 – Evidence Gathering
Gathering evidence for any injury or accident case can be challenging. If you are incapacitated, for example, and cannot give a report or gather your own evidence, your health can let down your case. This challenge is another reason it is so important to select a truck accident attorney who can represent you.
Challenge 3 – The Discovery Phase
Once the evidence is gathered but before the case begins, we have the Discovery Phase. This is where the attorney that represents you looks at that evidence and determines how strong your case is. The stronger the case, the more compensation you can expect. The challenge to this stage is if they find your case to be weak. They may not even want to represent you.
Challenge 4 – Negotiations
Truck accident litigation involves a negotiation stage. During this process, your attorney and the insurance company or the opposition’s legal team must negotiate. If you go into this without a legal team of your own, you have already lost. Commercial motor vehicle accidents are complex and can be lengthy. However, your attorney will do their best to represent you fairly. If negotiations are unsuccessful, the next stage involves going to court.
Challenge 5 – Establishing Fault
It is not always easy to prove who is at fault. In major collisions such as this well-known jack knife incident over in Florida, have plenty of witnesses. If it is you on a road by yourself and you hit another truck, how do you prove fault? The police can use techniques to determine speeds and angles. Your lawyer can help piece together the rest.
Challenge 6 – Going to Court
If your attorney fails to reach a satisfactory agreement, your case will move on from the negotiations stage and into court. Do not worry too much about this. The majority of injury claims do not go to court. The statistics for truck accidents are only slightly higher. Commercial organizations would far rather settle out of court than involve themselves in the costly process of litigation. The chances are in your favor that you will not need to go to court at all.