Preparing for your initial consultation with a truck accident attorney can help both you and your attorney. Accident victims who gather as much evidence as possible relating to their crash and injuries save attorneys valuable time. The sooner you contact a truck accident attorney in California, the faster they can fight for the compensation you deserve.
Truck Accident Attorney: How to Prepare for Your Initial Consultation
A truck accident is a traumatic event that turns your world upside down. Severe injuries can leave you feeling confused and overwhelmed by your situation. A free case consultation can alleviate many of your concerns.
Contacting a truck accident lawyer as soon as possible following your crash is crucial for several reasons. Most importantly, it allows you to remember as much as possible while the crash events are fresh in your mind.
Reliving details about the crash is not pleasant but necessary for your lawyer to determine liability. A truck accident lawyer is on your side and will treat you with the utmost care and compassion throughout the legal process.
You can breathe easier knowing that your lawyer wants to protect your best interests. Therefore, you must share as much information as possible, including critical types of evidence that may help your case.
Common Causes of California Truck Accidents
Truck drivers spend hours on the road. Unfortunately, despite strict federal regulations over the industry, truck drivers are at risk for the same type of negligent behaviors as other drivers.
Common causes of truck accidents include:
- Speeding
- Drowsy driving
- Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Aggressive driving or road rage
- Distracted driving, either by internal or external objects
California highways are sometimes monotonous. Required rest breaks do little to help a driver if they cannot rest during the allotted time. Drowsiness behind the wheel, speeding, or distraction is deadly when truck drivers lose control of their tractor-trailer.
There is generally nothing drivers can do to avoid a truck collision. However, if you suffered unfair injuries due to a negligent truck driver, consider contacting a California truck accident lawyer for an initial consultation today.
Your Truck Accident Injuries
Severe and catastrophic injuries can require a lengthy recovery or permanent disability. While you cannot predict your future medical needs, you can fight for the compensation that protects you should your condition worsen.
A tractor-trailer is no match for a passenger vehicle or motorcycle. Sharing a California highway with a semi-truck is intimidating enough colliding with one is a catastrophe.
Examples of the types of injuries possible in a California truck accident include:
- Traumatic brain injury (TBI): An injury caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body. A traumatic brain injury disrupts normal brain function, sometimes resulting in a need for long-term care.
- Spinal cord injury: A disruption in communication between the spinal cord and brain affects movement and sensation. Truck accident victims with a spinal cord injury experience millions in lifetime care costs.
- Internal injuries: Only a medical professional can identify and treat internal injuries. Internal bleeding, for example, may exhibit no exterior signs or symptoms yet is potentially deadly, making immediate medical care essential.
- Bone fractures: Multiple bone fractures can occur in a truck accident. Severe breaks may require an extensive recovery period, rehabilitation, and physical therapy.
- Burns: Tanker trucks carrying flammable materials can erupt in a fire during a collision. Severe burns generally require treatment in a burn trauma center, where patients face skin grafts, plastic surgery, and other procedures.
The injuries you or a close loved one experience are not fair. The impact on your quality of life is something that may last forever. You deserve to fight for the compensation that you not only need but deserve.
Hiring a lawyer familiar with the trucking industry and truck accidents can only help your case. A lawyer’s experience and skills are invaluable as you seek to protect your best interests.
How You Can Help Your Lawyer?
No one expects accident victims to return to the scene to gather evidence or interview witnesses. However, your lawyer can investigate the crash site and conduct interviews with eyewitnesses.
How you can help your lawyer is to provide them with any information you may possess, such as:
- Photographs of the accident scene: If your smartphone survived the crash and you or a bystander used it to document the scene, share the images with your lawyer. The same is true with any video of the scene.
- Contact information for eyewitnesses: Good Samaritans who stopped to help you may share valuable information about your case. Check your possessions for the names and phone numbers of those who can support your version of events.
- A copy of the official police report: The police report contains valuable information that may identify fault and list any charges against the truck driver. Charges such as driving under the influence (DUI) help prove negligence.
- Copies of your medical reports: Extensive and catastrophic injuries from the accident are a significant part of your damages. The financial, physical, and emotional recovery you face is challenging, making your fight for compensation valid.
- Medical bills and proof of lost income: Copies of medical bills relating to your injuries and documentation of your lost income due to your recovery are vital for your case. Your lawyer can use this information as they fight for compensation on your behalf.
A California truck accident lawyer has the skills and knowledge necessary to take on the trucking industry and its insurers. The law is complex, and the outcome of your case is too important to leave to chance.
If you or a close loved one suffered harm due to truck driver negligence, consider hiring a lawyer to protect your best interests. The sooner you reach out for your free case consultation, the quicker your lawyer can get to work for you.
Avoid Settling For Less Than You Deserve
The stress of your situation can cause you sleepless nights as you worry about your finances. An inability to work, combined with a growing stack of unpaid medical bills, can cause you to give in to insurance companies that offer low-sum settlements.
Insurance companies sometimes seek to settle with accident victims before the victim can retain an attorney. If an insurance company representative can secure a settlement quickly, the company can then close the claim.
This means the accident victim’s claim is over forever. If a victim develops complications from their injuries, they cannot file another claim or lawsuit.
Settling for less now can severely impact you later. Nobody can predict the outcome of your case. Compensation is neither promised nor guaranteed. However, hiring an attorney can protect your best interests and seek the damages you deserve.
If an insurance representative or anyone associated with the trucking company involved in your crash contacts you, do not speak with them. Prepare for your initial consultation with an experienced lawyer instead.
Initial Consultation Involving Wrongful Death
If you lost a close loved one in a truck accident, you may want to pursue a wrongful death claim and lawsuit. A California wrongful death attorney can determine whether your relationship with the victim qualifies you for compensation.
The untimely loss of your loved one can devastate you, other family members, and friends. It can also leave you with unexpected costs, such as a funeral. In addition, if your loved one financially supported your household, the loss of income can cause a financial strain.
Wrongful death claims and lawsuits typically seek compensation for:
- Final medical expenses for the decedent
- Lost wages
- Loss of potential future earnings
- Loss of inheritance for surviving children
- Loss of companionship
Wrongful death cases involve economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are easier to understand and include such damages as medical bills. The costs are what they are as they have a tangible dollar value.
Non-economic damages in a wrongful death case are more difficult to explain to an insurance company, judge, or jury. The loss of companionship you experience due to your loved one’s death is impossible to measure. A California wrongful death attorney has the skills needed to convey the actual value of your loss as you fight for compensation.
What Happens After Your Initial Consultation With a Truck Accident Attorney?
Once an attorney learns the details of your accident, they identify all parties liable for your harm. Truck accidents sometimes involve the negligence of the driver, the trucking company, or both.
Your attorney will negotiate with the liable party’s insurance company for a fair settlement. Many civil cases settle without going to court. However, if your attorney feels it necessary to proceed to trial, they will keep you informed.
Hiring an attorney means removing aggressive insurance adjusters from your back. You can now refer phone calls and other communications to your attorney.
Your severe injuries require peace not pressure from insurance adjusters. You have enough to focus on: your medical care and your family. A truck accident attorney can manage your case, allowing more time to rest.
Truck accident victims can call or contact attorneys online for an initial consultation. If you remain in the hospital or your injuries are too severe to travel, an attorney can come to you.
If you or a close loved one needs a free case consultation with a California truck accident lawyer, you may want to act now.
Your California Truck Accident Lawsuit
A California truck accident lawsuit must reach court before the statute of limitations expires. California law allows two years for pursuing a personal injury or wrongful death case. If you fail to file your lawsuit within the required timeline, you generally forfeit your change for compensation forever.
Truck accident injuries turn your life upside down. The disruption to your routine makes remembering what day it is difficult. Time passes in a blur, making it imperative to consider contacting a lawyer as soon as possible.
The statute of limitations clock begins to tick the moment you suffer injuries. If you lost a close loved one in a truck accident, the statute of limitations begins at the moment of death.
A civil lawyer can protect your best interests. However, it would help if you acted quickly. Do not let the high-pressure tactics of others determine your possible compensation. Give careful thought to contacting a truck accident lawyer for help with your case.
Consider a Free Case Consultation With a Truck Accident Lawyer Today
A free case consultation leaves you nothing to lose. It is an opportunity to learn your options for pursuing compensation. The legal process is sometimes confusing to those unfamiliar with the law. A free case consultation helps you decide how to move forward with your claim and lawsuit.
Time is crucial when it comes to pursuing a civil case. An initial consultation is a starting point that allows an action to proceed on your behalf under the guidance of a California lawyer.
You do not have to face your case alone. A truck accident lawyer near you can help pursue justice while resting and recovering. Communication is vital, and your lawyer will ensure you are up-to-date on the latest developments in your case.
The details of your free case consultation are confidential. Truck accident lawyers work to serve those wronged by the reckless actions of others. Therefore, your lawyer’s approach to you is calm and caring, but assertive and firm with insurance companies.
Your free case consultation is the first step toward seeking the compensation you deserve. Hold those responsible for your harm accountable for their negligent actions and call a local truck accident lawyer to assist you with your case today.