Since tractor-trailers and other commercial vehicles tend to be much larger and weigh tens of thousands of pounds more than the average commuter car, any accident involving a commercial truck has the potential to cause devastating harm. Victims of collisions with semi-trucks often suffer catastrophic injuries that take months to fully heal, and many such incidents unfortunately have permanent or even fatal consequences for those involved.
If you suffered injury in this kind of incident recently, working with a seasoned Macon truck accident lawyer may be crucial to boosting your odds of effective civil recovery. Trucking companies and the insurers that protect them often put-up tremendous fights against attempts to hold them liable for accidents, and if you try to go up against these corporate giants without a dedicated attorney’s help, you may have slim chances of getting the compensation you deserve.
Determining Liability for a Truck Wreck
Just like drivers of smaller cars, truck drivers have a responsibility to drive safely by obeying traffic regulations and maintaining awareness of their surroundings. Accordingly, if a truck driver causes a wreck because they were driving drunk, exceeding the speed limit, or engaging in some other reckless or careless behavior, they could theoretically bear civil liability for damages stemming from the incident.
However, many successful truck accident claims seek restitution not from an individual truck driver, but rather from the company that employed the driver. When employees engage in negligent behavior, their employers can often be held responsible for ensuring damages based on the principle of respondeat superior. Furthermore, sometimes trucking companies are directly responsible for truck crashes—for instance, by forcing employees to exceed federal rules about maximum driving time, or by overloading trucks with too much cargo in an attempt to save money and time.
Other potential defendants in truck accident cases include the truck’s owner, a contractor or third-party company responsible for loading or maintaining the truck, or even another driver on the road whose reckless behavior forced a truck driver into an accident. A Macon truck crash attorney could review the circumstances leading up to a particular incident and determine what the best legal course of action would be.
Negotiating for Comprehensive Recovery
Ostensibly, truck accident victims who can prove negligence by a truck driver, trucking company, or other defendant should be able to recover for all the damages they suffered due to that incident, including economic losses like car repair bills and medical expenses as well as non-economic damages like physical pain and suffering. However, because recovery in truck accident claims often requires negotiating with insurance companies, getting a fair settlement offer is generally easier said than done.
Initial settlement offers from insurers representing trucking companies virtually never provide sufficient compensation for an accident victim’s losses, and they will usually use any means possible to minimize the amount of money they pay out or avoid paying out anything at all. Fortunately, a skilled truck accident lawyer in Macon could ensure that insurance adjusters do not take advantage of an accident victim, advocate for a crash victim’s best interests, and progress the case to court if absolutely necessary.
A Macon Truck Accident Attorney Could Help
The aftermath of a traumatic truck accident can be a whirlwind of medical treatments, expensive repair costs, and calls from insurance reps pushing you to accept a paltry sum of money for your losses. All this can be difficult to manage alone, but with guidance from a legal professional, you should be able to come out the other side of this gauntlet in much better financial shape.
Representation from a Macon truck accident lawyer could make all the difference in how your case plays out. Find out more about your legal options by calling today to schedule a consultation.