Did you get injured from a truck? Read these 5 things to learn about your truck accident claim, then call our Boise truck accident attorneys.
1. Suing The Truck Company For Drunk Driving
If you’ve been involved in a collision with a semi-truck driver who was drunk, your case is going to be more complex than you can imagine. The driver’s company might have greater liability than just for your direct personal injury damages, and there might be other entities that have liability for those damages, as well, so that your damages are generally enhanced.
One of the things we know about Idaho juries, from our experience as trial lawyers in Idaho court rooms and the verdicts we have gotten for Idaho residents who were injured in these types of collisions, is that juries don’t like this type of behavior. They will want to impose upon those folks who cause this type of damage to you full responsibility for all the losses that they’ve imposed upon you. That may be the company who hired this driver, given what their knowledge of his situation is. We’ve certainly seen cases where a company had great knowledge of a driver’s history of drunken DUIs, time in prison for being a drunk driver, and they still just gave him a truck and sent him out on the road one afternoon, and he ends up killing a person. There is liability on the company’s behalf for this behavior as well as on the driver’s behalf for this behavior.
2. Insurance Investigation
One thing you’ll quickly learn if you’re involved in a collision with a semi-truck is the insurance company is going to reach out to you. They’re not reaching out to you to help you. They’re not trying to give you a hand. They’re trying to take advantage of you. You need to understand that talking to the insurance company after an Idaho trucking collision case is generally a mistake, and it is certainly a mistake to do so without first consulting with your own attorney who has your interests in mind, as opposed to the truck driver’s trucking company and the insurance company’s interests in mind, because that’s what the insurance company for that trucker has in mind when they are trying to reach out and talk to you about your Idaho trucking collision case.
3. Accepting an Initial Offer
One thing you’ll learn if you’ve been involved in a collision with a semi-truck or any other type of commercial vehicle in an Idaho collision is that insurance company is going to reach out to you, and you want to be careful of that. You want to be careful of that first offer they might make you to try to put the case away. The chances of that offer providing you full, fair, and complete compensation for all your losses is about zero. There will be things that they do not acknowledge, and they will be trying to get out of the case as cheap as they possibly can— that’s their goal. Their goal is not to take care of you and your family, it’s not to really provide compensation for you and the losses you’ve incurred, but it’s to put an end to the potential for a lawsuit and a claim against the driver and the company and put that case to bed from their perspective.
You, on the other hand, have to live with the damages imposed on you of this Idaho trucking collision accident. You have to live with those damages for the rest of your life, and you want to be sure that your compensation is complete. When you hear that first offer, the answer is no.
4. Common Mistakes During Your Case
People who have been injured in a semi-truck collision in Idaho make some basic mistakes that we see that ultimately can impact and reduce their ability to recover full and fair compensation. Among those mistakes are talking to the insurance company for the trucker right away before you’ve talked to an attorney protecting your interests. Why is that? Because they’re looking for ways to minimize the amount of money they pay, ways to blame you, ways to say that your injuries were not caused in this wreck or that your injuries are more minor than they are. A lot of times people, being the decent people that they are, will say things that they don’t understand can be used against them in the course of litigation or in the course of their claim for their Idaho trucking accident case. Don’t talk to an insurance company until you’ve talked to a lawyer. It’s a number one rule in cases like these and one of the number one things people do wrong.
Another thing people do is, when they’re talking to their physicians or their family members or their own insurance company, they’ll minimize the amount of damage or the amount of suffering that they’re going through and try to say, “I’m doing fine,” when in fact there’s a substantial problem going on. Again, this is just language or comments that can be used to reduce the amount of full and fair compensation you ultimately are going to be able to recover.
5. Steps to Take After the Wreck
Following a commercial truck collision in which a semi-truck has caused injury to you, get the medical care you need first— that’s the most important thing. You need to make sure that you’re being taken care. Reach out to your family and your friends to make sure that they understand what’s going on with you.
Before you talk to an insurance company or anyone else, get a hold of an experienced Idaho trucking accident attorney. You’ll want an experienced trucking accident attorney to work with you early in this type of situation because many things are happening, that you probably don’t have an understanding of, that can ultimately impact your long-term outcome and the damages that you will ultimately be able to recover because of the injuries imposed on you in this Idaho trucking collision.
There are many things that need to be preserved and protected when it comes to the records of a trucking accident case that are different than in a car accident case. Once you’ve received your medical care and gotten in touch with your loved ones, get a hold of your attorney before you start trying to do anything else. That’s the most significant thing for you to do following a semi-truck collision that caused you an injury.
These collisions cause substantial and serious injuries. These trucks can be one-hundred and five thousand pounds of rolling death. You want to protect yourself from those who are trying to limit the amount of damages that the people who drive and put these on the road, particularly the dangerous trucks and the dangerous drivers on the road, you want to protect yourself from them limiting the amount of losses that you can recover.
Were you in a crash in Boise and have questions about these 5 things to learn about your truck accident claim? Contact our experienced Boise Truck Accident Lawyers at Hepworth Holzer today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
We are committed to helping individuals and families throughout Idaho navigate the world of personal injury litigation as quickly and efficiently as possible. Let us get results for you and your family.
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