How to Obtain Truck Accident Compensation

Compensation, also called damages, is the money that you can receive after a truck accident or other type of personal injury. In general, “damages” are intended to make repayment to restore justice and make up whole again. The main type of damages is called compensatory damages. These damages are intended to help you recover the real losses you suffered, as well as your intangible losses.

Compensatory damages are further divided into two general categories: economic and noneconomic. As mentioned before, economic damages help you recover the real money you lost as a result of the accident. These damages include:

• Past and future medical bills
• Property damage
• Out-of-pocket expenses
• Lost wages
• Lost earning capacity
• And more

Economic damages are generally easier to prove than any other type of damages. That’s because you will usually use receipts, invoices and other pieces of physical evidence to prove your losses.

The other type of compensatory damages is called noneconomic because they are intended to compensate you for the non-monetary losses you suffered. Noneconomic damages are more difficult to prove since you likely won’t have physical evidence to show these types of losses. That’s why your lawyer may work with experts like doctors and psychologists to show you suffered mentally and emotionally.

Noneconomic damages include:

• Physical pain
• Mental suffering
• Emotional distress
• Hedonic damages (a.k.a. Loss of enjoyment in life)
• Loss of consortium or companionship
• Physical disfigurement
• And more

In order to get the compensation you deserve, you must show that another party is at fault. This may be the truck driver, the trucking company, the party responsible for maintenance on the truck, the manufacturer of the truck and its parts, or a combination of these parties.

In some states like Georgia, you must show that you were no more than a certain amount at fault for the wreck (usually 49 or 50 percent). In states like Florida, you can legally recover compensation, no matter how much you’re at fault for the accident. And in a handful of states including North Carolina, you can’t seek compensation at all if you are even 1 percent at fault for the wreck.

If the other party was at fault, you must prove that they acted negligently, and the wreck wasn’t just a freak accident no one could have foreseen. Of course, they can be held at fault if they caused the collision intentionally, but that’s extremely rare.

Negligence is a legal term that refers to a person that acts in a way a reasonable person wouldn’t, and therefore causes injury. In general, you have to prove four elements to show negligence. These include:

• A person had a duty of care to you, whether that means following the laws of the road or properly maintaining the truck to avoid causing accidents
• That person breached their duty of care, such as by improperly manufacturing a truck part or speeding on an unsafe road, and their actions caused a foreseeable accident
• Any injuries you sustained were directly caused by the truck accident
• You suffered real damages like medical bills or lost wages because of the wreck

If someone else is at fault for the wreck, you may receive a settlement offer from their insurance company. Chances are, this offer will be a lot lower than what you need or deserve. But the moment you accept it, you forfeit your right to seek greater compensation.

Before you accept any kind of settlement offer, give us a call first. We can review all the details of your case to determine how much truck accident compensation you may be owed. Give us a call at (855) 969-5624 or contact us online to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with a truck accident lawyer today.