Commercial vehicles are large and heavy. Because of this, if a semi-truck collides with a passenger vehicle, serious injury or even death can result. Under personal injury law, if you were in a trucking accident but were not at fault for it, you may be entitled to seek compensation for damages you sustained.
HMW Law—Ohio Trial Attorneys gives you access to a legal team with more than 60 years of combined experience. On top of that, we can connect you with a truck accident lawyer in Cleveland who will be available to you 24/7, ready to answer your questions and provide clear explanations of your legal options.
Allow a Cleveland personal injury lawyer from our team to serve as your legal representative and advocate. To get started, schedule a free case consultation with us.
How Can a Cleveland Truck Accident Attorney Help With My Case?
An experienced truck accident attorney in Cleveland is the most important resource you have after a trucking collision caused by someone else. Here are a few of the responsibilities they take on so you can focus on your recovery from your accident.
Investigating Your Accident
In order to establish fault and seek maximum compensatory damages, it’s essential to know what caused your accident. Your personal injury attorney will provide insights into how truck accident investigations work. They will commit the time and resources necessary to analyze all aspects of your trucking collision and determine who’s responsible for the incident.
As part of your lawyer’s efforts to learn about your trucking crash, they will review all logs, reports, and records to see where errors or negligence occurred. They know the most common issues to look for and will methodically go through each and every record and document to ensure that they uncover anything that could impact your case results.
Ordering an Accident Reconstruction
You can be confident that your Cleveland truck accident lawyers will do whatever it takes to obtain a fair financial recovery on your behalf. In some cases, it may be necessary to hire an accident reconstruction professional to assess how your truck collision occurred.
An accident reconstruction involves the use of computer software to analyze the crash and work backward to determine what happened and what contributed to the incident. Accident reconstruction professionals can also provide valuable witness testimony during a personal injury case trial.
Handling Your Legal Matters
Your Cleveland truck accident attorney will calculate your damages, send a demand letter to the defendant, and, if necessary, file a claim for you. Along with these things, they will keep track of your legal paperwork so that you can focus on treating your injuries and recovering from your trucking collision.
In addition, your attorney can negotiate a settlement with a liable party’s insurance company. Or, if no settlement is possible, they will prepare for litigation and represent you in court in order to fight for compensation.
HMW Law—Ohio Trial Attorneys has a track record of success and has earned many positive client reviews. As you search for a truck crash lawyer in Cleveland, we encourage you to discuss your case with us. Contact us today.
For a free legal consultation with a truck accident lawyer serving Cleveland, call 216-774-0000
What Damages Can I Get After a Truck Accident?
Your truck wreck lawyer in Cleveland will share FAQs and other legal resources with you relating to the compensatory damages available to trucking crash victims and their families. Ultimately, you could receive economic and non-economic damages for various truck accident losses, such as:
Pain and Suffering
The physical discomfort, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other pain and suffering from your trucking crash can affect you for a long time. Speak with your lawyer about your pain and suffering and how they are keeping you from enjoying your life. From here, your attorney will incorporate your pain and suffering into your damages request.
Medical Expenses
You spend a lot of money to treat your concussion, whiplash, broken bones, and other injuries from your trucking crash. Keep track of what you spend on doctors’ visits, physical therapy, surgery, and ongoing medical care. Then, your lawyer will be well-equipped to pursue compensation for your current and future medical bills.
Lost Wages
A traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), or other catastrophic injuries from your trucking accident prevent you from earning the income you need to cover your everyday expenses. In this situation, your lawyer can add your pay stubs to their collection of evidence, bolstering your case for loss of income damages.
Outside of these damages, you could be compensated for your loss of enjoyment of life, car repair costs, and other trucking crash losses. If you lose a family member in a fatal trucking accident, you could ask the liable party for compensation for burial and funeral expenses and other losses you incur due to your tragic loss.
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Is There a Deadline to File a Truck Accident Claim in Ohio?
Per Ohio law, personal injury cases (including truck accidents) are subject to a legal deadline called a statute of limitations, which defines how long you have to file an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit.
For truck accident cases, Ohio has a two-year statute of limitations that begins on the date of the incident. In other words, if you want to file an injury claim against the liable parties, then you must do so within that two-year window. If you don’t, then the court can and likely will reject any claim you file later.
Your truck wreck attorney in Cleveland can submit your claim in alignment with Ohio law. They can go back and forth with a liable party’s insurance company in the hopes of getting you a settlement that meets your requirements. Alternatively, they can take your case in front of a judge or jury.
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Who Is at Fault for a Truck Accident?
The party responsible for your trucking accident will depend on who was involved in the incident and its circumstances. Your truck crash attorney in Cleveland will examine traffic camera footage of your trucking crash, interview witnesses, and take other measures to find out who is liable for your truck accident. Parties that could be at fault include:
Truck Driver or Trucking Company
Big-rig drivers must operate their vehicles safely. Many truck drivers take this responsibility seriously and put the utmost care and attention into driving. However, other commercial truck drivers engage in speeding, aggressive driving, distracted driving, or other unsafe behaviors. When they do so, they can lose control of their trucks and cause accidents.
Meanwhile, the trucking company that employs a driver is generally responsible for ensuring that this individual knows how to operate their vehicle safely. If this company has subpar hiring practices or fails to provide proper training, a trucker could engage in behaviors that endanger others’ safety. At this point, the trucker can cause an accident, and their employer may be liable.
Cargo Loader
Big rigs carry large items, heavy, and sometimes hazardous items. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations typically specify how cargo should be loaded into a truck. If a shipper or cargo loader doesn’t adhere to these requirements, uneven weight distribution can make it difficult for a driver to control the truck, resulting in an accident.
Proving that an accident was caused by improperly loaded cargo can be challenging since items are likely to shift and be displaced during the incident. Yet, there are investigative techniques that can be used to determine if this contributed to a trucking accident, such as performing an accident reconstruction and reviewing driving logs.
Truck Maintenance Company
Mechanics are responsible for ensuring that the trucks under their care are adequately maintained. Failure to properly check all parts and systems could lead to a malfunction that compromises the driver’s ability to control the vehicle.
In some cases, faulty repairs also cause issues once the truck is back on the road. Some common issues that can come up due to poor vehicle maintenance or shoddy repair work include brake failure, jackknifing, a blown tire, and separation of a truck and trailer.
Any party with a hand in maintaining a truck, loading it, or supervising the driver can be considered responsible for an accident. Your Cleveland truck accident lawyer can investigate your crash, determine liability for it, and build your case for compensatory damages from any responsible parties.
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What are the Most Common Causes of Trucking Accidents?
Truckers, trucking companies, and other parties that have a role in shipping cargo across the United States must adhere to FMCSA regulations. Unfortunately, not all do, and their negligence can lead to accidents that have life-altering consequences.
Common reasons why 18-wheeler accidents occur include:
- Driver errors: Because of the large size of commercial trucks, even seemingly minor driving errors can cause serious accidents. For example, if a trucker is speeding, they may not have enough time to react to changing traffic conditions in front of them, which can result in an accident and catastrophic injuries to those involved.
- Poor truck maintenance: Vehicle maintenance issues can cause a vehicle to malfunction, leading to commercial truck accidents.
- Improper cargo loading: A semi-truck accident can happen if cargo is not loaded or secured correctly or if there is an overloaded truck that exceeds weight limits.
- Lack of adequate truck driver training: A trucking company is required to ensure that its drivers have sufficient training. If a company ignores its legal obligation and an untrained or poorly trained driver causes an accident, the business can be held responsible for the incident.
- Blind spots: A truck driver should check their vehicle’s blind spots before moving from one lane to another. Otherwise, they may not see a vehicle in the lane next to them and get into a blind-spot accident.
- Hours of service (HOS) violations: FMCSA has hours of service regulations that limit the number of hours that a trucker can drive before they have to take a break. If a trucker violates these regulations, they may be prone to drowsiness and fatigued driving, which can lead to an accident.
Regardless of why your trucking crash occurred, Ohio truck accident lawyers want you to prioritize your recovery. They can gather evidence from multiple sources as they develop an argument centered around negligence.
How to Prove Negligence in a Trucking Accident Case
Your trucking accident lawyer in Cleveland will conduct an extensive search for evidence. They want to obtain medical records, accident scene photos, police reports, a truck’s black box data, dashcam footage of your crash, and other proof. If your lawyer has an abundance of proof, it becomes increasingly likely that you’ll get a favorable settlement offer.
Leading up to your trial, your attorney will look for ways to prove that a liable party committed a careless or reckless act, which contributed to your trucking collision. They want to show a judge or jury that your medical expenses and other losses from your accident are the result of someone else’s negligence.
According to Ohio Revised Code § 2315.33, you are subject to modified comparative negligence in your trucking collision case. With this, if you are 1-50% liable for your truck accident, the court can reduce your damages based on your percentage of fault. If you’re more than 50% liable, you are barred from recovering damages.
What Should I Do After a Truck Accident?
Commercial truck accidents can be traumatic events. Your response to your trucking accident can dictate the outcome of your case. Here are some of the things to do after an accident with a commercial truck to improve your chances of getting the case outcome that you want.
Call for Help
Get emergency responders to the accident scene immediately, especially if someone has been injured. Emergency responders can render first aid and control the scene to prevent secondary accidents. If you are severely injured, you may not be able to call for help, but others who witnessed the accident can call 911.
Request a copy of the report from the police and other responders as soon as possible after the accident. These are usually accessible in a few days following an accident involving a truck. Your report will include information about what happened during and after your accident, and that can help your trucking accident attorney in Cleveland as they get your case ready for trial.
Collect Evidence
If you’re physically able, use your smartphone to take pictures of the crash scene, including shots of vehicle damage, bodily injuries, traffic conditions, and weather conditions. For those who don’t have a smartphone, see if someone else at the scene can take pictures and send them to you.
Traffic cams can also provide valuable video evidence and are common on interstates and at busy intersections. It’s common for trucking accident victims to struggle to recall specific details days or weeks after a collision, and having this evidence can help you remember what happened.
Receive Medical Attention
You should see a medical provider after a truck accident, even if you feel fine, as you could have an underlying injury. Certain injuries, like whiplash and concussions, are often initially missed when victims refuse immediate medical treatment.
Getting evaluated by a healthcare professional after your accident also ensures there is a note in your medical record for the checkup. This can be used to prove that the accident happened and what sort of injuries it caused. Moreover, it documents any injuries to show that they are a direct result of the truck accident and weren’t pre-existing.
After you do these things, partner with trucking accident attorneys in Cleveland who will prioritize your case. Your lawyer will answer any questions you have about whether insurance will pay for your totaled car and other legal topics. They will help you make informed legal decisions throughout your case proceedings.
Our Cleveland Truck Accident Lawyers Will Position You to Get Compensation for Your Losses
Think twice before you accept the first personal injury settlement offer you receive following a trucking collision. Have Cleveland truck accident attorneys help you weigh the pros and cons of this proposal. If the offer is less than what you feel you deserve, decline it. Next, your lawyer can continue to negotiate a settlement or argue your case in court.
HMW Law—Ohio Trial Attorneys is a proven choice for those who want legal representation in truck collision cases. We are here to help you with your truck crash insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit. For more information, request a free case consultation with us.
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