A road accident with a large truck is never an easy ordeal. Even low-speed accidents with large trucks can cause severe injury, and trucks moving at highway speeds can change your future in an instant.
Have you or someone you love been in an accident with a truck in Chula Vista? Did this accident cause you serious injury or financial strain? If so, you should speak to the Chula Vista personal injury attorneys at OnderLaw about filing a personal injury claim or lawsuit to obtain compensation. We have decades of experience with filing personal injury claims for people just like you, and we know how to help our clients get the results they need. Call today for a free consultation, and let us help you and your family move on after a truck accident.
An attorney can help you in many ways. We can provide more than legal counsel. We can provide guidance and support during a difficult time in your life.
Obtaining compensation for your injuries is usually done by filing an insurance claim with the responsible party’s insurance company. This means gathering evidence to support your claim, hunting down documentation like medical records or accident reports, and taking witness statements to support your version of events. It’s a large undertaking under good circumstances, but if you’re recovering from serious injuries, it can be overwhelming. A good attorney will handle the work for you and allow you the time you need to heal and process the trauma of your accident.
Your lawyer can also help you understand how damages work. Damages are the losses you sustain as a result of the accident. Understanding how they’re defined is necessary to ensure that you’re demanding an amount of compensation that corresponds with the value of your losses. The trick is that some of these damages are easy to define, and some require previous experience with injury law and knowledge of the claims process. Without an experienced lawyer to assist you, you may not get all the compensation you’re owed for your injuries.
Dealing with insurance companies that seek to deny your claim can be exhausting. They may contact you immediately after the accident with a settlement check at the ready to try to convince you that they want to take care of your needs immediately. The truth is, they want you to accept the first settlement offer they make, so you will sign a form releasing their customer from all liability. Your attorney from OnderLaw will handle all communications with insurance adjusters and ensure they don’t take advantage of you.
If the insurance company disagrees with your version of events, they may deny your claim altogether. At this point, without the assistance of a lawyer, you have relatively few options left, aside from trying to re-negotiate a settlement. With a lawyer, you can remove the decision from the insurance company’s hands by filing a lawsuit against the responsible party directly. Going to trial is rare in injury claims, but a good attorney will fight for you in court and make the insurance company think twice about denying payment.
Since 2002, OnderLaw has been helping residents of Chula Vista and elsewhere to get the just and fair compensation they deserve after a truck accident. Our team of dedicated and compassionate legal professionals can assist you with claims of all sizes, from whiplash injury claims to multi-million dollar lawsuits against corporate giants like Johnson & Johnson. We know what it takes to get good results, and we love helping our clients get the assistance they need.
We don’t help only our clients. \We help the people and communities that have helped make us what we are today. This includes donations of time and money to organizations such as MADD, Lupus Foundation of America, and Toys for Tots.
The main reason our clients choose us for quality legal help is our record of success. We’ve successfully obtained over $3.5 billion in settlements and awards in the last twenty years. We certainly can’t guarantee a positive result for every case or claim we handle, but if we aren’t successful, we don’t get paid. We work on contingency, which means there are no upfront fees to our clients. We take our payment out of any award or settlement you receive.
Truck accidents, especially those involving large 18-wheelers, tend to be more dangerous than accidents involving cars because these vehicles can weigh as much as 20 times the weight of a passenger car. They’re also up to 14 feet tall and over 70 feet long, with restricted visibility and poor maneuverability. Sharing the road with these vehicles in a passenger car can be very dangerous.
Some of the common causes of truck accidents in Chula Vista include the following:
Because truck accidents tend to be more severe than other types of motor vehicle accidents because of the weight of the truck, the severity of injuries also increases. Some types of injuries from truck accidents include:
Determining liability in a truck accident is also more difficult than an accident involving passenger cars because liability may be spread out over more than one party. The truck driver, the truck’s owner, the trucking company, the freight company, the maintenance company, or the truck’s manufacturer may all bear some responsibility for the accident, depending on the circumstances.
In order to obtain compensation for your losses, we must show that at least one of these parties was negligent in some way. California law states that everyone has a duty not to act in a way that endangers others. If we can adequately prove that the party responsible for your accident was supposed to act in a certain way, didn’t do so, and their incorrect action ended in an accident that caused you injury, we should be able to claim compensation for your losses.
For example, if the cause of your accident was the brakes failing on the truck, we may be able to show that the maintenance company bears responsibility. If the driver had exceeded their daily allowance of driving hours and was fatigued at the time of the accident, they themselves might be liable, or if the truck’s cargo came loose and spilled on the roadway, causing a hazard, we may be able to hold the freight company responsible. Talk to your attorney about who exactly would be liable for your truck accident.
We must show, with evidence, that you suffered certain losses or damages as a result of the accident. Some of these losses will be simple to display, such as bills for medical treatment or missing paychecks due to lost time at work while recovering from your injury.
Others are tied to the experience of the injury itself and the loss to your well-being and peace of mind. These types of damages require the help of an attorney to assess, as they are completely subjective and vary widely.
Some types of economic damages, or actual financial losses, include:
Noneconomic damages, or damages with no monetary value, include the following:
If we can prove that the responsible party acted with malice, the intention to oppress you, or to commit fraud, we may also be able to claim exemplary damages. Exemplary damages are intended to punish the party responsible for the accident for their malicious actions and deter them from behaving in that way again. These damages carry a higher burden of proof than other damages and can only be awarded by a judge or jury in court. Talk to your attorney to see if exemplary damages may be available in your situation.
Here are some data and statistics on truck accidents in Chula Vista and elsewhere:
If you need help getting compensation for a truck accident in Chula Vista, don’t wait any longer to call the attorneys at OnderLaw . California has a strict statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits, so you have a limited time to start the process. Call today and let us review your case to determine whether you’re eligible for compensation. The first consultation is absolutely free, and we only take payment for our services if we’re successful in getting you a settlement or award, so you have nothing to lose. Call OnderLaw today.
