If you were injured in an accident involving a large commercial truck in New York City. You may qualify for the chance to recover compensation for your losses, such as your medical expenses, change in income, and pain and suffering. The experienced personal injury lawyers in New York City provide a free consultation to truck accident victims to evaluate their personal injury claims and discuss the value of their damages before filing a lawsuit.
What Damages Can You Claim in a New York Truck Accident Lawsuit?
Accidents involving commercial vehicles are more likely to result in catastrophic injuries than those involving merely smaller vehicles because of their size and weight. For this reason, commercial trucks carry a large insurance policy, indicating that the financial compensation you can recover is probably above average.
If the responsible party is found fully liable for your injuries, you will be entitled to collect a settlement for any truck wreck costs you incur as a result of the accident. A typical truck crash settlement payout consists of:
- Pending and future medical costs (e.g., treatment, hospitalization, prescriptions, gas mileage to and from appointments)
- Modifications to your home or vehicle (e.g., wheelchair ramps or lifts)
- Property replacement or repair costs
- Mental distress and emotional anguish
- Loss of income, career, or future earning potential
- Pain and suffering
If you experience any of the aforementioned types of damages as a result of the commercial truck crash, our truck accident attorney in New York City may be able to get you back on the path to financial recovery. If the accident was partially your fault, there is a possibility that we can still help you collect compensation.
Additional Damages You Can Claim
In addition to the damages listed above, the state of New York allows truck accident victims to receive punitive damages after an accident. All money from your settlement is meant as compensatory damages for the losses you were forced to endure.
Things like physical therapy, diminished wages, and property damage fall under the scope of economic damages. The money received for these losses is supposed to repay you for the money you’ve lost directly and will likely lose in the future as a result of their accident.
Other costs, like loss of enjoyment, suffering, and mental anguish, are known as non-economic damages. These losses can never truly be repaid, but our firm will hire experts to calculate a fair estimate on your behalf.
Unlike economic and non-economic damages, punitive damages are not meant to compensate you for any losses you’ve suffered. Instead, they are supposed to punish the at-fault party if their actions were malicious or grossly negligent and deter it from happening again.
Proving Which Party Is Liable
When you get into a semi-truck accident, you might assume that the at-fault truck driver should owe you compensation.
The truck driver may be at fault, but that does not automatically make them responsible for the harm they inflicted. There may be additional parties at fault, such as the trucking business or the truck manufacturer.
Finding an experienced attorney to pursue legal action against is essential. Our truck accident lawyers in New York City can look into your accident to determine if multiple parties can be held accountable and if more than one person owes you money. If so, we can assist you in filing multiple truck accident claims or personal injury lawsuits and take over case management for you.
Typical defendants in truck accident lawsuits include the following:
Commercial Truck Drivers
Due to financial incentives, truck drivers who put in longer hours may become fatigued. In the US, fatigued driving is a major factor in delivery trucks, dump trucks, and garbage truck accidents. Contrarily, a rise in the frequency of truck-related accidents has been attributed to the use of mind-altering substances, such as alcohol or methamphetamine.
Other causes of accidents caused by truck drivers include:
- Aggressive driving
- Blind spots or making a wide-angle turn
- Carrying maldistributed loads
- Merging too quickly and unsafely
- Influence of drugs or alcohol
- Speeding or disobeying traffic laws
It’s also important to remember that, depending on the state of the road, even if a truck is traveling within the legal speed limit, it could still be deemed to be doing so excessively.
Companies Employing Truck Drivers
There are situations when the risk posed by trucks has nothing to do with a driving error. This frequently occurs when other employees in the organization do not perform their duties diligently. Inaccuracies made by others at the transportation company could include:
- Improperly loading the truck
- Failing to inspect or repair the vehicle before it departs with the cargo
- Pressuring drivers to disregard hours of service regulations set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)
- Not conducting routine drug testing on truck operators
- Negligent hiring and not conducting background checks on drivers or employees before hiring
Truck Designer
If a design or manufacturing flaw in the truck contributed to the collision, the manufacturer may be held accountable. If they didn’t issue a recall and the fault was discovered in numerous vehicles of the same make and model, this is evidence that might implicate them in responsibility.
If they did issue a recall and the truck owner was contacted, the trucking companies or their mechanics would be responsible for failing to rectify the defect. It would be the driver’s fault if the truck was privately owned.
Vehicle Parts Supplier Company
If the issue was with a particular truck component, the part’s producer may be held accountable for improper production or design. They may be at fault in addition to or instead of the truck manufacturer.
Commercial Truck Maintenance Companies
A separate maintenance company may be held accountable if the truck driver or the trucking company used its services. When it’s discovered that a maintenance company should have fixed or identified a truck issue but didn’t, they become the liable party for any accidents that ensue.
Government Municipalities
The local county that oversees that region may be held accountable for failing to maintain safe driving conditions on the roads if poor road conditions contributed to the accident. It holds for missing signage as well.
Third-Party Drivers
If another driver’s actions contributed to the truck driver colliding with you in an accident involving more than one vehicle, they may be held accountable.
Our legal team is composed of experienced truck accident lawyers in NYC who can look into the facts leading up to the collision to see if anybody else can be held accountable. If the at-fault driver’s insurance is insufficient to meet your demands, third-party compensation may make up the gap.
How Much does It Cost to Retain a New York Truck Accident Lawyer?
Our NYC personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis. That means that we only get paid if our clients receive fair compensation. If we are able to secure you a settlement, our negotiated fee will be paid directly out of the sum of your compensation package.
The payment arrangement of contingency fees benefits our clients in a number of ways. It first makes sure that financial constraints won’t prevent accident victims from hiring qualified legal counsel. The absence of expenses entails low risk for you.
Clients can also rest easy knowing that their lawyers will use every effort to secure a winning result. You can be confident that your attorney will pursue the maximum amount of compensation for you because they are paid a percentage of the settlement amount.
In New York, clients who hire an NYC truck accident lawyer typically obtain much more compensation than those who defend themselves. You are likely to walk home with a lot more money than you would have if you had handled it yourself, even after your attorney takes their cut.
State and Federal Truck Driver Regulations
Both state and federal laws regulate the trucking industry. The requirements for trucking businesses and their drivers are established and regulated by two main organizations. the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the FMCSA .
These statutes thereby establish liability in any commercial truck accident. To regulate interstate commercial trucking, each state must have a transportation department.
New York Regulations for Truck Drivers
The driver of the truck and the organization they work for may be liable for your injuries if you are involved in a collision with a truck, including a semi-truck, a big rig, or any other commercial vehicle that complies with the established laws.
In general, a truck must abide by a number of laws in each state, including:
- Obtaining commercial driver’s license laws
- Rest for the driver laws
- Laws on the maximum weight permitted
- Quality control of trucks laws
- Hazardous waste laws
An experienced truck accident attorney in NYC will be well-versed in trucking regulations and know how to apply them effectively to impact the outcome of your claim for compensation.
Filing a Wrongful Death Claim After a Truck Wreck in NYC
Statistics reveal that most accidents involving semi-trucks cause major injuries like spinal cord injuries or internal bleeding that can result in fatalities. If you are grieving the death of a loved one as a result of a negligent truck driver, you might have the right to various damages, including:
- Funeral and burial expenses
- Loss of future wages
- Loss of consortium
- Medical expenses
- Emotional anguish
- Pain and suffering of both the victim and the surviving family members
EPTL §5-4.1 entitles the surviving family of the deceased to pursue damages in a wrongful death lawsuit. Our truck accident attorneys in New York City, NY, help families, and estates navigate the legal process of filing a wrongful death claim.
You can also be eligible for monetary compensation for lost health and retirement benefits. It is possible to seek a payout for loss of companionship and childcare if the decedent was your spouse or you shared a home.
Four Things to Never Disclose to the Insurance Company
Talking to the insurance agency following any type of accident is inevitable, so we have provided what to say to the insurance company so that you keep yourself and your trucking accident injury claim protected from scrutiny.
When speaking with the insurance adjuster, never mention or agree to:
Lack of Injury
Don’t respond that you are alright or haven’t sustained any broken bones or neck injuries when asked about your health. Until you have received medical care, it is best to state that you will be going to the doctor. Adrenaline may make soft tissue injuries less obvious at first, and some severe injuries may not even be felt at all.
Following an accident, make sure to visit a doctor and note any truck accident injuries discovered. Furthermore, consult your lawyer before signing any medical releases.
Fault
You should never confess fault, even though this is something that many people are aware of. Offering an apology at the scene should be avoided. Never apologize to your insurance company, the other driver, or the police.
Simple or harmless expressions like “I’m sorry” can easily be used against you, even if you are merely being nice and not knowingly admitting guilt.
Speculative Details
Always stick to the facts while communicating with any insurance provider. Avoid using the sayings “I think” or “in my opinion.” Do not speculate or provide an opinion in response to an inquiry from the insurer if you do not know the answer.
Be careful not to say anything that isn’t true because any of your responses could be used to refute your injury or property damage claims.
A Recorded Statement
The entire purpose of recorded statements is to protect the insurance company’s interests, not yours. Recorded statements are frequently carefully reviewed to search for discrepancies and contradicting facts.
You are not required to submit a recorded statement, but keep in mind that any information you do supply could be taken out of context and used against you.
If your auto accident lawyer suggests it, just provide a formal, recorded statement.
