How do you recover from a truck accident? These accidents can leave you with severe injuries, property damage, and losses that impact your ability to take care of yourself for the foreseeable future. Getting your life back on track may require the help of several medical experts, insurance agents, and, under some circumstances, lawyers.
Florida gives its residents the right to take civil action against the parties they believe to be liable for semi-truck accident losses. Plantation lawyers can help you and your loved ones investigate your losses, calculate the value of those losses, and present your findings to a judge. In other words, Winston Law can help you get the financial support you need to fund your recovery.
Your Right to Action After a Truck Accident
You have the right to take civil action against the party responsible for your truck accident so long as you can prove that the party you name liable for your losses engaged in unreasonable negligence. To prove that said negligence influenced your accident, you need to outline your case against a liable party in what’s known as a personal injury claim.
Personal injury claims allege that:
- A truck driver, trucking company, or related party owed you a duty of care on the road
- The aforementioned party engaged in unreasonable negligence or reckless behavior
- That negligence or reckless behavior resulted in your recent accident
- You suffered economic losses as a result of the accident in question
So long as you can prove these points, you can bring your case before a judge. You can then choose to either negotiate for the financial support you need to address your accident’s losses or take your case to trial. A Plantation semi-truck accident attorney can help you determine which of these paths suits your case best.
Florida Limits the Amount of Time in Which You Can File a Truck Accident Claim
Florida applies a statute of limitations to each of its personal injury cases. This statute of limitations used to give you four years to act on your losses. Now, according to changes announced in the National Law Review, you have only two years from the day your accident takes place to file a civil truck accident claim.
You can discuss how this statute of limitations, outlined in Florida Statutes Section 95.11(3)(a), influences the rate at which you need to complete investigations addressing your accident. Our team can help you prioritize your recovery without compromising your filing deadlines.
How to Build a Semi-Truck Accident Claim
If you decide to move forward with a truck accident claim, that claim needs to be as substantial as possible. This means that you need to:
Gather Evidence of Negligence
Evidence is the end-all, be-all of most personal injury cases. You need to work with an attorney to assess your accident scene for data that you can later use to prove that negligence influenced your losses. The evidence that most often suits a semi-truck accident claim can include:
- Black box data
- Statements from bystanders
- Video footage from dash cams, stoplights, and nearby storefronts
- Photos of your accident
- Social media posts describing your accident
- Input from expert witnesses, including accident recreationists
Consider Contracts’ Influence on Liability
There are instances wherein contracts for truck drivers, packing crews, and corporation employees may allow you to hold a corporation liable for losses you faced on the road.
If the party who hit you:
- Constitutes an employee in the eyes of a corporation, and
- Was on duty at the time of your accident
Then you can name the corporation responsible for your accident. However, many corporations anticipate this kind of legal action and subsequently categorize a truck’s crew as independent contractors.
You can discuss the miscategorization of independent contractors versus employees and how contracts can change the nature of liability in your truck accident case with our semi-truck accident attorneys in Plantation.
Determine Your Right to Financial Support
The evidence you bring forward to prove truck accident liability can also help you establish the economic value of your accident’s losses. You have the right to request both economic and non-economic losses when you bring a personal injury claim like a truck accident complaint forward.
Your truck accident’s economic losses can include the cost of your medical care, property restoration, and compensation for wages lost throughout your recovery. You can prove the value of these losses by bringing invoices, bills, and reduced pay stubs with you to civil court.
A truck accident’s non-economic losses are more nebulous in nature, if only because they don’t generate a paper trail. These losses can include your emotional distress, pain and suffering, and, in worst-case scenarios, someone else’s wrongful death. Our team relies on state-approved multipliers to determine the economic value of these losses.
Once we’ve established the value of your economic and non-economic losses, we can present an estimated sum of your case’s value along with the rest of your personal injury claim. You can then refer back to that estimate when negotiating for a settlement or demanding compensation before a judge.
When to Talk to an Lawyer About Your Truck Accident Claim
If you want to pursue a truck accident claim against a negligent party without an attorney’s help, you can. Doing so, however, can prove difficult, particularly if you don’t have any pre-established legal knowledge. You may also waste your valuable time if you’re contending with injuries while also trying to conduct an investigation.
The good news is that you can talk to an attorney early in your recovery without committing to a specific course of legal action. You can schedule a case consultation with an attorney to discuss what your case might look like within days of your accident. You then have until your statute of limitations expires to initiate a civil claim against a liable party.
Winston Law Semi-Truck Accident Lawyers Are Here For You
You don’t have time to determine what role contracts may have on your right to compensation after a dangerous truck accident. You need to prioritize your and your loved ones’ health. How can you take advantage of the legal rights afforded to you through Florida’s civil courts, though, without compromising your recovery?
You can let a semi-truck accident lawyer in Plantation look into your accident. Winston Law’s lawyers can bring forward evidence of a liable party’s negligence and help you demand compensation for your losses. You can discuss the breadth of our services during your initial case evaluation. Contact us online or by calling our office today to schedule an appointment.
