Maison Law represents Bell, CA, victims who have had their lives turned upside down by an accident caused by a careless truck driver. Our lawyers help victims get the support they need from at-fault truck drivers and the companies that put them on the road. We provide a free, no-obligation consultation for all local injury victims. It’s a no-risk opportunity to find out what your injury may be worth and how to hold those at fault 100% responsible.
Do I Need a Lawyer After a Truck Accident?
If you come away from a scary truck accident with serious injury, and a truck driver was to blame, you should speak to a skilled Bell Truck Accident Lawyer about the options that leave you in the best place to fully recover.
Protection Against Insurance Tactics: You may need a lawyer to shield you from false accusations. To get out of paying high medical bills, an insurance adjuster can try to blame you for an accident you didn’t cause. An insurer might also cast doubt on how badly you are hurt. Your lawyer is a safeguard against this shady treatment.
Protections Against a Trucking Company’s Corporate Lawyer: A large trucking company or a giant retailer like Amazon or Walmart will have the backing of teams of lawyers. They’ll also be trying to limit what you take home, or leave you with zero in support. Your Maison Law attorney isn’t afraid to stand up to major companies and demand what’s fair for you.
Gathering The Evidence You’ll Need to Prove Your Case: Your lawyer fully investigates what happened to you and the truck driver’s record, to make sure your case is backed with evidence. Every hardship you’ve endured will be backed up with documentation to show you’re the medical costs you’ve paid and the income you’ve had to give up while at home healing.
Earn More for Your Recovery: When injuries are serious, like a broken bone or a head injury, the stakes are much higher. Your attorney has a great chance of earning more for you and your family than you could by filing an injury claim yourself.
Truck Accident Dangers in Bell
Big Rigs travel just as fast as cars and SUVS as they rumble down busy streets like Atlantic Avenue or sway across lanes on the 710. There are also loaded-down delivery vans crisscrossing our neighborhoods each day, putting our children at play and other pedestrians at risk.
These trucks weigh more than the average car, and can be harder to slow down. Semi-trucks also sit higher, creating the chance of a smaller vehicle ending up underneath tractor-trailers in a collision. Victims can be stuck under the wreckage, awaiting medical attention until they can be cut free.
These are physical reasons that truck accidents occur around Bell. They don’t account for the errors in judgment that truck drivers can make, leading to devastating impacts.
- Driver fatigue: Truck drivers may not get enough sleep or downtime before heading out on the road for a long haul. They can be drowsy and experience delayed reaction times. They can also fall asleep at the wheel, creating a life-threatening situation for the sedans and SUVs around them. There are federal rules for how long drivers must rest and in between long nights, but the safety checks in place can be falsified.
- Distracted driving: Drivers can use phones for the same reason we all do. To make calls, to text, or to watch videos. But a truck driver also must contend with communications from work and GPS guidance. They may even focus on a sandwich while driving through lunch. They may not be looking up to see traffic slowing for construction ahead.
- Speeding: Truck drivers work under strict deadlines, which often causes them to drive recklessly and go too fast. Truck drivers actually must follow a separate truck speed limit on highways and interstates. They can’t travel faster than 55 mph through California.
- Improper loading or unsecured cargo: Crews at loading docks and the truck driver can load cargo in a way that makes the truck unbalanced. This mistake can cause the driver to lose control and even flip the vehicle while driving.
- Lack of training: Truck driving is a difficult job. They must know how to safely maneuver their vehicles through all sorts of scenarios and drive through a number of weather conditions. If they are not properly trained, then their risk of causing an accident increases. This responsibility for driver training and safety checks is the responsibility of trucking employers.
Your Maison Law attorney would be looking at these factors and more when deciding who was at fault for a truck accident.
Who Can I Hold Responsible for a Truck Accident?
Your Maison Law attorney helps you identify every party that could be liable for your truck accident injuries. This may mean that several insurance companies are involved, giving you a better chance to earn enough in compensation to pay off all of your medical debt.
Unfortunately, an accident involving independent drivers might leave you to deal with a basic insurance policy that cuts off support at a very low total. Insurance providers for major trucking companies and retailers will often have higher coverage limits, providing more for victims.
These are just a few of the potential parties that may be forced to support you through recovery:
- Owner-Operator Drivers: Drivers may work for themselves. They’ll have commercial insurance you can draw from.
- Trucking Companies: Drivers may be working for a delivery or shipping company that does work for many different customers. These companies usually provide insurance policies for their employees. These companies may also face liability if poor maintenance and upkeep of their trucks and tires contribute to an accident.
- Corporate Owners: National and international businesses, like Walmart and Amazon, may have their own network of trucks and drivers. Unfortunately, these businesses also have corporate lawyers who fight to free their employers from blame after an accident.
- Truck Manufacturer: A problem with the way a truck is built could be the cause of a major accident. A parts defect or a design flaw could have led to an impact. The maker of the vehicle may even have to recall a truck over safety issues. The manufacturer could also have to contribute to your recovery.
What Kinds of Things Would I Be Compensated for After a Truck Accident?
After a scary truck accident, victims must track their every hardship while in recovery. This list must include every change in lifestyle a serious injury forces on victims and their families.
A skilled lawyer makes sure all damages are included when filing a truck accident claim. This is a critical step, because leaving something off means the truck insurance company can ignore it and leave you to cover it.
Your lawyer would be demanding that these and other hardships be factored into a truck collision settlement check:
- Hospital and rehabilitation expenses.
- Estimated costs associated with a long-term injury or permanent physical disability that are common with serious truck accidents.
- Emotional anguish suffered. The loss of enjoyment of life due to an injury. The loss of consortium (loss of intimacy with a spouse).
- The hardship of dealing with chronic, physical pain.
- Past and future lost wages at work during recovery.
- Property damage.
- Wrongful death benefits. A family who has lost a loved one to a truck driver’s mistake is encouraged to file a wrongful death claim. This claim asks an insurance company for help with funeral costs. It also seeks to replace the income the deceased would have provided the family in the future.
Contact a Bell CA Truck Accident Lawyer
Contact Maison Law to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with an actual Bell truck accident lawyer. Your consultation is confidential. It’s a no-risk way to find out what you’ll need to fully recover and what you should be demanding from a trucking company.
We want to hear what happened to you. We’re going to answer your questions and make sure you are fully aware of every benefit available before an insurance company tries to convince you that your case is worth nothing. A truck driver and the company the driver works for should be fully responsible for your hardships.
Remember, if you need our help, you won’t need to worry about finding the money to hire a lawyer. Maison Law works on a contingent basis. This means you only pay us if we win your case. But even then, you aren’t forced to pull money from your savings to pay our attorney’s fee. Our pay comes out of the settlement money that a truck insurance company must pay you.
