Truck Drivers Workers’ Compensation Claims in California

Maison Law of California stands ready to help anyone injured while on the job, including truck drivers who are vulnerable to injuries with each mile they travel. Workers’ compensation support helps those hurt while at the wheel, but not every victim is treated fairly, and not every driver receives the same amount of support. Maison wants to make sure every victim has the money to pay every medical bill and support their families.

Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more about your options that may go beyond standard workers’ comp benefits.

Do I Need a Lawyer After Suffering an Injury While Driving a Truck?

If you receive only a minor injury and only miss a few days of work, you may not require the help of a lawyer to get fair treatment through workers’ compensation.

However, when your injury is more severe, like a broken arm, a back injury, or head trauma, medical bills will be higher and employers will fight harder to avoid taking the blame. The Division of Workers’ Compensation and your employer can question how serious your injury is and try to provide less than you need for medical support.

They might falsely claim that the accident took place outside of your work duties or after work hours. You need a strong defense against these tactics to leave you with zero support after getting injured.

The guidebook provided by The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) explains that you should consider hiring a lawyer if you believe your employer or a claims administrator is treating you unfairly. The department also recommends seeking legal counsel if you’ve suffered a permanent disability.

You should consult with an attorney if you feel that you are being blamed for a workplace accident you didn’t cause.

You should also contact a lawyer if you feel you might have to file a lawsuit against your company to get fair compensation.

California Truck Driving Injury Dangers

Truck drivers spend a lot of time counting white lines along California’s freeways and highways. They are always in danger of careless drivers and hazardous road conditions that might cause collisions and turn heavy loads into dangers for everyone involved.

But truck drivers are also stuck in one position and complete the same repetitive motions for most of their long weeks. Their muscles and joints can develop stiffness and chronic pain that can jeopardize the driver’s ability to make a short or long haul.

These are just a few of the short and long-term physical problems truck drivers may need to file Workers’ Compensation claims over:

• Carpal tunnel syndrome constantly turning a steering wheel
• Tendonitis
• Bursitis
• Lower back and neck injuries from constantly sitting and from vibrations from the road
• Herniated disks
• Arthritis
• Knee pain
• Weakened hip joints
• Injuries suffered during the loading and loading of produce trucks, manufacturing big rigs, and delivery vans
• Broken bones due to truck accidents caused by other motorists
• Head injuries suffered in collisions
• Spine injuries in impacts
• Injuries getting in and out of a towering truck cab or out of a tractor-trailer
• Lingering pain that makes crawling back up in a cab impossible

When truck drivers are struck by reckless motorists, the at-fault motorists’ insurance provider usually covers the hardships the truck driver faces. However, some motorists carry the bare minimum in insurance. If an insurance claim didn’t provide enough to cover all medical bills and lost time at work, a trucking company and workers’ compensation may be liable for chipping in some help.

Your Maison Law California Workers’ Compensation Lawyer fights to get 100% of medical expenses, lost wages, and rehab covered if you’re hurt while on the job.

How Can a Lawyer Help Me Earn More for a Workers’ Compensation Claim?

Workers’ Compensation protects all workers in California, but not all workers will receive the same level of support. The amount on a settlement check you receive can vary greatly depending on the evidence you collect, the manner in which you file your claim, and your ability to accurately explain and document the hardships you’ve been through to a workers’ compensation judge.

In the case of a truck driver, victims may have to battle teams of lawyers hired by large trucking companies or farming and agricultural companies. Packing plants and other manufacturers can also afford to pay teams of lawyers to attack your injury claim. Drivers who work for giant corporations like Walmart or Amazon might also run into a roadblock when filing for Workers Compensations.

They may claim that you caused your accident. Those unfair lawyers could also maintain that your injury is a pre-existing condition you had before you were hired. Your lawyer may be your only defense against these shady tactics.

Allowing a skilled attorney to handle this process can often help you walk away with much more for your injury. A California Personal Injury Lawyer won’t let you miss out on benefits that you may not have been informed of. Your lawyer also acts when your employer’s lawyers try to blame you for an accident or question how badly you are hurt.

These are only a few of the attorney’s duties:

• Protects the victim’s rights
• Investigate and collect evidence to support the victim’s claim
• Keep track of deadlines
• Files the victim’s claim correctly and list all hardships to be compensated
• Represent the victim before a workers’ compensation judge
• Negotiate for the maximum support available based on similar past cases
• Makes sure victims receive every benefit available
• Protects victims from retaliation
• Protects victims if they are fired unjustly after an injury
• Handles this entire frustrating process leaving the truck driver time to focus on healing
• Helps truck drivers keep up with their normal monthly bills like rent, a mortgage, and car and credit card payments.

Winning Compensation for Injured Truck Drivers

Your lawyer would file a workers comp claim that included every medical bill you had now and those expected for the care expected to be needed in the future. Getting accurate estimates on the cost of future healthcare expenses would be crucial.  It would involve your attorney consulting with your doctors and other medical experts.

Your attorney would be negotiating for the maximum in support so that you could pay all of the medical bills that had piled up since the workplace accident. The money needed to cover any care in the future with a longterm or permanent injury would also have to be included. This could include the cost of occupational therapy or hand therapy. It might involve help with pain and money to keep up with the cost of any medical equipment needed.

The DIR Injured Worker’s Handbook goes over all the different types of support available through a claim. This is a look at some of the support victims could receive:

• Medical Care. Paid for by your employer, to help you recover from an injury or illness caused by work. This includes doctor visits and other treatment services, tests, medicines, equipment, and travel costs reasonably necessary to treat your injury.
• Temporary Disability Benefits. Payments if you lose wages because your injury prevents you from doing your usual job while recovering.
• Permanent Disability Benefits. Payments if you don’t recover completely and your injury causes a permanent loss of physical or mental function that a doctor can measure.
• Death Benefits. Payments to your spouse, children, or other dependents if you die from a job injury or illness.
• Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit. A voucher to help pay for retraining or skill enhancement if you are eligible to receive permanent disability benefits, your employer doesn’t offer you work, and you don’t return to work for your employer. This benefit is available for workers injured in 2004 or later. If your injury also occurred in 2013 or later and you received a Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit, you may also be eligible for an additional, one-time payment under the Return-to-Work Supplement Program.

In general, workers’ compensation doesn’t cover the physical pain and the emotional trauma victims of violent accidents must often cope with. Victims may deal with PTSD symptoms after a frightening collision or collapse accident in a factory or in a field. They may face chronic pain for years to come.

Your lawyer can help you decide if a lawsuit should be filed against an employer or manufacturer to seek additional compensation for these very real hardships caused by a workplace injury.

Can I Sue My Employer After Getting Hurt While Driving a Truck?

Generally, you could only seek support from California’s Workers’ Compensation program. However, there are a few circumstances that would allow you to file a lawsuit against your trucking company or corporate employer.

You could file a lawsuit if…

• your employer intentionally put you at risk
• your employer was grossly negligent in keeping you safe
• your employer forced you to use or work around harmful substances, such as exhaust fumes, and you got sick
• the manufacturer of the truck was guilty of providing equipment with a design flaw or manufacturing defect
• the employer didn’t maintain a safe vehicle, including tire and brake replacement, for drivers to rely on

Your attorney would be prepared to file claims against any individual or company that contributed to your injury. Workers’ Compensation sometimes runs out before victims are fully healed. Taking an employer to court may be the only way to see that all of the consequences of a workplace accident are covered. These factors shouldn’t be left in the victim’s lap.

How Much Does My California Workers’ Compensation Attorney Get Paid?

Most California workers’ compensation lawyers work on a contingency basis. It means they don’t get paid unless they win the case for an injured worker. If successful, the lawyer would usually receive between 9% and 15% of the award the client received.

Here are a few important details about how your lawyer gets paid:

• The fee would depend on the complexity of the case and how much work went into building the case.
• A workers’ compensation judge also examines the lawyer’s fee and makes sure the attorney isn’t taking too much of the award. The judge must approve the fee.
• Always make sure you know what your attorney charges. If you aren’t sure, ask that it be explained clearly to you until you understand. If you still aren’t clear on how much and when your attorney gets paid, it may be a sign you need to look for a different lawyer.

This may seem like a large fee, but remember that the lawyer takes a big risk when fronting the money for a case. This includes work hours, investigative costs, and court fees. If a case is thrown out, the lawyer must absorb these costs. Cases can fail for reasons beyond an attorney’s control. And you don’t pay anything unless the case is won.

The idea is that lawyers should only take your case if they think they can earn you more than you could yourself.  This additional money should be enough to pay your lawyer’s fee and allow you to take home much more than you might have otherwise.

How long can I wait to file a California Workers’ Compensation injury claim?

Injured workers usually have one year from the date of the accident to file a claim. In some cases, the one-year deadline counts down from the day the worker learns of an injury or illness. The deadline could be extended if the victim is under the age of 18.

What Types of Things Would be Compensated Through Workers’ Compensation After a Truck Injury?

In general, all of the costs for your medical care now and in the future should be covered by a Workers’ Compensation check. The amount of time you could count on support would depend on the type of injury.

Temporary Disability Benefits would cover you for shorter periods if doctors felt you would recover in weeks or months. Permanent Disability Benefits would provide weekly checks to you and your family, perhaps for the rest of your life if you suffer a longterm illness or injury. Money to train for and find a new career if you couldn’t return to truck driving due to an injury would also be a potential benefit.

Limited Death benefits are also extended to families who lose a loved one to a truck-driving accident. This support would be provided to

The things that aren’t covered by California’s Workers’ Compensation program, such as the physical pain injured truck drivers are asked to endure and the emotional trauma of a difficult recovery can raise the possibility of a lawsuit.

Your attorney could help you explore whether suing your employer to secure additional compensation that goes beyond Workers’ Compensation would be a next step. Families who feel they didn’t receive enough to help protect loved ones financially in the future could also discuss the option of a lawsuit with a California wrongful death lawyer.

Contact a California Workers’ Compensation Lawyer

The most important outcome is that the injured and those who lose their ability to support their families get the full support they need for as long as necessary. Deciding which legal option is right for your situation can be difficult, but you don’t have to make the decision alone.

There’s an easy way to find out which path offers you the fastest route to the support you and your family desperately need. Speak to Maison Law in a free, no-obligation consultation. We want to hear about what happened to you and then help you determine the best course of action for your family.