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Common Causes of Truck Accidents
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The information below will give you an overview of your truck accident claim. We’ll begin with some examples of common mistakes people make in truck accident claims in Nassau County. Then, we’ll use a story to fill in additional helpful information about truck accident claims. Make sure you read to the end.
Common Truck Accident Claim Mistakes
There are a number of mistakes you should avoid in order to build the strongest possible truck accident claim. Please read through each of these to become aware of what will help your claim, and what can hurt it.
Not Going to the Doctor
It’s a mistake not to get checked out by a doctor after a truck accident. Even if you think you’ve escaped unscathed, you need to get examined to protect both your health and your case.
The overabundance of adrenaline that floods a person’s system during a truck accident can make pain less noticeable for hours. To safeguard your health, it’s best to get checked out and let a doctor tell you that you are uninjured.
Getting medical care also creates a record of your accident injuries, and places them in a timeline. This information will become valuable evidence in your truck accident case.
Without this evidence, your case will be seriously damaged, benefitting only the insurance company. The less evidence you have, the lower the value of your claim goes.
Not Following Through with Your Doctor’s Orders
You may not think it matters if you finish your antibiotics or skip a few physical therapy sessions. Even if you don’t think you need them, your case does.
Just like getting checked out by a doctor, following the doctor’s aftercare instructions prevents the insurance company from saying that you are responsible if you aren’t recovering as quickly as expected, or if there are complications.
Don’t give the insurance company the chance to shirk responsibility for compensating you for your injuries. Follow doctors’ orders and do everything they request of you to stay on track with your recovery.
Don’t Give a Recorded Statement to the Insurance Company
After a truck accident, you can expect the insurance company to come around, looking to chat. They may sound very concerned, but you can bet that at some point, they’ll get around to asking you for a recorded statement. Don’t give them one.
Insurance adjusters are trained to get people talking. They are looking for any information they can use to knock down the value of your truck accident claim. Be very careful. Your case could “evaporate” during one of these recorded sessions without you even being aware of it.
The best thing you can do to protect your case is turn over communications with the insurance company to your experienced truck accident lawyer.
Not Calling an Attorney Soon Enough
This one surprises many people, as they often think they have time to file a claim, so long as the statute of limitations is still open. While this is technically true, consider that with each day that passes, you are likely to find less and less evidence to support your case.
This includes witness testimony. Over time, people upgrade phones, potentially causing them to change numbers. Emails may come and go. People may move.
To preserve the value of your truck accident case, it’s important to get started on your claim as soon as you can.
Choosing the Wrong Lawyer
Some people think that any attorney can handle a truck accident claim with equal results. This is untrue, just as it’s untrue that any doctor can successfully perform any surgery.
Lawyers, like doctors, have specializations. To give your truck accident claim the best chance of success, you need to hire a personal injury lawyer who has handled truck accident claims successfully. This includes taking such cases through trial.
While it’s true that most truck accident claims are settled out of court, there’s always the possibility that your case could end up there. If this happens, you need to have a lawyer who can confidently present your case to a jury.
Insurance companies are often aware of who the skilled trial attorneys are in their area. Just knowing you’ve got an excellent trial lawyer on your side can bring an otherwise resistant insurance company to the negotiating table.
Don’t make the mistake of choosing the wrong lawyer. Give your case its best chance by hiring a personal injury lawyer who has experience winning truck accident cases, both in court and in negotiations.
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Nassau County Truck Accident Client Story
The story that follows is intended to provide an overview of your truck accident case. Be sure to read it all the way through to get all of the information you can from it. Names and specifics have been changed to protect client privacy, but the information’s value remains. After you’ve finished, please take us up on our offer of free legal advice by scheduling a consultation to talk about your specific case.
A few years ago in May, 42-year-old Chloe Robertson and 47-year-old Jack Welden went on their first date. Though they’d been communicating for three months, they had yet to meet in-person until that day.
Chloe had never been married, but she’d been engaged to a man she thought was “Mr. Right,” who turned out to be “Mr. Totally Wrong.”
Eighteen months, 500 miles, and a restraining order later, Chloe timidly put her toe in the water of online dating. She had settled comfortably in Jacksonville, after leaving Johnson City, Tennessee, having moved in with her best childhood girlfriend, Tamara.
Chloe loved her new home state. As a botanist, she particularly enjoyed strolling through the nearby gardens at the art museum. She even volunteered as a docent, giving tours on Saturday mornings whenever possible.
Chloe was sure her move to Florida was right. After a while, she even began thinking about sharing her time with someone again.
Tamara was all-in, setting up Chloe’s profile on the online dating site.
Chloe, an introvert, was 100% unsure she was ready. Still, she promised Tamara she’d give it a one month “trial” and see what happened.
After many “lookie-loos” and a few awkward messages with people who were clearly mismatches for her, Chloe began to question the site’s algorithm. Maybe she’d filled out the member questionnaire backwards or something. She logged in to delete the account.
And there, in her inbox, was Jack.
At first, Chloe thought it was a gag. His profile appeared to be a perfect match to hers. A wildlife biologist close to her age, Jack appeared to have a great career, similar pastimes, and an easy-going, optimistic mindset. And, he was cute. Really cute.
Chloe wasn’t sure whether to answer his email or block him for being a spammer.
When Tamara came home an hour later, she responded to Chloe’s suspicion she was being punked with an eye roll, big smile, and a “Told you so.”
“Huh,” was all Chloe could utter as Tamara sashayed to her room with a self-satisfied, “You go, girl.”
Chloe decided to send a very short message. She liked the response.
They started out with on-site messages, then moved to email before transitioning to phone calls that lasted hours. Three months and over 100 communications later, they decided to meet.
Their first date would be at Chloe’s favorite museum. Chloe dressed carefully in her favorite sundress and sandals, pulling up her shiny, black hair into a French twist. She wanted to make a good first impression but be comfortable in the heat.
She decided to take an Uber across town to meet Jack at the gardens instead of letting him drive. Just in case…
They met at 11:15 a.m., at the fountain in the center of the Ficus-covered gloriette in the Italian garden. Chloe immediately felt a spark. Jack, it seemed, did to.
They spent a perfect day together exploring the garden and taking in the art at the museum. Before they knew it, the museum announced closing time. Laughing about not noticing the time fly by, they walked out, hand-in-hand.
They visited a café and two book stores as evening fell. Growing hungry, the couple decided to take Jack’s gray Wrangler to a nearby seafood restaurant for dinner, hopping onto Interstate 95 to cross Fuller Warren Bridge.
They were approaching the Philips Highway exit ramp when a semi-truck drifted across two lanes of traffic and swerved onto the off ramp behind them.
“Whoa, that guy’s all over the road,” Jack said, tracking the truck in his rearview.
“Yikes, better give him some space,” Chloe said, letting go of Jack’s hand with a squeeze so he could put both hands on the wheel.
“You think he’s drunk?” she asked.
“Or asleep,” Jack murmured, picking up a little speed to avoid the truck pulling up beside them at the ramp’s curve.
The head lamps of the truck glared through the Jeep’s rear window, turning night to day as it barreled toward them.
“Hey…hey!” Jack sputtered as the gap between the vehicles quickly vanished. They were on the curve and Jack had to make a decision.
Trying to avoid yanking the wheel too fast, he pulled to the left to straighten out, hoping to get out of speeding truck’s path.
The truck missed the turn, still following hard on Jack’s bumper. It slammed into the Jeep’s rear right side before plowing off the exit ramp and flipping onto its side. It skidded through the intersection and came to rest four feet from the door of a hotel.
The Jeep careened counter-clockwise, tumbling three times before landing hard in the dirt triangle between the off-ramp and the on-ramp.
Chloe and Jack would spend the next several days in the hospital.
They both suffered from broken bones and lacerations. In addition, Jack had a concussion, and Chloe suffered disc compression in her neck. She awoke with Tamara by her side.
“Hey there,” Tamara said to her friend as she took in her surroundings.
“Jack, where’s Ja—” she stammered, alarmed and disoriented.
Tamara placed a firm, calming hand on Chloe’s left shoulder.
“Shhhh, easy, Chloe. Don’t try to move right now. Jack is okay. Banged up, but he’ll be okay. He’s down the hall,” Tamara reassured her friend.
Jack was released two days before Chloe. Before he left the hospital, his brother wheeled him through the door in a wheel chair, a dozen gorgeous white roses in his arms.
Chloe burst into tears when she saw him, relieved and grateful they were alive. As Jack left, he texted our firm’s number to Tamara, encouraging Chloe to give us a call. He also promised her a re-do of their first date as soon as she was up to it.
Twenty-four hours after Jack was discharged, Chloe was told she could go home the next afternoon. How quickly she would recover from her herniated disc remained to be seen. The doctors were hoping she wouldn’t need surgery, but it was too soon to make a determination. Her recovery would be slow and cautious.
Tamara called us from her chair beside Chloe’s bed. She told us Chloe had three main concerns. She wanted to know how much it would cost to hire us, what her case might be worth, and how long it would take.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Lawyer?
We met Chloe two days after she arrived home. She greeted us from her bed, where she was propped up, wearing a cervical collar around her neck and a cast on her right leg. Her right arm was also in a cast. She was grateful to be out of the hospital and determined to recover completely. She had a date to keep, she said, with our mutual acquaintance, Jack Welden.
As we sat on the chairs Tamara had brought in from the dining room, Chloe asked us, “How much would it cost to hire you?”
We told her it wouldn’t cost her anything upfront, because we work on a contingency basis. This meant we would fund the entire case, covering expenses from start to finish. When it wrapped up, we would only get paid when we brought Chloe’s case to a successful resolution.
“Wow,” Chloe said, happily surprised, “So far, so good.”
How Much is My Truck Accident Case Worth?
Chloe moved on to her second question, asking, “How much do you think my case is worth?”
We explained that it would be difficult to answer her question accurately at this early stage of the case.
“To truly answer that, Chloe, we’ll need a concrete assessment of your economic and non-economic damages. We’ll also need to conduct a thorough accident investigation,” our lawyer told her.
We went on to explain that the investigation would include collecting evidence and witness testimonies. We also assured Chloe that we could get started immediately, and would work all of the paperwork up as if the case were going to trial.
“Your job, Chloe, is to channel all of your energy toward your recovery and following your doctor’s treatment plan.
“We need you to reach what we call ‘maximum medical improvement.’ It means the point at which your doctors can tell us that you’re ‘back to normal.’ If that isn’t an option, then it will be the point at which the doctors can say that you’ve reached your highest level of possible recovery.
“Reaching maximum medical improvement will mean you’re through with any surgeries you may need, and we have a clear picture of what any future medical treatment for your injuries looks like.
“Once we know this information, we’ll know your damages, and can tell you the value of your case.”
Chloe sighed, closing her eyes.
“I understand,” she said.
How Long Will My Truck Accident Case Take?
Chloe asked her last question.
“How long do you think my case could take?”
Our lawyer told her that again, this was tough to predict, because we’d first need to know Chloe’s damages.
“We’re also going to need to know if the insurance company is going to ‘play nice,’” the lawyer said.
“Once we know your damages, we’ll send the insurance company a demand letter. If they respond reasonably, your case should wrap up quickly.”
We told Chloe that if the insurance company was not cooperative, we’d take her case to trial. We assured her this would not be a problem, as we would prepare the case for trial from the start, just in case.
“We have a long, successful track record of taking cases like yours before juries. The insurance company knows this, and is most likely going to settle before taking their chances against us in a courtroom.”
“That’s why it’s in your best interests to hire an experienced truck accident trial lawyer.”
Chloe smiled and said, “Let’s get started.”
Chloe retained our law office, and we are happy to report that she was astonished to be awarded more than eight times the insurance company’s initial offer.
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Call Our Nassau County Truck Accident Lawyers Today
We hope this story and the information that accompanies it has given you a good overview of your truck accident claim. As every case is unique, we urge you to call us and let us answer the questions you have about your specific case in a free legal consultation. You don’t have to do this by yourself. Contact us for free legal advice today.
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