Trucks keep the California economy moving, but they can also put your own economic plans to a sudden stop when you are involved in a serious truck accident. A single accident can have unpleasant consequences, including major injuries, weeks of missed work, astronomical medical bills, and destroyed vehicles, along with no small amount of pain and suffering.
Hillstone Law Accident & Injury Attorneys can provide you with an experienced legal advocate after you have been seriously hurt in a truck accident in California. Our California truck accident lawyers have the deep legal knowledge and industry experience needed to maximize your case’s chance of winning.
With our help, you can be certain that you are claiming every possible expense and using all available evidence to prove liability.
We never charge you for our services unless we are able to secure a financial win for you and your family. Find out how we can make your life easier — and your case easier to win — during a free, no-obligation case review when you call (855) 604-4641 or contact us online.
What Major Factors Help a California Truck Accident Attorney Win Cases?
First, know that there is no such thing as a guaranteed case. Predicting the outcome of any case, in general, is hard.
With that said, certain factors can increase the chance of success for a truck accident claim. When you hire a California truck accident lawyer, their job is to assemble as many of these factors for you as possible.
With their experience and professional assistance, you can increase your case’s likelihood of resulting in a settlement (or a favorable court verdict).
Some of the most important factors that affect the likelihood of a case’s success are listed below.
The Availability of Conclusive Evidence
Your California truck accident attorney will gather as much evidence as possible to prove that the truck driver, their employer, or another party was negligent and that this negligence resulted in your injury.
Some of the most important pieces of evidence include the police accident report and evidence gathered at the scene of the collision. You are encouraged to, if possible, take as many photos as you can at the scene.
Focus on capturing truck accident wreckage, the damage to your vehicle features like tire marks, and your injuries immediately after they occur.
One major benefit of having a truck accident lawyer in California is that they can request evidence from the trucking carrier that the company would not normally be willing to provide. For example, they can ask for data from the truck’s telemetry system, which can reveal the exact speed at which the truck was traveling and information on when brakes were applied and with how much force.
Note that if the trucking carrier is not willing to provide these types of evidence, then your attorney can file a lawsuit and force them to turn it over during the discovery period.
Your attorney may also hire an expert accident reconstructionist who can determine how the accident occurred and what contributed to its severity.
All of this information, in combination with witness statements and other available evidence, can make it easier to conclusively prove that the truck driver or another party was at fault.
Whether the Accident Is Clearly Covered by Insurance
Insurance policies determine whether benefits apply after a truck accident and the amount of benefits that may be offered.
In some cases, the trucking company may allege that the truck driver who hit you was an independent contractor and not an employee (more on this below in the section “Disputing Independent Contractor Status in California”). When this happens, your California truck accident attorney will investigate the circumstances of the contract, analyze details regarding the scope of work, and determine the level of control the company had over the supposed contractor.
Your truck accident lawyer in California can then use this evidence to argue that the contractor was misclassified and that they should count as an employee, including where insurance coverage is concerned.
Insurers may also allege that you had a pre-existing condition contributing to the severity of your injury, that you took actions that made your injury worse, or that you contributed to the circumstances of the accident.
Any time there is a dispute regarding insurance coverage, a California truck accident lawyer will be willing to look into it. They’ll closely review the language of the policy, compare it to the situation at hand, and fight to compel the insurer to offer any coverage they promised under their contract.
How Bad Your Injuries Are and How Long They Will Take to Heal
Unfortunately, the worse your injuries, the harder the trucking company and their insurer will fight to avoid liability.
The more serious the injury, the higher the cost of treating it and the larger the scope of damages that the liable party will eventually have to cover.
Because of this larger scope, liable parties will work harder to avoid covering the full amount of the injury victim’s treatment costs. They may argue that certain medical treatments should not be covered, for instance, or they may work harder to find examples of your own contributory negligence so they can reduce the total amount of liability they assume.
At the same time, winning these cases becomes all the more important. You will badly need a settlement to ensure that you heal and that you are fairly compensated for your unpleasant experience.
Understanding this need, your California truck accident lawyer will put in extra effort towards building the strongest case possible any time there is the potential for astronomical damages.
Whether Multiple Parties Are Involved
Because semi-trucks are so large and accidents involving them tend to happen on busy roadways, they can easily involve three or more other vehicles. In some cases, another vehicle started the accident, and the truck driver’s response (or their actions prior to the accident) made your accident more likely to happen and more likely to be severe.
Proving all these instances of fault takes longer and requires more effort. There may even be multiple claims, with each party trying to minimize their own exposure to liability.
Should your truck accident involve many vehicles, your California truck accident will examine each impact point and every driver’s behavior up to that point. With your attorney’s help, you can understand the chain of events more clearly and, therefore, argue more effectively for your owed portion of compensation.
Whether the Case Can Be Settled or Goes to Court
A California truck accident lawyer is more likely to file a lawsuit after a truck accident, compared to another type of auto accident, because of the factors outlined above. Namely, the parties involved may not be willing to hand over evidence unless forced to by a court order, and because the damages are potentially high, the at-fault party may be reluctant to make a reasonable settlement offer.
Filing a truck accident injury lawsuit provides many advantages in these types of scenarios. For one, it communicates how serious you are about recovering your damages.
For another, getting the courts involved allows you to file advantageous motions, such as a motion for discovery that legally compels the parties involved to openly share any evidence they have.
Because of the advantages a lawsuit can provide, claimants should not feel afraid to escalate their truck accident case to this level. In most cases, the goal is still to solicit a reasonable personal injury settlement, keeping the case out of court.
Nevertheless, if your case does proceed to a trial, you can rest assured that our California truck accident lawyers are prepared. At Hillstone Law Accident & Injury Attorneys, our attorneys have extensive trial experience.
Our lead attorney has even argued cases while representing insurance companies in the past. This unique perspective allows us to anticipate common defensive strategies and prepare the strongest possible case to present to a jury.
With a history of winning millions of dollars in settlements and trial verdicts, our California truck accident attorneys have a track record that should inspire you to feel both prepared and confident.
What Damages Can I Claim After My Truck Accident in California?
Your California truck accident lawyer will help you calculate all of the losses you have experienced, called “damages.”
These damages include fixed costs that can be calculated or reasonably predicted, such as medical bills, and non-material costs that nevertheless have an impact on your life, like your pain and suffering.
Common damages to claim after a California truck accident include:
- Past medical treatment expenses — Covers all billed amounts for the reasonable and necessary care of your truck accident injuries, including the cost of ambulance rides, emergency treatment, inpatient hospital stays, surgery, etc.
- Projected future medical treatment expenses — Your settlement (or court award) should include compensation for the anticipated cost of all future care, especially if you have developed a long-term or permanent condition.
- Lost wages — Compensates you for the money you could not earn because of your condition, as well as the future expected losses to your income
- Vehicle repairs and personal property replacement — Pays for the cost to repair or replace your vehicle as well as any property of significant value that was damaged in the accident.
- Out-of-pocket expenses — Covers any reasonable and necessary expenditures by the victim in connection with their truck accident and the resulting injuries, such as the cost of parking at a hospital deck while receiving inpatient treatments.
- Domestic services — Pays for the cost of replacing services the injury victim rendered to their household.
- Pain and suffering — Provides the injury victim with compensation for their unpleasant experiences and inability to participate in important activities.
- Wrongful death damages — These cover all of the above damages on behalf of the deceased victim’s estate while providing additional compensation to surviving loved ones, who must endure the loss of companionship and the mental anguish that comes with the passing of their loved one.
When calculating damages, it is critical to be thorough and to anticipate the total financial and mental burden of the accident.
Many times, injury victims will accept a low settlement offer, thinking that it adequately covers all of their current expenses. In reality, the cost of future care can be significantly high, as can the total financial impact of future lost wages.
Your California truck accident lawyer will consult with medical, economic, and billing experts to accurately predict your expected future damages and ensure that you are well-compensated for the total extent of losses you have endured.
How Do I Determine Who Was at Fault for a California Truck Accident?
To determine fault, your California truck accident lawyer will look at all available evidence. Typically, the case will be built on the legal concept of negligence.
Negligence states that the truck driver (or another party) had a duty of care that they breached, directly causing harm that resulted in damages.
Common Types of Negligence That Contribute to Truck Accidents in California
A review of truck accident data from the United States found that poor driver performance was the most common reason that a truck accident occurred. In fact, it was ten times more likely that driver error contributed to a truck accident compared to any other cause.
Examples of driver error include:
- Poor driving performance — The driver failed to turn properly, panicked, or failed to apply brakes in a way that could have otherwise prevented the accident
- Bad decision-making — Speeding, misjudging distance, and deciding to turn in front of traffic are all common examples
- Failure to recognize a hazard — Often caused by driver inattention and distractions inside or outside the vehicle
- Non-performance — Truck driver fatigue is a major problem, especially when they are encouraged to ignore hours of service regulations, often leading to the driver falling asleep at the wheel
- Poor driver training or hiring — Carriers are responsible for vetting the skills, experience, and driving history of their employees and contract workers.
- Equipment failure — This type of failure often occurs when the vehicle owner fails to have the vehicle properly inspected and maintained. They may have also held onto outdated equipment, which is in violation of regulations requiring compliance with the latest engineering standards and safety features.
- Substance abuse — A rampant problem in the trucking industry because drivers are encouraged to work long hours across many miles of highway, encouraging them to abuse substances to stay alert — despite the fact that doing so does not improve their ability to recognize hazards or respond to them.
Possible At-Fault Parties in a Truck Accident in California
Your truck accident injury claim will likely be filed against the employer of the driver who hit you. In addition to (or instead of) this company, your claim may involve the following types of at-fault parties:
- Independent owner-operators, if the driver owned their vehicle and worked as a legitimate contract services provider
- The manufacturer of a defective truck cab, trailer, or part
- A negligent truck maintenance company, if they failed to perform work as contracted
- The manufacturer of your vehicle, if a defect contributed to your accident or its severity
- The driver of another vehicle, if their actions caused the initial chain reaction or otherwise caused you to be hurt when you would not have otherwise
In situations where multiple parties contribute to fault, California’s true comparative negligence system will split liability for damages among them. Injury victims may, therefore, have to pursue multiple investigations and file multiple claims at once to ensure that they seek damages from the appropriate parties.
Disputing Independent Contractor Status in California
One common complication that arises during truck accidents is that the carrier claims the truck driver is an independent contractor, meaning the driver is not covered by their commercial insurance policy.
Fortunately, in California, legislators passed state laws that rigidly define when a service provider can be considered a contractor. Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) has a helpful “ABC” test to determine if the driver can legitimately be assigned contractor status in California.
To paraphrase, a truck driver can only be considered an independent contractor if:
- The carrier providing the contract does not strictly control or direct the driver in the performance of their work, either by the terms of the contract or by expectations stated outside of the contract language
- The driver “performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business“
- The driver regularly provides a similar service to the work being requested
Critically, most carrier companies violate the second part of the “ABC” test since their primary business is to haul goods. They are not eligible to provide contracts to independent drivers unless the route being requested is outside of the scope of their usual business.
The good news is that in the event the driver who hit you is an independent contractor, the company hiring them is responsible for ensuring that the driver carries the needed amount of commercial liability insurance. If not, then the company assumes direct liability for the contractor in the event of a truck accident.
How Common Are Truck Accidents in California?
Fatal truck accidents are, fortunately, rarer in California compared to accidents involving other types of road vehicles.
According to a statistical review by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), just 421 of the 6,214 fatal accidents in California in 2022 involved a large truck — 6.8% of the total. However, these California fatal truck accidents represent 7.2% of the total nationwide.
Even more concerning, the overwhelming majority of fatal truck accident victims were occupants of other vehicles. Of the 436 total truck accident fatalities recorded, 319 (73%) were drivers or passengers of another vehicle.
76 were non-occupants, meaning pedestrians or bicyclists — placing California as among the top three deadliest states for these types of truck accidents.
Common Mistakes to Avoid After a California Truck Accident
When you have been involved in a truck accident in California, it’s easy to switch to autopilot mode and let your reactions take over. Unfortunately, this mode can also lead to critical mistakes that affect your likelihood of a successful claim.
To maximize your chances of succeeding in a personal injury claim after your truck accident, try to avoid the following mistakes:
- Delaying medical care — Seek medical care as soon as possible after the truck accident to diagnose your injuries and ensure that you aren’t overlooking anything. Ideally, you will call paramedics to the scene of the collision to evaluate you and, if needed, transport you to a nearby hospital.
- Not mentioning your truck accident during a medical exam — Make sure your doctor knows that you were involved in a truck accident and that it is documented on your medical chart.
- Not getting the truck driver’s insurance information at the scene — If you neglected to gather the needed information, get a copy of your police accident report to see if it is listed. You can also obtain this information directly from the trucking carrier in some instances.
- If you cannot find this information, your truck accident attorney can try to obtain it for you.
- Disclosing too much to the insurance company — Share only the information needed to start a claim at the onset of your recovery process. You want to know the full prognosis for your injury so that you can estimate the total treatment cost.
- You also want to avoid disclosing any information that can be used to allege that you were liable, in part or in full, for the truck accident’s circumstances. Defer conversations with an attorney to avoid making these common mistakes.
Call a California Truck Accident Law Firm That Wants to Fight for You
When you have been hurt, call the California truck accident law firm that is willing to fight aggressively on your behalf. Call Hillstone Law Accident & Injury Attorneys today to speak to us for free during a confidential case evaluation.
Our services come at no up-front cost, and you won’t pay anything unless we are able to secure a settlement or court award for you.
Schedule your free consultation with an experienced California truck accident attorney team today when you call (855) 604-4641 or contact us online.
