Truck Accident Lawyer

If you’ve recently been injured in an accident involving a large truck and your travel was work-related to any degree, it is particularly important that you speak with an attorney urgently. Certainly, all track accident injury victims can benefit from speaking with a lawyer promptly in the wake of an accident. Doing so allows law firms to preserve potentially important evidence immediately and to begin aggressively advocating on behalf of a victim’s rights with insurance companies, opposing counsel, and other interested parties. But, what makes work-related truck accidents particularly time-sensitive is the potential that the victim in question may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits.

Workers’ Compensation Benefits Claim Process

An experienced truck accident lawyer can explain this in more detail but the workers’ compensation benefits application process is among the most time-sensitive opportunities for compensation that are available to accident victims. In many states, accident victims are only given a few days to start this process in highly-specific ways before they’re barred from seeking this form of compensation at all. Meaning, if you don’t work fast, you may not be able to receive benefits that would otherwise be rightfully yours.

If your injuries were very minor and you won’t need more than a few days off of work to recover, your case is low-stakes enough that you could opt to navigate the benefits application process without much help. However, if your injuries were extensive and/or will impact your ability to return to work for some time, it is important to involve a lawyer from the start. All too often, victims of catastrophic accidents fail to seek legal guidance until their claims have been denied or undervalued. By connecting with an attorney from the start, you’ll be ideally positioned to receive the maximum value of benefits you’re owed without delay.

Personal Injury Lawsuit Process

If you’re eligible for workers’ compensation benefits – as most full-time and part-time employees are – you won’t be able to sue your employer directly in civil court. This is because employers who pay into the workers’ compensation system are protected from liability in the event that their eligible employees suffer work-related harm. However, you – like independent contractors and anyone else who is ineligible for workers’ comp coverage – may be in a position to sue others who caused or contributed to the causes of your harm.

Generally speaking, workers can sue anyone (other than their employers under the circumstances explained above) whose negligent, reckless, or intentionally dangerous conduct caused or contributed to the cause(s) of their harm. This is often true even if the injured worker in question also contributed to the causes of their harm.

Common defendants named in truck accident lawsuits include other drivers, trucking companies that employ truckers (unless named as a defendant by their employees), manufacturers of defective motor vehicle parts, government agencies, and companies responsible for safe loading and unloading of freight.