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Trucking accidents are some of the most dangerous vehicular collisions that can occur on the roads of Indiana. In Hammond, we live in an area with some of the highest levels of interstate truck traffic in the country, including on I94 and I90/Indiana Toll Road. As residents know, heavy truck traffic is not just confined to interstates, but is also heavy on US 41 and other around Hammond. This significantly increases the risk of injury from an 18-wheeler.
Injury victims deserve to know their legal options for recovery if another party’s negligence caused their truck accident. Liability for truck accidents may lie with the truck driver. However, the trucking company responsible for them will often be liable if their negligence contributed to the accident. You can pursue damages from these parties for all of your harms, such as medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
If you need dedicated and experienced legal counsel, look no further than the Hammond truck accident attorneys at Wruck Paupore. Just by calling our offices today at (219) 322-1166, we will provide you an initial case assessment for free so that you understand how to best protect your future.
When you are injured in an accident involving a truck in Indiana, several parties could be to blame for causing the collision. Figuring out who was at fault will be the first task you and your Hammond truck accident attorney take on when preparing your lawsuit.
If driver negligence caused your accident, you will need to identify whether the truck driver was a traditional employee of a trucking company or an independent contractor. When a trucking employee is driving their rig while on the job, they are typically agents of their employer. In these situations, you may be able to name the trucking company that they work for in your lawsuit, which may be a more lucrative path for recovery.
On the other hand, independent contractors are not employees in the traditional sense. Rather, they are viewed by law as “self-employed.” Independent contractors typically work flexible hours for multiple companies and often share in the contract for hauling a load. This differs from a traditional employee, whose schedule is predetermined by the company that employs them and who are paid W2 wages with income tax withholding.
Regardless of whether the driver is an employee or an independent contractor, they must possess special commercial auto insurance that will kick in to cover your damages if they cause your accident.
Trucking companies are bound by requirements of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation which dictate the safe operation of their business and regulate the interstate trucking industry. These regulations affect how the trucking company hires, trains, and schedules drivers. Trucking companies may be liable if they violate these regulations by failing to screen candidates for their driving history, not providing adequate training on the safe operation of the rig, or overscheduling drivers, which can lead to sleep deprivation or speeding to meet a deadline.
Trucking companies are also required to maintain their vehicles and institute regular inspection protocols to identify potential issues on the rig. For instance, if an underinflated tire blows out on the highway and causes an accident, the trucking company may be liable for not taking reasonable steps to discover and fix the issue. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) provide very technical requirements which are very often at issue in semi-truck injury cases.
In some circumstances, liability may extend to other individuals or entities other than the truck driver or the trucking company. Manufacturing defects in the vehicles or their individual parts may cause accidents, placing liability for the consequences with the manufacturer. A reasonably prudent truck driver may become involved in a multi-car accident through another driver's negligent or reckless actions. Likewise, loads on open bed trucks may come loose and cause injury, which could be the fault of the company packaging and loading the materials rather than the truck driver, depending on the circumstance.
If you were involved in an accident involving a truck, contact your Hammond truck accident attorney as soon as possible, as these cases are typically complicated and require Tim to investigate to make certain all potentially responsible parties are identified and held accountable. The more time we have to investigate before legal deadlines, the greater your likelihood of recovery.
If you are successful in your lawsuit against the party that caused your truck accident, you may recover compensation based on the physical, emotional, and financial consequences that you suffered as a result. This compensation, known as damages, will be hard to calculate on your own, so we recommend enlisting the experienced eye of one of our Hammond truck accident lawyers to help you.
Medical expenses might be the first item you would look to get covered after a truck accident left you injured. Compensation for medical care will extend to every aspect of your care related to the injuries you suffered in the accident. This will include everything from surgeries to hospital stays to physical therapy. Even ambulance rides and hospital parking fees will count towards calculating your damages, so your Hammond truck accident lawyer will want to keep a detailed record of everything spent to care for your injuries. These costs are part of your damages even if you have third-party health insurance or Medicare or Medicaid.
Importantly, if you are seriously injured, many of your health care costs will occur in the future. Although you have not yet incurred these costs, they are recoverable. We use skilled vocational experts, economists, and Life Care Planners in order to calculate the future cost of care, which is extremely important in these cases.
Truck accident injury victims are often forced to miss at least some time at their job while recuperating from their injuries. Damages will include the wages that you miss out on during this time, as well as lost benefits and any lost chances for promotion. Suppose your injuries indefinitely or permanently impair your ability to do your job. In that case, your compensation may reflect all of your future lost wages, the costs of retraining, and many other costs related to your lost or reduced earning capacity.
In many of our serious trucking accident cases, these losses total in the millions of dollars because they occur over the entire future lifetime of the injured party. We consult with some of the top experts in this area, because defendant truck companies often falsely claim that our clients are capable of returning to work even when professional vocational experts testify under oath that they are not. Because our client’s entire future is at stake in these cases, we do everything within our power to recover both past and future lost earnings.
Not all of the consequences of a truck accident can be easily calculated, including the incident’s impact on your quality of life and those of your loved ones. Indiana law recognizes your right to be compensated for these losses, called non-economic damages, that account for the personal harms that the victim has and will continue to deal with throughout their recovery and beyond. Chronic pain, loss of enjoyment of life, and resulting psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder may influence a court’s determination of noneconomic damages.
Filing a lawsuit may be the best opportunity to recover compensation for what someone else’s negligent behavior has cost you. However, this opportunity does not last forever. According to Indiana’s statute of limitations for personal injury lawsuits, you must file your suit within two years of the date of the accident. Unless you meet one of the very few exceptions to the statute of limitations, a failure to meet the deadline will result in you losing your case.
Our experienced and proven Hammond truck accident attorneys can provide you with a free initial case assessment when you call our offices today at (219) 322-1166.
Don is a founding partner and one of the nation’s top-ranked personal injury litigators. He is a member of the Multi-million Dollar Advocates Forum, which includes less than 1% of the nation’s trial lawyers, and awarded the highest ranking given by Martindale Hubbel and AVVO.
More importantly, Don understands representing personal injury victims is about more than recovering the best settlement: it’s about helping clients get back on their feet and supporting them in every aspect of their recovery.
In nearly all cases, our clients seek compensation from the wrongdoer’s insurance company. Before forming Wruck Paupore, Jason worked for a prominent law firm representing some of the world’s largest insurers. This experience gives Jason a deep understanding of the insurance industry and the strategies it uses to pay injury victims as little as possible.
Jason -- and our entire team -- put this inside knowledge to work to force insurance companies to pay what is actually owed. Often, we use the insurance company’s own tactics against them as we fight for the full compensation our client deserves.
For more than four decades, Keith has been fighting for injury victims. During that time, he’s watched the insurance industry change, with insurers now more interested in protecting their stock price than treating injury victims fairly.
Since the beginning, Keith has put people first. From his childhood in Gary, Indiana during the 1960’s and working his way through law school, Keith has risen to become one of the Midwest’s most respected trial lawyers. He has never forgotten that being a lawyer is about helping people -- and seeing injury victims through struggles in a way that could change their lives forever.
Over the decades, Keith, Don and Jason have fought relentlessly for clients, even when other lawyers have said the case was impossible to win.
Contact Us:
Wruck Paupore P.C.
Injury Lawyers
275 Joliet St. Suite #250
Dyer, IN 46311
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