In the wake of a serious truck accident, you need to figure out a way to cover your expenses. While this certainly includes those tied to your medical care and rehabilitation, you’re also going to need money to pay your rent or mortgage, your car loan, and your grocery and utility bills. All of that can add up over time, too, threatening to throw you into a state of financial chaos.
Fortunately, you can avoid that outcome if you successfully pursue a personal injury lawsuit against both the trucker who caused your wreck and their employer. After all, an employer can be held liable for the actions of its employee if the worker was performing their job duties at the time of the accident and the employer derived some sort of benefit from those activities.
But as you navigate your personal injury case, you’re bound to face a number of legal challenges. Many of these will come from the truck company since they have the most to lose in one of these cases.
How is a truck company going to fight back against your case?
Truck companies are aggressive in protecting their interests. Therefore, they’re going to raise any defense that they can to try to avoid as much liability as possible. Here are some ways that they do that:
- Present evidence that you’re to blame: Even if you win your personal injury case, your ultimate recovery can be reduced if you’re found to have contributed to the accident in some fashion. A truck company is going to latch onto this, gathering and presenting every shred of evidence that it can find to draw your driving actions into question. To avoid this from happening, make sure you have a realistic picture of your driving behavior leading up to the accident and how to minimize any appearance of fault.
- Throw the trucker under the bus: Even if it’s clear that the trucker who caused your crash is 100% to blame, the truck company may be able to fend off liability if it can show that the trucker was engaged in activity outside the scope of their employment when the accident occurred. This can happen when the trucker is off the clock and merely engaging in personal activities or when the trucker takes a detour for their own pleasure and that takes them off of their delivery route. Here, make sure you obtain trucking logs to gain a clear sense of what the trucker was doing in the moments leading up to the accident.
- Accuse another driver: If your wreck involved multiple vehicles, then the truck company is probably going to try to blame the crash on other drivers, too. These cases can get complicated, which is why it might be helpful to have an accident reconstruction conducted. That way you’ll have an expert opinion as to how the accident occurred and which drivers’ negligence contributed to its causation.
Know how to protect your claim throughout the legal process
If you’re unprepared when you go into the legal arena, then you can be thrown off by unexpected defense arguments. And if these defenses are improperly handled, then your entire claim may be in jeopardy.
Don’t let that happen. Be in the strongest position you can be in when heading into your case by being as fully prepared as possible. This includes anticipating the defenses that you might face and being armed with effective counterarguments.
This is a stressful time in your life, and the legal process may leave you feeling overwhelmed. But you can ease the burden by seeking out legal assistance with your claim. So, if you’re interested in having an advocate by your side, then now may be the best time for you reach out to a legal team of your choosing.