Truck Accident Lawyers Chattanooga

Trucks are required to carry higher amounts of insurance coverage. The drivers must also meet higher safety standards than other vehicle drivers. Trucks travel in interstate commerce and therefore, are subject to many federal regulations that do not apply to other vehicles. Trucking companies also have a responsibility to perform background checks prior to hiring drivers and must periodically evaluate existing employees.

Drivers are subject to limits on the number of hours they can drive in a given day. Drivers are also subject to testing for drugs and alcohol, both randomly and in the event of an accident. Violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation Act can provide the basis for establishing fault on the part of the trucking company and its driver.

The average commercial truck weighs 80,000 pounds, while the average passenger vehicle is only about 5,000 pounds. The vast size difference puts the occupants of the other vehicles at far greater risk of serious injury.

The injured victim, and in some cases their spouse. In a Georgia, in a truck accident wrongful death action, the widow of the victim on behalf of all family members or one of his children. In Tennessee, in a wrongful death action, the executor of the victim’s estate.

The driver, owner of the tractor-trailer, owner of the trailer and the company identified on the trailer even if it is someone other than the owner and driver. In some circumstances the loading facility that placed the contents in the trailer and possibly the owner of the contents of the trailer.

Investigation is extremely important in all cases, but even more so in truck cases. Drivers must keep a log and by law may only drive a certain number of hours per day. So, it is important to establish whether the driver properly kept the log and whether the driver had not exceeded the allotted hours of driving time when the accident occurred. Violation of these standards may impose additional liability on the truck. They can be difficult to discover if you do not have a Chattanooga truck accident lawyer investigate immediately.

Every trucking case should have experts to assist an investigation and to analyze the information for potential testimony on liability. It is also important to employ experts in order to undermine trucking company positions that they regularly conducted safety inspections or their driver properly kept driving logs.

In a death case, both Georgia and Tennessee trucking case law allow the family to recover damages for loss of care, comfort, support and guidance the victim would have provided his family. Additionally, Georgia and Tennessee law allows the victim’s family to recover any medical bills, the victim’s pain and suffering and the victim’s future loss of earnings.

In a personal injury case, the injured victim can recover for pain, disability, emotional distress, loss of earnings, loss of earning capacity, and any uncompensated medical bills.

The statute of limitation for a Georgia personal injury claim is two years. In Tennessee, it is only one year.

According to recent data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), large trucks are responsible for 55 percent of all car accidents on U. S. roadways and 44 percent of two-vehicle crashes between trucks and other motor vehicles.

• Driver actions or errors were responsible in 87 percent of these cases, according to the data. Examples include:
• Driving too fast for road conditions
• Falling asleep behind the wheel
• Distracted driving
• Panic and poor directional control
• Defective vehicle parts
• Poor maintenance

In addition, the NHTSA listed brake problems as the most common associated risk factor in truck accidents. The NHTSA found in 2,000 cases environmental factors (e.g., rain, snow) as the critical cause of the collisions.

There is no guarantee of how long it will take to reach a settlement in a truck accident case. It could be several months or years, depending on if the case goes to trial.

However, it is safe to say that your case will most likely settle if you hire an experienced Chattanooga truck injury lawyer. That’s because insurance companies know that trials are more expensive and riskier. It’s in their favor to place a full and fair settlement offer on the table before going to court.

With that said, expect the negotiations process to go on for a while. Most insurance companies do not agree to settlements until they see a real risk of going to trial. For this reason, it is common for an insurance company to make a good settlement offer right before the trial begins.

For your Georgia or Tennessee trucking accident case, you should contact a Chattanooga trucking accident lawyer as soon as possible. Dennis and King will give you a free strategy session. So, you have nothing to lose by contacting an attorney early on. The down side to not contacting an attorney is that evidence may be lost or destroyed. The longer you wait to retain an experienced Chattanooga trucking accident lawyer, the harder it is for an attorney and their investigators to piece together the facts.

You should not accept an insurance company’s initial offer after a truck accident. These types of cases often result in catastrophic trauma, with physical, financial and emotional wounds that can last a lifetime.

It’s practically guaranteed that you are entitled to more compensation than what the insurance company initially offers you. It is very important that you do not focus only on your existing bills when you are weighing a settlement offer from an insurance company. Consider how many future bills you will be facing.

Most initial settlement offers from insurance companies do not account for the future, and people who accept such settlements only learn later that they will be responsible for paying all of those expenses out of their own pockets. You should decline any settlement offer and let a lawyer negotiate a more suitable settlement for you.

Sharing fault in the crash does not necessarily prohibit you from recovering compensation, but it could certainly affect the amount you are ultimately awarded. Georgia and Tennessee use a modified comparative negligence standard in personal injury cases. This means their degree of fault limits a person’s recovery. So, if you were responsible for 50% or more of the accident, you get nothing.

The good news is that under this rule, it’s possible that you could recover some money regardless of your degree of fault as long as your fault does not exceed 49%. For example, if a jury awards you $100,000 in a truck accident, but the jury finds you are 20% at fault, the jury will reduce your award by $20,000 dollars and you would ultimately receive $80,000 dollars.