When trucks have accidents, the results can be devastating. About 200 people die in truck accidents yearly in Georgia, and many suffer emotional distress and severe injuries that need years of costly rehabilitation, therapy, and treatment. Some semi-truck accidents cause lifelong disabilities that leave victims unable to work.
You do not have to face these overwhelming costs alone. A truck accident attorney in Lawrenceville can help. John Foy & Associates Lawrenceville personal injury lawyers have been helping clients for more than two decades, growing from a small local law office into one of America’s largest and most respected personal injury firms.
What Kind of Truck Accidents Can I Sue for?
In any personal injury case, you can sue for damages when someone else’s negligence caused them. That means you can file a claim if you were in a truck accident because a driver disobeyed traffic laws, wasn’t paying attention, or behaved recklessly otherwise.
In a commercial truck accident, due to their commercial driver’s licenses (CDL), truck drivers often have more responsibilities on the road than other drivers.
Many things can go wrong on the road, especially with large semi-trucks or tractor-trailers, so there’s no definitive list of truck and auto accidents you can sue for. However, there are some common types of crashes that we help get compensation for, including:
- Jackknife accidents
- Head-on collisions
- Rear-end collisions
- Rollover accidents
- Tire blowouts
- Blind spot crashes
If you’ve been in any of those accidents and you believe the other driver was at fault, you could be able to pursue financial compensation for your damages.
If you’re unsure whether you have a valid personal injury claim, you can always get a free consultation with one of our experienced truck accident lawyers in Lawrenceville. They can listen to your story and tell you the next steps.
Common Causes of Truck Crashes
No two truck accidents are alike, which means the cause of your crash could have been any number of things. Sometimes, it’s apparent what happened. But sometimes, you’re left wondering what went wrong. In general, common causes of trucking accidents include:
- Truck drivers asleep at the wheel
- Drunk driving
- Reckless driving
- Aggressive driving
- Distracted driving
- Speeding
- Brake failure
- Poor road conditions
The only way to get to the bottom of what happened is to investigate the accident and collect evidence. Our car crash attorneys know what to look for and have years of experience with truck accidents. If negligence can be established, we can build a strong case to prove that you are owed compensation.
Why Are Semi-truck Accidents Worse Than Other Kinds of Accidents?
Semi-trucks are larger than everything else on the road, making them especially deadly in accidents. An 18-wheeler carrying a full load weighs as much as 40 tons, compared to two tons for an average car. The sheer mass gives a big truck the potential to cause serious damage.18-wheelers have other qualities that make them dangerous. In some situations:
- Trucks have difficulty making quick and sudden stops
- Truck drivers are often unable to see everything around them
- Some trucks carry hazardous or flammable substances
- Trucks are prone to “jackknifing” and tipping over
Semi-truck drivers, in general, are good drivers who take their job seriously but are also forced to put in long hours behind the wheel. A tired driver is often a contributing factor in a semi-truck accident.
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Who Is Liable in a Truck Crash?
At first glance, it might seem like the commercial vehicle driver is the only one responsible for your crash. However, because of the complicated nature of commercial trucks, their mechanical workings, and the duties of a truck driver, others might be at fault for your accident.
Liable parties in a truck crash can include:
- Negligent drivers
- Carriers (e.g., the company that hires the driver)
- Companies whose products are being carried
- Manufacturing companies
- Local governments responsible for road upkeep
Their company may be liable if a driver is too tired or overworked to drive because of poor management. If a manufacturer produces a faulty car part, they may be liable. Any party who is negligent while putting the truck and their driver on the road can be liable for your damages.
However, even if the other party was mostly responsible for your crash in Georgia, you may be found liable. Georgia is a contributory negligence state, meaning any fault you had in the crash can affect your compensation, according to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) § 51-12-3.
For example, if you were 20% at fault for the accident, and your compensation would be $10,000, it would be reduced by $2,000.
Thankfully, our team of truck accident attorneys in Lawrenceville knows what to do to prove that you were purely a victim. By gathering the right evidence and building a strong case, we can show that the other party, whether the truck driver or trucking company, or both, was 100% negligent.
What Costs Can I Recover If I Am in a Truck Accident in Lawrenceville?
You are entitled to recover 100% of your costs and related expenses from a truck accident in the City of Lawrenceville. We typically ask for these costs:
- Doctor, hospital, emergency room, and other medical expenses
- Prescription drug costs
- The cost of therapy, including long term physical and rehabilitative therapy
- Car repair costs, or the cost of replacing a totaled car (property damages)
- Wages lost if you missed work because of the accident
Our goal is to help you regain your health as much as possible. This means having enough money to continue with your treatment for as long as you need it, even if that means years of ongoing therapies and procedures.
We won’t pressure you to make a quick deal with the insurance company. We want you to get a full evaluation by qualified doctors who can assess the true extent of your injuries. Then, one of our personal injury lawyers will work hard to get the insurance company to pay you the actual cost of your injuries.
Should I Get a Truck Accident Lawyer in Lawrenceville, GA for a Truck Collision?
Insurance companies want you to think they are a good friend who will be there in times of need. Unfortunately, the reality is often quite different. Insurance companies are run for profit, and they are financially motivated to offer accident victims the least amount of money they can get away with.
All too often, we receive a call from an accident victim who took the insurance company’s first offer and then discovered that they would need much more treatment than they thought, at a cost far greater than the insurance company check.
When you hire a truck accident law firm in Lawrenceville, you have a team of professionals who understand how insurance companies work and the games they like to play. More importantly, we know how to force them to negotiate.
At John Foy & Associates, we start by learning about your accident. We send out an accident investigator to collect evidence that allows us to make a strong case for you. When the insurance company sees this, it will often offer more money right away.
What Can a Truck Accident Attorney in Lawrenceville Do for Me?
The first thing that a Lawrenceville truck accident attorney will do is listen. They will meet with you for an initial consultation and after they’ve heard what happened to you, they will get to work to procure the fair compensation you deserve.
Services that our truck accident attorneys can provide include:
Gathering Evidence
The first step to proving that you were the victim of negligence is finding evidence of what happened during your accident. Without solid evidence, you can never convince the insurance company or the courts that you deserve maximum compensation.
Evidence that your personal injury attorney might gather includes:
- Pictures of the accident scene
- Witness statements
- Police reports
- Expert testimony
- Surveillance video
- Medical documentation
- Driving records
To help your attorney with this process, you can start by taking your own pictures or videos and getting the contact information of any witnesses. You should also write down your account of what happened before, during, and after your accident. The evidence can be as fresh as possible before memory fades.
Calculating Your Damages
It’s also very important to show exactly how much you’re owed for your accident. That means your lawyer will have to calculate your damages and show them to the insurance company.
To do that, they will use your medical bills and other receipts related to your accident. That means whatever treatments you get, make sure to get documentation of them. Your lawyer will use that to show what you’ve paid, and even what you’re likely to pay in the future.
Negotiating With the Insurance Company
After an accident, the other party, their lawyer, and the insurance company will all want to reduce the amount of compensation you get. To do that, they will try to trick you, bully you, or twist your words so that you will have to accept a reduced settlement.
A truck accident attorney in Lawrenceville, GA can protect you from that. Our team knows what to say and do to negotiate the best possible settlement with the insurance company and keep them from taking advantage of you.
Will I Have to Go to Court for My Truck Accident Claim?
Most truck accident victims never have to sue someone or appear in court. Typically, after our investigators gather crucial evidence and doctors have evaluated you, we show the insurance company that you are not legally at fault and explain how much your injuries will cost.
This proves to the insurance company that we have a strong case and could potentially win in court. Insurance companies don’t want to go to court any more than you do, so they usually offer a significant amount of money after seeing our crucial evidence.
But sometimes the insurance company is stubborn. When that happens, we will explain the legal process and your options. If you choose to file a lawsuit and go to the local Gwinnett County courts, our top-notch litigation team can take care of your case from start to finish.
What Is the Statute of Limitations for a Truck Accident Claim in Georgia?
After a motor vehicle collision with a truck, you only have a set amount of time to file your claim. In most cases that amount of time is two years after your crash with a trucking company. However, there are sometimes factors that can shorten that length of time, sometimes to mere weeks after your accident.
Regardless of how much time you have to file, it’s always best to contact your attorney as soon as possible. The longer you wait to start on your claim, the harder it is to gather convincing pieces of evidence and the less likely you are to get the fair compensation you need.
What does a Truck Accident Lawyer Cost in Lawrenceville?
You won’t pay anything upfront when you hire our Lawrenceville truck accident lawyers. We know you’ve been injured, and this isn’t the right time to charge you an hourly fee for our work. So, we have put together a system that makes our services easy to afford:
- Your first consultation is free
- You will never pay anything out of pocket
- You don’t pay us at all unless we win you money
If we get you a financial recovery, we will take our fee as a percentage of your money. To us, this is the fairest system for our injured clients.
Talk to a Lawrenceville Truck Accident Attorney for Free
Don’t wait to get legal representation if you’ve been injured in a motor vehicle collision with a truck. There are strict deadlines for filing claims in Georgia. And if you miss the deadline, you may be out of luck. But we can help.
The Lawrenceville truck accident lawyers at John Foy & Associates will talk to you about your accident for FREE, and we’ll help you decide what to do next. We know that your treatment and healing process might take a long time, and we are committed to getting you a full financial recovery that will pay all your costs.
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