Any car accident can have a serious impact on your life, but an accident involving a delivery truck can mean severe injuries and a complicated path to compensation. Injuries from a truck accident can mean missing weeks or months of work, incurring major medical bills, and suffering significant pain. Depending on the details of the situation, you could qualify for compensation to cover any or all of these expenses. This compensation can help you pay your bills and alleviate financial stress so that you can focus on recovering from your injuries.
Seeking compensation after an accident with a delivery truck can be especially challenging. First, your injuries are likely to be more serious because a larger vehicle was involved. Then, figuring out who was responsible can be more difficult because the truck is owned by a company, not the driver. Working with a Sacramento delivery truck accident lawyer can help you navigate this situation and increase your chances of receiving the compensation you deserve.
Because the delivery driver’s employer generally owns the truck, liability and claims are more complicated in a delivery truck accident than in a crash between two individual drivers. In many cases, the driver and the shipping company share responsibility. Other parties, like loading and unloading services or maintenance companies, may also carry some responsibility.
When seeking compensation, you’ll need to demonstrate that the truck driver or someone else was negligent and that this caused the accident. For someone to behave negligently, they need to have a legal duty to act a certain way and fail to meet that standard because of carelessness or recklessness. For a delivery driver, there are a number of ways to be considered negligent. These include drowsy or distracted driving, speeding, running a stop sign, or changing lanes without signaling. These can all mean a driver is legally responsible for an accident.
Delivery trucks may be owned by a retailer, a shipping company, or a third-party logistics company. Regardless, the company’s actions and policies could mean they’re fully or partially responsible for an accident. For example, if a driver was speeding but did so because they were trying to meet an unreasonable delivery quota, the company could be partially responsible. The company could also be responsible for things like unaddressed maintenance problems, not providing enough time for rest between shifts, or other contributing factors.
Accidents can be complex, and that means the injured party sometimes shares responsibility. Maybe you were speeding or looking at your phone while the delivery driver changed lanes without signaling. California uses a pure comparative negligence system in these situations. This means that you can still receive some compensation for your injuries even if you were partially at fault. However, a court will determine how much responsibility you had as a percentage and reduce your award by that percentage. For example, if you were found to be 25% responsible, you would only receive 75% of the damages you would otherwise be awarded.
After an accident, you generally begin the process of seeking compensation by filing a claim with the other driver’s insurance company. As the other driver was driving as part of their job, even identifying the relevant insurance company becomes much more complicated. Your Sacramento delivery truck accident attorney can look at your case and identify which parties may be responsible.
After filing your claim, there will usually be some negotiation with the insurance company. The insurance company will have its own lawyers, and attempting to negotiate on your own can put you at a disadvantage. A business’s insurer, especially if the delivery driver works for a large company, will be even more prepared to use all possible strategies to minimize the amount it needs to pay. Having your own attorney to negotiate on your behalf increases your chances of a successful outcome.
Finally, most cases settle before going to court, but it’s important to be prepared for a trial if it becomes necessary. A Sacramento delivery truck accident lawyer will already be familiar with every nuance of your case if you do need to go to court. Hiring an attorney means you can focus on your recovery without needing to add worries about the claims process.
Jonathan M. Kashani is the founder of Kash Legal Group, specializing in personal injury law with a commitment to providing personalized client services and high-quality legal representation. He holds a Juris Doctorate with honors from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law and is admitted to practice in all state courts of California and the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
As online shopping becomes more and more popular, there are a growing number of delivery trucks on the road. If you’re involved in an accident with one of these vehicles, seeking compensation can be challenging. The larger vehicle size means a higher likelihood of serious injuries, and determining liability can easily become complicated, especially if the driver and their employer share responsibility.
Working with a Scararmento attorney with experience with delivery truck accident cases will increase the odds of a positive outcome. The Kash Legal team is prepared to advocate for you. Call us at 888-527-4128 or fill out our contact form to schedule a free consultation today.
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