North Bergen Truck Accident Attorney
Truck crashes are some of the worst types of accidents you can be involved in. Due to the massive weight and force of 18-wheelers and other oversize commercial vehicles, their impacts on passenger cars can cause catastrophic injuries and high fatality rates.
If you survive the crash, you may be facing a long and painful recovery, permanent disability affecting your ability to work and enjoy life, and massive medical bills that keep piling up. If you lost a loved one to a truck collision, your grief may be heightened by the knowledge that their death was preventable and only occurred because of the other driver’s negligence.
It’s easy to feel powerless in the wake of a serious accident, but it’s important to remember that you have rights under the law to pursue justice against the responsible party. Harrell Law Firm can guide you through this process and fight for the full compensation you deserve. We have the resources and experience to fully investigate your case, identify all liable parties, and hold them to account for all of the damages you are entitled to. Which personal injury lawyer you choose to represent you will go a long way to determining a positive outcome and helping you move on to the next chapter of your life. Schedule a free consultation with our legal team and learn more about our long track record of success in handling cases just like yours.
How a North Bergen Truck Accident Lawyer Help You?
To get the settlement you deserve after a truck accident, it’s important to have a law firm on your side with proven experience handling these kinds of cases. Insurance companies will try to limit their payouts by downplaying the total medical cost of your injuries. We can counter these arguments with expert witnesses and forensic accountants who will build a more accurate picture of the total damages you will accrue not just now but well into the future. If your injury makes it so that you are incapable of working, for example, we will calculate not only the wages you are missing out on in the short-term, but also future wages and salary increases that you would have been expected to earn if not for your disability.
To win truck accident cases, you need strong legal arguments backed by evidence. Harrell Law Firm understands the complexities and unique issues involved in investigating truck crashes and gathering evidence to prove liability. For example, it’s not enough just to claim that a truck driver was fatigued but negligently continued to stay behind the wheel, causing the accident. We must provide evidence to show clearly that this was so. Our investigative team can obtain trucking company records and employee time logs, subpoena the truck’s GPS or “black box,” or secure credit card statements to track the driver’s route and determine how long they were on the road without a break.
It’s not easy to collect this information on your own, which is why it’s important to have a law firm with investigative skills and resources to gather the necessary evidence to prove fault.
Insurers and their deep-pocketed legal teams will invariably try to shift blame for the crash away from their clients and onto you. That’s why we work with professional crash reconstructionists who can examine all the forensic evidence in minute detail to show what really happened.
At Harrell Law Firm, our efforts are always focused on how we can help improve your quality of life in the face of physical, emotional, and financial hardship.
Common Truck Accident Injuries
Passenger vehicle safety features rarely offer sufficient protection when a car is hit by a truck. Serious injuries that can result from a big rig collision include:
- Traumatic head injuries
- Spinal cord injuries, including paralysis (quadriplegia or paraplegia)
- Dismemberment
- Severe scarring or burns
- Broken, crushed, or shattered bones
These types of injuries may require years of medical treatment, and some are permanent. That can mean hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in medical costs and lost wages. Without a Harrell Law Firm truck accident attorney representing you, an insurance company might not offer you enough compensation to cover extensive injuries.
Wrongful Death
If your loved one was in a truck accident and did not survive, you or your family members might be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Depending on the circumstances of the accident and your relationship with your loved one, you may be eligible to get compensation for things like funeral and burial costs, lost future wages, and loss of services, such as childcare.
If you have questions about a loved one’s death, consult with a truck accident attorney from Harrell Law Firm in North Bergen, New Jersey. We’ll determine whether you have a claim and how to best pursue it.
Liability in Truck Accidents
New Jersey is a no-fault state. This means that drivers are compensated to a certain extent for medical bills and lost wages through their own personal injury protection (PIP) insurance, no matter who was at fault for the crash.
However, you might still be able to sue any liable parties for losses you sustained that go above and beyond what your PIP insurance policy will cover. Depending on the circumstances of your crash, liable parties may include:
- The trucking company and its insurance provider
- The truck driver
- Vehicle parts manufacturers or maintenance crews
- Other motorists on the road
- Road construction contractors
- Municipalities in the case where poor road conditions or signage contributed to the crash
Truckers and trucking companies may be at fault for several reasons. For one, truckers often work long hours, resulting in their being fatigued at the wheel. They also have worse sightlines and blind spots than other drivers. In some cases, they may even be acting irresponsibly, perhaps by speeding or using the truck in non-work capacities.
The trucking company might be legally liable if the truck was not maintained properly, the dispatcher implemented unreasonable driver schedules, or the trucker caused an accident while performing their typical scope of work.
Liability can be very difficult to determine, so your best option is to discuss it with your truck accident lawyer to identify which parties may be at fault.
Compensation From a Truck Accident Claim
If you’re hurt in an accident, you may be entitled to both economic and non-economic damages, supplementing your PIP coverage and ensuring your financial needs are met.
Economic Damages
Economic damages represent enumerable costs or expenses resulting from the accident, such as:
- All current and future medical bills
- Lost wages
- Therapy and rehabilitation
- Damage to your vehicle
Keep in mind that insurance providers have a financial incentive to undervalue your economic damages. It isn’t uncommon for an insurance company to deny parts of a claim or make a lowball offer that doesn’t cover all costs.
That’s why working with an experienced truck accident attorney is vital — we can recognize undervalued offers and pursue the full extent of the compensation you are owed. Truck wreck lawyers from Harrell Law Firm have experience successfully negotiating for victims and protecting them from predatory insurance companies.
Non-Economic Damages
New Jersey law allows you to get compensation for the pain and suffering that you endure after a serious injury resulting from someone else’s negligence. However, you can’t recover this from your own PIP, and there is no definitive way to determine the value of this type of harm. You can’t, for example, produce a receipt for the pain you suffered.
That’s why calculating the value of these damages can be quite complicated. Some formulas have been developed to assist in this area, but they often fail to consider the full scope of an individual’s unique situation. Our attorneys can help you pursue an appropriate amount to compensate for these more subjective losses.
Harrell Law Firm Seeks Justice for You
If you were seriously injured in a truck accident in North Bergen, contact Harrell Law Firm immediately to schedule a free consultation. We’ll explore your legal options, give you an honest assessment of the value of your case, and provide all the information you need to decide what next steps are right for you and your family.
