Commercial truck accidents often lead to catastrophic injuries in Kentucky. A loaded tractor-trailer can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds. When a big truck slams into a smaller passenger car, the truck’s weight is transferred to the smaller vehicle as destructive energy.
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a truck accident that was not your fault, you may have a right to seek compensation for your injuries and other losses. You should have an experienced personal injury attorney review the accident and discuss your legal options. People without experienced legal representation after a truck accident can make the mistake of accepting a lowball settlement designed to get the trucking company off the hook.
A proper commercial truck accident settlement covers your present and future costs related to the accident. It also compensates you for the aggravation and inconvenience you have experienced. To determine a fair settlement, you must have recovered from your injuries enough that your future medical costs are understood. Only then can a personal injury lawyer calculate what you should receive as fair compensation for the accident’s impact on you, your family, and your life ahead.
A Kentucky truck accident attorney with Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer can help you seek full compensation after a commercial truck accident. Our personal injury attorneys are aggressive negotiators and experienced litigators with a record of success with truck accident claims. If you have been injured in a semi-truck accident in Kentucky, we urge you to speak to an experienced attorney before accepting any insurance company settlement offer.
Contact Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer for a free consultation today with a KY personal injury lawyer.
Factors Influencing Your Kentucky Truck Accident Settlement
The first thing to understand when considering a settlement for injuries suffered in a truck accident is that each case is unique. The compensation you deserve after a truck crash depends on multiple factors, including the severity of your injuries and the insurance coverage available. Insurance companies base early settlement offers on previous payouts for similar injuries and demographic statistics.
The primary factor influencing a truck accident settlement is the severity of your injuries and the impact they will have on your health in the long term. An accident victim who suffers a disabling injury, like paralysis from a spinal cord injury, could require millions of dollars for medical care and other costs and losses over a lifetime.
Types of Damages You Can Claim After a Truck Accident
The compensation available for injuries suffered in a truck accident in Kentucky includes payment for:
- Medical costs. A settlement should cover all your medical costs, from emergency care at the accident scene to hospitalization and rehabilitation. When an accident victim has suffered long-term injuries, our personal injury lawyers consult with medical professionals and life care planners to project the costs of future medical bills and personal care needs. A settlement should include these costs.
- Lost wages and earning capacity. Serious injuries can require long-term hospitalization, rehabilitation, and convalescence at home. Some people are unable to return to work or must take lower-paying employment. Compensation for income losses should be based on wages before the accident, plus the value of fringe benefits, anticipated bonuses, and other perks. Calculating future losses due to lost earning capacity must consider the accident victim’s age and the future income they could have reasonably anticipated from raises and promotions in the years ahead.
- Pain and suffering. Accident victims in Kentucky may seek compensation for pain, suffering, emotional distress, and the loss of enjoyment of life. It can be a challenge to assign a monetary value to these losses. Our personal injury attorneys use their experience handling many cases to determine the appropriate amount of financial compensation to demand for an injured person’s non-economic losses.
Another factor that must be considered when calculating an accident settlement is Kentucky’s comparative negligence law. A jury that awards damages in a personal injury lawsuit must determine the amount of blame each party involved in the accident bears and assign a percentage to each. Any compensation awarded to the injured party would be reduced according to the degree of fault they have been assigned.
In negotiations with insurers, if there is evidence that the accident victim’s negligence contributed to the accident, the insurers will use that to reduce the settlement offer.
Whatever our legal team might recover for you in a truck accident will be based on the at-fault party’s insurance policy limits. Fortunately, Kentucky and federal law require truck drivers and trucking companies to maintain higher amounts of liability insurance than passenger car drivers. Required insurance coverage for trucks includes $750,000 or liability coverage for general freight haulers, $1 million for trucks hauling oil, and $5 million for trucks carrying hazardous materials (hazmat).
In most truck accidents, the truck driver is at fault. The trucking company that employs the commercial driver may also be held legally responsible for the driver’s negligence. In some truck accidents, multiple parties have liability. An investigation may show that service vendors, such as mechanics responsible for the truck’s maintenance or cargo loaders who failed to secure the truck’s load, contributed to the accident.
A truck accident case requires examination by experienced investigators and may require multiple personal injury claims to recover total compensation for the accident victims.
Do You Need a Truck Accident Lawyer?
A Kentucky truck accident attorney with Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer will investigate the accident, calculate the full extent of your losses, and develop a strong personal injury claim on your behalf. For more than 25 years, our attorneys have stood up for the rights of injured Kentuckians and demanded just compensation from trucking companies and their insurers. We will stand by your side and do everything possible to make you whole again.
Contact our Kentucky Courage law firm today to speak to a truck accident lawyer. The consultation is free. We will not charge a legal fee if we do not recover compensation for you. Phone (877) 809-5352 or reach out online now.
