You want to believe that freight truck drivers today understand the danger their vehicles put you in. Unfortunately, these drivers can prove as prone to misconduct as private drivers. If a truck driver engages in roadway negligence, the size and weight of their trucks can cause more significant injuries than an equivalent accident with a smaller vehicle might.
How are you meant to recover from an accident with a freight truck? You can discuss your legal options with Nebraska freight truck accident attorneys with Berry Law.
Whether you’re representing someone lost in a fatal freight truck accident or demanding that a court recognizes your personal injuries, you can trust our personal injury lawyers in Nebraska to stand with you.
When to Contact a Freight Truck Accident Attorney
You have the right to investigate the circumstances that led to your accident in the days and weeks immediately following your accident. That said, if you’re contending with injuries or the grief of someone else’s wrongful death, conducting an investigation may not be the first thing on your priority list.
Our attorneys understand that. That’s why we offer our services to families like yours who want to pursue their legal options while also taking the space they need to decompress from an accident.
That said, if you want to take legal action after a truck accident, you need to do so within Nebraska’s statute of limitations. Section 25-207 of the Nebraska Revised Statutes offers you a generous amount of time to investigate your losses. You have up to four years to bring evidence of another party’s negligence related to your accident.
That said, those four years can pass before you know it, particularly if you have to pursue extensive medical treatments or you’re grieving the loss of a loved one. In some cases, the four-year statute of limitations may be shortened to two years. That’s why it’s so important to contact a Nebraska freight truck accident attorney as soon as possible after an 18-wheeler accident.
Who to Hold Liable for a Freight Truck Crash
If you want to file a personal injury claim in the wake of a freight truck accident, you need to know how the evidence allows you to be held liable for your losses. The best way to do this is to have a professional assess the evidence available at your accident scene. Once we have an idea of what negligence the data suggests took place, we can follow that trail back to the party liable for your losses.
That said, 18-wheeler accident liability doesn’t hinge solely on what evidence of negligence we can find at the accident scene. Contacts can also influence your right to hold certain parties financially responsible for your recovery.
A Nebraska freight truck crash lawyer must consider applicable contracts before naming a party responsible for your financial recovery. In doing so, we look at the relationship the following parties have to your accident:
Freight Corporations
Today’s freight corporations tend to hire independent contractors in an effort to avoid taking on liability for their drivers’ behaviors on the road. That said, freight truck corporations can misrepresent a driver’s employment after an accident in an effort to preserve its bottom line.
It’s our responsibility to distinguish between a freight truck driver who works as an employee and a driver who operates as an independent contractor. If the driver operates as an employee, or it appears that the corporation in question has misrepresented that driver’s employment, then the corporation may prove financially liable for your losses.
Freight Truck Drivers
Freight truck drivers who operate as independent contractors functionally own their own businesses. Any corporations they collaborate with operate as their clients. As such, independent freight truck drivers take on liability for their own misconduct on the road.
If it appears that the contract between an independent contractor and their clients accurately represents that driver’s role within the broader system, then you can hold that individual financially responsible for your recovery.
How to Request Damages for Freight Truck Losses
You need to integrate the damages you want to request after a freight truck accident into your initial complaint. This means you need to assign a dollar value to each truck accident loss and then calculate the total sum of those losses.
These accidents specifically entitle you to economic damages addressing your truck accident bills. You have the right to include all of the following losses in your claim so long as you also have the evidence you need to prove that you suffered these losses at the hands of a liable party:
- Medical expenses
- Long-term medical care
- Therapy for accident-related conditions
- Lost wages throughout your recovery
- Lost opportunities for employment
- Property restoration
- Property rentals, if necessary
You can also request non-economic freight truck damages to account for any pain and suffering, mental anguish, or undue stress you’ve endured as a result of your losses. Our team can calculate the dollar value that applies these losses before integrating them into your claim.
Requesting Wrongful Death Damages After a Fatal Freight Truck Accident
If Nebraska law affords you the right to bring a loved one’s losses forward in civil court, you have the right to demand compensation for both their economic and non-economic losses. This means that you can demand coverage for the injuries done to your loved one as well as the funeral expenses and post-life care that you or their other family members require.
You can discuss the specific process of calculating a wrongful death case’s value with our attorneys. We can give you the space you need to grieve a fatal freight truck accident without compromising your right to time in court.
Berry Law’s Team Provides You With Multiple Attorney Perspectives
Let a Nebraska Freight Truck Crash Lawyer Stand Up for You
Freight truck companies can try to hide from their roadway responsibility by miscategorizing their employees or solely hiring independent contractors. Truck drivers, in turn, may try to default responsibility for their roadway misconduct to the corporation that employs them. You don’t have to resign yourself to this back and forth in your attempt to secure compensation.
You can work with a freight truck accident attorney in Nebraska instead and identify the party that the state may recognize as liable for your recent accident. We can then take that party to court or otherwise negotiate for the compensation you need to address your post-accident expenses.
Are you ready to learn more about Berry Law’s truck accident injury services? Don’t wait to get in touch. You can contact us by calling our Nebraska offices or reaching out through Berry Law’s contact form.
