Las Vegas Truck Accident Attorneys

Trucks go through several types of inspections, including roadside inspections and driver vehicle inspections. Below we discuss some of the most common truck inspections:

• Roadside inspections. If a driver undergoes a roadside inspection, the driver must provide his or her employer with the inspection report. The truck company then has 15 days to correct all violations, sign the report, and mail it to the address indicated on the report. The carrier must keep a copy of the report for 12 months from the date of the inspection.
• Annual inspections. Commercial vehicles, including trailers, must undergo inspection at least once every year. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations have a list of items that must be inspected. The motor carrier must keep a copy of the inspection report for a minimum of 14 months from the report date. A motor carrier may perform the inspection itself.
• Driver vehicle inspections. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also requires that drivers conduct a daily, post-trip inspection report at the end of each driving day. The report should note any deficiencies or defects that the driver has noticed. If the issue affects the safety of the vehicle, a driver must repair it immediately. Otherwise, the motor carrier must certify that the repair does not pose a safety hazard and thus doesn’t need to be rectified immediately. Copies of driver vehicle inspections must be kept for a minimum of 3 months.

Working with a lawyer will help you more effectively determine who bears liability for your truck accident.

After a truck accident, you may have serious injuries that require extensive medical care. The compensation you receive for those injuries will vary based on:

• The severity of your injuries and how long you will need to recover. Victims of spinal cord damage or traumatic brain injury, for example, may receive more compensation for their injuries than individuals with broken bones in their extremities.
• What pain and suffering your accident causes. In some cases, you may receive more compensation due to the limitations your accident places on you.
• How much coverage the truck driver’s insurance policy offers. While most commercial truck drivers carry good insurance, some carry more than others.
When filing a claim for compensation, most people include pain and suffering, medical expenses, lost wages, and lost earning potential. Talking with a lawyer can help you better determine exactly how much compensation you should expect for your accident. How much compensation you may receive depends on many factors, including the severity of your injuries, the type of injuries that you’ve sustained, and whether a court will award you punitive damages. The three different types of damages are (1) economic damages, (2) non-economic damages, and (3) punitive damages.

Whether the truck driver or the trucking company holds responsibility for paying for your injuries will depend on several different factors. Talk with a lawyer to better understand how to pursue compensation for your accident. Many lawyers will ask these questions: Did the trucker work as an employee or a private contractor? As a private contractor, for example, the truck driver may carry his own insurance and use his own equipment. A company’s employee, on the other hand, might use company equipment and receive coverage from a company insurance policy. Did the trucking company follow the law? In some cases, the trucking company might share liability for your accident with the truck driver, even if the truck driver operates independently. These might include:

• The trucking company required the driver to falsify records about how long the driver spent on the road.
• The trucking company issued unrealistic expectations for the driver, including requiring the driver to continue while ill or in dangerous weather conditions.
• The trucking company failed to properly maintain the truck or trailer or put a vehicle on the road with known mechanical concerns.
• The trucking company continued to employ a driver who caused many accidents in the past or who, with the company’s full knowledge, did not have the proper license or training.

Some of the most common truck accident injuries include:

• Traumatic brain injuries: These brain injuries can range from short-term concussions to permanent, severe traumatic brain injuries.
• Spinal cord injuries: These injuries are usually long-term or permanent, but they can also be minor. Regardless, you should always have a doctor check for spinal cord injuries following a truck accident.
• Abrasions, bruises, scrapes, and cuts: In most cases, these injuries heal in a relatively short period of time. However, if open cuts and/or sores become infected, your recovery time may extend significantly. If you don’t take care of the infection immediately, you may contract sepsis, which can be deadly without medical intervention. A limb with sepsis may require amputation if you don’t get it under control quickly.
• Broken bones: You may have sustained a small fracture or a more serious compound fracture, where an open wound resides near the break. Oftentimes, a piece of bone protruding through the skin causes the open wound.
• Strains and sprains: These injuries generally heal quickly, but they may require physical therapy.
• Muscle injuries: Depending on the muscle and how it’s injured, muscle injuries may heal quickly or may take a significant amount of time to heal. If you tear a muscle, you may have to undergo surgery to repair it. This type of injury could take up to 3 months to heal.
• Neck and shoulder injuries: Depending on the type of injury, neck and shoulder injuries may require surgery and take months to heal or could heal within a few weeks.
• Amputations: In some cases, you may sustain so much damage to a single limb or digit that it cannot be fixed. In this case, you may have to amputate the damaged limb or digit.
• Psychological injuries: Following some accidents, particularly those that are horrific or traumatic, injured individuals may suffer from emotional and psychological issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Internal injuries: You can also damage internal organs in a serious truck accident. A broken rib may puncture one of your lungs, or you may sustain severe damage to your spleen, liver, kidneys, heart, stomach, and/or bowels. These injuries may require surgery and can have long-lasting and even permanent effects.
Some injuries may require additional surgeries, follow-up appointments, and ongoing physical therapy. Retaining an experienced truck accident lawyer to help you with the negotiation and settlement process—or the trial process, if the insurance company refuses to compensate you for your injuries with a settlement offer—ensures that you don’t forget about the future expenses that you will likely accumulate. Personal injury lawyers have the benefit of significant experience in this area, and they are able to use that experience to provide you with a better estimate of the total amount of compensation that you should seek.

If you do end up filing a lawsuit and taking your personal injury claim to court to secure compensation for your truck accident injuries or for the death of a loved one, you may have to testify as to the events of the accident and following the accident. However, in such an event, we will help you prepare for your testimony. Whether you settle or go to trial, you’ll have to participate in discovery, which entails providing the other parties with copies of your medical bills, the police report, and other documents related to your accident. We will help you collect these documents. If we need expert witnesses to testify about your injuries, the death of a loved one, or even to refute a police report, we will hire the appropriate expert witnesses—such as doctors and accident scene reconstructors—to help us present your case as accurately as possible.

Try to talk with a lawyer before accepting any settlement offer, especially one offered immediately after the accident. In some cases, you may have no idea of the extent of your injuries or what those injuries will cost until weeks or months after the accident. In other cases, the insurance company might try to offer a low settlement to decrease its overall responsibility. Always consult with a lawyer before accepting those offers.

Many individuals try to settle with insurance companies without the assistance of an attorney. However, retaining an attorney to handle these negotiations will help maximize the amount of compensation that you receive. Always keep in mind that insurance companies—even your own—are focused on their bottom lines, which means they want to pay the least amount of compensation necessary to close a claim.

You do not have to have a lawyer to file a claim after a truck accident. Keep in mind, however, that most trucking companies and their insurance companies have a great deal of experience with handling minor accident claims. You want someone on your side with equal experience as well as the determination to go after the compensation you deserve. Many of our clients find that having a lawyer on their side substantially increases the compensation offered by the insurance company, whether they can settle out of court or need to go to court to get that important compensation.

Your first step after being involved in a truck accident should be to contact a reputable personal injury or accident lawyer in Las Vegas. They will discuss your case, review evidence, and help you file a claim for a settlement against the at-fault party.

Generally, after a serious traffic accident, the police will appear on the scene as soon as possible. After a more minor accident, however, you may need to file a police report yourself. You should always file a police report about an accident, even if you believe your injuries fairly minor. If possible, have an officer come to the scene to file the report to provide additional evidence concerning who caused the accident. Because of our diligence in preparing personal injury cases, insurance companies almost always prefer a fair settlement over litigation.

Many people avoid getting involved with an attorney due to the financial strain. However, many lawyers, including Benson & Bingham, offer a variety of flexible repayment plans to ensure everyone has the chance for quality legal guidance. Take advantage of the free case consultation as well!

The best option when dealing with the aftermath of a vehicle accident is to let your lawyer handle the insurance companies. You will need to contact your insurance company immediately after the accident to report it, but anything further than that is not necessary. Your lawyer will handle it for you.

Simply put, trucks have a great deal more mass, both in terms of size and weight, than passenger vehicles. When a commercial truck, including eighteen-wheelers, construction trucks, and logging trucks, gets involved in an accident, it substantially increases the force applied to passenger vehicles. Commercial trucks take longer to slow down or to stop completely, which also raises accident risk when drivers cut them off or stop suddenly in front of them. Many big trucks also carry hazardous cargo that can cause further damage to passenger vehicles and the people in them.