Truck accidents cause more severe injuries than car accidents that involve only passenger vehicles. Commercial vehicles are much heavier than smaller vehicles. An accident involving semi-trucks, in particular, is much more likely to result in catastrophic injuries or death.
Seeking fair compensation for a trucking accident is also more complicated, as there are different types of insurance carriers involved, and there could be legal differences in cases that involve truck drivers who cross state lines as part of their routes.
These complexities make it even more important to work with experienced truck accident attorneys to recover compensation for your Springfield truck accident.
The trucking accident attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers have experience helping accident victims reach a fair settlement for their personal injuries after an accident with large trucks.
You Have Limited Time to File a Truck Accident Claim in Springfield, IL
The statute of limitations for personal injury, product liability, and wrongful death cases is two years from the date of injury or death, which means you won’t be able to file your claim more than two years after the accident.
Types of Cases That Our Springfield Truck Accident Attorneys Handle
The Springfield truck accident lawyers at our law firm have experience working on a wide range of civil lawsuits, including cases like the following:
- Truck driver error
- Mechanical failures
- Drowsy driving
- Falling cargo
- Jackknife accident
- Pileups
- Motorcycle accidents
- Underride accidents
- Override accidents
Our law firm also has experience in truck accidents based on the vehicles involved, including a passenger vehicle, semi-truck accidents, other commercial vehicles, and other vehicles such as farm equipment, motorcycles, and snowmobiles.
The Most Common Causes of Truck Accidents in Springfield, IL
The most common causes of truck accidents in Sangamon County are as follows:
- Alcohol or drug use
- Vehicle defects
- Road defects
- Debris on highway
- Reckless driving
Do You Have a Truck Accident Case?
To have a viable case, your Springfield truck accident lawyer will look to see if your case meets certain criteria:
- The other party must have a duty that they breached. For example, other drivers all have a duty to drive safely.
- When the other party breached that duty, it caused you damages. For instance, if driver fatigue causes a truck driver to fall asleep at the wheel, the duty to drive safely was breached, and that breach caused injuries.
Who Can Be Liable for a Truck Accident in Springfield, IL?
Depending on the nature of the truck crash, there are multiple parties that could be held accountable for a truck accident that is not the truck driver. Some common parties that can be held liable in a truck accident are:
- Truck drivers – Whether they drove their own trucks or a large truck owned by a trucking company, negligent truck drivers can be held liable for the actions that they took or didn’t take that contributed to trucking accidents.
- Trucking companies – Sometimes, a trucking company can be held liable for an accident that their employee caused, for poorly maintaining commercial trucks, or for enforcing policies—such as limiting break time—that create dangerous conditions.
- Truck parts manufacturers – If a defective part on a commercial truck contributed to your accident, an experienced truck accident attorney can file a civil lawsuit against the parts manufacturer in a product liability case.
- Auto maintenance companies – If the trucking company outsources truck maintenance to an auto shop and faulty maintenance practices contributed to your truck accident, it could be possible to hold the auto maintenance shop accountable for its role in your crash.
- Government agencies – If your truck accident involved a government-owned vehicle, such as a municipal garbage truck or a fire engine, you could hold the government agency that owns and operates the vehicle responsible.
Proving Fault in Truck Accident Cases
An experienced truck accident lawyer will gather all of the evidence that you need to prove how the truck driver or trucking company was at fault for your injuries. This includes collecting all the details of your case, including the police report, medical records, witness testimony, and surveillance footage, if there is any.
Illinois adheres to modified comparative negligence for the recovery of damages, which means that you can recover economic damages even if the other party is less than 50% at fault. However, in these instances in which the other party is less than 50% at fault, you may not be able to recover non-economic damages.
Damages That Springfield Trucking Accident Victims Can Pursue
There are two types of damages that apply to most truck accidents. Economic damages directly relate to costs or losses that accident victims incurred, such as medical expenses. Non-economic damages are not related to tangible losses; these are calculated via other measures, such as how many days you spent in pain.
Some common damages that are recovered in truck accidents are as follows:
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Vehicle repair and replacement
- Property damage
- Future expenses
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional trauma
- Lost income potential
For wrongful death cases, the types of damages that can be collected are slightly different and depend on who is filing the claim. Damages related to wrongful death include pain and suffering, funeral expenses, loss of companionship, and the victim’s medical expenses.
How Much Our Springfield Truck Accident Lawyers Help You Recover
There is no go-to settlement amount for a truck accident claim. Every case is different. The extent of losses and injuries, as well as the amount of evidence and availability of witnesses, can change the settlement amount offered; stronger cases often yield higher settlement amounts.
Hiring a lawyer could increase the size of your settlement. Insurance companies may be more quick to offer a settlement if they see that you’ve hired a lawyer, as they know you won’t be willing to accept a lowball offer. To date, we have helped truck accident victims recover settlements of up to $18.5 million.
Factors That Affect Truck Accident Settlement Amounts
There are several factors that are known to have an impact on truck accident settlement amounts. The first factor is the overall cost of your losses. The more expensive your medical bills and property damage, the larger your settlement will likely be due to those losses.
The extent of the injuries is another important factor. Cases with more catastrophic injuries often receive higher payouts than cases with more recoverable injuries. Also, cases with stronger evidence and more witnesses also tend to be awarded higher settlement amounts.
The insurance coverage available has a significant impact on the settlement size. Many truck drivers have commercial insurance policies with higher policy limits than individual auto insurance policies.
The Most Common Truck Accident Injuries
The types of injuries people sustain in trucking accidents are typically much more severe than in accidents with only a passenger vehicle, as a large commercial truck like a semi-truck is much heavier, larger, and more powerful than smaller cars.
The most common injuries sustained in truck accidents in Springfield are as follows:
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Internal bleeding
- Spinal cord injuries
- Burn injuries
- Broken bones
- Amputations
- Organ injuries
- Vision loss
- Neck injuries
- Scarring or disfigurement
- Death
The Time It Takes to Settle a Truck Accident Personal Injury Lawsuit
Most truck accident cases take over six months to settle. In some cases, claims from trucking accidents take much longer. While no one can accurately predict how long it will take to settle a case, there are some factors that are known to influence how long it takes.
Cases that go through the court system take longer to settle than cases that are settled through mediation or before court. It takes time to get a court date, prepare for trial, argue a case, and wait for a jury verdict. If it is possible to settle out of court, your lawyer will try to do that.
Other factors that influence settlement times include the severity of the injuries, the cost of the losses, and how much evidence is available. By hiring a lawyer as soon as possible, they can get started on your case earlier. Sometimes hiring an attorney is enough to send a message to an insurance company that they need to make a better offer or face going to court.
The Cost of Hiring a Springfield Truck Accident Attorney
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. You only pay us for our services if we are successful in helping you reach a settlement. After your free consultation with our experienced lawyers, you will not have to pay anything upfront. Rather, we take a set percentage of the settlement we help you secure.
Filing Truck Accident Claims With Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers
To recover compensation with the help of our law firm, you can generally expect to follow our step-by-step process. First, you’ll start with a free consultation to discuss what happened and to see if we can help. We take care of moving your case forward while you focus on recovering from whatever type of injury you sustained.
If you decide to move forward, our experienced lawyers will start to investigate your case. This includes gathering evidence, consulting with experts, and hiring accident reconstruction specialists as needed. The goal is to gather enough evidence to support your case.
Next, we’ll negotiate settlements with your insurance company and the insurance company of the other party responsible. We prefer to speak with insurance adjusters on your behalf so we don’t compromise your case’s ability to receive maximum compensation.
Only a fraction of the cases we work on go to a courtroom trial. Many claims involving large trucks and trucking companies are negotiated through mediation or settled before court. In the event that we are not able to settle out of court, your Springfield truck accident attorney is well-prepared to lead your claim through the court system.
Contact an Experienced Springfield Truck Accident Lawyer Today!
The Springfield truck accident attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers have helped many clients pursue compensation after semi-truck accidents, and many of our settlements were multimillion-dollar amounts. We work on a contingency fee, so you don’t have to pay anything up-front for our services. You only pay if we win your case.
Contact us by filling out our contact form or calling us toll-free at (888) 424-5757 to schedule your free initial consultation.
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