What is the average settlement for a semi-truck accident? It’s a question many truck accident victims find themselves asking.
The short answer is that there’s no one-size-fits-all truck accident settlement. The longer answer is that your truck accident compensation depends on the nature of your injuries and financial losses. As such, you can expect a settlement that accounts for your unique circumstances.
Factors That Influence Truck Accident Settlements
A Fresno truck accident lawyer can only predict the minimum truck settlement you can expect in your case after analyzing the following factors:
Injuries
The injuries you suffer are the core of your semi accident lawsuit or insurance claim. The compensation you pursue will include two main components.
Economic losses are the expenses you’ve incurred as a result of your injuries. They include:
- Past and future medical costs for treatment, medication, and therapy
- Lost wages from missing work while healing
- Diminished future earnings resulting from short- or long-term disabilities
- Out-of-pocket expenses, such as towing fees and health insurance copays
- Vehicle repair or replacement costs
You can estimate the economic compensation you’re eligible to receive in your truck accident settlement by tallying up all your accident-related expenses. The injury law firm you work with will substantiate these amounts using financial records like:
- Doctor and hospital bills
- Receipts
- Vehicle repair estimates
- Bank and credit card statements
- Checks
- Wage records, such as time cards and pay stubs
You can also seek compensation for non-economic losses, which reflect the intangible impacts of your injuries. One way to understand this concept is by comparing your pre-accident quality of life to your life after your injuries.
The following life impacts qualify as non-economic losses:
- Physical and mental pain and suffering
- Emotional distress and mental anguish
- Disabilities that prevent you from performing various tasks
- Disfigurement due to changes in your physical appearance
- Dismemberment if you lost a body part or its use
These losses don’t have a monetary value. Rather, their value is based on the experience and judgment of the insurance adjuster or jury analyzing the claim.
The value of your non-economic damages will depend heavily on the extent and duration of your injuries. Severe injuries, like a punctured lung, often warrant greater compensation than minor injuries, like a sprained wrist, because you must endure more disruptive symptoms and more involved treatments.
Similarly, permanent and long-term injuries usually result in larger settlements and jury awards because they impact your life for years or even decades. Wrongful death claims also typically offer larger settlements because the family loses a lifetime of companionship and financial support from the deceased victim.
Bear in mind that any injury will have both economic and non-economic costs. For example, a broken bone will require expensive medical care and cause you to miss work, resulting in economic losses. However, it will also cause you pain and prevent you from engaging in activities you enjoy, resulting in non-economic losses.
The actual settlement amounts truck accidents yield will be the sum of your economic and non-economic compensation.
Insurance Coverage
Trucking companies are usually responsible for the crashes their drivers cause.
The doctrine of respondeat superior makes an employer liable for its employees’ negligent acts. Thus, you can pursue a tractor-trailer accident lawsuit against the trucking company even if your crash happened when the truck driver ran a red light without their employer’s knowledge or direction.
Trucking companies are also liable for their own negligent acts. For example, you could file a semi-truck accident lawsuit asserting that the company’s policy of neglecting fleet maintenance led to your crash.
Federal law requires trucking companies to have financial resources to pay for the damage and injuries truck accidents cause. Companies that only carry non-hazardous cargo must have at least $750,000 in liability insurance and surety bonds. Those that carry hazardous materials may be required to maintain $1 million or more.
In most cases, trucking companies will have access to more than enough money to cover your losses. However, a single crash that injures multiple victims might strain a company’s resources. Similarly, a crash that causes profound and lasting injuries might result in millions of dollars in long-term care costs.
In these cases, the size of the trucking company’s surety bonds and liability insurance policies may affect how much it can pay as part of a settlement.
Proof of Liability
The answer to the question “How much will you get paid if a 18-wheeler hit you in California?” may depend on your accident. Cases that involve clear liability are often worth more than cases where liability is questionable.
For example, suppose that your car accident happened on the Sequoia Kings Canyon Freeway in the middle of the day. Dozens of witnesses saw the truck driver tailgate you, then slam into you when traffic slowed. In this case, the trucking company’s insurers and sureties may be willing to settle to avoid the cost of fighting a case they’ll ultimately lose.
Conversely, imagine that a truck hit you in a head-on collision on a rural road. The only eyewitnesses are you and the truck driver, and you tell the police officers differing stories about what occurred. Your lawyer hires an accident reconstruction expert to support your story, but the trucking company also has an expert to contradict your expert’s conclusions.
In this situation, the insurers and sureties might be willing to take their chances at trial and only offer a small settlement.
Another factor that could affect your settlement is your role in causing the crash.
If you were entirely blameless, California law permits you to seek full compensation for your losses. However, if your actions contributed to your injuries, you could lose a share of your compensation in proportion to your percentage of the blame under the state’s comparative negligence law.
For instance, let’s say you were speeding when a truck driver turned in front of you. Your speed might have deprived you of the chance to stop or swerve before hitting the truck and therefore worsened your injuries.
An insurance adjuster might assign 35% of the blame to you and 65% of the blame to the trucking company. As a result, your settlement would only cover 65% of your losses.
Posture of Your Case
The stage of your case may also determine how much the trucking company’s insurers and sureties are willing to offer. Early on, they’ll likely offer a low settlement. They do this as a negotiating tactic so they have room to offer more during settlement discussions. They also do it to gauge your desperation.
When you settle, your case ends, and you’ll lose your right to pursue further legal action against the trucking company. This means you cannot seek any additional compensation for your injuries, even undiscovered ones.
The first offer will almost always undervalue your case. If you accept it, you may need to use some of your own resources to pay for your care and living expenses.
As your case goes on, the offers will likely improve. Litigation is costly, and the trucking company will typically increase its offers to resolve the case, allowing both parties to move on. It’s not unheard of for cases to settle on the eve of trial or even after the trial starts. If the case doesn’t settle, your lawyer will fight for a fair jury award.
Steps to Take to Help Your Lawyer Optimize Your Semi-Truck Accident Settlement
Your actions at the accident scene could affect the settlement you receive. Start by moving your vehicle to a safe place near the accident site, if possible. Check on the truck driver and call the police. Under California law, failing to stop at the scene could result in hit-and-run charges, even if you were the victim.
Once you’ve notified the authorities, start gathering information. Get the name of the truck driver and their employer. Also, exchange insurance information with the driver. Avoid apologizing or saying anything that might be construed as an admission of fault. A claims adjuster could try to turn your words against you.
When the police arrive, do your best to cooperate with the investigation. Tell them what you saw and heard without embellishing or exaggerating. Before you leave, make sure to request your case number and any other information needed to access the accident report.
After the accident, seek the level of medical care appropriate for your injuries. For example, if you can’t get to the hospital without assistance, request an ambulance. If you feel well enough to make your own arrangements, have someone drive you to the emergency room, an urgent care clinic, or your doctor’s office.
Discuss all of your symptoms with the doctor. You may have hidden injuries, such as a concussion or torn cartilage, and the doctor will need your help diagnosing them.
Once your doctor has diagnosed your injuries, review the treatment plan to confirm that you understand your treatments and any restrictions on your activities. Your medical records and treatment plan will be essential for proving your injuries to the trucking company’s insurers and sureties.
It’s imperative to follow your doctor’s advice to the letter. If you fail to attend therapy or take your medication as prescribed, the claims adjuster may blame you for any worsening or lack of improvement in your condition.
Procedure for Recovering a Commercial Vehicle Accident Settlement
Your truck accident case will begin with a discussion of your accident with a truck crash attorney. Your lawyer will analyze your situation and answer any questions you may have, such as, “What is the average settlement for semi-truck accident injuries?”
Your attorney will then go about gathering medical records, crash reports, and witness statements to support your case. They’ll use this information to prepare a claim for the insurance companies and sureties that issued policies and bonds to the trucking company.
Surety bonds are like insurance policies in that they pay you for the losses resulting from the trucking company’s negligence. The main difference between insurance and bonds is that the trucking company will need to repay the surety for any money paid to you.
Your claim will be assigned to one or more adjusters, who will investigate the claim to verify that it falls within the terms of the company’s policies or surety bonds. Generally, this means the adjuster will determine whether the trucking company is liable for your losses, the extent of those losses, and whether the trucking company has any defenses.
Insurance adjusters aren’t lawyers, generally speaking. However, they have experience in insurance law and know what is the average settlement for a semi-truck accident like yours. They’ll use this information to accept or deny your claim.
If the adjuster denies your claim, your lawyer can present additional evidence and legal arguments to challenge the denial. If the adjuster stands by the denial, you may need to litigate.
If the adjuster accepts your claim, settlement negotiations will begin. This may occur before or after you resort to litigation. The initial offer will most likely be low, but your lawyer can propose a counteroffer. Ideally, you’ll be able to reach a mutually agreeable insurance payout without undue stress.
Contact Us to Discuss the Value of Your Truck Accident Lawsuit
How much will your truck accident claim be worth, exactly? There’s no way to answer this question without a detailed examination of the accident and your injuries. Moreover, while you’re entitled to seek compensation for your economic and non-economic losses, you may need to compromise during negotiations to resolve your case.Kuzyk Personal Injury & Car Accidents Lawyers has represented injured clients against trucking companies since 1971. We have the experience and negotiating skills to settle your case effectively. Contact us today to get a better idea of how much you can seek for your truck accident injuries.
