Costa Mesa Truck Accident Attorney
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According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, California experiences the highest average of fatal large truck and bus crashes in the nation. This is perhaps unsurprising, given the number of large trucks that travel on California’s freeways and surface streets on a daily basis, hauling imports, exports, wares, and raw materials. Unfortunately, it is rare that those involved in large truck accidents are able to walk away from the collision site without a scratch. Far more often, large truck accident victims suffer injuries that are categorized as serious, catastrophic, or fatal.
The aftermath of a large truck accident can be isolating. As you seek to recover from your injuries, you may feel as if you’re the only one suffering in this particular way. It’s important to understand that you’re not alone and that there are legal options available to you at this time. Due to the number of truck accidents that occur on Orange County freeways and thoroughfares every day, our firm has extensive experience representing the legal and financial interests of injured motorists and truck operators alike. No matter how complex your legal situation may be, our knowledgeable firm’s time-tested approach to the successful representation of truck accident injury victims can help to ensure that you receive as much compensation as possible given the unique circumstances that led to the harm you have suffered.
Going the Extra Mile for Injured Motorists and Truck Operators
Our firm offers no-risk, confidential, free case evaluations to any truck accident injury victims interested in learning about their rights and options. Even if you believe that you may have been solely at fault for the injurious circumstances that caused your harm, you’re welcome to attend a no-cost consultation with our experienced legal team. We provide this service because we sincerely believe that everyone who has been harmed and may potentially be owed compensation as a result of that harm deserves to understand the protections afforded to them by California law.
If you need assistance negotiating with insurance representatives and/or have grounds to file any kind of compensation claim, we will provide your case with the attention and respect it deserves until we secure you what you’re owed. Although no lawyer can ethically promise that a legal matter will resolve in a specific way, you can entrust your confidence to the fact that we will work diligently on your behalf. Our firm’s reputation for excellence is not an accolade that we rest upon. We aim to reinforce the values that allowed us to earn that reputation in the first place as we work with every new client who walks through our office doors.
Don’t Wait to Explore Your Legal Options
It can be tempting to avoid speaking with an attorney in the immediate aftermath of an injurious crash. Understandably, all you likely want to do right now is rest and recover from your injuries to the fullest extent possible. However, it remains important to schedule a free consultation with our legal team as soon as you possibly can. When you left the site of your truck accident, you left a great deal of physical evidence behind you. Oftentimes, complex truck accident cases are won or lost based on the strength of evidence presented by each side in the dispute. By connecting with our dedicated legal team now instead of later, we’ll have the opportunity to preserve as much potentially critical evidence as is possible.
Scheduling a consultation doesn’t mean that you’re committing to filing a lawsuit or even that you’re committing to filing an insurance claim. However, investing an hour or two of your time learning about your rights as an accident victim and learning about your options under the law can help to ensure that those rights and options are as protected and preserved as they can be while you weigh whether or not taking action is the best decision you can make for yourself and your family at this time.
Additionally, California law does not grant you an endless amount of time to pursue various avenues of compensation. From the moment that your collision occurred, the clock started ticking on the statutes of limitation that govern each of your legal options. Some opportunities for recourse, such as filing a workers’ compensation claim, are far more time-sensitive than others are. In the case of workers’ compensation matters, you must formally report your injuries to your employer within 30 days of your crash or you risk being barred from seeking a benefits award.
As frustrating as it can be to be compelled to act while you’re injured and trying to recover, you do need to seek legal guidance as soon as you possibly can for a host of compelling reasons. Perhaps the most compelling reason of all to schedule a consultation today is that the financial consequences of your accident are going to begin impacting your family’s finances soon. The sooner you begin pursuing opportunities for rightful compensation available to you, the more likely it becomes that you’ll receive some or all of the compensation you’re owed before the stress of medical bills, lost wages, etc. hits your family’s finances in earnest.
Speaking with Insurance Representatives
An additional reason why you shouldn’t wait to explore your legal options is linked to the fact that representatives of insurance companies who have a stake in your case will not be waiting to contact you. You may have even heard from one or more insurance representatives already. Ideally, you’ll want to refrain from any additional communication with insurance representatives until you’ve spoken with our firm. Anything that you say while on a call with an insurance representative can be used to justify delaying your claim, devaluing your settlement, or rejecting your claim altogether. Even seemingly innocent comments about what you were doing right before the crash, whether or not you’re currently in pain, etc. can be used to protect the insurance company’s bottom line.
Most of the time, insurance companies aren’t intentionally malicious. They simply train their staff in ways that reflect that these operations are for-profit businesses. If an insurance company can get away with paying you less than the total amount of compensation to which you’re rightfully entitled, their staff is going to do what they can to make that happen. Our experienced team understands how to avoid unreasonable devaluation, delay, and rejection of claims. Allowing us to communicate with these companies on your behalf – regardless of whether you choose to file a personal injury case – will help to ensure the approval of your claim and the maximization of its value.
Causation and Fault
The cause(s) of an accident and the fault assigned to one or more parties in a personal injury suit are not the same things. Not all truck accident causes are legally actionable. Say that the sole reason that your car crashed was because it was struck by lightning. In this scenario, there is no one to hold accountable for your harm because no one was at fault for the collision. Successful personal injury cases prove that a defendant owed an injury victim a duty of care under the law, violated that duty by engaging in conduct that was negligent, reckless, or intentionally dangerous, and in violating this duty, acted in ways that served as a substantial factor in the cause of the victim’s injuries.
Note that if you were driving for work-related purposes at the time of your crash, you may be entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits, even if the crash was entirely your fault. This is because workers’ compensation benefits are not awarded on a fault-driven basis. Please let us know if you were driving for a job-related purpose when your accident occurred so that we can help you evaluate this potential source of significant compensation.
When More than One Party Is at Fault for a Crash
Large truck accident cases tend to be complex, in-part because many truck drivers are not independent owners and operators. Instead, they work for large trucking companies that may or may not properly maintain their vehicles, adequately train their staff, and engage in unlawful business practices that endanger both their drivers and those who encounter them on the road. As a truck accident injury victim, you may be in a position to sue others involved in the accident, manufacturers of faulty auto parts, and even government agencies responsible for ensuring that roads are safely maintained. Depending on your circumstances, you may also be in a position to sue the trucking company that employs any truck operator involved in the crash (whether or not you are, in fact, a truck operator).
In a complex truck accident scenario, you may be partially at fault for the circumstances that led to your harm. If you had crashed in a different state, this reality might bar you from seeking damages from others whose negligent, reckless, or intentionally dangerous conduct contributed to the cause of your injuries as well. However, California is a pure comparative negligence state. This is a favorable distinction for injury victims because it means that they can pursue damages from others who may be held legally liable, even if they themselves are partially at fault.
In a pure negligence state, each party assigned a share of fault may be held accountable for the value of harm tied to their assigned fault percentage. Say that the value of your harm is $80,000. You have been assigned 25 percent of the fault in your accident. You’ll remain entitled to seek the remaining 75 percent of damages – valued at $60,000 – from those who are 75 percent at fault for your accident. In short, don’t shy away from filing a personal injury suit in California because you have concerns about your role in the accident. If others may be held financially and legally accountable for their conduct, they may owe you significant damages according to their percentage share of the blame.
If you have not yet connected with our experienced, knowledgeable, and dedicated legal team to schedule a free consultation, please do so today. Although the law allows you some time to consider your options before you commit to a legal plan of action in the wake of an accident, acting quickly is important. By alerting our firm to your situation, we’ll be able to preserve critical evidence, protect your rights as an accident victim, and help you to make informed choices about your legal options. If you opt to pursue compensation of any kind, we’ll work tenaciously to build the strongest possible case on behalf of you and your family. All you need to do to receive personalized legal guidance in a no-risk, no-cost, confidential setting is pick up the phone or submit a request online. We look forward to meeting with you.