What You Need To Know About Truck Accident Lawsuits
Unfortunately, car accidents happen all of the time. In some cases, they are between two civilians that were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and in other cases, they're caused by neglect or irresponsible behavior of a person or company. For example, if you were injured by a semi-truck, you might have a different case than if you were injured by a private citizen who made an error of judgment. Here are some reasons why.
When a person is hired with a truck company, they have certain rules that they are suppose to follow when they drive the truck. They must have the proper credentials to operate such a large vehicle, but they also must know how often they should be resting and how long of stretches they can do at one time. For example, if the person is only suppose to drive in 8 hour stretches and then take a couple hours of rest before they drive again, they must follow that directive or they could be in trouble. This is very important because it changes how the lawsuit will go in two ways.
First, if the truck company puts unrealistic deadlines on their drivers or is asking them to drive too long without a break, you could go after the truck company. Your attorney will try to prove that the expectations that the company put on the driver were unsafe and unrealistic and that it was only a matter of time until the driver was injured.
Second, if the truck company has rational demands for their drivers, but the driver failed to follow the rules placed by the company, than you might actually have to go after the person. You may access their personal insurance policy, or the truck company could pay the lawsuit, and then fire the person later. Thus, as you can see the circumstances of the crash are important to know how to file the lawsuit.
It is important to know that there are statutes of limitations on these kinds of lawsuits. What this means is that there is only a certain amount of time that you can file the lawsuit. In most cases it is just a couple years, so if you wait too long, you may lose your chance to file the lawsuit. For this reason, talk to an attorney right away.
These are just some things that you need to know about truck accident lawsuits. Talk to attorneys at firms like D Chadwick Calvert Law Office for more information.
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