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Wondering if you need a South Carolina Truck Accident Lawyer? Are you wondering what the the process will be, and whether it’s any different than what your family member went through when they were hurt in a car accident? People who are injured by a commercial truck often face a more difficult path to full compensation than those harmed by private cars. No auto injury case should be expected to be easy, and that is even more true of collisions involving a commercial truck.
Here are some of the ways South Carolina truck accident cases can differ from other types of personal injury cases.
Regulations on Trucking
Commercial trucks are subject to lots of regulations by various agencies. Some of the most important to South Carolina truck accident lawyers are the departments of transportation. Most companies operating commercial trucks are required to register their vehicles with the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Safety Carrier Safety Administration. DOT numbers must then be displayed directly on the truck, including most temporary use and leased trucks.
Various federal and state regulations govern who can drive which types of trucks, for what purpose, as well as driving distance and schedule. Different requirements apply to different trucks and operators based on the type or vehicle and length of travel as well.
These regulations exist to protect the public, and they exist because trucks are known to be exceptionally dangerous and damaging when they are involved in truck accidents. It is the truck operator’s (meaning the driver and the company they work for) responsibility to show through documentation that they followed the rules that are in place to keep people safe.
Identifying violations of the rules, such as driving too far without resting or failing to properly maintain the truck, is an important part of trucking cases. This is one of many factors in trial preparation that a South Carolina truck accident lawyer can help you with, or handle on your behalf.
Damages – Injuries
Injuries caused by commercial truck accidents tend to be serious. Given the much greater mass and sometimes higher speeds involved in these cases, the force of impact may leave you with an injury so serious and life changing that you don’t even question the need for help from a South Carolina truck accident lawyer. However, long-term or even permanent injuries can look like less serious injuries at first, and only over time reveal their persistence.
Damages in truck accident cases may impact more than one victim. This may be important because the applicable at-fault insurance policies may limit the total amount of compensation available to the people who were injured, meaning the parties may have to divide the funds available under all the applicable insurance policies, or worse, in a case with multiple injured parties there could be a race to the funds that leaves slower plaintiffs uncompensated. This in one of the many ways delay could hurt a personal injury case, and it is an argument in favor of getting a South Carolina truck injury lawyer to work on your behalf as soon as possible.
Multiple Defendants
Sometimes the driver isn’t a lone defendant. If the driver was working for a trucking company at the time of a collision, the trucking company may be fully responsible for injuries caused by the collision under South Carolina law. That can mean both the driver and the trucking company are potentially liable, and sometimes in an effort to avoid responsibility, the trucking company will attempt to blame the driver alone, or still another company. The relationships between the driver, the company they were driving for, and even other companies involved in the service or delivery chain, can easily make a difference in how your case comes out, and whether you can be fully compensated.
Pushback
Because truck accident cases often involve very serious injuries, and sometimes to more than one person, insurance and trucking companies can be more motivated to avoid accountability. They may fight back harder because there is more on the line. In truck accident cases, they have many ways of doing that. Arguments over what kinds of documents must be disclosed, the duties of the driver and the trucking company, the relationship between the driver and the trucking company, the trucking company’s responsibility for their driver’s actions, and even bankruptcies and asset shifting can all be thrown up as barriers to compensation. Expect a fight for full compensation, but you do not have to take that fight on alone.
Get Ready.
It costs nothing to call to talk about your case. There are so many variables in these cases that it’s difficult to provide this kind of overview and have it be useful. What is not difficult, and is easily more useful to someone who has been injured in a truck accident, is talking one on one about your case, its strengths and weaknesses, and learning about what happened to you. There are many experienced and skilled truck accident lawyers available to you in South Carolina. I offer a truly no-obligation consultation, along with the kind of personalized representation that emphasizes the value gained by the uniqueness of each case. Find out more now by calling Lee Injury Law at (803) 500-0000, or click here to get in touch through the website.
