When a passenger vehicle collides with a commercial truck, the smaller vehicle usually takes the worst of the impact. Because of a truck’s size and weight, the force of these crashes can cause devastating injuries.
After a collision, a truck accident lawyer in Melbourne can help you seek damages from the party responsible for the crash. These cases can involve missed work, mounting medical bills, and pressure from insurance companies soon after the wreck.
A strong start can help protect both your claim and your peace of mind. Our Melbourne personal injury lawyers bring over three decades of experience to injury cases across Florida. Contact The Schiller Kessler Group today for a free case review.
Why You Need an Experienced Melbourne Truck Accident Attorney on Your Side
Any motor vehicle accident can result in severe injuries and complicated legal claims, but commercial truck accidents tend to be particularly complicated. Due to the massive size and weight of semi-trucks, the damage they can inflict on smaller passenger vehicles is catastrophic in Melbourne and throughout the state.
Truck accident cases also introduce additional legal issues that make having an experienced truck accident attorney necessary. The team at The Schiller Kessler Group can help address those issues and build a strong accident claim based on the facts.
Trucking Regulations Add Another Layer
Truck drivers and trucking companies are held to high safety standards because of the potential harm that can result from improper handling of these vehicles. The trucking industry is governed by a web of state and federal regulations related to things like:
- Hours of service
- Maintenance
- Cargo loads
- Licensing
- Inspections
Trucking companies and drivers who violate these rules can be held liable. Our attorneys know how to review those regulations and apply them to your case.
Dealing With Liability Issues
When a truck driver causes an accident, they may be liable, and the trucking company that employed them may also share responsibility under the legal doctrine of vicarious liability. These are not the only parties who may share fault for your accident.
Additional parties that may be liable in these cases include:
- Cargo loaders
- Third-party motorists
- Maintenance providers
- Truck manufacturers
Your Melbourne truck accident lawyer can identify all responsible parties in your case. That step can help truck accident victims pursue compensation through every available source of coverage.
Overcoming Strong Opposition
Trucking companies and their insurers are motivated to avoid accountability and minimize payouts after a serious crash. They have substantial resources to fight even valid claims.
You need a strong legal advocate to stand up to those tactics. A lawyer can protect your accident claim and keep the focus on the evidence.
Conducting Thorough Investigations
To build a strong case, your personal injury attorney needs to perform a thorough investigation and gather evidence that may only remain available for a short time. That may include data from the truck’s black box or Event Data Recorder, driver logs, dashcam footage, and company safety records.
Collecting this evidence in time requires experience and resources. Early action can make a real difference in truck accident cases.
Pursuing the Full Value of Your Losses
The physical and financial impact of truck accident injuries like brain trauma, spinal cord injuries, and amputations can be severe and long-term. Valuing this harm requires a careful review of disabilities, lost earnings, future care costs, and the effect on daily life.
Your truck accident attorney serving Melbourne, FL, can evaluate these losses and build a claim backed by evidence. That calculation can play a major role in the outcome of your case.
Level the Playing Field
The reality is that trucking companies and their insurers have teams working to protect their bottom line. They start building their position early, sometimes before the injured person has had a chance to understand what the case may involve.
You need a legal team that will protect your side of the case with that same level of focus. After a serious truck crash, that support can make a meaningful difference.
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Be Mindful of the Statute of Limitations When Pursuing a Truck Accident Lawsuit in Melbourne
If you’re seeking compensation after a truck accident in Melbourne, you need to be aware of the legal deadline for filing your claim. Under Florida Statutes § 95.11(5)(a), Florida gives injured people two years to file most negligence cases, and Florida Statutes § 95.11(5)(e) gives the same two-year period for a wrongful death lawsuit.
If you miss this window, you may lose your right to seek damages altogether. Two years may sound like a long time, but it can pass faster than expected once medical care, missed work, and insurance issues start taking up your attention.
Getting a lawyer involved early also gives them a better chance to build a strong case on your behalf. Early action helps your attorney collect evidence before it disappears and speak with witnesses while their memory of the crash is still clear.
No matter what time of day it is, you can contact The Schiller Kessler Group to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation.
Florida Law on No-Fault Insurance and Truck Accidents
Florida is a no-fault insurance state. What this means is that the first place to turn after any vehicle accident is your own insurance company. Your personal injury protection (PIP) coverage will pay for some of the damages you’ve suffered. Still, it may not cover all your losses due to the massive damage often resulting from a collision with a commercial truck.
Florida’s PIP coverage is unique because it will only pay up to 80% of your medical costs. You must cover the other 20% separately. Your health insurance may cover the rest of your medical costs, or it might not. There are also limits to how much you can receive in lost wages.
However, you may have the option of filing a truck accident lawsuit to recover further compensation if you suffered a serious injury. An experienced Melbourne truck accident attorney can review the details of your injuries to determine whether you are eligible to take legal action.
How Do I Prove Negligence in a Truck Accident Claim?
When attempting to recover compensation after a collision with a commercial truck, you will need to establish the four elements of negligence. An experienced truck accident lawyer serving Melbourne can help prove the negligence of the liable party so you can secure fair compensation for the losses you incurred.
Duty of Care
Drivers are expected to operate their vehicles with reasonable care and follow traffic laws. If you are pursuing compensation from the truck driver, establishing this element is easy, as all drivers have an automatic legal duty of care toward everyone else on the road.
Similarly, if you are pursuing compensation from the trucking company, establishing the existence of a duty of care is straightforward, as these companies have a duty to ensure that the trucks they are putting on the road are safe and that their drivers are qualified.
Breach of Duty
The second thing to prove is that whoever owed you a duty of care broke it and put others in danger. Breaking traffic laws is an obvious breach, but a violation can also include things like poor vehicle maintenance or an employer forcing unsafe work practices on their workers.
Police reports, time sheets, dash cams, and even black box recorders can give our lawyers evidence to prove that a breach of duty occurred and put you in danger.
Damages
The third part of establishing negligence is proving that you sustained damages. The losses you sustain in a crash can include both economic damages, like your medical bills, and non–economic damages, like your pain and suffering. Along with proving negligence, part of our job as your Melbourne truck accident attorneys is calculating the true costs of your damages.
Causation
The final element of negligence is causation. You need to prove how the damages you sustained in your crash were directly caused by the liable party violating their duty of care. An experienced lawyer can help connect the dots for a judge or jury so that causation is clear.
Eighteen-Wheeler Accident Cases in Melbourne
An 18-wheeler crash can cause a very different level of damage than a standard traffic collision. These large trucks take longer to stop, need wider spaces to turn, and can cause severe injuries when they strike a smaller vehicle.
A case involving an 18-wheeler may also call for a close look at driver conduct, vehicle maintenance, cargo issues, and the company’s safety practices. Rules from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration may also affect how fault is evaluated after the crash.
In Melbourne, these wrecks can happen on busy local roads or along the I-95 corridor, where traffic volume and speed can raise the risk. A strong claim starts with a careful review of how the crash happened and who should be held responsible.
Semi-Truck Accident Claims
A semi-truck accident can leave a person with serious injuries, major vehicle damage, and a claim that takes work to sort out. These cases can involve wide turns, blind-spot issues, stopping distance, or loss of control under heavy load.
Like other cases involving heavy vehicles, a semi-truck claim may involve questions that do not come up in an ordinary car accident. The driver may be at fault, but the trucking company, a maintenance provider, or another business tied to the trip may also share responsibility.
That is one reason these claims need a close review early. The truck’s condition, the trip records, and the choices made before the collision can all affect liability and the value of the case.
Commercial Truck Accidents
Commercial truck accidents can involve many kinds of vehicles and business operations. In Melbourne, FL, a crash may happen on a local road, near a commercial area, or on a highway where trucks move through the area all day.
A commercial truck case may involve company-held records, insurance issues, and questions about who controlled the vehicle at the time of the crash. Those details can affect how the claim moves forward and whether responsibility stops with the driver.
Because commercial trucking follows industry rules and safety requirements, these claims may require a deeper review than a standard crash case. Early action can help preserve records and put the case in a stronger position from the start.
What Damages Can I Recover After a Truck Accident?
Victims of truck accidents face incredible amounts of pain and disruption to their lives. They also take an enormous financial hit. Medical bills, car replacement, and lost time at work can deplete a family’s savings quickly. Determining all the damages you are eligible for after an accident helps support the full value of your claim.
You can recover both economic and non-economic damages through a personal injury lawsuit. Adding up the value of all your damages is an important part of your lawyer’s job. Once they know how much your case is worth, they can begin negotiating with the insurance company for a fair settlement amount.
Common damages available in truck accident claims include:
- Medical expenses
- Future medical costs
- Property damage
- Lost wages
- Decreased earning capacity
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Mental anguish
- Permanent disability
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Emotional distress
- Loss of consortium
- Pain and suffering
If the insurance company decides they won’t pay what you’re owed, we’ll take them to court and let a judge and jury decide. Without the threat of potential legal action, insurance companies often try to force victims to take much smaller settlements. A Melbourne truck accident lawyer can help you pursue the full value of your claim.
Modified Comparative Negligence in Florida
Florida follows a comparative negligence system to determine fault and compensation in truck accident cases. Under this approach, you may still be eligible to receive damages even if you share some responsibility for the accident, provided your share of the blame is 50% or less.
However, your compensation will be reduced based on your degree of fault. For instance, if you’re found to be 20% responsible, your financial recovery would be limited to 80% of the total amount of your damages. That means that if your damages are valued at $100,000, your financial recovery would be capped at $80,000.
Contact a Melbourne Truck Accident Law Firm for a Free Consultation
Our attorneys know how hard truck insurance companies fight back against claims. You need aggressive legal advocacy on your side. At The Schiller Kessler Group, with over three decades of experience, we’ve helped over 30,000 Florida injury victims recover compensation.
To get started, contact us today for a free case evaluation. We’ll explain your legal options and how we can help you. There is no obligation to retain our services if you call us for a consultation. Let us give you the information to help you make a smart choice about how to proceed after your truck accident.
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