Truck accidents are rarely minor. These large and heavy vehicles tend to cause significant damage to everyone involved. Many of such crashes end in life-changing injuries and fatalities.
If you’ve been injured or lost a family member in a truck accident, you may be entitled to compensation. Fighting for the money you deserve while tending to injuries is stressful, frustrating, and often ineffective. By hiring a truck accident attorney, you are improving your chances of recovering damages and gaining the much-needed time to heal.
A skilled Glendale truck accident lawyer from Hutsler Law can guide you through the complex elements of a personal injury claim and help you secure fair compensation. With a legal professional by your side, you can focus on physical and emotional recovery.
Call our team at (602) 730-4530 today for your free consultation and let us help you get back on your feet.
Do You Need Help Handling Your Truck Accident Claim?
Truck accidents can be particularly devastating. It is very common for truck accidents to result in severe injuries, property damage and even fatalities.
You have a legal right to pursue compensation for your losses if you or a loved one has been involved in a truck accident. However, there is a limited window of time in which you can file a claim. That’s why it is crucial to take immediate action.
If you or a loved one has been involved in a truck accident, our team of Phoenix-based truck accident attorneys is here to help.
Call our team at (602) 730-4530 today for your free consultation and let us help you get back on your feet.
Why You Should Hire a Truck Accident Lawyer in Glendale
If you’ve been in a car accident caused by someone else’s negligence, you may be eligible for compensation. To obtain this compensation, you have to take a series of steps that prove your right to damage recovery.
While personal injury cases may seem straightforward at first, they involve multiple nuances that make it difficult to achieve the desired results for someone without legal experience.
Getting the money you deserve requires much more than filing a claim with the insurance company and waiting for the compensation to come in.
Identifying All At-Fault Parties
While the truck driver may seem responsible for the crash that caused your injuries, they aren’t always legally liable. If the driver was working at the time of the incident, you may have to go up against the trucking company.
While trucking companies tend to have better liability insurance than drivers or independent contractors, they also have more legal resources. Fighting against the trucking company could mean going up against a team of skilled lawyers. Without an experienced truck accident attorney on your side, you could easily lose your opportunity to collect compensation.
In the worst case, the trucking company could start turning tables and trying to prove that you are responsible for the accident. If you can’t fight this claim, you may lose your eligibility for damage recovery.
Other liable parties can include:
- Other drivers
- Pedestrians
- Motorcyclists or bicyclists
- Government agencies
- Manufacturers
- Maintenance crews
An experienced truck accident lawyer in Glendale can help you identify responsible parties and build a strong case against them. They can counter the at-fault party’s arguments and go up against their lawyers in court, if necessary.
Gathering Strong Evidence to Support Your Claim
The quality of the evidence you can present to the insurance company or the court defines the amount you can recover. Collecting all the necessary proof while you are tending to your injuries could be complicated. Meanwhile, the lack of legal experience could cause you to miss important evidence.
A truck accident attorney can help you collect such evidence as:
- Road camera footage
- Photos from the accident scene
- Police reports
- Medical reports
- Medical bills
- Eyewitness testimony
To prove your right to higher compensation, the attorney can also hire expert witnesses. These witnesses can testify to the extent of your injuries and the amount of time it may take to regain your quality of life.
Proving the At-Fault Party’s Negligence
Your right to recover damages depends on your ability to prove that the at-fault party acted negligently. To do this, you would need to demonstrate that:
- The at-fault party had the legal duty of care to you
- The at-fault party breached the legal duty of care
- The breach caused your injuries
- The injuries led to damages
For example, a truck was going down Grand Ave (all drivers owe a duty of care to other traffic participants), ran a red light (breached the duty of care), and crashed into your car. You sustained a spine injury (due to the breach). As a result, you had to pay large hospital bills (injuries led to damages).
A truck accident attorney can collect and present evidence that proves all four elements of negligence. This will make you eligible for compensation that covers your accident-related expenses.
Negotiating with the Insurance Company
Negotiating with the at-fault party’s insurance company is often the most complicated part of the personal injury claim. Insurance adjusters fight hard to minimize or avoid a settlement. They conduct investigations, collect evidence, and come up with strong counterarguments.
Many truck accident victims can’t handle the pressure of negotiations and end up settling for an unreasonable amount. Weakened by their injuries, these people simply don’t have the stamina to stand up to experienced insurance adjusters.
A skilled legal negotiator can counter arguments presented by insurance companies and use the existing evidence to prove your case and achieve a fair settlement.
Attorney Jason Hutzler is a former insurance adjuster. That’s why the Hutzler Law team has a significant advantage during negotiations. That’s one of the reasons why our truck injury lawyers in Glendale have helped local families recover millions of dollars in damages.
Taking the Case to Court
Your truck accident case may need to go to court for several reasons:
- The insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement
- The at-fault party’s insurance policy limit is lower than the desired compensation
- The at-fault party doesn’t have insurance
If these situations occur, an attorney can take your case to court. They will use the evidence to build a strong case and present it to the judge and jury.
Fighting for your money after a truck accident requires legal knowledge and experience. The faster you consult an experienced truck accident attorney in Glendale, the more opportunities they will have to maximize your compensation.
Statute of Limitation for Truck Accident Cases in Arizona
While you may not feel ready to initiate legal action, putting it off for too long could hurt your chances for damage recovery. In Arizona, the Statute of Limitations for truck accident cases is just two years.
It means you only have two years from the date of your accident to file a lawsuit. If do it after, the judge can dismiss the case immediately. While some exceptions to the statute exist, waiting too long is ill-advised. The more time passes after the accident, the harder it becomes to prove your case.
What to Do After a Truck Accident
With more than three million trucks on Arizona roads, the chances of getting into an accident with one of them are getting higher every year.
A truck crash is usually unexpected. One minute you are driving down Loop 101, the next you are waiting for an ambulance. Many victims don’t have the chance to collect any evidence or speak to witnesses right after the accident. And that’s ok. After the accident, your health comes first.
Once you feel better, you need to consult an attorney. A lawyer can return to the accident scene and gather all the evidence that remains along with the available camera footage. Then, they can help you obtain a police report and speak to witnesses.
When you work with a truck accident lawyer, you don’t have to worry about the legal elements of your case. An attorney guides you through every step, trying hard not to take your focus off the healing process.
How Much Can I Recover in a Truck Accident Case?
The amount you can recover in a truck accident case depends on many factors, including:
Severity of Your Injuries
The more serious your injuries are, the more money you need to treat them. For example, a permanent disability may require life-long therapy while broken bones can heal within months. All of this will be considered carefully by the insurance company or the judge.
Quality of Evidence
You would need to provide high-quality evidence to support your right to compensation. From medical bills to personal journals, anything can be valuable. An attorney doesn’t just help you collect this proof but also explains which evidence is the most helpful to your case.
Type of Damages
As a victim of a truck accident case, you may be eligible for several types of damages, including:
- Economic damages – expenses you incurred due to the accident, including medical expenses, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, therapy costs, and more.
- Non–economic damages – physical and emotional distress you face due to the accident, including PTSD, loss of quality of life, and loss of consortium.
- Punitive damages – damages that may be awarded by the judge to punish the at-fault party for egregious behavior.
If you lose a loved one in a truck accident that happened due to someone else’s negligence, you can seek wrongful death damages.
Legal Skills
Even the most straightforward truck accident case may not result in compensation. This could happen due to a number of mistakes a person without legal experience could make along the way.
Having a skilled attorney in your corner has a direct impact on the size of your payout. Their ability to collect the right evidence, create a strong argument, and negotiate with the insurance company can help you get the money you deserve.
Call an Experienced Glendale Truck Accident Attorney Today
As a victim of a truck accident, you may have to face many hardships, including long-term treatment, loss of earning capacity, and loss of quality of life. To get fair compensation, you need to hire an attorney who will handle all the legal aspects of your case.
By hiring a Glendale truck accident attorney from Hutzler Law, you are gaining an experienced partner who will leverage their skills and experience to fight for your rights. Since our team works on a contingency basis, you don’t have to pay any fees unless we win your case.
To schedule a free consultation, fill out a simple form or call us at (602) 730-4530.