If you have been injured in a trucking accident, you are not alone. Last year approximately 107,000 semi-trucks and commercial trucks were involved in serious accidents. Commercial trucks can weigh up to 30,000 pounds, and the damage that they can cause physically, emotionally, and financially, can be catastrophic. If you have suffered serious injuries due to a reckless truck driver, you may be feeling overwhelmed by increasing medical bills and a lack of support. Depending on your injuries, a trucking accident can result in hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in damages. For most people, the only way to meet this burden is by bringing a personal injury lawsuit against the truck driver. But what happens when the truck driver does not have sufficient assets to cover the harm that they have caused you?
Suing the Trucking Company
In many cases, the truck driver is not the only party who is liable in a trucking accident. Often, additional parties can also be held liable and can be added to the lawsuit to cover damages. For instance, the company that the truck driver worked for may be held liable for your damages. While a truck driver may have been speeding or have fallen asleep at the wheel, the company that they work for may be held liable for this as well if the company put unreasonable deadlines on the truck driver, forced them to skip the rest breaks that they are legally required to take for safety reasons, or engaged in other behaviors or practices that enabled or required these actions.
Working with an attorney can help you determine whether the trucking company can be held liable. An attorney can use subpoenas to get relevant information, such as trucking logs, to determine whether the driver was taking required breaks and what the workload and distances traveled were in order to uncover potential negligence on the part of the company. In order to hold the trucking company liable, they must be found negligent. This means that the trucking company must have failed to meet the required standard of reasonable care. It may or may not come as a surprise to you that trucking companies often fail to meet this obligation.
In other cases, there are additional parties that can also be held liable, such as the manufacturer or supplier that the truck driver is making deliveries for. This can happen if the manufacturer or supplier over-loads or improperly loads a truck, which can lead to jack-knifing, and overturns. The manufacturer of the truck or components of the truck may also be held liable if it was a malfunction or defective part that contributed to or caused the accident. Because it can be complicated to determine all at-fault parties, it is helpful to consult with an experienced Florida truck accident lawyer.
Schedule a Consultation with our Boca Raton Trucking Accident Lawyers at Ged Lawyers, LLP
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a Florida truck accident, the experienced personal injury lawyers at Ged Lawyers, LLP are ready to fight to get you the compensation and support to which you are entitled. Contact Ged Lawyers, LLP today to schedule a free case review.
