McLean Truck Accident Lawyer
Weighing up to 80,000 pounds when filled with cargo and stretching as long as 80 feet from the front of their cab to the end of their trailer, commercial trucks are almost always the heaviest and largest vehicles on any road they occupy. Unfortunately, this means that they often have the greatest capacity of any motor vehicle to cause life-altering harm if they get involved in a traffic collision or other type of roadway accident.
Truck crashes can make for uniquely complex civil litigation, especially if you try to pursue the compensation you deserve without a seasoned personal injury attorney’s guidance. By working with a knowledgeable McLean truck accident lawyer, you could more effectively protect your rights and seek a case resolution that best serves your interests and needs.
Recoverable Damages through Truck Accident Litigation
When a tractor-trailer collides with a commuter car, the smaller vehicle’s occupants almost always sustain substantially greater harm than the driver of the truck involved. Truck wreck victims are often lucky if they can walk away from their accident with just a totaled car and minor injuries that will eventually heal over time. In more serious situations, truck accidents may cause catastrophic damage to a victim’s back, neck, brain, and/or internal organs with consequences that last for the rest of their life.
In light of this, comprehensive recovery in a personal injury case following an incident like this generally must account not just for short-term losses that have clear values right away, but also long-term damages that may not have objective values for several years, or may not ever have them at any point. A skilled McLean truck wreck attorney could provide crucial assistance demanding fair restitution for all past and future losses, including:
- Expenses for emergency medical care as far as future rehabilitative and therapeutic care
- Costs of replacing a destroyed vehicle
- Lost income due to short-term disability
- Lost earning capacity due to long-term disability
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional and psychological trauma
- Lost enjoyment of life
Support from legal counsel could also be critical to filing a comprehensive claim within applicable filing deadlines, which Code of Virginia §8.01-243 sets at two years after initial causation of injuries for most truck accident cases.
Who Could Bear Civil Liability for a Truck Wreck?
Even if a truck accident victim can positively identify the value of all their accident-related losses, they may have trouble maximizing compensation depending on who they name as defendant(s) in their ensuing civil claim. While truck drivers often cause accidents directly through negligent acts like violating traffic laws or falling asleep at the wheel, individual truckers rarely have enough compensation or personal insurance coverage to cover every past and future damage they may cause in a crash.
Fortunately, it is often possible to hold trucking companies vicariously liable for their employee’s negligence through the doctrine of respondeat superior, or even directly liable for their own negligent hiring or corporate practices. Likewise, third parties like mechanics, suppliers, and other drivers on the road may bear fault for truck accidents as well in certain situations, as a lawyer in McLean could explain during a private consultation.
Get in Touch with a McLean Truck Accident Attorney
Regardless of the circumstances that ended up causing a truck crash in Virginia, the process of pursuing fair financial recovery afterwards can be incredibly challenging and complex. There are various state laws and legal precedents that could sidetrack your efforts to get the compensation you need, and opposition from defense counsel and insurance providers will almost always be substantial.
You could even the odds for yourself and your family by retaining a dedicated McLean truck accident lawyer’s help with your case. Call today to learn more.
