My Spouse Was Injured in a Truck Accident — What Can I Do?

By Seattle Truck Law, PLLC. | October 3, 2018 | Comments Off

My Spouse Was Injured in a Truck Accident — What Can I Do?

If your husband or wife recently suffered serious injuries in a devastating truck accident, you’re probably struggling to collect your thoughts and get your bearings. While contacting a lawyer and filing a lawsuit might seem like one stress too many, it’s important to learn about your rights and legal options quickly because the insurance company won’t wait to start gathering evidence and building a defense against any potential claim or lawsuit.

Keep reading to learn about your rights and options after a truck wreck, including the types of compensation your family can receive and how an experienced lawyer can help.

What Kind of Compensation Can My Family Receive After a Truck Accident?

If a truck driver or trucking company caused a wreck and injured or killed your spouse, you have the right to work with an attorney and file a personal injury claim that could provide your family with financial compensation, either in the form of a settlement or a jury verdict.

While no amount of money can bring your husband or wife back or make your pain go away, the compensation from an injury claim can help address some of the enormous financial burdens that a death or disability creates. With this burden lifted, your family can focus on tending to your grief and emotional needs, not to mention the endless around-the-house tasks and other practical matters that always follow a loss.

Washington state law allows car crash victims and their families to receive compensation for all the following types of damages:

Medical Bills

Truck crash victims often require complex and expensive medical care. Sometimes the intensive treatment lasts for weeks or months, and even after the victim becomes stable, they may require lifelong care. All this assistance creates enormous medical costs for victims and their families, with victims’ lifetime medical expenses frequently adding up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Other Crash-Related Costs

For many truck crash victims and their families, medical bills are just the beginning. They also bear the costs of traveling to and from countless appointments with doctors, therapists, and other medical professionals. In addition, victims often have to modify their homes to accommodate their post-crash limitations, and these modifications can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars or more.

Lost Income

Families of truck wreck victims often suffer from a significantly reduced household income when the victim is unable to work for a long time after the wreck — or ever again. Over a lifetime, the amount of income that the victim and their family lose out on can add up to millions of dollars.

Lost Services

Any married person knows that their husband or wife contributes much more to the household than a paycheck. The effort that a spouse puts in around the house, the time they spend with children, and the companionship they provide are even more difficult to replace than their income. While it might seem hard to translate all these contributions into dollars and cents, experienced attorneys know how to establish the value of lost services for an injury lawsuit.

Pain and Suffering

Truck accidents create devastating injuries, and victims experience pain and suffering that no one should have to endure. Thankfully, the law recognizes this fact and lets victims and their families recover additional compensation to address this pain.

Much like damages from lost services, it might seem impossible to express your loved one’s pain and suffering in terms of money, but don’t worry. If you work with an experienced attorney, they have guided victims through this process before. They also work closely with experts in economics, medicine, and more to translate your spouse’s ordeal into monetary compensation.

Death Expenses

If your spouse suffered fatal injuries in the wreck, the law provides for additional compensation to address death-related expenses like funeral and burial costs.

Working With an Experienced Attorney Matters

The types of compensation listed above aren’t guaranteed, even if you feel like your case against the trucker or trucking company is very strong.

The insurance company representing the truck driver or truck company has experience defending itself against injury claims, and they’ll start working to reduce their responsibility as soon as they learn about the wreck. Insurance companies often send “rapid response” teams to crash sites to start gathering evidence and crafting a story of the crash that breaks down the victim’s legal case. Sometimes, these teams even hide or destroy evidence, although it’s against the law for them to do so.

If you try to file a claim and recover fair compensation for your family’s losses, the insurance company will fight your claim aggressively. To get out of paying the fair value of your claim, they may argue that your spouse was at fault for the wreck, try to blame another driver or the road conditions, or claim that some of your spouse’s medical treatment wasn’t necessary. At the same time, they’ll probably make you a low offer for compensation and discourage you from contacting a lawyer.

Insurance companies will tell you not to contact an attorney because they know seeking help from an experienced truck accident lawyer gives you and your family the best chance of recovering full and fair compensation for the losses created by the wreck. And even if they can’t keep you from contacting a lawyer, they know that any delay they can create will make it more difficult for you and your attorney to build a strong case.

Statutes of limitations also apply to all injury and wrongful death claims, so it’s important to act quickly. If you wait too long to contact a lawyer and file a claim, you could lose any chance to receive fair compensation for your family’s financial losses and your loved one’s pain and suffering. So if your loved one has been hurt or killed in a vehicle collision with a tractor-trailer or other large truck, please don’t wait — get in touch with an experienced truck accident lawyer right away.

Contact Seattle Truck Law Today if Your Spouse or Loved One Suffered Injuries in a Truck Accident

If someone you loved suffered injuries or died in a devastating truck crash, Seattle Truck Law Attorney Morgan Adams is here to help. With years of experience and a sole focus on large vehicle cases, Morgan Adams has the expertise and resources needed to guide you through a complex vehicle accident claim and fight for justice on your behalf.

Please contact us at (866) 580-4878 or fill out our online contact form if you need help. We offer free initial consultations to assess your situation and discuss your legal options, and we handle cases on a contingent fee basis, which means that you won’t pay attorney’s fees unless we help you and your family receive compensation through a settlement or verdict.

The content provided here is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject.

Posted in Commercial Trucking Accident, Trucking Accident and tagged Truck Accident, Truck Accident Lawsuit

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Seattle Truck Law is a personal injury law firm that fights for clients who have been hurt in collisions with large trucks and buses. We also represent the families of victims who have lost their lives in these deadly wrecks. The firm serves clients in areas throughout Washington state, including Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Spokane, and more. We also handle cases nationwide by working with the best local counsel.

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