Trucking accidents are complicated, which makes the personal injury claims required to obtain compensation even more so. There are a number of important factors, all of which combine to influence the outcome of your case.
Liability (aka fault and blame). It is important that the trucker be responsible, or at least that you not be. If you ran a red light and got hit by a truck, you are unlikely to be able to claim anything.
Partial Liability. As long as you are not entirely responsible for the accident, you can claim compensation, but it will be reduced by the portion of blame you bear for the accident.
Injuries and Deaths. The more serious, debilitating, and long-term the injury you suffer, the greater the compensation you will have a right to ask for in order to cover the costs and losses involved. For fatalities, loved ones can bring a wrongful death suit against the trucker or their company.
Insurance Policy Limits. Serious injuries can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, when all losses are added up. Sometimes, this means your compensation will be limited by the size of the trucking company’s insurance policy, though it is usually at least a million dollars.
Companies Involved. Sometimes, an accident is just the truck driver’s fault; at other times, blame is more complicated to attribute: the company could be to blame for pushing them too hard, a maintenance team might have failed to catch a fatal flaw, or perhaps even the company responsible for the load they are hauling was negligent in securing or balancing it.
All of these factors add together and must be carefully considered and analyzed to establish how much compensation you can claim and from whom. One thing is certain, however: there is no way to know for sure how much a given claim is worth without studying it very carefully, and you should be wary of any attorney who does so.