You suffered injuries in a truck accident, and you know that you deserve compensation for those injuries. How much should you expect? What is the average settlement for truck accident injuries?
There is no good, solid average for truck accident settlements. Depending on your injuries, you could recover anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. Truck drivers must carry substantial insurance policies that can help provide considerable compensation, which means that the average truck accident claim may be much higher than the compensation you can recover from other types of car accidents.
What an Average Truck Accident Settlement Includes
Truck accidents often involve more serious injuries than other types of accidents, which may mean that people involved in truck accidents can expect to recover more compensation than those involved in other types of auto accidents. However, average settlement amounts may vary greatly depending on the actual damages sustained in the accident.
Most truck accident claims do include compensation for the losses you most likely sustained because of your accident.
Medical Bills
The truck driver that caused your accident – or the truck driver’s insurance company – will not have to pay your medical bills directly. However, your medical bills will often serve as the foundation of your truck accident claim.
Your medical bills establish that you sustained injuries in the truck accident, that you suffered financial losses from those injuries, and that you likely deserve compensation from the liable driver’s insurance company. Make sure you keep up with all the medical bills that come in after your truck accident so that you can easily establish the full extent of your medical costs. In some cases, including emergency room treatment or surgery, you may receive more than one bill for the same procedure: for example, you might get a bill from the facility directly as well as a bill from the provider that actually treated you.
Medical bills may include:
- Emergency medical costs
- Hospitalization
- Surgery or other treatments
- Long-term care
- In-home care
- Durable medical equipment
- Therapy, including physical, occupational, and psychological therapies
You ay also need to talk to your lawyer about ongoing costs related to your medical needs. For example, in the case of some types of serious injuries, you may need to modify your home or vehicle to make it accessible in spite of newfound disabilities.
Lost Income Due to Injuries
Serious truck accident injuries can mean a long time spent in recovery. For some people, even a few days off work can feel financially catastrophic, especially if they do not have financial support available. In the case of more serious injuries, it can take weeks or even months to return to work, which may mean considerable financial challenges while dealing with recovery.
Your employer might work with you to help you get back to work as soon as possible, even with serious injuries. Sometimes, however, employers cannot provide the modifications their employees need to work safely after a serious accident–or it may even be a safety hazard for you to go back to work too soon. The more time you miss at work, the harder it can be to deal with the financial aftermath.
Talk to your lawyer about your lost time at work and how to include it as part of a truck accident claim. You may also want to include:
- Lost vacation time or sick time
- Going to part-time hours as a result of your physical limitations
- Missing time at work for follow-up procedures and surgeries
- Going to appointments, including therapy, during work hours
Yourlost income can add up considerably, especially over the course of a long recovery. A truck accident claim can help you recover some of those funds.
Pain and Suffering
Truck accident injuries can cause a lot of limitations in your life that have nothing to do with your finance. Not only can they cause immense pain, but they may also leave you with ongoing emotional challenges, including the limitations related to your injuries, the loss of time with friends or family members, and the loss of activities you usually enjoy. Some people struggle with increased depression or anxiety after a truck accident. Others may end up dealing with PTSD.
As part of a truck accident claim, a lawyer can help you determine what elements of pain and suffering you should consider and how to calculate them. The amount you recover for pain and suffering may depend on the severity of your injuries as well as how those injuries impact the various areas of your life.
Does It Matter What Caused the Accident?
A lot of factors can contribute to truck accidents. Not only can driver negligence lead to significant accidents, other factors, such as negligent company policies or poorly-loaded trailers, but it can also increase the risk of a serious accident or increase the severity of the accident. An accident investigation may uncover that more than one party shares liability for the accident, which can, in some cases, increase the compensation you can claim.
In addition, if you contributed to the truck accident, including pulling over in front of the truck driver or engaging in reckless behavior behind the wheel, it could reduce the compensation you can claim. If you bear partial liability for the accident, the insurance company will determine what percentage of the accident was caused by your actions. Then, the insurance company will reduce the compensation you can recover by that percentage.
For example, if you caused 10% of a truck accident, you will likely only recover 90% of the damages you could have recovered if the truck driver had been 100% liable for the accident.
Contact a Truck Accident Lawyer to Learn the Value of Your Truck Accident Claim
Truck accident claims often prove considerably more complex than the average car accident claim and require a much more in-depth investigation – not to mention involving higher-value settlements. Contact Pacific West Injury Law to learn more about the value of your truck accident claim.
