Chicago Injury Lawyer

Seeking compensation for injuries received in a motor vehicle accident is a long complicated process, especially when a truck or commercial vehicle is involved. Defendants in your lawsuit may include the trucking company, its management, the company’s suppliers and insurance providers, and the truck’s owner and driver. Additionally, there are specific state and federal laws that regulate the trucking industry. Because of the physical size and complexity of the trucks themselves, the dynamics involved in a truck accident tend to be substantially different from those only involving passenger cars.

Unlike passenger car drivers, truck drivers are subject to special rule and regulations that include maintenance requirements, limits on the type and weight of the truck’s load and the number of hours the driver can drive at one time and in one week’s time. Truckers also have special licensing and training requirements that can favor plaintiffs in a claim.

Most trucking companies have a team of accident investigators that is dispatched to the scene of the accident as soon as they learn that one of their vehicles was involved in an one. This often gives trucking companies a head start in preparing for their defense. It is therefore vital that a knowledgeable and experienced truck accident attorney is contacted early in a truck accident case. By doing so, the attorney has a better chance of preserving evidence and evaluating it by the time the statute of limitations, or the time by which the claim must be filed, expires.

Another factor that complicates truck accident cases is that because a fully loaded truck can be 30 times heavier than a typical passenger car, the laws of physics increase the likelihood that serious, if not fatal, injuries will result in a collision between the two. The dynamics of such an accident tend to involve much greater forces acting on the vehicles and their occupants than those in accidents involving only passenger cars. An attorney who represents those injured in a truck accident case must have access to competent truck accident investigators as well as a comprehensive understanding of the applicable commercial vehicle laws involved.