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Truck
accidents (a.k.a. trucking accidents, tractor-trailer accidents,
semi-trailer accidents ) total about 3 million each
each year in the United States. Most of these involve light trucks
(trucks with a gross vehicle weight of under 10,000 pounds), but there
are still about 400.000 accidents involving what are categorized as
"large trucks" (trucks over 10.000 pounds in gross vehicle
weight). About 5000 of all truck accidents result in
fatalities each each year. These fatal accidents may qualify for wrongful
death lawsuit funding.
For lawsuit funding purposes, a truck accident can be an accident
between a truck
and a car, or between two or more trucks.
Click here to learn more about car accident lawsuit funding.
Some of the causes for truck acccidents include (but are not limited
to)
the following.
- driver inatttention
- driver fatigue
- driver speeding or following too close
- driving faster than is safe based on road or weather
conditions
- tire failures or loss of wheels
- brake failures
- steering failures
- drug or alcohol use by the driver
- improper loading or overloading of the truck
Accidents
between cars and trucks can be very serious for the occupants
of the car, if there is a large weight differential between the car and
the truck. More of the energy from the accident will be
transferred to the smaller vehicle which means the occcupants of that
vehicle will be at higher risk for injury. Both drivers and passengers
in truck accidents are eligible for truck
accident lawsuit funding as long as they are not responsible for having
caused the accident.
The types of injuries that qualify for car accident lawsuit funding
include (but are not limited to) the following
- herniated spinal disks
- bone fractures
- shoulder injuries (e.g. rotator cuff and torn muscles)
- knee injuries (e.g. torn meniscus, torn ligaments)
- burn injuries
- eye injuries
- head injuries including brain injuries
- an injury requiring surgery
- loss of body part (e.g. amputations)
- injuries resulting in death
- soft tissue injuries (the advances on soft tissue injuries
are usually
smaller if these are the most serious injuries in the case because the
overall case value is lower)
Below are some of the types of truck
accident situaition that may qualify for truck accident lawsuit funding.
- being hit from the rear
by a truck while stopped.
- being hit by debris
(tire parts, part of the truck load) from the truck
- having the truck make a
lane change resulting in an accident with your vehicle
- having a truck
turn into the path of your vehicle when you had the right of way
- being sideswiped by a
truck
- having a truck rollover
on your vehicle
- having a truck
jackknife into your vehicle
The following situations do NOT
qualify for truck accident lawsuit funding.
- Cases where you were responsible for causing the truck
accident
- Cases where the attorney is being paid by hourly
retainer, or you are acting as your own attorney
- Cases where the settlement will be paid by a person
rather than an insurance company
- Cases where the plaintiff (injured party) is a minor (under
18 years of age)
The amount that can be advanced is
limited to 10% of known insurance coverage. If the the insurance
coverage for a specific case is not known, then the minimum liability
coverage required by the state in which the accident occurred is
used as the insurance coverage number. Accidents involving commercial
vehicles may have higher minimum liability insurance limits to claim
against than accidents with non-commerical vehicles. This can be good
news for the truck accident victim as far as lawsuit funding is
concerned. When analyzing an accident situation, one of the numbers
that is important to the underwriter is available insurance coverage to
claim against. Higher insurance limits allow an underwriter to advance
more in situations where accident injuries and treatment for those
injuries also indicate that a higher advance amount can be justified.
The
insurance that can be considered can include that of the truck driver,
the trucking company, and the company that loaded the freight on the
trailer. As in car accident cases, your uninsured or under insured
coverage (assuming you have this coverage) can also be considered in
determining the truck accident lawsuit funding advance amount when the
defendant does not have adequate insurance to
compensate you for your injuries and resulting treatment, or the
defendant was never identified (e.g. hit and run).
The documents we need to see for truck accident lawsuit funding include
the following.
- attorney/client
retainer agreement (optional)
- police report
- complaint document (if
a lawsuit has been filed-most vehicle accident cases are settled via
negotiation before a lawsuit is filed with the court)
- medical records (e.g.
emergency room reports, X-ray reports, MRI
reports, CAT scan reports, surgical reports, doctors narrative reports
describing status of injuries)
- proof of defendant's
insurance
- payoff amounts for any
prior lawsuit funding advances you may already have
Several basic questions about
lawsuit finding are answered on the page FAQ's
About Lawsuit Funding.
If you have additional
questions, or if you would like to learn if your
lawsuit qualifies for lawsuit funding, please
click here to contact us, or
Call us now at 1-800-598-1178
to get started.
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