Truck Accident Lawsuit Funding
Truck accidents (a.k.a. trucking accidents, tractor-trailer accidents, semi-trailer accidents ) total about 3 million 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 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 situations 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 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