Common Damages in a Truck Accident Case

With around half a million people each year involved in tractor-trailer accidents, it’s important for victims to understand their legal rights. A truck accident will cause death in about 1 in 10 incidents. Whether your family member was killed in a truck accident or you’ve personally been hurt in one, understanding your right to damages is key. You need to know what type of compensation is available if you are involved in a truck accident. Here are the common damages in a truck accident case. If you are involved in a truck accident, contact a truck accident attorney about negligence and common damages, including medical costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

The Direct Expenditures Related to the Crash

When you get in touch with an Allentown truck accident lawyer, you’ll learn that direct expenditures are usually the easiest to prove. These include things like your property damage, the cost to rent a car, and anything directly related to the incident. It’s critical that you keep all receipts if you’re going to claim these damages. Your lawyer will work hard to prove that these damages occurred as a direct result of the negligence of another party.

All Medical Costs Related to the Accident

The right lawyer will tell you that the first step in the process is to make sure you get the proper medical care. A truck wreck can cause extreme hardship. Whether you need to go to the emergency room or not, you should go see a doctor and make sure that you’re all right. Head, neck, and back injuries are especially common, with concussions being the silent danger in these situations.

The good news for you is that personal injury cases entitle you to damages for all medical costs. This is true even if you have private insurance that will cover or defray some of the costs. The law suggests that you’re entitled both to your insurance payout and a damage award for these costs. Importantly, this will allow you to recover enough to pay for any increases in your insurance that may result from the crash.

You could recover costs associated with an ambulance ride, with a surgery, and with other medical procedures. If you were charged a cost by any medical entity, then you may be entitled to a damage award. It’s critical to keep good records and to communicate with hospital staff to ensure that you’ll be covered. You could also get a damage award for any long-term medical costs that may result from your accident. If you had to get long-term care because of a neck problem, you’ll have to anticipate future damages using a formula. Your Allentown truck accident lawyer will help you figure all of this out.

Damages for Pain and Suffering

The law requires that when you suffer, the person responsible has to make you whole. Pain and suffering make it difficult to put a distinct number on your damage award. Still, good lawyers can convince juries in truck wreck cases to compensate you well for what you’ve gone through. Generally speaking, the damage award for pain and suffering should align with your injuries. If you’ve been through a wreck and experienced a serious injury, your pain and suffering award could be greater. This critical part of the damage award is difficult to pin down, but it’s what you’re due under the law in Pennsylvania.

Lost Wages for Missing Work

Personal injury cases often involve situations where people have to take a few weeks or more off work to recover from their injuries. You aren’t required to bear the costs associated with missing work. Rather, you could receive compensation for any time that you’ve lost. Figuring out how much you’re owed in back pay can be difficult as it requires you to figure out how much overtime you missed. It may also require you to calculate any bonuses that may have been missed.

Loss of Future Earning Power

In addition to any lost wages from the past, you may also be able to recover lost future earnings. Some injuries are so bad that they can make it hard for you to remain in your career field. If you’re a baseball pitcher, for instance, then an accident that hurts your elbow would be a significant blow to your earning power. If you find that you’ve lost future earning power because of an accident, then your lawyer will need to figure out just how much to ask for from the jury. Negligence doctrine in Pennsylvania has held that these damages are foreseeable, and thus, they’re the responsibility of the party that’s at fault.

Treble or Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are available in some cases as a way to punish a party that has done something wrong. Typically, the courts will apply punitive damages not on the basis of how much you’ve lost but on the basis of how harmful the defendant’s conduct is to society as a whole. It’s a means of sending a message to that company that it needs to be more responsible in the future. Punitive damages are usually only available if the conduct of the responsible party is especially egregious. In a truck case, you might have to prove that the company knew its trucks were in poor condition and sent drivers out with them anyway.

Contact Us

Many damages are potentially available to you if you’ve been hurt in one of these accidents. Give our Allentown truck accident lawyer a call today if you’re in Philadelphia or the Lehigh Valley area. You can reach Metzger & Kleiner by calling (215) 567-6616 or (610) 435-7400. Our attorney will strive to answer any questions you may have.