A truck accident can leave you with long-term or permanent disability, psychological turmoil and extensive financial losses. As you seek to recover from your injuries you might feel isolated and hopeless as you grapple with the uncertainty of your future. And figuring out how to make ends meet can be difficult, too. Fortunately, you might be able to find relief through a personal injury lawsuit that seeks to impose liability and recover compensation for damages suffered.
But you won’t automatically win your case, regardless of how convincing the evidence may seem. In fact, you might go up against aggressive defenses that seek to limit or eliminate your recovery. That’s why as you head into your case you need to be prepared to effectively counter common truck accident defenses.
Truck accident defenses that you might face in your personal injury case
Truckers and their employers will do everything possible to avoid liability. Therefore, as you navigate your personal injury claim, you might come face-to-face with any one of these common truck accident defenses:
- Comparative fault: Comparative negligence is probably the most common defense strategy implemented in these cases. Here, the defense argues that you were at least partially to blame for the accident in hopes that the jury will assign some fault to you. If they do, then your compensatory recovery will be reduced by the amount of fault that’s been assigned to you. So, if you don’t adequately address comparative negligence arguments, then you could be left without the financial resources needed to achieve a full recovery.
- Third-party liability: If your accident involved multiple vehicles and you only named the trucker and their employer in your claim, then there’s a good chance that the defense will try to shift the blame onto other drivers who were involved in the wreck. Be sure to name all potentially responsible drivers in your claim so that you can be sure to advocate for the compensation that you deserve.
- Trucker liability: If you’re trying to attach liability to the trucker and their employer so that you can reach deeper pockets that are more capable of paying your damages, then you should prepare for the truck company to try to shift all the blame onto the trucker. To do so, the truck company may argue that the trucker was operating beyond the scope of their employment at the time of the accident.
- An emergency: A trucker might be able to escape liability if they can show that an emergency arose, that they acted reasonably under the circumstances and that they weren’t negligent leading up to the wreck. In these instances, you need to focus on whether the facts actually constituted an emergency and whether the trucker’s actions were truly reasonable.
- Lack of causation: On a basic level, you have to prove that a trucker’s negligence caused your accident, and that the accident caused your claimed damages. In some cases, the defense will simply attack the sufficiency of the evidence to see if they can prevent you from proving causation. That’s why you need as much evidence as possible supporting your claim.
Your recovery and your financial future are on the line when pursuing a personal injury lawsuit. That’s why it’s imperative that you do everything you can to build a persuasive case aimed at protecting your interests. If you’d like to learn more about how to do that, then we encourage you to continue reading about personal injury claims and what you can do to position yourself for success.
