Dealing with Insurance Companies After a Truck Accident
A truck accident can have serious consequences for your health and financial well-being. If the truck accident was severe, you are likely seeking ongoing medical treatment and facing mounting medical bills and lost wages. The emotional toll of the truck accident might also be affecting your ability to enjoy your life. Adding the stress of dealing with insurance companies to seek recovery for your expenses and lost earnings makes matters even worse. If you’ve been involved in a truck accident in California with a negligent truck driver, we urge you to contact a Los Angeles truck accident lawyer who can navigate the complex task of demanding what you deserve from insurance companies.
Your attorney can help you determine who is at fault for the accident and then proceed to chart a path forward for the best approach in demanding and negotiating damages after the accident.
Whose Insurance Company Should Pay?
While it may be clear that the truck driver acted negligently and caused the accident, whether or not he is liable to pay for your physical, emotional, and monetary damages isn’t so straightforward. Commercial truck drivers generally fall into three categories and determining which category the driver that caused your accident fits into is critical to demanding money from the appropriate source.
Truck drivers are either:
- Owner/operators: These drivers own their trucks and lease them to trucking companies or operate as independent contractors, serving a number of various companies.
- Company drivers: These drivers are employees of a specific trucking company and drive the company’s vehicles.
- Independent owner/operators: These drivers only haul the goods that they produce.
Once you’ve identified what type of truck driver you collided with, the cause of the accident will guide your claim. If the accident was caused by a defect on the truck, and the truck is owned by a company, you would likely place your claim against that company’s insurer. If the accident was entirely due to the driver’s negligence, then you would either work with the driver’s insurance company or the business’s insurance company, depending on their type of employment.
Hire a Los Angeles Truck Accident Lawyer to Deal with the Insurance Company
Usually, there will be both a trucker and a company that can be held liable for the accident, which means you would have to deal with multiple insurance companies. Bear in mind that insurance companies have deep pockets and vast legal resources at their disposal with which to fight your claim. Their primary goal will always be to settle quickly and for the least amount of money possible.
Hiring an experienced Los Angeles truck accident lawyer who understands the company’s typical strategies is a proven way to ensure you get the damages you’re seeking. Contact our offices today.