Truck accidents can cause catastrophic injuries. The medical bills, lost income, pain, suffering, and other damages that result from a single accident can far exceed a trucker’s or trucking company’s ability to compensate accident victims.
Accordingly, trucks must have a minimum amount of insurance to pay for accident losses.
Interstate Trucking Insurance
According to current government regulations, trucking companies must have insurance policies that cover at least:
- $300,000 for trucks under 10,000 pounds that carry non-hazardous freight.
- $750,000 to $5,000,000 for trucks that weigh more than 10,000 pounds. The amount of insurance depends on the type of freight being transported.
- $5,000 per vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence in cargo insurance for transportation of household goods.
Some trucking companies purchase additional insurance to protect their financial interests after a severe accident.
What Is Your Truck Accident Case Worth?
You deserve compensation for all of your truck accident injuries and losses. Before your truck accident attorney begins negotiating your settlement, your lawyer will value your damages. Your truck accident damages may include compensation for your past and future:
- Healthcare costs. Medical expenses include doctors’ appointments, medications, hospitalizations, surgeries, physical therapy, other rehabilitation therapies, assistive medical devices, and other healthcare needs.
- Lost income. Any wages, bonuses, raises, benefits, or income from self-employment that you cannot earn because of your injuries should be part of your legal recovery.
- Pain and suffering. Your physical pain and emotional suffering may be your most significant injuries, even though they are difficult to value. An experienced lawyer can make sure they are part of your fair recovery.
- Other losses. Any other losses incurred because of the accident, including but not limited to property damage, household help, and transportation costs, should be part of your settlement or court verdict.
Whether your case settles or goes to court, you want to make sure that you receive full and fair compensation for all of your accident injuries because you only have one chance to make a fair recovery.
How Insurance Coverage Influences Settlement Negotiations
You deserve full compensation for your injuries, but the insurance company will not settle your case for more than the trucking company’s insurance policy coverage. Accordingly, you need accurate information about all of the trucking company’s insurance policies. The trucking company may be hesitant to provide you with this critical information because it wants to minimize your recovery, but your truck accident attorney knows how to get the information for you and negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf.
How to Get the Truck Accident Recovery You Deserve
There are different ways to get compensation for truck accident damages. You may settle your entire claim with the insurance company, settle with the insurance company for the policy limits and pursue additional compensation from the trucking company or other liable party, or go to court for all of your compensation if a fair settlement can’t be reached.
Truck accident cases are often challenging to resolve. The insurance company and trucking company have attorneys working for them and they want to pay you as little as possible for your accident injuries. They may try to get you to settle for less than your case is worth.
Our experienced Midwest truck accident law firm wants to make sure you are treated fairly. You deserve full compensation for your injuries. We will accurately value your damages, identify all truck insurance policies, advise you of your legal options, and fight for your fair recovery. We will aggressively negotiate with all applicable insurance companies. Insurance companies know that we mean business and are often willing to settle our clients’ claims because they know that we won’t settle for less than your case is worth. Instead, we are always ready to go to court to protect our clients’ rights.
Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation about your rights and possible recovery. We would be happy to meet with you in any of our 11 Midwest truck accident offices located throughout Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois, in your home or hospital room, or by video conference.
Additionally, we invite you to request a free copy of our DVD, Secrets Insurance Companies Don’t Want You to Know, to learn more about how insurance companies treat personal injury victims in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa.
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