Whitestown, IN, may be north of Indianapolis, but that doesn’t mean the city doesn’t see its fair share of truck drivers. Drivers coming through Whitestown need to be particularly careful when navigating the city’s streets. Neglecting a tight turn or post-work traffic can see a careless truck driver causing a severe, multi-car accident.
Whether you’ve recently been in a multi-car accident or had to tangle with a truck on your own, you have the right to take action against the party responsible for your losses. This gets all the simpler to do when you have a Whitestown personal injury attorney on your side. You can meet with the legal representatives at Vaughan & Vaughan to discuss your right to support today.
Your Deadline for Filing a Truck Accident Claim
It takes considerable time to recover from a severe truck accident. You may not have the opportunity, let alone the means, to take legal action against the party responsible for your accident until weeks, if not months, after your accident. That said, the sooner you’re able to initiate legal action against an at-fault party, the better off you and your loved ones may be.
Indiana places a strict deadline on the personal injury claims that its civil courts in Whitestown can consider. Indiana Code §34-11-2-4 notes that all personal injury claims, including those describing truck accident losses, must appear before a judge within two years of a relevant accident.
This means that you have two years from the anniversary of your accident to bring your losses to a judge’s attention. You may lose your right to post-accident compensation if you don’t act within this timeline. Fortunately, our Whitestown truck accident lawyers can help you make the most of the time allotted to you.
Your Case Will Get
The Attention It Deserves
Information to Include in a Truck Accident Claim
The information you’re required to include in a truck accident complaint needs to highlight the identity of the party responsible for said accident. Your complaint also needs to elaborate on:
- Why you believe you were owed a duty of care at the time of your accident
- The negligence that a named party engaged in at the time of an accident
- The ways in which that negligence violated the duty of care owed to you
- The economic impact of that violated duty of care
Be prepared to defend every claim you make in your applicable complaint. You must be able to defend assertions of fault and your estimate of an accident’s total losses if you want to receive compensation from a judge.
There is no fee
unless you win
Truck Drivers’ Contracts and the Question of Liability
Unfortunately, establishing fault after a truck accident isn’t as straightforward as identifying the truck’s driver. Contracts can play a unique role in truck accident cases, as they can change which party you hold liable for your losses.
While there may be third parties involved in your accident, contracts specifically change how your truck accident case addresses:
Independent Contractors
Independent contractors do not qualify as employees within a trucking agency or similar corporation. These parties instead operate, as the name suggests, independently, with trucking agencies and related corporations operating as their clients.
Should you get into an accident with an independent contractor and have the means to argue that said contractor caused your accident, you’ll be communicating directly with that individual. In other words, independent truck drivers must represent themselves after a severe accident.
These parties are also expected to purchase their own insurance, which can impact the compensation you may be entitled to after an accident.
W-2 Employees
Full and part-time employees operating on W-2s receive more protections in the face of an accident than their peers on independent contracts. Truck drivers who operate on W-2s can sometimes turn to their employers for protection if they’re accused of causing a severe accident.
If you get into a truck accident with a driver operating on a W-2, there’s a good chance that you may have to name the truck driver’s employer as the party liable for your losses. You can check in with a Whitestown, IN, truck accident attorney to make sure you’re addressing your accident complaint to the appropriate party.
Know the Value of Your Truck Accident Case
When you bring your truck accident losses to the attention of a judge, said judge expects you to outline the value of those losses. You need to establish the sum total of the damages you think you deserve after a truck accident prior to submitting your civil claim. Which losses qualify for inclusion within a complaint, and how do you find their total sum?
You can find the value of a truck accident claim by calculating the sum of your economic losses. These can range from the cost of essential medical treatment to compensation for lost wages while recovering. You can also include the cost of property repair in your request.
You can then move to modify the sum of your economic losses with the value of your non-economic losses. Our truck accident lawyers in Whitestown can provide you with the information you need to value these losses during an initial case consultation. In most cases, your post-truck accident non-economic losses can include:
- Mental anguish
- Emotional distress
- Pain and suffering
You also have the right to request damages for a loved one’s wrongful death if your truck accident proved fatal.
Talk to Truck Accident Attorneys in Whitestown
Truck drivers are expected to keep up with their training and licensure when they take to the road. A driver who fails to either consistently train or take the well-being of other parties on the road into account can find themselves held responsible for the accident that upended your plans for the future.
Before you can accuse someone of causing your truck accident, though, you need evidence on hand. You can work with truck accident attorneys in Whitestown, IN, to gather that evidence and present your demand for compensation to a judge. Contact Vaughan & Vaughan online or over the phone today to schedule your free case consultation with our experienced team.
