How Much Is a Truck Accident Claim Worth In Montana?
The trucking industry is a critical part of the state’s economic infrastructure, connecting the agriculture and mining sectors with their markets and bringing necessary goods and services into the state. Although the trucking industry is essential, it also results in highways that are often congested with large commercial trucks. Freight-carrier trucks like 18-wheelers loom over smaller vehicles and far outweigh them, leaving motorists vulnerable to severe injuries in a crash.
If you’ve been injured or lost a loved one in a Montana truck accident, understanding how much your claim may be worth is essential to securing fair compensation. Consulting an experienced Bozeman personal injury lawyer can help maximize the value of your claim and guide you through the legal process.
What Types of Truck Accidents Result In Expensive Damages?
Trucks require skilled handling as well as meticulous maintenance and prompt repairs. Unfortunately, truck drivers may make poor judgments, be tired or impaired behind the wheel, or poor truck maintenance may cause a mechanical failure and loss of control. Truck accidents in Montana include the following types:
- Side-impact or T-bone accidents
- Rear-end collisions
- Head-on collisions
- Sideswipe accidents
- Jackknife accidents (a truck’s trailer comes out of alignment with the truck and causes a crash shaped like a partly-opened jackknife)
- Rollover accidents
- Underride accidents (a car wedges below a truck’s trailer during a collision)
- Override accidents (a large truck drives up and over a vehicle during a crash)
A fully loaded truck may legally weigh up to 80,000 pounds, leaving motorists in much smaller vehicles vulnerable to catastrophic injuries and expensive damages. In many cases, a Montana truck accident victim’s ability to move forward from the accident depends on obtaining the full value of their truck accident claim.
Understanding Damages In a Montana Truck Accident Claim
Under Montana 27-1-702, an injury victim may recover compensation from the responsible party if the at-fault party’s negligence (careless, reckless, or wrongful actions) caused the injury. The amount recovered in a truck accident claim depends on the severity of the injury-related damages. The total compensation may include amounts for the following economic and non-economic damages often associated with Montana truck accident claims:
- Reimbursement for medical expenses
- Future medical costs
- Out-of-pocket expenses
- Lost wages or salary
- Future income loss
- Reduced earning capacity due to disability
- Compensation for pain and suffering
- Compensation for any catastrophic injury damages that apply in an individual case, such as loss of limb, the loss of an organ, permanent scarring, loss of vision, hearing loss, loss of enjoyment of life, or diminished quality of life
- Wrongful death compensation to the family of a fatally injured truck accident victim
Obtaining compensation usually occurs through a settlement from the liable party’s insurance company.
How Do I Get the Most Out of My Truck Accident Claim In Montana?
You have the right to claim compensation for all of the adverse physical, financial, and emotional consequences of an accident when someone else’s actions caused it. These are the “damages” in your truck accident claim. In Montana, even if you were partly at fault for the accident, you can still recover a portion of your damages minus your percentage of fault. Maximizing the amount you recover in a truck accident claim is a more straightforward process if you do the following:
- First, take photos of the truck, your damaged vehicle, and the accident scene if you aren’t incapacitated and can move safely—or ask an uninjured person to do so for you.
- Add the contact information of the truck driver and any eyewitnesses to the accident.
- Go directly to the hospital from the accident scene and have a full medical evaluation as well as emergency treatment for your evident injuries. This helps to diagnose and treat injuries with delayed symptom presentation, like whiplash, internal injuries, and traumatic brain injuries.
- Ask the doctor for a detailed medical report listing your injuries and the course of treatment they recommend.
- Follow your doctor’s treatment recommendations carefully, and attend every appointment.
- Save copies of all medical bills, invoices, and receipts for out-of-pocket expenses.
- Call an experienced Bozeman truck accident attorney for legal counsel before talking to the insurance company or accepting an early settlement offer.
The interests of the trucking and insurance companies are not on your side during a claim. A Montana truck accident attorney conducts an independent investigation into the accident to determine and prove liability and then assertively negotiate for the largest possible settlement for your damages. If the insurance company fails to offer an ample settlement, a trial-ready attorney files a lawsuit and takes the case to court, seeking the largest possible court award for your damages. Fortunately, juries tend to sympathize with injury victims over large insurance companies.
Proving Liability In a Truck Accident Claim
Making a compelling claim requires identifying the liable party and proving their liability. This can be a complex process due to the multiple entities that contribute to putting a properly loaded, well-maintained truck on the road with a qualified driver. Possible liable parties in a truck accident case include the following:
- The truck driver, if they are an independent contractor
- The trucking company
- A negligent truck maintenance company
- A negligent freight loading company
- The manufacturer of a defective truck part or tire
- A third-party driver
- A negligent road maintenance agency or road construction contractor
- The manufacturer of a defective part
Depending on the result of the investigation, one or more parties could share fault and liability for an injury victim’s damages. To obtain full compensation for damages, the evidence must show that the at-fault party meets the standard of legal liability because they owed a legal duty of care to the injury victim, they violated their duty of care, the violation of duty directly caused the accident, and the injury victim suffered damages from their injury.
Getting the Most Out of Your Montana Truck Accident Claim
Truck accidents have catastrophic consequences for victims, including severe or deadly injuries and the resulting economic hardship and adverse impacts on all aspects of life. Getting the most out of your truck accident claim requires clear evidence of liability and medical expert testimony proving the future damages you’re likely to suffer from the injury, as well as those economic and non-economic damages you’ve already sustained.