Ventura Truck Accident Lawyer

Truck Accident Attorney in Ventura, California

The size of the average 18-wheeler makes these trucks some of the most intimidating vehicles on the road. Drivers who operate these vehicles need extensive training if they’re going to keep everyone around them safe. Unfortunately, drivers can fall victim to roadway negligence, either on purpose or due to workplace fatigue.

Intent doesn’t negate negligence, though. Nor does it impact your ability to respond to an accident. Whether you think a truck driver or another related party’s negligence contributed to your recent accident, our Ventura, CA, truck accident lawyers can help you take legal action. You can file a civil claim with a local judge to fight for truck accident compensation.

Filing a Truck Accident Claim Lets You Pursue Compensation for Your Losses

Recovering from a truck accident can be expensive. Fortunately, the purpose of a truck accident claim is to win you the compensation you need to cover your post-accident bills. Specifically, these claims allow you to present evidence tying a liable party’s negligence to the economic value of your accident.

You need to calculate the possible value of your accident before you submit a truck accident claim. To do this, you need to understand how much your economic and non-economic losses may be worth. To calculate your economic losses, you can add together any bills related to your post-accident care. 

When estimating the value of your non-economic damages, our team turns to the state. California has predetermined non-economic multipliers that represent losses like wrongful death, pain and suffering, and emotional distress. We can apply these multipliers to the sum of your truck accident expenses. The resulting number represents your total possible compensation.

Truck Accident Liability Isn’t Always Straightforward

Truck accidents are rarely low-impact. The size of most 18-wheelers means that the damage tied to the accident often involves more than one vehicle. This reach can make establishing liability for your accident-related losses complicated. When you factor in the truck driver’s relationship with their parent company, your case doesn’t get easier.

Fortunately, our team knows how to break down liability in a truck accident. We can address both multi-vehicle accidents and cases wherein the truck driver may not be the sole liable party.

Trucking Agencies and Accountability

Truck agencies are specific about who they want to offer legal protection. Like ridesharing companies, these agencies will often only offer insurance coverage to drivers who are on duty and working full-time. 

If the truck driver who you believe to be liable for your losses fulfills these conditions, you cannot file your complaint against that individual. Instead, you can name the trucking company they work for liable for your losses.

Contending with a trucking agency’s legal team can be frustrating. That’s why it’s best not to go into settlement negotiations alone. Our Ventura truck accident attorneys can make sure that a trucking agency acknowledges the full extent of your losses. We can also protect your right to take a claim to court even in the wake of initial negotiations.

Independent Contractors and Accountability

Most truck drivers today operate as independent contractors. This means that the truck drivers are not considered full-time employees within the company that they work for. Instead, these drivers must protect themselves on the road with independently-obtained insurance.

If you get into an accident with a truck driver operating on an independent contractor’s contract, the complaint you file must name that individual liable for your losses. On one hand, naming an individual can make securing compensation for your losses more straightforward. On the other, there’s a chance that the truck driver may not be properly insured.

Our team can help you determine your best path forward in the face of an uninsured or underinsured truck driver. We can also ensure that the company a driver works for has appropriately represented a driver’s role in their hierarchy. If it turns out a corporation is lying about an employee’s position, they may face civil and criminal charges based on your losses.

Truck Accident Liability Hinges on Evidence

The only way you can bring a trucking agency, truck driver, or similar party forward in civil court is to present evidence of these parties’ negligence. You must defend an assertion of liability with evidence of negligence found at the scene of your accident. This evidence can include:

• Photo footage of the accident
• Video footage of the accident
• Bystander testimony describing the aforementioned negligence
• Black box data
• Cellphone data, if applicable
• Expert witness testimony regarding a liable party’s alleged behavior
• Police reports
• Medical reports

A truck accident lawyer in Ventura can gather this information for you. Once we have the appropriate data on hand, we can bring together the story of how your accident occurred. You can then count on our team to present that story to a judge, jury, and/or another applicable party.

You Have a Limited Amount of Time to File a Truck Accident Claim

To file a truck accident claim in California, you have to understand how the state categorizes your losses. Truck accidents fall under a broader category of claim known as “personal injury.” As such, your truck accident claim must abide by California’s personal injury statute of limitations.

This statute of limitations, or California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, controls how much time you have to bring your claim before a judge. Specifically, this statute limits your actionable time to two years. The march toward that deadline begins on the same day your accident occurs.

If you find yourself coming up on your filing deadline, don’t panic. You can contact our office at any point during your two actionable years. We can even look at your case after your statute of limitations has passed, though our actionable paths may be limited. The sooner you get in touch with a truck accident attorney in Ventura, though, the more information you can present to a civil judge.

Truck Accident Lawyers Make Pursuing Your Claim Simple

Truck drivers aren’t the only parties who can be held liable for a truck accident. There are dozens of parties who work together to keep trucks safe and functional on the road. In the face of an accident, you have to consider how each of these parties may have contributed to your losses.

You do not, however, have to go into a truck accident investigation alone. You can collaborate with Setareh Law instead. Contact our office at (310) 659-1826 or use our contact form to schedule a case consultation with our truck accident attorneys in Ventura.