Getting a Settlement After a Semi-Truck Accident

Over 400,000 traffic crashes occur in Florida every year, resulting in more than 200,000 injuries, and about 3000 fatalities. About 1 out of 10 those accidents involve a commercial vehicle such as a semi-truck, and cause numerous serious and costly injuries and tragic fatalities.

The vast majority of semi-truck accidents happen because of someone’s careless or otherwise wrongful actions. Innocent victims of those accidents generally have a right to receive compensation from that at-fault party for the harm they have suffered.

To obtain that compensation, victims can hire experienced truck accident lawyers who, in turn, can often file lawsuits and/or insurance claims demanding payment for victims’ injuries and losses. The most common resolution of those legal actions is an agreement known as an out-of-court settlement.

Here’s an overview of what a semi-truck accident settlement is, and what’s involved in the process of getting one.

Semi-Truck Accident Settlement Basics

A settlement is an agreement to resolve an existing or potential legal action. A semi-truck accident settlement resolves the claim or potential claim for damages by an accident victim against the party or parties at fault for the crash.

In a typical semi-truck accident injury settlement, the at-fault party and/or that party’s liability insurance carrier pays money to the injured victim. In return, the injured victim agrees to release the at-fault party and its insurer from further liability for the victim’s injuries and losses, and to terminate any existing lawsuit against them.

A semi-truck accident settlement usually constitutes a full, final resolution of the injured party’s legal claim for compensation. That means that once it is signed, sealed, and delivered, the injured party cannot get more money, even if it turns out that the settlement payment fell short of the amount the injured party needed.

In most semi-truck accident cases, the lawyer for the injured party negotiates the amount and conditions of the settlement with the at-fault party’s defense lawyer and representatives of the at-fault party’s insurance company. The lawyer advises whether to accept or reject a settlement offer, but the ultimate decision belongs to the injured semi-truck accident victim.

Who Might Agree to Pay a Semi-Truck Settlement?

Generally speaking, anyone who causes a semi-truck accident by engaging in unreasonably dangerous actions will owe compensation to accident victims who suffer harm. Other parties who have a legal duty to answer for the actions of the at-fault party may also owe compensation to injured victims. Those two groups are typically the parties who may agree to pay a semi-truck accident settlement.

Determining who the law might hold financially accountable for a semi-truck accident can be complicated. Every semi-truck crash has unique facts. Multiple commercial parties may have a legal and financial stake in the truck that crashed. In any given semi-truck collision, parties who may owe compensation might include:

• A truck driver who makes a mistake behind the wheel that causes a crash.
• A trucking company that fails to train or supervise the truck driver.
• A manufacturer of a truck or truck parts, if defects in them cause a crash.
• A truck fleet maintenance contractor, if a failure to keep trucks in working order leads to an accident.

These are just a few examples. Any party can face liability for a semi-truck crash, and might agree to pay a settlement if evidence of that liability is clear.

The Role Insurance Plays in Semi-Truck Accident Settlements

Under Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations, semi-truck operators that transport cargo in interstate commerce (across state lines) must carry at least $750,000 in liability insurance if carrying non-hazardous cargo, and at least $5 million in coverage if transporting hazardous materials. In Florida, trucking companies that operate intrastate (within the state’s borders) must carry between $50,000 and $300,000 in liability insurance depending on the vehicle’s weight. Other parties who may have liability for a semi-truck accident also routinely carry liability insurance.

In other words, in the event of a semi-truck accident, insurance will commonly cover the victims’ damages. As a consequence, insurance companies and their representatives often play a central role in negotiating and paying semi-truck accident settlements. In fact, many liability insurance policies give the insurance company, rather than the policyholder, decision-making authority when it comes to deciding when to settle an accident victim’s claim for damages.

In light of the role that insurance plays in settling semi-truck accident claims, victims can benefit by putting their cases in the hands of experienced truck accident lawyers who have a detailed familiarity with the terms, conditions, and standard operating practices of trucking industry insurers.

Factors That Influence Semi-Truck Accident Settlements

As we mentioned above, the vast majority of semi-truck accident injury cases settle out of court. Why? Generally speaking, cases settle because all sides—the injured victims, the at-fault parties, and the liability insurance companies—prefer the certainty of a mutually agreeable settlement to the uncertainty of leaving the resolution of a case to a judge and jury.

It is never especially difficult to settle a case for some amount of money. At a bare minimum, every case has what lawyers call “nuisance value”, or the amount of money a potentially at-fault party will pay simply to make it go away and to spare themselves the trouble of dealing with it.

Instead, the challenge for lawyers who represent semi-truck accident victims is to figure out how to achieve the largest possible settlement for their client’s claims. To that end, they often focus their efforts on demonstrating to the at-fault party’s lawyers and insurance representatives why it makes sense to settle for a fair amount now, rather than to spend the money to fight the case, only to have to pay the same amount, or more, plus interest, after trial.

Here are some of the factors that semi-truck accident injury lawyers know can influence the chances of obtaining a favorable settlement.

The Strength of the Evidence

To succeed in any claim for damages after a semi-truck accident, the victim’s lawyer needs to have the ability to prove in a court of law that the at-fault party engaged in wrongful actions that caused the accident and injured the victim, and that the victim suffered damages that a certain sum of money can compensate.

Lawyers prove cases through evidence. Evidence is any unit of information that can be used in court to prove a fact. Common forms of evidence in a semi-truck accident case may include:

• Sworn witness testimony.
• Semi-truck driver logs or electronic driving data.
• Photographs of the crash scene.
• Traffic camera footage of the crash.
• Records of the trucker’s cell phone use.
• Damaged or defective truck parts.
• The victim’s medical and financial records.
• Reports, opinions, and testimony from forensic, financial, and/or medical experts.

As a general proposition, the stronger the evidence to prove the at-fault party’s liability and the amount of appropriate damages, the higher the likelihood that the at-fault party and its insurance company will decide it makes more sense to settle than to fight.

What makes evidence strong? That depends on the particulars of the case. Sometimes, strong evidence means an overwhelming volume of data points to back up a claim. Sometimes, it means the existence of a single item or witness statement that proves a core fact. Lawyers and insurance companies use their training, experience, and instincts to weigh the strength of evidence and to decide what it may mean for the outcome of a case.

The Skill and Resources of the Lawyers

Lawyers and law firms, like any profession, possess varied strengths and weaknesses. Some lawyers excel on their feet in a courtroom. Others shine in written arguments made to judges. Some law firms employ hundreds of attorneys and staff that give them a deep bench of resources. Other firms keep things lean and mean, winning cases on their keen sense of where and how to invest their time and energies.

No single characteristic of a lawyer makes a semi-truck accident settlement more-or-less likely. However, on the whole, the match-ups of lawyers on either side of a case can influence the probability and size of a settlement, although experienced lawyers know that they underestimate each other’s abilities at their own risk.

Victims can improve their odds of a strong result by selecting a lawyer who has a strong understanding of the trucking industry, has handled (and won) numerous truck accident cases, and has a reputation as a top-notch negotiator and trial lawyer.

The Amount of Money At Stake

The size of the victim’s claim and of any potential jury award an at-fault party might have to pay can influence the chances of a semi-truck accident settlement, although not always in predictable ways.

For example, a large claim that could put an at-fault trucking company out of business might spur the company to settle. Or, it might give the company an incentive to fight tooth-and-nail to defend itself. In the same manner, a victim who has the right to receive massive damages might feel justified in holding out for a top-dollar settlement, or the victim might worry that the at-fault party would never pay up, making a settlement preferable.

The limits of the insurance policy that might pay a claim can also influence settlement chances. Sometimes, those limits can effectively act as a cap on the damages a victim might recover, which tends to make settlement more probable, especially if the victim has a strong claim for damages that far exceed the policy limits. Conversely, a semi-truck accident claim may have a lower probability of settling if the insurance limits are far higher than the amount of the victim’s financial damages.

Personalities, Personal Priorities, and Other Intangibles

Semi-truck accident settlements sometimes depend on the personalities of the parties themselves. Emotions can run on both sides of a case, for instance. The at-fault party may feel unfairly accused. The victim may feel angry. Lawyers try their best to stay above being swayed, but even they on occasion get their backs up.

The personal priorities of the parties can also play a role. A trucking business at fault for a semi-truck accident may feel extra incentive to settle before the end of a financial reporting period, for example, to use the settlement as a loss to offset tax liabilities. A semi-truck accident victim, likewise, may feel a strong need to settle to pay debts or simply to get a case over-with.

Finally, every semi-truck accident case has intangible factors that can push it closer or further away from a settlement. An at-fault party may feel uncomfortable with the negative publicity associated with an ongoing case. New evidence may emerge that changes everyone’s assessment of how it might turn out. A party or key witness might pass away, changing the dynamics of the case.

Want a Settlement? Talk to a Semi-Truck Accident Lawyer Today.

If you suffered injuries and losses in a semi-truck accident that wasn’t your fault, you may have valuable legal rights to receive compensation from the at-fault party. To obtain that compensation, you may need to take legal action in the form of a lawsuit or insurance claim, either of which might end in a settlement.

No semi-truck accident injury case is guaranteed to settle. However, you can improve your chances of achieving a favorable settlement of your claim by speaking right away with a skilled, experienced truck accident lawyer who can help you explore your options and decide on the best path forward.

Do not wait. You may have only a limited amount of time to act before your rights expire. Contact an experienced semi-truck accident injury attorney today.