West Palm Beach Truck Accident Lawyer

Holding Trucking Companies Accountable for Serious Accidents

Injured in a Truck Accident in West Palm Beach? Our West Palm Beach Truck Accident Lawyer is Here to Protect Your Rights

Following a wreck, truck accident victims usually have dozens of questions. Can they pay their bills? Who is responsible for the crash? Can they receive compensation? At Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein, LLP, our West Palm Beach truck accident lawyer has the answers to these and other questions.

Any West Palm Beach truck accident is potentially devastating. Large trucks weigh several times more than lighter vehicles, and occupants often suffer terrifying injuries. If you were injured in an accident, call the law firm with decades of experience in trucking accidents and more than $1 billion in compensation obtained for clients. Our West Palm Beach truck accident lawyer offers a free consultation to help you decide whether we are the right experienced truck accident lawyers for you.

If you were in an accident and escaped unharmed, you should consider yourself fortunate.  No amount of money from a lawsuit is worth the pain and emotional trauma of a serious personal injury.  If you have suffered a serious injury in Miami, you’ll need the help of the civil justice system.

Contact us to find out how we can help by calling (305) 371-2692.

Receiving compensation following an accident is crucial in recovery. Our team of Miami personal injury attorneys can help you negotiate with insurance companies and others who may be involved in the incident in reaching a full and fair settlement.

Who is Responsible for Your West Palm Beach Truck Accident?

These accidents are often a blur. Many truck accidents occur when people are struck on the highway at high speeds, so they have no idea what happened or who is responsible. A truck accident is analyzed based on fault—essentially, who or what is responsible for your collision.

In our experience, the most likely defendants include:

• Truck drivers. Dangerous truckers cause many accidents because they were driving negligently. There are many examples of negligence, including speeding, tailgating, driving while distracted, fatigue, and substance abuse. When a trucker is not careful, they can ride over a smaller vehicle or cut one off. A truck can also become unstable and either jackknife or roll onto its side.
• Mechanics. Trucks require maintenance like any other vehicle. Mechanics might do poor work or fail to identify a problem. Either way, a truck becomes dangerous on the road.
• Truck owner. The company that owns the truck is responsible for making sure it is safe to drive. Sadly, they might cut corners. You can sue them if they fail to pull a dangerous truck from its fleet.
• Employer. The truck driver’s employer might have ultimate responsibility for an accident. They could negligently hire or train workers. In Florida, an employer has “vicarious liability” when their employee hurts someone while working.
• Truck manufacturers. Component parts could be defective when coming out of the factory, which causes even a careful trucker to crash. Manufacturers are often liable for product defects.
• Freight company. The owner of the freight typically loads it onto a tractor-trailer and ensures it is properly balanced. They could fail to do their job carefully, leading to an accident.

Evidence in Truck Accident Cases

Many truck accident victims are so injured they cannot collect evidence on a truck accident lawsuit on their own without an experienced Florida truck accident lawyer. Call an experienced West Palm Beach truck accident attorney to begin finding evidence. For trucking accidents in West Palm Beach, our legal team usually relies on:

• Witness testimony
• Truck maintenance records
• Trucker employee records
• Electronic data recorders installed on the truck
• Trucker driving logs
• Drug test results
• Cell phone records
• Physical evidence from the scene

Armed with this evidence, we reconstruct a truck accident to understand how it happened. You can help your case by quickly calling our Palm Beach County truck accident attorneys to deal with the insurance company and the truck driver from the trucking company who caused the accident.

Truck Accident Injuries & Medical Expenses

Heavy trucks cause severe life threatening injuries:

• Brain injuries: Concussions, moderate or severe traumatic brain injuries, brain contusions, intracranial hemorrhage, and more.
• Soft tissue injuries: sprains, contusions, strains, stretched nerves, and other painful injuries.
• Neck injuries: moderate to severe whiplash, cervical fractures, and other neck injuries.
• Back injuries: nerve root damage, herniated discs, back sprains, muscle sprains, and spinal column injury.
• Fractures: skull fracture, broken ribs, hip fractures, and dislocated joints.
• Catastrophic injuries: crush injuries, amputations, permanent brain damage, and spinal cord injuries.

These truck accident injuries are so serious that you might require immediate hospitalization, including time in the ICU. Many of our clients incur thousands of dollars receiving treatment and rehabilitating these serious injuries.

Full Compensation for Truck Accidents

At DDRB, our goal is to make our clients whole. This means getting the most compensation for all your out-of-pocket medical expenses, and intangible losses tied. Many victims report never feeling the same again after a truck collision.

We fight to obtain financial compensation for:

Medical Care

The typical truck accident victim can incur medical bills for:

• Ambulance transportation
• X-rays and other imaging tests
• Doctor’s visits
• Surgery
• Anesthesia
• Hospital stays
• Specialist visits
• Prescription medications
• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Behavioral therapy

Strengthen your claim by keeping all medical bills, receipts, and insurance statements. We use them to calculate a dollar amount to request.

Property Damage

Your vehicle probably needs repairs after a collision. We will seek a fair amount to fix your car so it works again. Otherwise, we might demand that the defendant pay to replace the vehicle when it is totaled from the commercial truck accident. You might have other damaged property in the vehicle, like a pet. Be sure to tell your personal injury lawyer about all damaged items caused by the truck driver.

Lost Income and Lost Wages From a Truck Accident Case

The inability to return to work promptly is one of the most frustrating aspects of a West Palm Beach truck accident claim. Instead, our truck accident clients need months of rehabilitation and at-home rest. We can seek compensation for:

• Lost income or wages
• Lost benefits
• Lost part-time or gig income
• Loss of earning capacity, for permanent disabilities

Pain and Suffering

Our West Palm Beach Truck accident lawyers at DDRB will also ask for fair compensation for:

• Physical pain
• Emotional anguish
• Loss of enjoyment of life

Unlike the other damages above, pain and suffering damages are subjective. How much is fair to compensate for constant pain, sleeplessness, and depression tied to your West Palm Beach truck accident? You can be sure the insurance company will try to minimize your suffering and offer only pennies. We will fight so that your voice is heard and your suffering acknowledged.

Punitive Damages

Under Florida law, we can seek punitive damages to punish a defendant when his or her conduct is egregious. We might seek punitive damages when the defendant intentionally injures you or acts with such gross negligence that their conduct exhibits a disregard for the safety of others.

As examples, we might request punitive damages when a trucker is intoxicated, or a commercial truck-ing company hides a negative drug test and allows a trucker back on the road.

Comparative Negligence & Your West Palm Beach Truck Accident

Not everyone drives as carefully as they should. For example, you might have raced through a yellow light when you really should have slowed down. Or you were also texting and driving when a negligent trucker crashed into you.

In these examples, your own negligence matters legally. Under Florida law, your negligence will reduce your maximum compensation in proportion to your share of fault in truck accident case.

If you are 25% to blame, you will receive 25% less in compensation. Similarly, someone 50% at fault will receive maximum compensation or, at most, half of their damages.

Florida has recently changed its comparative negligence law. Before, there was no ceiling to a victim’s negligence. They could sue even if they were 99% to blame. After recent changes, a victim cannot obtain compensation if they were more than 50% to blame. This represents a dramatic shift, and our legal team is committed to minimizing any negligence on the part of our clients.

Our Promise to You

The West Palm Beach truck accident lawyers at DDRB have tackled many cases over the decades. We have honed techniques for obtaining fair compensation when trucking companies refuse to pay up:

• Immediately gather as much evidence as possible for your claim.
• Analyze the facts to determine your legal rights and all possible defendants.
• Minimize your own contributory negligence and amplify the carelessness of the defendant.
• Handle all communications with the other side so they receive all requested information in a timely manner.
• Develop an action plan for obtaining meaningful compensation to cover your bills and make up for physical pain and emotional anguish.
• Seek punitive damages, where appropriate, to protect public safety on our roads.
• Negotiate carefully to obtain fair compensation for all economic and non-economic losses.

Our results are impressive. DDRB truck accident attorneys have received some of the most prestigious recognition in Florida and across the country for our advocacy. Our experienced legal team has obtained more than $1 billion in compensation.

Avoid These 4 Mistakes After a Crash

Many victims make some mistake which undercuts their legal claim for compensation. We strongly recommend that you:

1.       Avoid admitting fault for the crash. West Palm Beach truck accidents happen in a blur. You might think you cut off a trucker or failed to get out of a blind spot quickly. Never admit these thoughts out loud. Instead, talk with our West Palm Beach legal team about what you think happened.

2.       Never give a recorded statement to an insurance adjuster. This interview is a chance for them to put words in your mouth. As explained above, your own negligence can reduce (or defeat) a claim.

3.       Do not accept a settlement of a personal injury claim without showing it to us. Our West Palm Beach personal injury lawyers can analyze whether it’s fair. We have seen insurers offer badly injured people measly settlements. Let us fight for more.

4.       Avoid delay. Florida has shortened its statute of limitations for personal injuries. Now, victims get only two years to file a personal injury lawsuit. If you go past the deadline—even accidentally—you lose the capacity to sue in court.

Ready to Get Started? Call a West Palm Beach Truck Accident Lawyer

We are happy to go over your legal options in a confidential setting. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.