If you were injured in an accident with a commercial truck, like a tractor-trailer or a big rig, you may be faced with options to “settle.” Damages vary from case to case, so there isn’t a specific “average” settlement amount.
To know what you can expect, our lawyers will calculate your specific damages. Big truck companies and insurance companies often try to avoid high payouts after truck accidents by trying to shut down lawsuits and convince truck accident victims to settle for low amounts. It may be impossible to determine how much your case is worth without speaking to a lawyer.
Contact our Texas truck accident attorneys today for a free consultation by calling The Queenan Law Firm at (817) 476-1797.
What is the Average Commercial Truck Accident Settlement?
The “average” settlement will differ in each case. The severity of your injuries, their long-term effects, and the defendant’s conduct that gave rise to the accident will majorly impact what is considered average in your claim. Since injuries and damages vary dramatically, so do the settlements victims deserve.
To determine what you deserve from a settlement, our truck accident attorneys will start by calculating your economic losses, as this will guide our assessment of your non-economic damages.
We will also review the evidence to determine the negligence of the driver and trucking company derived from ordinary carelessness or gross misconduct. If malicious or grossly negligent behavior contributed to your accident, exemplary damages should be pursued.
What Factors Influence Settlement Amounts?
We factor in many considerations when calculating the amounts due for settlements, such as injury severity and total medical damages.
Injury Severity
Traumatic brain injuries and other very severe injuries like paralysis often lead to larger settlements, as victims incur significant economic and non-economic damages.
Medical Damages
An out-of-court settlement should cover all the medical damages you incurred due to negligence. If you have long-term injuries that require ongoing care, our lawyers will negotiate for those damages to be covered in a settlement as well.
Lost Income
We always factor lost wages into calculations and may only advise you to accept a settlement that covers all lost income, current and future.
Comparative Fault
Plaintiffs’ damages can be reduced according to their percentage of fault, and defendants may try to use comparative fault rules to convince plaintiffs to accept lowball settlements, which we can prevent.
Multiple Liable Parties
Being able to hold multiple parties accountable may improve your chances of reaching a bigger out-of-court settlement sooner. In commercial truck accident cases, not only is the truck driver liable, but so is their employer.
When Can You Get Compensation for a Commercial Truck Accident?
You may be entitled to even higher compensation if you or a loved one were injured in a truck accident, or you lost a loved one to an auto accident. In Texas, you can usually take an auto accident case to court instead of relying on car insurance, especially if you suffered severe injuries.
This is often the best way to recover damages and opens up the most possibilities for compensation. The goal of personal injury lawsuits is to restore the victim to their financial situation from before the accident. Most accident lawsuits settle without trials, though court is always a possibility.
How Do You Calculate Economic Damages from a Truck Accident?
We accurately calculate economic damages by considering all medical expenses, lost wages, and miscellaneous out-of-pocket expenses.
Medical Expenses
First, taking your truck accident case to court may compensate your medical expenses. Car or truck insurance will often cover medical expenses, but it may not cover all of them. In a lawsuit, the goal is to compensate any expenses that stem from your injuries fully. This means covering any medical bills from emergency treatment, surgeries, hospital stays, imaging, rehabilitation, physical therapy, and perhaps even the cost of medical devices (such as wheelchairs or crutches).
Keeping a good record of your medical bills and treatments can help prove these damages in court. For example, if you undergo treatment for Adderall, opiates, Dilaudid, Xanax, or alcohol due to medical malpractice, then having treatment records from visits to a rehabilitation center can be crucial evidence in court.
Lost Wages
Second, you may also be entitled to compensation for lost wages. If you missed work while recovering from your injuries or are unable to return to work, you may be entitled to recover your missed paychecks.
Future Medical Damages
A good settlement will take into account more than just the current economic losses you have suffered. It should also compensate for future expenses your injuries are projected to cause. For instance, your doctors might conclude that you will need several operations over the next year or two to reach “maximum medical improvement,” the point where treatment can no longer provide further relief. You should not accept a settlement that does not account for these costs.
Lost Earning Potential
Truck accident settlements should also compensate for future loss of income or earning potential. Suppose your injuries are so severe that you are permanently out of work or forced into a different job. In that case, the loss of professional opportunities, advancement, bonuses, and retirement should be negotiated for in your settlement. Fortunately, Texas does not cap the amount of provable economic damages you can recover.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Further, truck accidents often result in extensive property damage and out-of-pocket costs. You might need to recover the value of your vehicle to purchase a new one or make modifications to your home or car to compensate for your injuries. Our team will include these damages in your claim.
Can You Get Non-Economic Damages from a Commercial Truck Accident Settlement?
You may also be entitled to compensation for pain and suffering, or non-economic damages. This is often one of the highest areas of damages in a personal injury suit and is not typically available through insurance companies. To get this, you may need to file a lawsuit. You may get non-economic damages from a settlement, but it generally requires aggressive negotiation tactics.
Texas has no limitations on pain and suffering damages, so this could be substantial for victims with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and other catastrophic injuries who go to court and receive jury awards.
How Do You Calculate Non-Economic Damages from a Truck Accident?
Unlike your economic losses, pain and suffering damages are more difficult to calculate since they are based on the pain you experienced in the accident and its aftermath, as well as the emotional impacts. Still, our team has a few methods to evaluate pain and suffering.
With the “per diem” method, we would multiply the number of days you will likely experience pain and suffering by a daily rate based on your economic losses.
Alternatively, the “multiplier” approach chooses a value between 5 and 1.5 based on the severity of your injuries and multiplied by the total amount of your financial losses. The more severe the injuries, the higher the multiplier. Regardless of which method is used, it is critical to accurately calculate your economic damages so that your pain and suffering is not undervalued in your settlement.
Can You Get Exemplary Damages from a Settlement?
Lastly, you may be entitled to “punitive” or “exemplary” damages. You can’t get these damages from a settlement, so you must go to trial to receive them.
The trucking industry has dozens of rules and regulations designed to keep other drivers safe. When trucking companies put profits over safety, they may violate these rules or require their drivers to do so. If this rule-breaking leads to accidents and injuries, the courts may punish them. Additional damages like these go straight to the victim as a penalty against the trucking company.
However, the bar is high for exemplary damages to be awarded, which is why courts rarely do. Victims must prove with clear and convincing evidence that their harm was caused by the trucking company or trucking acting fraudulently, maliciously, or grossly negligently.
“Clear and convincing” is a higher standard than what is needed to prove ordinary negligence. Clear and convincing evidence generally means there is little room to question whether the defendant did what they are being accused of, thereby justifying the damages.
Is There a Limit to What I Can Recover After a Commercial Truck Accident in Texas?
As mentioned, Texas does not generally limit the amount of compensation you can recover in a truck accident claim. However, this only applies to economic and non-economic damages and cases against private commercial truckers and trucking companies. If your lawsuit is against a government truck driver and trucking company, or exemplary damages are awarded, your compensation could be capped.
Lawsuits Against the State Government
Damages in an injury lawsuit against the state government are capped at $250,000 for each victim and $500,000 for the entire accident. You could recover far less than you deserve if multiple plaintiffs are involved or your damages exceed $250,000.
For example, suppose a fire truck slammed into you while responding to an emergency. In that case, your lawsuit will typically need to be filed against the city since firefighters are government employees working for the municipality. Perhaps three of your friends were also injured, but all four of you each have $300,000 in damages. The total amount of damages will still be capped at $500,000 for the incident, leaving you with just $125,000 in compensation if split four ways.
Exemplary Damages
Exemplary damages are also capped in lawsuits against private defendants and not authorized in any claims against government agencies. Exemplary damages against private commercial truckers and trucking companies cannot exceed two times your total economic damages plus the amount the jury found for your non-economic damages, limited to $750,000, or $200,000, whichever amount is greater. Our team can help with these complex calculations, but ultimately, the jury decides how much punitive damages to award.
Should I Settle After a Truck Accident in Texas?
The decision to settle your case or take it to trial is ultimately your decision. However, your Texas personal injury lawyer can guide you through the process and help you make the best decision for your case. Though punitive damages are rare, trucking companies may try to force a settlement to avoid paying punitive damages. They may make low offers that do not fully compensate for your injuries to save money. Lastly, pain and suffering damages may be unavailable in settlements with insurance or trucking companies.
Are Punitive Damages Available?
Punitive or exemplary damages are awarded only when a case results in a verdict at trial. There is little reason for a trucking company to pay punitive damages and penalize itself unless under a court order. Settling will almost certainly lose any possibility of exemplary damages.
How Many Offers Have You Received?
Trucking companies do not represent you, the victim, in a trucking accident. Their goal is ultimately to protect their driver, their reputation, and their business. This may mean trying to block cases or force low settlements. While these offers may initially seem attractive, talk to an attorney before accepting anything from insurance or a trucking company, especially if you were severely injured.
How Much is Your Pain and Suffering Worth?
In any injury case, it is very difficult to gauge the value of your pain and suffering. Each person’s experience is unique but heavily tied to their specific injuries. A jury ultimately decides pain and suffering damages and may be willing to award substantial damages to a severely injured victim. Settling with the insurance or trucking company may mean losing your chance at pain and suffering damages.
Always talk to an attorney to understand what your specific case might be worth, and whether a settlement is an option.
FAQs About Commercial Truck Accident Settlements
How Can You Track Damages for a Truck Accident Settlement?
We can handle tracking damages for your case by organizing all medical bills, calculating your lost wages, and assessing your pain and suffering. Without our attorneys, you risk losing track of your total damages and agreeing to a bad settlement.
Should You Accept the First Settlement Offer?
As a general rule of thumb, don’t accept the first settlement offer. There’s almost always room to grow from that initial amount, especially when our lawyers negotiate on your behalf.
How Long Does it Take to Settle Commercial Truck Accident Claims?
Commercial truck accident settlement conversations may take a matter of days, weeks, or longer, depending on the case. We’ll keep you updated on how negotiations are progressing and say when we think it’s time to go to court.
What Evidence Do You Need to Get a Good Truck Accident Settlement?
The following are all examples of evidence our lawyers use to get good truck accident settlements for victims:
- Accident reconstruction
- Eyewitness statements
- Video footage
- Expert statements
- Medical records
- Photos
- Video footage
Can You Change Your Mind About Accepting a Truck Accident Settlement?
If you’ve yet to sign a truck accident settlement, you can change your mind about accepting the offer. However, once you sign the agreement, it is binding, and you may not seek more compensation from the defendant.
Can Truck Accident Settlements Cover Future Damages?
Truck accident settlements can and should cover future damages, such as upcoming medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Do You Need a Lawyer to Settle a Truck Accident Case?
Without a lawyer helping you settle a truck accident case, settlement talks may drag on for far too long, or you might accept a bad settlement offer that leaves you responsible for covering some damages.
Call Our Dallas, TX Truck Accident Attorneys Today for Help with Your Case
Call the Dallas personal injury lawyers at The Queenan Law Firm for a free case evaluation at (817) 476-1797.