You must have a strong and convincing case to recover appropriate compensation for your truck accident injuries, expenses, and losses. This includes evidence of the liable party’s negligence and evidence of the effects that negligence has had on your life.
Hiring our Long Island truck accident lawyers makes it easier for you to locate the evidence you need. We will investigate your case, document the cause of the crash, and develop a compelling argument for compensation for your injuries.
- What Evidence Do You Need to Prove Negligence in a Truck Accident Case?
- How Do Our Lawyers Preserve Evidence Held by the Trucking Company?
- Why Is Getting Started Quickly After a Truck Accident Important?
- Talk to Our Truck Accident Team About Your Case for Free
What Evidence Do You Need to Prove Negligence in a Truck Accident Case?
You need to prove that the four elements of negligence apply to your Long Island truck accident case. These elements are:
- Duty of Care: The truck driver or trucking company owed a duty of care. This generally comes from traffic laws or industry regulations.
- Breach of Duty: The driver, trucking company, or another liable party failed to uphold their duty of care, usually by violating a traffic law, safety regulation, or maintenance requirement.
- Causation: The breach of duty caused the truck accident and your injuries.
- Harm: You must document the extent of your injuries and losses suffered because of the big rig accident. This will include medical care, lost income, and pain and suffering.
What Evidence Is Usually Available in These Cases?
Some of the most common types of evidence you need to prove negligence in a truck accident case include:
- Police accident reports
- Witness statements
- Photos or videos from the crash scene
- Surveillance footage of the crash from nearby cameras or dashcams
- The truck driver’s logs
- “Black box” data from the truck’s electronic control module (ECM)
- Maintenance records for the truck and trailer
- Expert witness testimony
- Accident scene surveys
- Accident reconstruction
For a free legal consultation, call 516-932-0400
How Do Our Lawyers Preserve Evidence Held by the Trucking Company?
Trucking companies are often liable for these crashes. When a commercial driver acts negligently and causes a collision, their employer is generally vicariously liable under a legal doctrine known as respondeat superior.
Unfortunately, the trucking company also often holds key evidence to prove negligence in an accident case. When you hire our Long Island personal injury lawyers, we will take steps to preserve evidence held by the trucking company. This could require:
- A Spoliation Letter: A spoliation letter demands that the trucking company preserve all relevant evidence in the case. Failure to do so could result in legal action.
- A Court Order: If the trucking company is unwilling to provide or preserve the evidence voluntarily, our legal team might request a court order that requires them to do so.
- An Immediate Investigation: Our truck accident lawyers will seek access to evidence and work with experts and investigators, including, as may be called for by the unique characteristics of a given case, accident reconstruction experts, life care planners, vocational rehabilitation specialists, medical experts, and economists. One of the benefits of hiring our semi truck accident lawyers is that we have access to many more resources than the average claimant.
Why Is Getting Started Quickly After a Truck Accident Important?
Acting quickly to build a compelling truck accident case is critical. There are several reasons why this is true. They include:
Protecting the Rights of Truck Accident Victims
When you hire our lawyers to pursue justice for you, we take care of all aspects of the case. This includes managing all phone calls, emails, and other communication from the insurance company and other parties so you do not have to do so.
This is important since you might be undergoing treatment for serious or catastrophic injuries, such as spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries. We will protect your rights and build your legal case while you focus on healing.
Preservation of Evidence Connected to the Truck Collision
As mentioned above, since the trucking company often has a lot of the evidence necessary to show they are liable for your injuries, you do not want them to dispose of, misplace, or overwrite it. Hiring our law firm to manage your case early on greatly increases the likelihood that the at-fault trucking company will preserve truck logs, black box data, and other key evidence and that they will be held accountable if they fail to do so.
Truck Accident Witness Recollection
The longer you wait, the more likely it is that an eyewitness will forget the details of what they saw, weakening their testimony. You want to give our accident injury lawyers the chance to interview them promptly after the accident occurs to get the most accurate testimony.
Accident Scene Changes
Accident scenes change rapidly after an accident. From the moment the vehicles are towed away, the changes continue. The sooner we conduct an accident scene survey, the better. If possible, and most importantly, only to the extent that it is safe to do so, you should take pictures of skid marks, road conditions, and damage to involved vehicles, showing points of impact and the position of those vehicles in the roadway if they have not been moved before you leave the scene of the accident.
The Truck Accident Statute of Limitations
New York law sets a deadline for filing a lawsuit against a negligent truck driver or trucking company under New York Civil Practice Laws & Rules § 214*Waiting too long to act could jeopardize your right to sue and take the case to trial. If our truck crash lawyers are unable to negotiate an appropriate settlement in the case, litigation might be the only way to recover the compensation you need and deserve.
*(A shorter statute of limitations, as well as other deadlines, may apply to your case. For this reason and others, we strongly suggest that you call us for a free case review. This way, you will know what time limits you are facing and what your best options are to protect your rights.)
Letting the deadline pass before you sue would result in you losing your rights to recover compensation for your injuries. Accordingly, our personal injury attorneys urge you to act quickly.
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Talk to Our Truck Accident Team About Your Case for Free
Friedman & Simon, L.L.P., represents clients on Long Island and elsewhere in the New York metropolitan area. We will meet you at your home, the hospital, or another convenient location. We provide free case consultations and have multilingual staff who will explain your options in Spanish, Greek, Bengali, Tamil, or Kannada.
Our truck accident lawyers are strong advocates for the injured. We will fight for appropriate compensation for you based on your expenses and losses. We know the evidence you need to prove negligence in a truck accident case and how to use it to secure a payout for you.
Call today for a free, confidential consultation with our team.
Call or text 516-932-0400 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form