What Damages Can In Claim from an Indiana Truck Accident?
You may have heard the term “damages” when people talk about Indianapolis truck accident lawsuits, but what does it mean? Damages are the compensation an injured person can recover in a truck accident claim to cover physical injuries, lost wages, emotional distress, and other losses from the crash.
While you can potentially recover significant compensation, the trucking and insurance companies will try to limit your claim’s value. That is why you need an experienced Indianapolis truck accident attorney to fight for your best interests.
Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC has over 30 years of experience helping truck crash victims seek compensation. Let our highly trained team handle the legal process and fight for your rights while you heal. You will not owe us any fees unless we recover compensation for you.
Call now or complete our contact form for a free consultation.
What Damages Can You Recover After an Indianapolis Truck Accident?
There are two main categories of compensation in Indianapolis truck accident claims. The first is economic damages. Economic damages after a truck crash cover direct financial losses and can include money for:
- Current medical expenses
- Future medical bills
- Lost income
- Reduced earning capacity due to your injuries
- The cost to repair or replace your vehicle or other damaged property
The second primary category of compensation in a truck accident claim is non-economic damages. Non-economic truck accident damages compensate you for the collision’s intangible costs, such as:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Reduced quality of life
- The effects of the crash on your relationships
How Our Attorneys Can Help You Seek Maximum Compensation for Your Truck Accident
Your truck accident claim’s value depends in large part on the severity of your losses. While you may have experienced significant losses in the crash, expect the insurance company to fight you every step of the way to minimize the compensation they must pay for your claim. You need legal representation to preserve your rights and pursue the full and fair compensation you deserve.
Our Indianapolis truck accident attorneys can help you seek maximum compensation by:
- Investigating the truck wreck thoroughly – We can gather police reports, camera footage, internal data from the truck’s data recorders, eyewitness statements, and other evidence to build a clear picture of what happened and who caused the collision. We can also secure the truck driver’s logbooks, the truck’s maintenance records, and other time-sensitive documents before they disappear.
- Identifying all liable parties – In many cases, more than one party is responsible for an Indiana truck accident. We can investigate the truck driver, the trucking company, cargo loaders, and others who may share blame to ensure that everyone responsible is held accountable.
- Working with trusted experts – We can consult accident reconstruction specialists, medical professionals, financial experts, and others to prove the full extent of your physical injuries and other losses from the collision. We can account for your medical costs, lost income, pain, suffering, and the crash’s long-term impacts to make sure nothing gets overlooked.
- Handling all communication with insurers – Let us negotiate directly with insurance companies on your behalf to protect you from their high-pressure tactics and lowball settlement offers.
- Preparing your truck accident case for trial – If the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement, we will be fully prepared to take your case to court to seek the compensation you deserve.
Medical Expenses and Future Treatment Costs
Medical bills from truck accident injuries can easily cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Therefore, medical expenses typically make up a large portion of truck accident damages. Medical damages can cover everything from the cost of emergency care and hospital stays to follow-up appointments, assistive devices you may need, physical therapy, prescription medications, and more.
Furthermore, you may need ongoing care for months or years after the truck accident. Our attorneys frequently work with medical experts to calculate the cost of future medical expenses that truck accident victims will need in the years to come.
Compensation for Lost Wages and Reduced Earning Capacity
A truck crash may keep you from work for weeks, months, or years. Some injured people will never be able to rejoin the workforce or will be required to take a lower-paying position. Our lawyers can use your past pay stubs, tax records, and other documents to calculate your compensation for lost wages after a truck collision.
Your injuries might also keep you from working at all or force you to find a new career that does not pay as much. Calculating how your injuries limit your future earning capacity can be complex, but our knowledgeable attorneys can hire financial experts and other specialists to show how much future income you have lost due to the collision.
Pain and Suffering After a Truck Collision
You are likely in intense pain after a significant truck accident. Compensation for pain and suffering in truck accident cases helps make up for the steep drop in your quality of life, which may linger for months or even years afterward.
How do you put a price on your pain after a semi-truck accident? One approach is to multiply your economic damages (money for tangible costs, such as medical bills and lost wages) by a factor, often between three and five. Another method is to estimate the number of days of pain you may experience due to your injuries, then assign a value to each day and multiply those figures together.
Emotional Distress and Mental Anguish Compensation
Many people experience deep emotional distress and mental anguish after a truck crash. For example, you might feel depressed about how your injuries affect what activities you can do, particularly if you have a permanent disability from the collision. You might also feel anxious around trucks or other cars, even if you are not behind the wheel. These effects can severely impact your quality of life.
Punitive Damages in Truck Crash Cases
Punitive damages in trucking accidents are not always available, but can significantly increase your claim’s value when they are. Punitive damages are not tied to a specific loss you have experienced. Instead, it is additional compensation you can demand in cases involving intentional wrongdoing or extreme negligence. You must take your case to trial and win to recover punitive damages.
Talk to Our Indianapolis Truck Accident Attorneys Now
Our truck accident lawyers understand your struggle and stand ready to work to pursue the resources you need to heal and put the crash behind you. Call Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC, or complete our contact form for a free consultation with our personal injury lawyers.