Evidence helped you determine who can be held liable in a truck accident case. Once you have evidence of negligence on hand, you can assign blame to contractors, corporate employees, corporations, mechanics, and even private motorists. Your investigation will make it easier for you to get the truck accident compensation you need to pay your bills.
Don’t let your pursuit of truck accident damages become a tragedy on top of a tragedy. You can book a free case consultation with a Columbus truck accident lawyer with over 100 years of combined experience today. Our legal representation makes it easier for you to determine who you can hold liable in a truck accident case.
How to Hold Someone Liable for Your Truck Accident
If you want to hold someone legally responsible for a recent truck accident, we encourage you to work with Columbus personal injury lawyers to investigate your accident scene. Accident scenes are rich in evidence and can provide you with the data you need to prove negligence. Proving negligence allows you to bring a personal injury claim to civil court.
Our team can turn your accident scene upside down to find the following:
- Electronic data proving negligence, including cell phone data
- A truck’s black box and relevant data
- Physical debris from your collision
- Evidence of environmental damage
We can also request statements from witnesses who saw your accident take place. We can go on to supplement that evidence with photos from the scene, videos of your accident, and expert testimony.
For a free legal consultation, call 614-481-6000
Who Can You Hold Liable for Truck Accident Losses?
Unfortunately, evidence isn’t the end-all, be-all of liability when it comes time to determine who can be held liable in a truck accident case. You also have to factor in what impact contracts may have on your right to demand loss-based damages.
A combination of contracts and evidence can see you hold any of the following parties liable for your truck accident losses:
Independent Contractors
Independent contractors view trucking agencies and larger corporations as clients. These contractors enter agreements with these clients courtesy of 1099 contracts which state that contractors are not their clients’ employees. Instead, independent contractors act as entities separate from their clients.
Why does this matter? Because neither corporations nor trucking agencies assume responsibility for accidents caused by truck drivers working on independent contractor contracts. In other words, if an independent contractor causes your truck accident, you can’t sue the corporations with whom they work.
However, you can sue an independent contractor for loss-based damages. You may even file an insurance claim with an independent contractor’s provider so long as they have enough coverage.
Trucking Agencies and Corporations
Trucking agencies and corporations assume responsibility for truck accidents caused by on-duty employees. Unfortunately, these companies may take extreme steps to challenge accusations of fault. They may claim that a truck driver wasn’t on duty at the time of your crash. Alternatively, they may misrepresent a driver’s employment status.
If you can convince a company that it owes you damages after a truck accident, you have a good chance of coming to a settlement agreement out of court.
However, you do not have to accept the first settlement offer a company makes you after a crash. Our Ohio truck accident lawyers can instead negotiate for more support on your behalf.
Mechanics and Packing Crews
Packing crews and mechanics can partner with trucking agencies as contractors who work exclusively on an agency’s vehicles. Most of the time, these parties operate on 1099 contracts and must assume responsibility for any accidents that their vehicular mismanagement causes.
Third Parties
Truck drivers aren’t the only people who can behave badly on the road. Private motorists can also put you in harm’s way. If a private driver starts behaving erratically on the road, a truck driver may respond badly, causing a serious accident.
If you suspect multiple parties may have caused your recent truck accident, you can work with an experienced personal injury lawyer to divide fault between those parties. We can then request split damages based on the percentage of fault each party contributed to your crash.
When to Call a Truck Accident Lawyer in Ohio
Ohio operates on an understanding of comparative negligence that makes it impossible for anyone more than 50 percent liable for their own accident to recover damages. The state’s understanding of comparative negligence encourages liable parties to argue that you’re partially to blame for your truck accident.
It’s with the risk of a comparative negligence counterargument in mind that we encourage you to call an Ohio truck accident attorney sooner rather than later. The faster we get on the scene, the faster we can secure the evidence needed to hold the right party liable for your truck accident losses.
What’s more, you have to deal with Ohio’s personal injury statute of limitations. Ohio Rev. Code § 2305.10(A) gives you no more than two years to act on your truck accident losses. Working with an attorney can help you make the most of that allotted time.
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Let’s Get the Personal Injury Compensation You Deserve
It’s not always easy to know who can be held liable in a truck accident case. Fortunately, you don’t have to investigate your losses alone. You can work with an experienced truck accident lawyer in Ohio to determine the following:
- What evidence has the most relevance in your case
- What that evidence says about your accident
- How you can use that evidence to elaborate on accident fault
Our team of experienced attorneys takes pride in treating clients like you like family. You can count on our staff to thoroughly investigate the negligence that led to your accident before assigning liability for your losses. Once we know who to blame, we can fight for your right to comprehensive compensation. Book your free truck accident case evaluation today.
Call or text 614-481-6000 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
