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.” 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.
The Dallas truck accident attorneys at The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. understand truck accident cases. Our principal attorney, Kevin Queenan, used to work in the trucking industry and has handled hundreds of truck accident cases in his more than twenty years of law practice.
Don’t face trucking and insurance companies alone. Contact our Texas truck accident attorneys today for a free consultation by calling The Queenan Law Firm at (817) 476-1797.
Calculating Truck Accident Damages in Texas
If you or a loved one were injured in a truck accident, you may be entitled to substantial compensation. You may be entitled to even higher compensation if 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.
However, 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. 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 if the negligence of the driver and trucking company is derived from ordinary carelessness or gross misconduct. If malicious or grossly negligent behavior contributed to your accident, exemplary damages should be pursued.
Economic Damages
First, taking your truck accident case to court might entitle you to medical expenses. Car or truck insurance will often pay for medical expenses, but it may not cover all of them. In a lawsuit, the goal is to fully compensate any expenses that stem from your injuries. 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.
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.
However, 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.
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.
Truck accident settlements should also compensate for future loss of income or earning potential. Suppose your injuries are so severe 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.
Non-Economic Damages
Third, you could 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 take your case to court. Texas has no limitations on pain and suffering damages, so this could be substantial for traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and other catastrophic injuries.
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 with a sign 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.
Exemplary Damages
Lastly, you may be entitled to “punitive” or “exemplary” damages. 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, according to Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.003(a). “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.
Damages in an injury lawsuit against the state government are capped at $250,000 for each victim and $500,000 for the entire accident under § 101.023. 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 are also capped in lawsuits against private defendants and not authorized in any claims against government agencies, according to § 101.024. 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, as per § 41.008(b). 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 propose low offers that will not fully compensate for your injuries in order to save money. Lastly, pain and suffering damages may be unavailable in settlements with insurance or trucking companies.
Punitive or exemplary damages are only awarded when a case sees 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.
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.
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 your 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 will often 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 settlement is an option.
Call Our Dallas, TX Truck Accident Attorneys Today for Help with Your Case
The Dallas personal injury lawyers at The Queenan Law Firm have years of experience representing injured truck accident victims. For a free consultation and to understand what your case might be worth, call (817) 476-1797 today.