Truck Accident Lawyers in Charlotte

For over 30 years, DeMayo Law Offices has been relentlessly advocating for injury victims across North Carolina. Since 1992, we have recovered over $1 billion for our clients. Our Charlotte truck accident lawyers have an unwavering commitment to holding negligent trucking companies accountable.

If you were injured or lost a loved one in a collision with a commercial truck, we have the resources and experience necessary to protect your rights. We build claims designed to maximize your compensation.

Our Charlotte personal injury lawyers are here to help. We are not afraid to take your case to trial to ensure you get full and fair compensation. Contact us today for a free consultation.

Commercial Truck Accident Claims Are Complex

Truck accident cases are typically more complicated than passenger car accident claims, which can make recovering fair financial compensation more challenging.

When you find yourself facing a trucking company and possibly multiple insurance companies, it pays to protect your rights by working with an experienced truck accident attorney.

Some of the most common challenges in truck accident claims include:

Proving Negligence

It can be difficult to prove that the truck driver, trucking company, or another party was negligent and directly responsible for causing the accident. Establishing negligence requires gathering evidence like driver logs, inspection records, black box data, and eyewitness accounts. Our attorneys know what evidence to look for and how to preserve it to benefit your claim.

Identifying All Liable Parties

In truck accidents, multiple potentially liable parties are often involved beyond the truck driver, such as the trucking company, cargo loaders, truck owners, maintenance providers, and other drivers. It is important to investigate and determine all sources of liability.

Experienced commercial truck accident lawyers understand the complexities of the trucking industry and know how to investigate and determine all potentially liable parties beyond just the driver to ensure all avenues of compensation are pursued and to build a solid case.

Overcoming Complex Regulations

The trucking industry is governed by many state and federal regulations. Proving a violation of these rules requires specialized legal knowledge.

Trucking regulations at the state and federal levels are extremely complicated. Lawyers with experience in truck accidents have an in-depth understanding of these rules and how to prove violations.

Pushback from Corporations

Well-funded trucking companies hire aggressive lawyers and adjusters to minimize payouts to victims. They have vast resources to fight claims vigorously. Trucking companies and their insurers are not intimidated by victims alone.

Our attorneys have the strategies and resources necessary to take them on successfully.

Catastrophic Injuries

Truck crash injuries are often extremely severe – brain trauma, spinal cord injuries, burn injuries, and amputations.

Accurately valuing these lifelong disabilities and future costs is complex. Our lawyers consult medical and economic experts to accurately calculate the present and future costs of catastrophic injuries to ensure you are fully compensated.

Beating Statutes of Limitations

There are strict time limits for filing truck accident lawsuits, which require prompt action to investigate and initiate a claim. Lawyers ensure all deadlines are met by filing claims promptly and properly before statutes of limitation expire and prevent any recovery at all.

Working with an experienced truck accident attorney levels the playing field against trucking companies and their corporate resources and legal teams. Our firm is here to protect your rights every step of the way.

For a free legal consultation with a truck accident lawyer serving Charlotte, call (877) 333-1000

What Types of Preventable Truck Accidents Most Often Lead to Personal Injury Claims?

Anyone who operates a truck needs a high level of training and ample experience. They need to be aware of their surroundings at all times to avoid hazards. If drivers become distracted or don’t follow traffic laws, they could cause devastating injuries.

The sheer size and weight of a commercial vehicle mean that collisions with small passenger cars are often catastrophic. Drivers sit in the cab and pull a trailer loaded with heavy cargo. Sometimes, the cargo is consumer goods. Other times, they carry toxic chemicals that can cause severe burns to accident victims.

Trucking regulations exist to ensure the safety of drivers and passengers traveling on the country’s roadways. Unfortunately, not all drivers follow those regulations. When they don’t, they cause crashes. The most common causes of truck accidents include:

Distracted Driving Accidents

Truck drivers who are texting, using a phone, eating, adjusting the radio, or engaging in other distracting behaviors dramatically increase the risk of a catastrophic collision. These distracted driving crashes frequently cause severe injuries.

Fatigued Driving Accidents

Federal hours–of–service regulations limit how long truckers can drive, but these rules are sometimes violated.

Many truck companies push drivers to violate hours-of-service regulations to meet tight delivery schedules. Fatigued driving after too many hours is extremely hazardous without proper fatigue management training.

Drowsy or fatigued truck drivers have slowed reaction times and can easily cause high-impact crashes when they nod off behind the wheel.

Impaired Driving Accidents

Driving under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs, or even some prescription medications can grossly impair a truck driver’s judgment and motor skills. Impaired truckers pose an immense safety risk.

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Speeding Accidents

Trucks require much longer stopping distances, especially when carrying heavy loads. Exceeding posted speed limits makes trucks even harder to control and increases crash forces upon impact.

Aggressive Driving Accidents

Aggressive behaviors like tailgating, unsafe lane changes, failing to yield the right of way, and road rage significantly raise the likelihood of multi-vehicle pileups involving trucks.

Failed Maintenance Accidents

When trucking companies or drivers neglect maintenance, like brake inspections, tire replacements, and equipment failure, a crash is more likely. Our Charlotte truck accident attorneys can subpoena maintenance and inspection logs to identify if violations in maintenance protocols could have contributed to the crash.

Improper Cargo Loading

Improperly balanced, overloaded, or inadequately secured truck cargo can make a rig unstable and prone to jackknifing, rolling over, or spilling cargo into traffic, which can cause multi-vehicle crashes.

If loaders do not get hands-on training for properly distributing, balancing, and tying down cargo loads, improperly secured freight can easily shift and cause loss of control or fallen debris accidents.

Inexperienced, Undertrained, or Unqualified Drivers

Many trucking companies hire drivers with little to no prior experience operating a large commercial vehicle. Without comprehensive training on defensive driving techniques, brake response times, managing blind spots, etc., new drivers are ill-prepared.

Thorough training is needed so drivers fully comprehend the handling characteristics, longer stopping distances, wide turning radiuses, and other unique aspects of operating a heavy truck compared to a standard passenger vehicle.

When drivers are unqualified or undertrained, the trucking company may be liable.

While driver negligence is a common factor, these types of preventable wrecks may also involve other liable parties, such as the trucking company, cargo loaders, mechanics, or manufacturers of defective truck parts.

This makes truck crash cases complex for victims. Your truck accident attorney has the necessary tools to identify the causes and responsible parties.

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Regulations for Truck Drivers and Trucking Companies

Those working in the trucking industry have to follow strict regulations. There are both state and federal laws meant to keep truckers and the public safe. If you’re a truck driver in North Carolina, you must adhere to the following service rules:

Never drive more than 12 consecutive hours after spending eight hours off duty.
Never work more than 70 hours in seven days or over 80 hours in eight days.
Take at least a 30-minute break after the first eight hours on duty.
Never drive over 16 hours after taking eight consecutive hours off.

Requirements for Reporting

If a trucker gets into an accident, they must report it to law enforcement right away. If the crash causes fatalities, they must report it to the Public Service Commission within 24 hours of the crash. If there weren’t any fatalities, they have 15 days to report it. Truck drivers must report every accident, even minor ones, to the Director of Public Safety within 30 days.

Other federal and state trucking requirements truck drivers must meet include:

Divers must be at least 21 years old for interstate driving and 18 for driving within North Carolina.
They must speak, read, write, and understand English enough to communicate with others, read traffic signs, and write reports.
They must have the physical ability to operate a truck.
Drivers have to carry a valid commercial driver’s license at all times.
They must complete all required tests and certifications successfully.
Drivers and their employers must keep driver logs that track their hours on and off duty, truck maintenance, and document any issues.
They may not drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Truckers and truck owners must maintain the truck and equipment at all times, report problems or damage immediately, and repair them expeditiously.

Truck employers have obligations, too. They must ensure all their employees have the qualifications and experience necessary to operate a truck safely. If their driver doesn’t know how to operate their truck in all conditions, it puts everyone’s safety at risk. Responsible employers evaluate their drivers thoroughly to ensure they’re qualified.

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Types of Truck Accident Compensation

Trucking companies and commercial drivers are required to carry liability insurance with higher coverage limits than passenger vehicles. If they cause life-altering injuries requiring extensive medical treatment and ongoing care, they must provide compensation.

Each truck accident case is unique, and the compensation victims receive depends on the specific circumstances involved. However, generally, people injured in North Carolina truck crashes can seek payment for personal injury damages, including:

Medical Expenses

This covers all reasonable medical costs related to the truck accident injuries, including emergency transport, hospitalization, surgery, doctor visits, medications, medical equipment, physical therapy, and rehabilitation. It aims to pay past and future expected healthcare costs.

Lost Wages

Victims can recover money for any income they lost from missing work due to their injuries, including lost future earning capacity if the injuries prevent them from returning to their previous job.

Pain and Suffering

In addition to economic damages, injury victims can seek non-economic damages for the physical and emotional trauma of their accident injuries. This puts a value on their pain, suffering, disfigurement, disability, loss of enjoyment, and reduced quality of life.

Loss of Consortium

Spouses of married victims can seek compensation for loss of companionship, intimacy, love, affection, and household services their spouse can no longer provide due to disabling injuries.

Punitive Damages

In cases of gross negligence or intentional misconduct by the truck driver or trucking company, additional punitive damages may be awarded to punish and deter such reckless behavior.

Experienced truck accident attorneys conduct thorough investigations and work with experts to calculate fair settlement values that account for the immediate economic impacts as well as the lifelong physical, emotional, and financial needs their clients will face from catastrophic injuries. No amount can undo trauma, but proper compensation is crucial for victims’ recovery.

Wrongful Death Damages

Tragically, some truck accidents result in fatalities due to the immense forces involved in collisions with large commercial vehicles. When a loved one dies because a trucking company or truck driver failed to follow important safety regulations and operated their vehicle negligently, immediate family members have legal recourse.

An immediate family member, such as a spouse, child, or the legal representative of the deceased victim’s estate, can file a wrongful death lawsuit against all responsible parties. This civil claim alleges that the victim’s death was directly caused by the reckless or careless acts of the commercial truck driver, trucking company, or another third party.

Through a wrongful death action, certain close family survivors can recover compensation for a variety of losses stemming from the untimely death, including:

Funeral and burial costs
Medical expenses incurred prior to the victim’s death
Loss of the deceased’s expected earnings and benefits
Loss of love, companionship, guidance, and protection
Mental anguish, grief, and loss of society of the deceased
Punitive damages if gross negligence or recklessness occurred

No amount of money can truly compensate for the tragic loss of a beloved family member. However, monetary damages from a wrongful death claim can provide financial security to surviving spouses, children, or other dependents. It also holds negligent truckers and companies accountable.

Proving negligence and evaluating all economic and non–economic losses is complex, so it’s crucial to have a Charlotte wrongful death lawyer conduct a comprehensive investigation. With their help, families can recover fair wrongful death compensation and a semblance of justice.

How Is the Value of a Case Determined?

The dollar value of a truck accident case is determined in several ways. In most cases, a victim may be entitled to economic compensation and non-economic compensation.

Economic damages: Most straightforward to calculate. These are measurable, easily tabulated damages, such as medical expenses, lost income, and property damage.
Non-economic damages: Much harder to calculate and can vary substantially because they are subjective. Non-economic damages tend to include pain and suffering, emotional anguish, and physical impairment or disfigurement. Putting a price on emotional suffering is much more complicated than tallying up the total of a stack of medical bills.

Our attorneys can review the merits of an individual case, the special circumstances involved in the accident, and any mitigating factors to get you the maximum recovery.

How Long Will My Case Take?

Every case is different, which means there is no hard and fast timetable for when a case will reasonably be resolved. If more than one party is responsible for the circumstances that caused the accident, that can also add to the time it will take to process a case thoroughly.

Some companies want to resolve the issue quickly and will negotiate to settle in a relatively timely manner. Others may want to fight or drag out the process in hopes that it will wear a victim down to the point that they will settle for significantly less than what their actual claim is worth.

Our experienced truck accident attorneys in Charlotte will be able to review the facts of your case and give you a general estimate of how long it may take to recover compensation. Patience can be key for victims looking to recover the maximum amount they may be due.

What Injuries do We Commonly Claim in Truck Accident Cases?

In truck accident cases, we commonly see claims for the following types of serious injuries:

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs)

The force of a truck collision can violently jar the head and cause brain trauma ranging from concussions to life-altering injuries like cerebral hemorrhages, coup-contrecoup injuries, and diffuse axonal injuries.

Spinal Cord Injuries

Truck crash victims are at high risk for paralyzing spinal cord injuries like incomplete or complete paraplegia (leg paralysis) or quadriplegia (full body paralysis below the injury site).

Amputations

The crushing forces involved can traumatically amputate limbs at the scene, or severe injuries may require surgical amputation of an arm, hand, foot, or leg.

Internal Injuries

Blunt force trauma can cause internal bleeding, organ damage/failure, intestinal injuries, and other life-threatening internal injuries requiring emergency treatment.

Burn Injuries

Truck accidents that spark fires or involve hazardous material spills can inflict severe, disfiguring burn injuries over large portions of the body.

Bone Fractures

Broken bones are extremely common, including compound fractures, crushed bones, hip and pelvic fractures. These may require extensive surgery.

Back/Neck Injuries

Herniated discs, vertebral fractures, and soft tissue damage in the back and neck can cause chronic pain and limit mobility.

Lacerations/Disfigurement

Truck debris can cause deep lacerations, degloving injuries, road rash, and permanent scarring or disfigurement, especially to the face.

These catastrophic injury claims require documenting all past and future medical needs, lost earnings, home modifications, ongoing therapies, and non-economic damages like pain and suffering. Trucking companies vigorously fight paying maximum values, so it is advisable to protect your rights by working with our Charlotte commercial truck accident lawyers.

What Is the Cost of a Truck Accident Attorney in Charlotte?

At DeMayo Law Offices, Your North Carolina Law Firm™, we understand you may be feeling financial pressure after a serious accident, so much so that the cost of hiring a lawyer seems unattainable. This is exactly what trucking companies and their insurance companies are counting on. It means they can get away with paying you the bare minimum while keeping their profits and reputation intact.

Hiring an attorney to help you recover compensation following a large truck accident is the single most important decision you can make. It can mean the difference between having your expenses covered and just scraping by because a settlement wasn’t nearly enough.

We know you may be struggling, so we work on cases on a contingency–fee basis. That means that we don‘t get paid until you get paid. We don’t think that the cost of hiring a lawyer to protect your rights should be prohibitive. That’s why even the initial consultation is free, as well.

Let the skilled team at DeMayo Law Offices review the circumstances of your accident and lay out your legal options. You have nothing to lose and valuable compensation to gain.

Contact a Charlotte Truck Accident Law Firm for a Free Consultation

With over 250 years of combined legal experience, our Charlotte truck accident attorneys have the knowledge and skills to pursue the maximum compensation available in your case. You deserve compensation for the suffering you endured if it happened to you.

You shouldn’t pay for your own expenses when you are acting safely and responsibly behind the wheel. DeMayo Law Offices, Your North Carolina Law Firm™, will work hard to help you recover from the financial consequences of your injury.

Call or text (877) 333-1000 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form