How Do I Negotiate With a Trucking Company or Insurance Carrier After a Trucking Accident?

When you are involved in a truck accident, you may be entitled to compensation to cover all of your losses. In many cases, this compensation will be paid not by the individual truck driver but instead by a trucking company and/or by an insurance company that provides coverage.
Your truck accident compensation can be obtained by filing a claim and going to court but you could also settle outside of court to avoid the stress of a trial and to have a guaranteed payout of your claim. Many cases settle before the case goes to court but in order to settle, you need to negotiate with the trucking company or insurance carrier to ensure that the money paid out to you covers your losses in full.
Negotiating a settlement can be tricky, but following these steps will help you to succeed in your case:
1. Understand your legal rights. Once you settle your claim, you are no longer allowed to take any kind of legal action related to the accident. This means you shouldn’t settle unless you are sure that you are fully compensated by the payout amount.
2. Be aware of deadlines. There is a statute of limitations within which you must file a lawsuit based on a truck accident. While you can wait to sue until you’ve tried to settle, you need to know when the deadline is up so you don’t want too long and end up getting nothing because you aren’t able to file your claim for damages.
3. Document your losses. Your settlement should include coverage for property damage, medical bills and lost wages. It should also include compensation for pain and suffering, emotional distress and other non-economic losses. You will want to provide documentation of all of your losses including information on the work you miss, on expected future medical bills and on how your pain impacts your life. The more information you have, the stronger your claim and the better your settlement should be.
4. Put together a strong case. If the trucking company or insurer believes you will win if the case goes to court, then they will be more likely to be fair in offering you a settlement. Photos of your injury, witness statements and police reports can all be helpful in convincing the company or insurer to pay out a reasonable amount.
5. Get help from a lawyer. Insurance companies and trucking companies may try a lot of different tactics to undermine your claim or to pay you the minimum they can get away with. It is important to have someone knowledgeable and experienced with truck accident claims advocating on your behalf and representing your interests. Your attorney can use his negotiating skills and knowledge of the law to ensure that your settlement is fair.
By following these steps, you should be able to resolve your case and have an outcome that you are satisfied with. A St. Louis personal injury lawyer is here to help with your negotiations.