Our Family Has Given A Voice To The Injured For Over 50 Combined Years
Experienced Truck Accident Lawyers Serving Newark, New Jersey
Commercial truck accidents are hazardous to other motorists, as the catastrophic injuries caused by one far exceed that of a normal car accident. Commercial trucks, on average, weigh up to 80,000 pounds when they are transporting goods. The momentum of this weight can be fatal and cause permanent injuries to truck accident victims.
When you suffer from severe injuries, including broken bones, in a truck accident case due to the fault of a negligent party and need help getting financial compensation from the trucking company responsible for your damages, you can reach out to a dependable truck accident lawyer.
A truck accident lawyer provides reliable support by representing you, applying negotiation tactics and increasing your chance of securing a settlement.
How Truck Accident Lawyers Can Help Newark And East Orange, New Jersey Injury Victims
Your accident lawyer has the power to pressure other parties into providing you with a reasonable settlement for your pain and suffering, medical expenses and lost wages. When you have damages from a horrifying truck accident, you are entitled to seek financial compensation.
Where And How Do Truck Accidents Happen?
Unfortunately, accidents aren’t only limited to trucks. Many also get injured by tractor-trailers or motor vehicles, and these cases mostly happen on local roads and highways. The most deadly accidents can happen on the:
- Garden State Parkway
- New Jersey Turnpike
- I-280
- I-78
These dangerous accidents occur because commercial truck drivers can be fatigued and drowsy, speeding, driving in poor weather conditions or under the influence of illicit substances. There is also the chance the truck had mechanical issues, such as a tire blowout, faulty brakes, defective transmission systems and broken signal lights. In certain instances, the truck company is also negligent in maintaining commercial trucks and ensuring the safety of the drivers.
What Steps Do I Take After A Truck Accident?
Once you’ve gotten into a truck accident or collision with a tractor-trailer, you should take immediate steps to get help.
Call Police
You should wait until the police show up to file a police report. This way, you can provide your input on what happened. This official record can be used as evidence in your settlement claim.
Photograph The Scene
Photographic evidence is highly effective in showing who was liable for an accident and the extent of property damage. You can take pictures of your car, the truck and any other wreckage to provide some background on how the accident happened. It also helps immensely in proving that the accident was not your fault and how much damage was done if the defendant tries to shift blame or make your claims baseless.
Collect Contact Information
You will need information from the eyewitnesses, truck driver, tractor-trailer driver, their company and any other involved parties. In the case of witnesses, their testimony will help your attorney prove your case. They may also point out additional evidence that you missed.
Contact A Truck Accident Attorney
While appointing a lawyer is not mandatory for filing a claim, an attorney in New Jersey could help open many doors for you. They have the knowledge, determination and means to navigate the legal world and not cave under immense pressure. Filing a claim or lawsuit can be incredibly daunting, especially if you are undergoing treatment for injuries.
For useful advice, you can contact an attorney to guide you on the next steps. They will also inform you on how to speak with your car insurance company.
Call Your Insurance Providers
You have to let them know you’ve been injured in a massive accident and start the process of a claim by submitting the required documents.
Get Medical Treatment
Immediately after leaving the scene, you should go straight to a doctor to get screened. In the adrenalin rush, you may not feel immediate pain leading you to believe that the injuries are not severe. However, the possibility of grave internal injury is always there. As soon as you can, get medical help and document everything – the diagnosis, the treatment advice, bills, and do not forget to mention to your doctor that the injuries result from an accident.
Get An Appraisal
Have your car appraised by officials so you know the accurate amount of property damage.
How Much Is My New Jersey Truck Accident Case Worth?
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to answer this question without first examining the details of your accident and its aftermath. Compensation in truck accident litigation is determined by a number of factors, including the severity of the crash and truck accident injuries, any lost wages from time spent unable to work, whether you or a loved one has been permanently disabled and the amount of pain and suffering experienced. Some of these can be difficult to calculate, which is one reason why working with a skilled attorney is so important.
Why Are Truck Accidents So Common?
When semi trucks are involved in an accident, the crash can often be attributed to negligence on the part of the truck driver, trucking company or both. Common causes of truck accidents include:
Drowsy driving: Truckers who spend too many hours behind the wheel become fatigued, slowing reaction time and attention.
Driving under the influence: Like the rest of the population, some truck drivers choose to drink and drive. Others are unintentionally under the influence of substances meant to help them sleep (like Ambien) or substances meant to keep them awake (like speed and high doses of caffeine).
Mechanical failures: Trucking companies and their drivers are legally required to conduct regular inspections of the vehicles and to get repair work done promptly when problems are discovered. This mandate is too often ignored, leading to crashes caused by balding tires, worn-out brakes and other predictable mechanical issues.
Speeding and aggressive driving: Trucking companies try to maximize profits by setting unreasonable delivery deadlines. In order to meet them, drivers feel compelled to speed and drive aggressively, greatly increasing the risk of a crash.
Which Types Of Trucking Accidents Are Most Common?
Some of the most frequently observed truck crash scenarios include:
- Head-on collisions between the truck and a smaller vehicle
- Rear-end collisions in which the truck rams into the back of a smaller vehicle
- Underride accidents where another vehicle partially or completely slides under the trailer of a semi
- Jackknife accidents, in which the truck trailer skids out to the side of the vehicle and into multiple lanes of traffic
- T-bone crashes involving a truck crashing into the side of another vehicle (or vice versa)
- Rollover accidents, typically caused by trucks taking sharp turns too quickly
These are just some of the many truck accident scenarios, each of which can lead to catastrophic injuries or death to others on the road.
How Can Truck Accident Lawyers Help Me?
Lawyers have a variety of talents that allow them to create a strong case and obtain the maximum compensation for your settlement.
Decades Of Experience
The accident attorneys at Goldstein & Goldstein, LLP, in East Orange, New Jersey, are experienced in truck accident cases and have industry knowledge that helps them defend victims against the defaulting trucking company. They understand what is necessary to recover compensation for clients after they were injured in a tractor-trailer accident that wasn’t their fault. Our law firm can provide more than 50 years of combined legal experience to deliver reliable help.
Based in New Jersey, our law firm believes in building a respectful and supportive relationship with our clients. We believe a successful case relies on communication and connection with our clients. We work hard to understand you, your concerns and your needs. We also get that you are going through a difficult time after your trucking accident and will require plenty of guidance and advice to help you recover. After years spent attaining professional excellence, with the information you provide us and the evidence we collect, we create the strongest case to help obtain the highest compensation for you.
We Estimate Your Damages
You may be wondering how much you are owed for your settlement in New Jersey and how that works. Your attorneys persevere to create a settlement that entirely reflects the number of damages you’re experiencing. Whether it is a motor vehicle accident or collision between passenger vehicles and a commercial truck or tractor-trailer, damages are broadly categorized into two categories:
Monetary Damages
In a personal injury claim, monetary damages are comparatively easy to tabulate, given there is a clear outflow of resources and a paper trail. Here’s what you can recover:
- Medical bills (ongoing and anticipatory expenses for future treatment).
- Cost of conveyance, including to-and-fro from the hospital and cost of an ambulance.
- Loss of income, including future loss that has directly or indirectly resulted from the motor vehicle accident or a tractor-trailer accident.
- Loss of vehicle or cost of getting one repaired, which was damaged in the accident.
Nonmonetary Damages
A truck accident lawyer helps you estimate the cost of your pain, suffering and trauma caused by the accident. It is possible to recover compensation for emotional distress and mental anguish.
We use various methods, such as counting the number of bills that incurred economic expenses and using the multiplier method to estimate your noneconomic expenses. Once we calculate the total cost, we can approach the truck driver’s insurance company to provide an accurate compensation amount for you.
If you need a truck accident lawyer in New Jersey, contact Goldstein & Goldstein, LLP. We calmly listen to your ordeal and help you estimate your loss to help file the correct claim.
We Negotiate With The Truck Driver’s Insurance Company
Our New Jersey truck accident lawyers spent most of their career communicating between parties and providing negotiations that help to bring a fair settlement. We contact all involved parties and update them on the progress of the negotiations. If there were witnesses at the scene, we would reach out to them to get their opinion on what happened. Because our Newark truck accident attorney is very attentive, we keep you on top of all communication and responses between parties.
When our attorneys can’t get the other party to settle, we can file a personal injury lawsuit on your behalf.
Our brilliant and experienced team at Goldstein & Goldstein, LLP, in New Jersey is also well-versed in dealing with victims of motorcycle accidents, car crashes and other personal injury matters. It’s safe to say that you will be in safe hands if you choose us for your truck accident claim.
Our Attorneys Are Great Advisers
After your tractor-trailer accident, you will get helpful advice that prevents you from ruining your chances of receiving compensation. Your attorney may tell you to avoid posting pictures of your serious injuries online, as insurance companies may attempt to use the images you post against you. We will also recommend you decline any offers from insurance companies without our input. This way, you are not receiving a small lump sum that doesn’t accurately reflect the number of damages you experienced. We will guide you past common mistakes most truck accident claimants make to help prepare you for your settlement. If you are worried about the fees charged by lawyers, don’t be. We do not charge our fees until you recover your compensation.
What Evidence Do We Use?
Attorneys at Goldstein & Goldstein, LLP, will apply various successful methods to help create a solid claim for compensation.
Photos From The Crash Scene
The pictures taken at the crash scene will be paramount, as we anticipate analyzing this information very closely. Photos of your property damage, the wreckage of other involved vehicles and the positioning of the truck will all be very telling. We also scrutinize the tracks on the road that show the trajectory of your car and the truck, as this can reveal how the accident happened. This information is essential and helps us build a case in your favor.
Traffic Camera Footage
In addition to photographs, we also use the nearby traffic camera footage if the accident happened near a recording camera. Because we are well-versed in traffic rules, we can identify if the truck has improperly changed lanes, was speeding, didn’t slow down or brake and other indications that they were driving recklessly. This evidence can be solid proof that you are not at fault for your truck accident.
Police Report
We get the police report and use it as additional evidence for your case. If the cop is on your side or gave the trucker a citation, this can also prove that you were not at fault.
Logged Hours
All truck drivers must log their hours to show where they are located throughout their shift and when they take breaks. If a truck driver didn’t take obligated breaks, it is possible that they were fatigued while driving the cause of a severe accident. Drowsiness is known to cause major crashes on the road and can be a valid reason why the tractor-trailer driver’s company can be held liable for your personal injury.
Drug Tests
If the police or witnesses notice that the truck driver is behaving strangely, they may be expected to take a drug test. When this is the case, we can determine if the drug test was positive. This would be definite proof that shows that the tractor-trailer’s truck driver was driving aggressively on the road and may have been inattentive due to the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Black Box Data
Trucks typically have a black box that records how the vehicle is performing. It can provide information about how fast the truck was going when the crash happened and when the truck driver braked. This helps us understand if the truck driver’s behavior was somehow wrong and led to the truck accident.
Driving Records
If the truck driver has a bad record of traffic violations in New Jersey and their driving history isn’t so great, this can also be valid evidence supporting your right to compensation.
How Can I Get Help After A Truck Accident?
You can receive priceless advice from a personal injury lawyer who serves Newark and East Orange by reaching out to a dedicated law firm. When you are not at fault, we use our combined experience and a well-educated team will get you on track to receiving the compensation you deserve. We have an excellent track record of building strong cases for our clients and providing investigations into a truck accident claim.
Contact Our Newark Truck Accident Lawyers For Help Today
We understand how much effect an accident can have on a person and their loved ones. Considering our establishment runs on a partnership between a father and son, nobody values family more than we do. We understand our clients’ need for justice and how helpful it is to receive monetary compensation for the ordeal they went through due to somebody else’s negligence. Proving it is never easy, however, we always try our hardest to get a win for our clients. If you are on the fence about the situation or want an expert to look at case facts, contact Goldstein & Goldstein, LLP, in East Orange, New Jersey, today for a free consultation or call 973-675-8277.