​If you get into an accident with a semi-truck, you want the case resolved as quickly as it happened. Pursuing compensation after a semi-truck accident can get complicated and frustrating. Facing an insurance company or a team of defense attorneys alone can intimidate you and even discourage you from pursuing the money you deserve after an accident, especially if the process becomes long and drawn out.

How long does it take to settle a semi-truck accident? The amount of time that a semi-truck accident takes depends on the facts of your case. To get the best results for your semi-truck accident claim, contact a Cape Girardeau truck accident lawyer in your area. To learn more about what affects the timeline for settling a semi-truck accident, continue reading.

There Is No Guaranteed Timeline to Resolve a Semi-Truck Accident Case

Unfortunately, there is no way to predict how long a semi-truck accident case will take to resolve. Several factors go into determining how long a semi-truck accident case will take to settle. The following are facts that may influence the timeline for the settlement of a semi-truck claim.

Negotiations With the Insurance Company

Most semi-truck claims begin with negotiating a settlement with the insurance company. This step can take significant time if the insurance company refuses to cooperate with you and offers an unreasonable settlement. The insurance company loses money with every accident claim it pays out, so the company’s priority is to avoid paying as many settlement claims as possible.

Tactics that insurance companies use to avoid paying a claim include:

• Downplaying or denying your injuries
• Delaying offering a settlement to wear out the accident victim
• Offering a quick settlement offer that likely does not fully cover the victim’s injuries
• Boxing the accident victim into their story by requesting that they give a recorded statement soon after the accident

If you are in an accident with a semi-truck, you need an attorney. It is best never to speak to an insurance company without an attorney. Suppose you hire a semi-truck accident attorney to represent you after suffering an injury. In that case, you can rely on their experience to ensure that you are not taken advantage of by an insurance company.

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Filing the Lawsuit

Filing a complaint officially begins the lawsuit. Your semi-truck accident attorney can help you navigate the process and ensure that your complaint complies with all applicable procedural rules in your state and local court rules in your area. Besides filing the complaint, you must also serve the defendant properly. The defendant will have an opportunity to respond to the allegations in the complaint in their answer after being served.

The Investigation Phase

While your case is pending, you will participate in discovery. Discovery is the investigation phase of the lawsuit. During discovery, each side will request information and documents and provide the requested information to the other party. Discovery requests must comply with the rules of civil procedure. Your semi-truck accident attorney will be familiar with the rules of discovery and protect you from oversharing information during discovery.

Depositions are a part of the discovery process. There is no judge in a deposition, but there are all the formalities of a trial, as it is essentially an interview with a witness outside of a courtroom. Testimony at a deposition is given under oath and is subject to the penalty of perjury, so the witness must tell the truth. A witness gives a deposition if the witness cannot appear at trial or the state’s civil procedure rules require witnesses to be deposed.

How Long Does a Trial Take?

Each of these trial prep steps can take weeks or months to complete. The longer the steps take to complete, the longer it takes to resolve your semi-truck accident case. If you do not have a semi-truck accident attorney assisting you at each trial stage, you risk getting lost in the weeds of civil litigation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how civil trials work in many states. Court calendars were affected during the quarantine. Courts rescheduled many civil trials to ensure they protected criminal defendants’ rights while courts operated with a skeleton crew. In some states, the courts are still trying to work through a severely interrupted docket. Because of the forced rescheduling during quarantine, your semi-truck accident trial might be behind schedule.

The Extent of Your Injuries

The extent of your injuries affects the timeline for settlement of your semi-truck accident claim. You shouldn’t settle your case prematurely because some injuries take time to develop. A combination of the following factors can affect how much time it takes to resolve your semi-truck accident claim.

Severity of Injuries

Generally, the more severe or permanent your injuries are after a semi-truck accident, the longer it takes to reach maximum medical improvement. Thus, the longer it takes to resolve your case. Maximum medical improvement is a status given to you by your doctor. Usually, you reach maximum medical improvement once your condition is unlikely to improve. Keep your semi-truck accident attorney up to date about your medical condition.

Typically, you do not want to accept a settlement offer until you reach maximum medical improvement because you will know how much money you need compensation after your injury.

You may need long-term or rehabilitative care to get maximum medical improvement. For example, if you need surgery, you may also need physical therapy to increase your strength and your odds of a full recovery. Although getting physical therapy can increase your chances of a full recovery, needing physical therapy, or any other kind of long-term care, it lengthens the time it takes to resolve your semi-truck accident case.

Examples of common injuries that semi-truck accident victims include:

• Spinal cord injuries
• Head trauma
• Amputation
• Broken bones
• Bruises
• Sprains and strains
• Paralysis
• Mental anguish
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of consortium/loss of companionship

There Are Multiple Victims

Your semi-truck accident case may take a long time to settle if there are multiple victims injured in the accident. Just based on their size alone, when a semi-truck gets into a traffic accident, the results can be devastating. When an accident happens, the driver’s insurance company is usually the first stop to get recovery. When there are multiple injured victims working with the same insurance company, your claim may not get handled by the company quickly.

There are Multiple Responsible Parties

In a semi-truck accident case, there are many potentially responsible parties. Parties that may share liability in a semi-truck accident case can include the truck driver, the trucking company that employs the driver, the manufacturer of truck parts, etc. It may take a long time to find each responsible party.

If the Accident is Fatal

A wrongful death case is one of the most challenging cases to handle as an accident attorney and an accident victim. Each state has laws about who can be a plaintiff in a wrongful death case and how long a family member has to bring a lawsuit for wrongful death benefits. The complicated nature of wrongful death cases can increase the time it takes to settle a wrongful death case. An accident attorney can help you if you lose a loved one in a semi-truck accident.

The Attorney You Hire Can Affect How Long It Takes to Settle Your Accident Claim

You must choose the best attorney for the job after a semi-truck accident. The attorney you hire can affect how long it takes for your accident claim to reach its resolution. Take time to thoroughly research the attorney before you choose one to represent you. The right attorney can affect the timeline for settling a semi-truck accident in the following ways:

The Attorney’s Reputation

You want an attorney with a good reputation representing you. It can be tempting to hire an attorney that is a “bulldog” and will be aggressive while representing you. There is undoubtedly a time and place for an attorney with that reputation, but do not be quick to discount the value of an attorney with a reputation for calm, thorough, and professional representation.

Often, an attorney’s reputation in the legal community can benefit the client if the attorney is known as an upstanding and competent advocate. You need an attorney that insurance companies and defense lawyers know is a hardworking expert in their field that will not settle for a subpar offer from an insurance company. Ask about the attorneys you interview, speak to friends or family members who have used the attorney’s services, or read online reviews written by past clients.

The Attorney’s Experience

If you have suffered an injury in a semi-truck accident, you should hire an attorney with experience representing injured people. You want an attorney with experience with semi-truck accidents because many details differ from other accident cases. For instance, in a semi-truck accident case, multiple parties can be at fault for your harm, including the driver, the trucking company, and others. You want an attorney with experience finding all responsible parties and ensuring that they pay for the harm they caused you.

How Well the Attorney and Staff Work Together

A practical thing you should look for is how well the attorney and their staff work together. If your attorney does not have a good team, or if they do not work well with their team, your case will be affected, and it may take much longer to resolve your semi-truck accident claim. While your case is pending, you deserve to feel confident that your legal team is working as a well-oiled machine to benefit you.

What Affects the Value of My Settlement?

Several factors can affect the overall value of your settlement.

There is no way to predict how much money you will get from a semi-truck accident claim, but if you experience any of the following circumstances, they might affect your case’s monetary worth.

• Whether your injuries are permanent: Extreme and lifelong injuries require more medical attention, and your medical bills will pile up quickly. There is usually a correlation between cases that have greater medical damages and higher case values.
• How your injuries affect your work: If your injuries caused you to lose time at work, you might be entitled to recover the money that you lost. You should keep records of the hours that you lost at work because of your injuries and present that information to your semi-truck accident attorney.
• The pain and suffering your damages and losses caused: You may be entitled to receive monetary damages for your pain and suffering damages. Mental anguish, emotional trauma, and other intangible damages make up your pain and suffering damages. Intangible damages like pain and suffering are usually difficult to prove, so having an accident attorney help you build your case for pain and suffering damages so that you can fully recover.

Should I Hire an Attorney?

For the best results for a semi-truck accident claim, you should hire an experienced accident attorney. Most accident victims do not have experience pursuing a legal claim for damages. Because of inexperience, you may fall into common avoidable pitfalls that unrepresented accident plaintiffs find themselves in. If you choose to hire an experienced semi-truck attorney, you can rest assured that you will have a shield to protect your legal interests as you work to get the compensation you deserve.

Contact a Semi-Truck Accident Lawyer

If you have suffered an injury in a semi-truck accident, the best next step for you is to hire a Cape Girardeau personal injury lawyer immediately. You should act quickly after getting into an accident to ensure that your case moves forward as quickly as possible and you can start putting your life back on track.

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