Often one of the most complicated aspects of resolving a truck accident claim can be accurately determining who is responsible for the damages. A number of factors can cause determinations of truck accident liability to be more complex than the similar assignments of fault that many individuals are familiar with from car accident cases. Due to the complexities that may need to be navigated in order to satisfactorily resolve a truck accident claim, you may wish to consider speaking with an experienced attorney to gain the benefit of professional perspective. Contact Lott Law Firm at (228) 215-2787 to schedule a free consultation with a member of our team.
Why Is Determining Truck Accident Liability Difficult?
There are a few reasons why determining liability in a trucking accident can often be more complex than determining who is responsible for a collision between two passenger cars. Most of these reasons relate to the many parties involved in putting a fully-loaded semi-truck on the road. While a passenger car is usually driven by one person, who is responsible for the vehicle’s maintenance as well as its operation while on the road, the same is not necessarily true for large commercial vehicles.
Parties That May Be Involved in a Trucking Accident
At least two parties will almost always be involved in any trucking accident: The driver of the truck and the occupant of another vehicle. Depending on the circumstances of the wreck, there may be more than one passenger vehicle involved in the crash, and a passenger vehicle may have occupants other than the driver.
On the trucking side, however, any of the following parties may sometimes be involved, in addition to the truck driver:
- The truck driver’s employer: This could be an independent trucking company, but some of the nation’s largest retails maintain their own fleets. Another factor in this regard can be whether the truck driver worked for the company as an employee, driving a company-owned truck, vs. as an independent contractor providing their own vehicle.
- The cargo loader: Trucking companies do not always handle the loading process. Even when trucking company personnel are responsible for loading a truck with cargo, the workers responsible for that loading may belong to a very different division of the business from the individual tasked with transporting that cargo to its ultimate destination. A personal injury lawyer reviewing your truck accident case will likely want to know who loaded the cargo and what safety measures they took to make sure that the weight was properly distributed and that any items that might shift during transport were adequately secured.
- The maintenance crew: If the truck driver is an independent contractor operating his or her own vehicle, then the truck driver may have ultimate responsibility for semi-truck maintenance. On the other hand, if the semi-truck belongs to the trucking company, then the transport business may include a department tasked with regular maintenance of vehicles in the company’s fleet. Alternatively, some trucking companies may contract with another business specializing in commercial vehicle maintenance. If there is a possibility that improper maintenance contributed to the trucking accident, then determining the party responsible for scheduling, performing, and checking that maintenance may be important to the case.
- Manufacturer: The manufacturer of the semi-truck or any of its parts may become a party to the case if there is evidence that a faulty part or flawed vehicle design contributed to the accident.
Not all truck accident cases will involve each of these parties. Depending on the circumstances, however, it may be necessary to identify several distinct parties implicated in the outcomes of a thorough truck accident investigation. An experienced Mississippi truck accident lawyer with Lott Law Firm may be able to explain more in a private consultation.
Importance of Truck Accident Investigations
The main reason for identifying the party or parties responsible for an accident is usually to file a claim for compensation with the appropriate party or their insurance provider. The claim for compensation is usually calculated to account for expenses an accident victim has been burdened with as a result of the accident, as well as, in some cases, non-economic damages such as loss of enjoyment. A major goal of personal injury lawsuits in general is usually to restore the injured party as nearly as possible to the situation they would have been in, had the incident that harmed them never occurred. The parties responsible for creating the conditions that led to those harms are also responsible for – usually financially – for compensating the victim to make that restoration possible. Even in cases that never go to court, a similar logic is normally followed in negotiating a settlement. Accurately identifying the parties that may have contributed to an accident is therefore important both to receiving compensation and to serving the cause of justice by ensuring that the right people are held accountable.
As a practical matter, the parties most likely to be found responsible in a given case will often depend on what caused the accident. An initial assessment may be conducted by law enforcement officers responding to the scene; if there is no evidence of a criminal violation, however, police may go no further than noting which vehicle struck the other and who had the right of way. A truck accident lawyer will frequently want to investigate the factors that may have contributed to the trucking accident in much greater detail.
What if a Truck Accident Victim Is Partly Responsible?
Just as sometimes there are tragic accidents with heartbreaking outcomes for which no one is truly to blame, there can sometimes be accidents in which none of the parties involved is wholly without fault. The law makes provision for this possibility by applying the doctrine of comparative negligence.
What Is Comparative Negligence?
Comparative negligence, which some people may also call comparative fault, is a legal doctrine under which the compensation for which an injured party may be eligible is adjusted when they are partly to blame for their own situation. The concept is often employed in personal injury cases such as slip and fall; for instance, if a property owner allowed obviously unsafe flooring conditions to persist unaddressed, a jury might find that any reasonable person should have known that it was not just possible, but likely, that eventually someone would get hurt. However, if the person who ultimately did get hurt in this particular situation fell partly because they were themselves acting recklessly, or because they were otherwise engaging in inappropriate behavior, then the jury might also find that the individual was partly responsible for his or her own injuries.
Comparative Negligence in Mississippi
How a partial share of the responsibility for an incident may affect your truck accident claim can vary widely by jurisdiction, as well as by how the accident itself unfolded. In states that follow the principle of contributory negligence instead – a rule which, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute (LII), holds that if a victim is even slightly responsible for his or her own injuries, then they are unable to recover any compensation – then being found partially responsible for the accident may mean that you are unable to recover any compensation for your damages. According to LII, however, most states now follow some version of the comparative fault rule, with the laws in each state determining whether there is a “cutoff” at 50% or 51% of the responsibility, beyond which an accident victim may no longer recover damages.
Mississippi is, relatively speaking, a “compensation-friendly” state. Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-15 specifies that a victim’s contribution to his or her own injuries shall be considered “no bar to recovery,” but adds that the amount of compensation awarded to a victim must be “reduced” in proportion to his or her share of responsibility. What this means for you, if you have been injured in a Mississippi truck accident, is that you may have a legal right to compensation, even if something you did or failed to do contributed to the accident. However, the greater your share of the responsibility, the more your total compensation will be reduced, so you may wish to consider discussing the specifics of your case with a Mississippi personal injury attorney experienced in truck accident cases.
Several Liability vs. Joint Liability
Identifying all the parties responsible for a trucking accident is essential to determining truck accident liability, but by itself this identification of responsible parties may not be sufficient. Often one of the most complicated aspects of truck accident liability comes from the application of joint vs. several liability. Similar in certain ways to comparative fault, joint liability and several liability both concern ways in which responsibility for harm may be shared among two or more parties. Unlike the doctrine of comparative negligence, however, joint liability and several liability typically refer to responsibility that is shared among parties other than the claimant seeking compensation.
Laws vary by state, but generally speaking joint liability is shared equally among all parties on the responsible “side” of the equation, while several liability may apply to some of the parties in an arrangement but not to others; in some instances, several liability can also allow for the total responsibility to be distributed among multiple parties according to the role each played in the incident leading to a claim. Shared liability is, for a variety of reasons, not unusual in truck accident cases, but a number of factors can complicate how that liability is distributed in a particular case. Such complications form a major reason why individuals seeking compensation for truck accident injuries are often encouraged to work with experienced attorneys as they attempt to negotiate claim settlements.
Speak With an Experienced Trucking Accident Attorney Today
Determining truck accident liability can be a complicated process involving multiple practical and legal factors. Usually this process begins with a thorough investigation, but even after all the parties whose actions or inactions may have contributed to the accident there may still be more factors to evaluate and keep in mind. Consider getting a professional assessment of your truck accident case by scheduling a consultation with Lott Law Firm to review the details of your situation. Call (228) 215-2787 today to speak with a member of our team.