Sandel Law Firm

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Injured in a truck accident? Consider vicarious liability

A truck accident can leave you devastated. Sure, your vehicle might be totaled, but the personal injuries you suffer are much more important. These injuries can be extensive, too, oftentimes leaving victims with long-term, sometimes lifelong, damage. The physical and emotional toll can be great, but so, too, can the financial harm that is thrust upon. In other words, truck accident victims have a lot on their plates.Many truck accident victims grow anxious as they try to figure out a way to recoup their losses. A personal injury lawsuit filed against a negligent trucker may prove beneficial, but it also has its shortcomings. The biggest issue is that most truckers don’t have the funds that are necessary to fully compensate you for your damages. This means that, even though you win your personal injury case, you might still be left in need of additional resources and support.The good news is that you might have another option available to you: a vicarious liability claim. Under this theory of the law, you can hold an employer liable for the negligent actions or inactions of its employees. In order to win in one of these claims, though, you’ll need evidence showing a number of legal elements. Amongst those elements are that the duties being performed by the trucker at the time of the accident were relevant to his or her job, and that the trucker was on the clock performing that work when the wreck in question occurred.These vicarious liability claims are usually aggressively contested by truck companies and insurance companies who are looking to shift the blame and escape having to pay large judgments. This is why truck accident victims are often better off addressing these matters with the assistance of an experienced personal injury attorney who knows how to build strong cases founded on the facts and the law.