Who Decides Fault for a Truck Accident?
What happens when a trucker injures you in an accident and denies responsibility? This doesn’t necessarily mean they’re untruthful. When a crash occurs, many negligent drivers think they did nothing wrong. Some believe they had the right-of-way so they fail to slow down. Others crash because they are too distracted to notice a red light or a stop sign. When both drivers leave an accident scene thinking they’re free of negligence, who decides fault for a truck accident?
Truckers have transport companies and commercial insurers defending them and making decisions on their behalf. When you’re dealing with serious injuries, you need a Connecticut truck accident injury attorney working for you. Your attorney can protect your legal rights while you rest and heal.
Insurance Companies Decide Fault On Behalf of Truck Companies
A trucking company’s insurance policy gives their insurer authority to make claim decisions for their insured. That’s why commercial insurance companies decide fault for a truck accident claim. If an insurer agrees to pay your claim, their offer usually reflects a number of factors.
- A claim handler’s recommendations.
- A claim committee’s collaborative thoughts on your claim’s value.
- The claim reserve, a dollar amount set aside in compliance with statutory requirements.
- A reserve set months earlier that won’t necessarily reflect your injuries’ increasing value over time
If the trucker’s insurer denies liability and refuses to pay you anything, their denial will stand until you take steps to challenge it.
Attorneys Determine Fault on Behalf of Their Injured Clients
When you don’t have legal representation, insurance companies control what happens from day one. They show up demanding information without making a commitment to pay. If they decide to pay you, they control when and how much.
If an insurer denies your claim, they simply send you a letter, close their file, and move on to the next claim. If you’re recovering from serious injuries, you might not have the energy to fight back.
A truck accident attorney can stop an insurer from exercising this level of control over your future. When you establish a working relationship, your attorney conducts their own investigation and evaluates your damages independently. They act according to your legal and financial interests, and they take steps to recover damages on your behalf. If an insurer denies your liability claim, your attorney will have the legal means to challenge them on your behalf.
When a Police Officer Decides Fault For a Truck Accident, It’s an Opinion
Connecticut General Statutes require that you file a police report when an accident results in a fatality, injuries, or extensive property damage. Whether a law enforcement officer comes to an accident scene or takes your report at a station, they play an important role in documenting the facts:
- Driver and witness personal information and accident versions
- Criminal actions observed: DUI alcohol or drugs, reckless operation
- Driver’s license and insurance information
- Witness names and contact information
- Accident scene descriptions
- Weather conditions
As state guidelines require, an officer can “…if possible and practicable, reach a conclusion as to the cause of the accident…” While a police report may explain the officer’s thought process, if they didn’t witness the accident, any conclusion about fault is their opinion.
This is particularly important in Connecticut where the law recognizes that more than one person can be at fault for causing an accident. Truck accident attorneys know how to recognize and evaluate these types of legal issues.
Evidence Is Critical to Any Liability Decision
Evidence is proof or factual information that supports or disproves a theory. A truck accident leaves behind a trail of evidence. Each piece helps tell a story about what happened when the crash occurred.
Before a law enforcement officer clears the scene, evidence begins its disappearing act. Cars push debris to the side of the road and smooth away tire tread marks. Eyewitnesses decide they don’t want to get involved. Drivers revise their version to better suit their needs, and sometimes the weather changes everything.
Insurance companies and attorneys rely on evidence to guide their initial decisions. If they wait to begin their investigations, they miss out on credible evidence that may clarify key issues. As some cases end in litigation, plaintiffs and insurance company defense attorneys eventually present their client’s evidence before a judge and jury. While it’s not a contest, usually the attorney with the most credible evidence wins.
Timing is Crucial For Insurance Companies and Attorneys
Insurer’s usually rush to investigate accidents so they can make timely decisions about fault. If they drag their feet, they risk violating Connecticut’s Unfair Insurance Practices Act. Timely investigation requires that an insured report their accident immediately. If a trucking company doesn’t make an immediate report, it sometimes triggers a chain reaction of consequences.
- As a delayed truck accident report may jeopardize a claim investigation and outcome, an insurer has the right to deny coverage.
- Most insurers won’t deny coverage without understanding a case’s potential value. They often proceed with their investigation but reserve their right to deny coverage at a later time.
- As coverage issues are solely between a trucking company and its insurer, they won’t necessarily keep you informed.
- Coverage issues don’t usually prevent a claim investigator from asking you for a recorded statement and other claim documentation. They still want to gather as much evidence as possible.
Timing is also critical for injury attorneys. They can’t begin investigating your claim until you reach out to them for a consultation. Of course, they want to help injured victims, so they often accept liability cases even if a delay prevents timely investigation. This sometimes forces an injury attorney to rely on others for access to evidence that’s no longer directly available.
How Does the Insurance Company Decide Fault For a Truck Accident?
Insurers have a contractual obligation to accept covered truck accident claims and make decisions based on their insured’s legal liability. When a serious truck accident occurs, commercial claims handlers consider the circumstances, review the legal issues, evaluate the injuries, and make decisions they believe will hold up in court. They accomplish this by performing multiple investigative and analytical tasks.
- Obtaining drivers’ statements
- Evaluating whether a driver makes a good witness on their own behalf
- Obtaining police and ambulance reports
- Inspecting, documenting, and photographing the accident scene
- Inspecting, documenting, and photographing vehicle damage
- Taking statements from identified witnesses
- Canvassing an area for witnesses that might not have come forward
- Analyzing the legal issues
- Evaluating their chance of prevailing in court
- Seeking opinions from counsel when necessary
- Obtaining medical records
- Evaluating injury claims based on past accidents, similar injuries, jury verdicts and other relevant data.
In a case with minimal injuries, the claim handler usually makes liability and payment decisions without additional input. When a case involves serious or catastrophic injuries, insurers often decide values, liability, and claim disposition based on a committee consensus or an upper management mandate.
Truck accident attorneys perform these same investigative and evaluation activities on their clients’ behalf. As with insurers, their investigations produce more results when conducted as quickly after a crash as possible.
The Negligence Formula for Assessing Liability
Truck accidents and their resultant damages sometimes occur due to complicated circumstances. Whatever the complexity, investigators approach each case with the idea of answering four simple questions.
-
Duty Owed: Did the trucker have a duty to drive safely?
- Duty Breached: Did they fail to meet that duty? (run a light, fail to stop, commit some other negligent act)
- Proximate Cause: Was the trucker’s failure the direct cause of a crash?
- Damages: Did the accident cause the claimed damages?
Under Connecticut’s Comparative Fault statutes, if the injured person was even minimally negligent, their settlement or award would reflect their negligence percentage. For example, if your claim was worth $100,000 and you were 10% negligent, you would receive a $90,000 settlement. If your negligence was greater than 51% it bars you from recovering any damages.
Some Trucking Companies are Self-insured
Some large corporations bypass traditional insurance to self-insure their liability exposures. This is a risk management decision that saves premiums and gives a trucking company full control over claim decisions. When a self-insured company pays a claim, the money comes from their financial resources. This may encourage them to make decisions that might not be in an injured person’s best interests.
Self-insured trucking companies may handle claims with in-house claim administrators. They may hire an independent claim service or contract with an insurance company to conduct their investigations. Whatever strategy they choose for managing their claims, a trucking company’s representative won’t likely tell you that it’s self-insured. Although this distinction usually makes little difference in how they investigate your claim, it might affect their negotiation strategy.
Who Decides Fault When Insurers and Attorneys Can’t Agree?
At some point, your truck accident attorney and the trucker’s liability insurers will try to resolve your claim. They may negotiate informally by phone or in a formal meeting. Unfortunately, if they’re too far apart on claim values and liability issues, it often leaves your attorney alone in determining the next move.
Your Attorney May File a Lawsuit Asking the Court to Decide
If negotiations become non-productive, a civil lawsuit is your attorney’s next logical move. A lawsuit tells the negligent party’s insurer that they have minimal faith in their ability to negotiate fairly. It formalizes your allegations and damage claims against the negligent trucker and places them in the public record. It also protects your right to make a claim by tolling the statute of limitations.
- Your lawsuit will name you and your spouse as plaintiffs.
- It will name the trucker, his employer, and other negligent parties as defendants.
- The suit will explain the trucker’s negligent actions and any liability theories your attorney believes applicable.
- It will ask that the court award economic damages such as medical bills, lost wages, and other out-of-pocket costs.
- It may also ask the court for non-economic damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish, disabilities, and scarring, etc.
- In some cases, your lawsuit may seek punitive damages to punish the trucker for any malicious, wanton, or outrageous conduct.
- Once the defendant receives notice of a lawsuit, they have 30 days to file a response. An insurer begins incurring legal expenses as they must hire a defense attorney and pay legal expenses.
Negotiations Usually Continue After An Attorney Files a Suit
Once your attorney files a suit, negotiations may continue, although either party may initiate discovery. Plaintiffs and defendants can learn more about their adversary’s evidence through depositions, production requests, and interrogatories. As the discovery process can be costly, it often increases the motivation to settle a case.
Alternative Dispute Resolution Offers Another Settlement Option
As most plaintiffs, defendants, and judges prefer not to try a case, they consider other options. If the plaintiff and defense sides agree, they may seek to resolve the case through one of the State’s Alternative Dispute Resolution programs.
- Arbitration: An arbitrator or a panel hears evidence and renders a decision. This applies to cases valued at $50,000 or under.
- Attorney Trial Referees: When appointed as a trial referee, an attorney has the same authority to preside over a case as a sitting judge.
- Judicial-ADR: Disputing parties may ask a judge to preside over a settlement conference to facilitate negotiation. This gives adverse parties an opportunity to meet in a neutral environment to discuss the case. A judge may also recommend J-ADR for a pending case.
Plaintiffs and defendants don’t always settle cases through ADR. However, the process brings them together and compels them to cooperate. This may eventually influence the parties to resolve your case.
The Courts Sometimes End Up Deciding Fault
If the attorneys can’t resolve your case through other means, your lawsuit will eventually go to trial. Your attorney will advise you which trial method is best for you and your case, but the choice is yours.
- A Bench Trial: The judge hears the evidence and makes a decision.
- A Jury Trial: Attorneys select jurors from a pool of candidates. After hearing evidence from both parties, they decide your case.
If the jury awards a judgment, your attorney arranges to receive payment, creates settlement documents for your signature, and distributes settlement proceeds. If the jury finds in the defendant’s favor or your trial ends with a low dollar verdict, you must decide if you want to appeal your case.
Contact a Truck Accident Attorney
If a trucker injured you in an accident, contact a truck attorney as soon as possible. Injury attorneys work on your behalf to recover a fair settlement for your injuries. When you schedule a complimentary consultation, you can learn more about your options for recovering damages for your injury.