When you’ve been in an accident involving a truck, you could be confronted with a plethora of stressors: injuries, damages, distress, and more. Working with your insurance alone often isn’t enough to receive the compensation you need to get your bills paid and start to repair the pain you’ve gone through. This is why more and more victims of accidents are turning to truck accident lawyers.
If you’re filing a suit against a truck driver or their trucking company, you’re going to be confronted with various concerns and questions. For example, can a truck driver sue a driver for an accident?
In the United States, anyone can sue or counter-sue for anything–but that doesn’t mean they’ll win the lawsuit. The duty of the court is to find who is liable for the accident, and this is where expert witnesses come in. It’s extremely common to turn to expert witnesses in a truck accident case, because trucks have a large amount of data records loaded into their systems, including:
- Steering
- Acceleration
- GPS
- Braking
This data may be able to support your case. However, you need the experience of an expert to both capture and interpret this data. Expert witnesses know how to track the accidents of a driver’s trucking company and more.
Types of Expert Witnesses in Truck Accident Cases
Expert witnesses aren’t limited to trucking data experts. Experts in a trial provide informed and objective opinions based on their specialized knowledge and expertise. They can provide testimony that brings clarity to complex technical, regulatory, and medical matters that the average juror likely won’t understand.
Here are the most common experts for trucking accidents:
Medical Specialists
If any of the parties involved in the accident suffered physical injury as a result of the accident, medical specialists are critical to your case.
A medical specialist is a doctor or any other type of healthcare professional. They offer insights into the extent of the injuries sustained, can determine the severity of these injuries, required treatment, and even the long-term impact on the victim’s quality of life. This information can calculate the appropriate compensation for the victim’s medical expenses, pain and suffering, and future care.
Financial Experts
This type of expert may not instantly come to mind when you think about a truck accident case, but financial experts can look into the resulting economic losses of your situation. They can calculate property damage costs, diminished earning capacity, and calculate your lost wages.
Accident Reconstruction Experts
Accident reconstruction experts have engineering skills that allow them to recreate the sequence of events that led to the accident. They can replicate and analyze factors like road conditions, impact forces, and vehicle dynamics to show the jury how the accident occurred. With these findings, you could be able to point out the truck driver’s liability and negligence to strengthen your case.
Safety Investigators Or Trucking Industry Regulators
Because large commercial trucks can cause much more damage than the average commuter vehicle, there are much more stringent regulations and safety precautions set in place for them. If your case demands an in-depth knowledge of these standards and regulations, a safety investigator or industry regulator can help.
They can provide insights that expose any violations that may have been committed by the trucking company or driver, which may prove negligence and liability on the part of the responsible parties.
Forensic Experts and Pathologists
In cases where the truck accident caused fatalities, these experts are critical in determining the cause of death and its contributing factors. The knowledge provided by pathologists and forensic experts can be crucial in cases involving wrongful death claims.
How Do I Choose the Right Expert Witness for My Case?
Whether your accident involving a large commercial truck involved fatalities or non-fatal injuries, your life can feel flipped upside down. You may not know what experts you need for your unique case or even how to find them.
Strom Law puts people first, using our connections, knowledge, and extensive research to advocate for our clients’ best interests. Contact us today to see how we can help your case!
