If you get in an accident with a big rig truck, you will almost always come out on the losing end—with more severe injuries and greater damage to your vehicle. And unfortunately, large truck accidents can often result in death. In 2017, trucks were involved in over 8 percent of all fatal vehicle accidents in Nevada. If you’ve suffered injuries in a truck accident, or a loved one was fatally injured by a trucker, a Henderson Truck Accident Attorney may be able to help you recover damages you’ve suffered through a lawsuit. Make the phone call soon, though, because under Nevada law, you only have two years (known as the statute of limitations) from the date of your accident to file a lawsuit. That might seem like a long time, but the sooner you get your attorney involved, the better off you’ll be.
Filing a lawsuit isn’t just throwing some words on a piece of paper. Your lawyer needs to make sure you bring a suit against the proper party, that the case has a sound legal basis, and that she can get the right people on your team (expert witnesses, investigators, and others).
Under Nevada law, you may be entitled to recover the following types of damages for your truck accident:
Joseph L. Benson II, and Ben J. Bingham, Henderson Truck Accident AttorneysMedical expenses – Medical expenses include those associated with your initial care and treatment, including emergency or urgent care, ambulance transport to a treatment facility, diagnostic tests, and all professionals who treated you during your hospital stay. Many people also incur ongoing medical expenses if their injuries are severe enough. Such costs might include physical, occupational, or speech therapy, mobility devices like wheelchairs or walkers, the cost of inpatient or outpatient rehabilitative care, mental health treatment, and medication.
Pain and suffering – These damages seek to compensate you for your pain physical and suffering.
Emotional distress – In addition to physical pain, many truck accident survivors experience a great deal of emotional distress. You may now suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, experience fear when riding in or driving a vehicle, have nightmares, or feel extreme mood swings.
Lost wages – If you’ve had to miss work due to your initial treatment, to attend therapy or rehab, or to see specialists, you can seek those damages from the other party. Be sure you keep track of every hour of work you miss, along with any potential tips, commissions, bonuses, or retirement savings you lose to deal with your injuries.
Loss of future wages – If your injuries were severe enough you might not ever be able to work again. Or you might be able to work, but not at the same professional level you did before your accident, forcing you to take a lower paying job or reduce your hours. Though it’s not a simple math formula, an actuary can help calculate the value of your lost future wages by considering your current age the amount you were earning before the accident, your life expectancy, the amount of wages you are currently able to earn, and the future value of both your current and previous earnings.
Property damage – You can seek compensation for the cost of damages to any property involved in the accident. This includes both your vehicle and those items in the vehicle.
Replacement Services – Replacement services costs are those you incur when you have to hire someone to do jobs for you that you could previously do yourself, such as care for your children, grocery shop, mow the lawn, or perform household maintenance.
Loss of use – These damages are intended to compensate you for the things you are no longer able to do due to the loss of limbs, digits, eyesight, or other losses.
Loss of consortium – Your spouse may bring a claim (it must be in the same lawsuit as the injured person’s claims) for the loss of affection, comfort, sexual relations, the ability to bear children, and companionship they suffered as a result of your injuries
Punitive damages may be available to you and are not intended so much to compensate you, but to punish the other party and serve as a warning to others. Whether or not you will qualify to claim punitive damages turns heavily on the facts of your case. A good truck accident attorney can help you determine if you are entitled to claim these damages.
Wrongful Death
If your loved one was fatally injured in a truck accident, you may be able to file a wrongful death suit against the truck driver (or his employer or both). The survivor of a deceased person may recover damages in a wrongful death suit is a suit against a party when that party has engaged in intentional, reckless, or negligent conduct that caused the death of another. The statute of limitations in Nevada is the same for a wrongful death suit as it is for a personal injury suit—two years.
A wrongful death action in Nevada can be brought by:
The surviving spouse, domestic partner, or children of the deceased
The parents of the deceased if there is no spouse, partner, or children
The personal representative of the deceased
Types of Damages
The damages recoverable by a family member for the death of a loved one are of course going to be different than if the injured person had survived. Damages for wrongful death fall into two categories – special damages and penalty damages. Depending on the facts surrounding the death of your loved one, you may be able to recover the following damages:
Special damages – These damages include all expenses the deceased incurred from the moment of the accident until death (medical expenses, etc.), as well as damages for his or her pain and suffering or disfigurement. In addition, you may be able to recover for damages specific to your losses. These may include loss of probable support, companionship, society, comfort, and consortium.
Penalty damages – A family member may recover the same amount of penalty (punitive) damages the deceased person would have had they lived.
Contact a Henderson Truck Accident Attorney at Benson & Bingham Accident Injury Lawyers, LLC
Truck accidents can cause severe injuries that affect you for the rest of your life. You need an attorney on your side who will fight to ensure that you receive every dollar of compensation you are entitled to. At Benson & Bingham Accident Injury Lawyers, LLC, we’ve helped our clients recover over $215 million in damages in their personal injury cases. Of course, we cannot guarantee a specific result in your case, but we can guarantee that we will provide expert legal representation and bring our compassion and the weight of our extensive experience to your case. Contact us online or by phone at (702) 382-9797 today for your free consultation and case evaluation.
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Truck accidents can cause severe injuries that affect you for the rest of your life. You need an attorney on your side who will fight to ensure that you receive every dollar of compensation you are entitled to. At Benson & Bingham Accident Injury Lawyers, LLC, we’ve helped our clients recover over $215 million in damages in their personal injury cases. Of course, we cannot guarantee a specific result in your case, but we can guarantee that we will provide expert legal representation and bring our compassion and the weight of our extensive experience to your case. Contact us online or by phone at (702) 382-9797 today for your free consultation and case evaluation.