Upland Truck Accident Lawyer

Upland is located on a unique spot on the map. On the one hand, it is part of one of the most congested freeway grids in the United States, which extends westward to Los Angeles, southward to Riverside, Orange County, and San Diego, and eastward to San Bernardino, and the desert. However, just north of Upland are rural mountains and national forests. Communities that support some of the most productive agricultural operations on Earth are located only a modest distance away from the heart of Upland. Due to its unique location, a staggering number of large commercial trucks hauling agricultural products, wares for the masses, imports from Mexico, and exports from all over California travel via freeway in or near Upland every single day. Unfortunately, all too often, these trucks tend to crash.

Aggressive Advocacy on Behalf of Injured Motorists and Truck Operators

Too often, individuals who have been injured in truck accidents are unfairly stereotyped as having operated their vehicles in dangerous ways. In reality, truck accidents happen for all kinds of reasons and each truck accident ultimately unfolds differently. If you choose to work with our firm, know that we will advocate aggressively on your behalf in order to ensure that you benefit from the strongest possible case that we can build under the circumstances. Unlike other firms that choose to represent as many clients as possible as quickly as possible, we will pay your case the attention and focus it deserves until we obtain the best possible outcome for you, given the unique ins and outs of your situation. No attorney can guarantee that they will deliver specific results for their clients. However, we can guarantee that we will work diligently on your behalf and will treat you with respect at every step along the way.

Are All Truck Accidents Legally Actionable?

There are some causes of truck accidents that are nobody’s fault. For example, when a well-maintained truck is driving out of speed reasonable under the current weather conditions, lightning strikes the truck and the electrified rig loses control through no fault of the driver’s and slams into the car driving beside it, there is no one to hold legally accountable for the harm caused by that collision. This doesn’t mean that the driver of the truck and the driver of the passenger car involved in the accident lack opportunities for financial recourse. Both drivers are likely entitled to insurance payouts and the professional truck operator is likely entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. However, because no one negligently, recklessly, or intentionally behaved in ways that led to the cause of the accident in question, no one can be held accountable for the resulting injuries and costs via a personal injury claim.

With that said, truck accident scenarios that lead to injury in which everyone involved is blameless are very rare. Most of the time, multiple factors conspire to cause the occurrence of a truck accident. Some of these factors, such as unlawful cellphone use while driving, driving while impaired, tailgating, and failure to use turn signals are relatively obvious in the immediate aftermath of a crash. However, many factors that commonly lead to truck accidents may not be fully identified by all involved until an experienced legal team has done some investigative work. For example, some truck companies are notorious for pushing their drivers to operate in ways that flout federal safety regulations. An injured motorist would have no way of knowing that the truck driver involved in the accident that caused them harm had been consistently pressured to drive while overly fatigued until an attorney investigated the practices of that truck driver’s employer.

It is therefore important to avoid making assumptions about whether you have cause to file legal action against any other individual or entity that may have contributed to the cause of your harm until you have spoken with an attorney and have clarified issues of causation and fault related to your unique collision. Things are not always as they seem and you may be entitled to much more compensation than you might initially believe yourself to be.

Causation, Fault, and the Strength of Individual Personal Injury Claims

When investigating the cause of truck accidents and determining fault accordingly, our firm seeks to prove three foundational criteria of successful personal injury lawsuits on behalf of our clients. If these three criteria cannot be proven, it may not make sense for our clients to pursue compensation via a personal injury suit as doing so won’t ultimately be a successful path to securing compensation. These three criteria are:

• The defendant owed the injury victim a duty of care under the law;
• The defendant breached their duty of care owed through negligent, reckless, or intentionally dangerous conduct; and
• The defendant’s breach of duty served as a “substantial factor” in causing the victim’s injuries.

These are complex legal questions that are fully dependent upon the circumstances unique to each case. As a result, you should not panic if you are unsure of whether your legal situation meets this set of criteria. Our job is to make that determination, to present you with an objective analysis of our findings, and to advise of your legal options accordingly. At that point, you’ll be empowered to weigh the potential pros and cons of pursuing any or all of the legal options available under the circumstances.

It is important to note that California is a comparative negligence state. Too many accident victims dismiss the idea of speaking with a lawyer about pursuing legal action because they are led to believe that if they were partially to blame for the cause of their accident, they have no grounds to sue anyone else responsible for their harm. Although this might be the case if your accident had occurred in a state classified as a “contributory negligence state,” it isn’t the case in California. In California, even if you’re partially to blame for your accident, you can still hold others responsible for their negligent, reckless, or intentionally dangerous contributions to the cause of your harm. You may simply be entitled to less compensation as a result of your partial fault than you would be had you been blameless.

Am I Owed Workers’ Compensation Benefits Because I Was Hurt During My Truck Accident?

If you were either “on the clock” or engaging in work-related activity at the time of your crash, your legal options might look different than they would if you had not been traveling for work-related purposes when your collision occurred. If you are classified as a full-time or part-time employee, you are not properly classified as an independent contractor, and you are not otherwise exempt from workers’ compensation coverage requirements in California, you are almost certainly entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits as a result of your work-related truck crash. These benefits will be made available to you regardless of what caused your crash and whose fault the crash was. The only exceptions to this rule will come into play if you were drunk or otherwise impaired at the time of the crash, you instigated a road rage incident, or staged the crash in order to commit workers’ compensation fraud.

Note that if you are eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits, you won’t be able to sue your employer via a personal injury lawsuit if your employer directly contributed to the harm you’ve suffered. Employers enjoy limited legal liability for work-related harm as a result of the ways in which the workers’ compensation system operates. However, you remain entitled to sue third parties other than your employer, provided that these individuals or other legal entities behaved in ways that render them legally liable for the harm you’ve suffered.

What Can I Expect if I File Legal Action?

After you have attended your free consultation, if you choose to exercise any or all of your rights under the law with the assistance of our legal team, our skilled attorneys will begin building the strongest possible case on your behalf. We will negotiate with insurance providers and with opposing counsel retained by others involved in the accident. We will thoroughly investigate the cause(s) of your collision and determine fault objectively in order to give you all the information you’ll need to make decisions about how you want to proceed. If your case involves defective auto parts or unsafe working conditions, we will help you report your experiences anonymously to relevant authorities. If you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, we’ll help you to file this claim successfully.  

If you choose to file a personal injury lawsuit, we will advocate for your interests in focused, determined, and client-focused ways that will position you to benefit from the best outcome possible under the circumstances. Although it is unlikely that your case will need to go all the way to trial, we’ll be prepared to make a strong case on your behalf in the event that it does.

Contact Our Firm Today for a Free Case Evaluation

Our team will never pressure you into making any kind of decision about your legal situation. Our responsibility to you involves clarifying your rights under the law and informing you of the potential benefits and drawbacks of taking different courses of action. Even though taking this step forward can be difficult when you’re trying to recover from injuries, it is worth investing an hour or two of your time as soon as you possibly can so that you can have access to the tools necessary to make informed decisions about your situation within the timeframes made available to you under the law.

Please schedule a free, confidential consultation with our team today. There are “no strings attached” to this opportunity. We simply look forward to answering your questions and explaining your rights under the law. As an accident victim, you unquestionably deserve to take advantage of this opportunity and it is our honor to extend it to you and to all truck accident injury victims. We look forward to speaking with you.