Wouldn’t it be great if there were a simple Texas truck accident settlement calculator, where you could put in some numbers about your crash and have it tell you what your case is worth? Unfortunately, no completely accurate amount is possible without a lawyer evaluating your case. Instead, to get some idea of how much your claim may be worth, we can lay out some of the same factors that our experienced personal injury attorneys consider when evaluating your case.
Understanding the factors that can impact the potential value of a Texas truck accident claim and any particular compensation that may be available can help you feel informed about your case. After being involved in a trucking accident in Texas, one of your main concerns is probably going to be related to compensation. No online tool (such as a Texas truck accident settlement calculator) is going to give you the same information that an experienced truck accident lawyer will provide. However, by learning about how truck accident settlement demands are calculated and what factors go into determining the compensation sought by your lawyers for your injuries, you will have a better idea of what to expect from your potential claim.
At Wyly & Cook Law Firm, we represent clients who have been physically harmed in a truck crash, explaining to them how they might be able to recover money based upon the facts of their situation and Texas law.
Below is some additional information on what you need to know about how a Texas truck accident settlement is determined:
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What Does This “Auto-Truck Accident Settlement Calculation Tool” Do?
Well, there is no such thing as a computer program that can calculate what a Texas truck accident claim should settle for. To be fair, insurance companies often use computerized adjusting that works like a hypothetical settlement calculator. The adjuster may input data, like the amount of your medical bills; the time you have missed from work (lost wages); the damage to your vehicle; and what happened in your crash. And the tool may recommend a settlement value. But they often underestimate, sometimes grossly underestimate, what a claim should settle for or what a jury may award.
Here in the real world, we know that these kinds of automated tools are extremely limited. That’s because every automobile crash case is different and there is even more variety in each truck accident injury case, with many factors influencing the final settlement figure. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to think of this truck accident injury claim calculator as a guide to what kind of things will affect the settlement range in your case instead of providing an exact answer of what your case’s value is.
Moreover, there are often several defendants, many with one or more associated insurance policies with different limits in a trucking case. Of course, some defendants may lack insurance altogether, or their policy is too small to pay a significant judgment. Which policies are applicable, the limits of those policies, the ability of uninsured or under-insured parties to pay a judgment, and which parties are found to be responsible for the crash and how fault is apportioned to each responsible party, all affect the available pool of money that can be recovered.
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Truck Accident Lawsuit Timeline: Step-By-Step of the Claim Process
How To Estimate Your Settlement Amount
Again, no calculator or even an attorney can predict an exact settlement amount before a case is filed and litigated. But an attorney can provide a more personalized assessment depending on the facts, evidence, insurance, and applicable law. The following is a description of some of the things that an attorney evaluates in determining what to demand (or recommend you to accept in settlement) for your claim.
It’s important to note that every claim can be thought of as having two values: what the parties can agree to settle the claim for, and what a jury ultimately awards if it finds the defendant(s) at fault.
Both values are ultimately driven by the questions the jury will be asked to answer if the case goes to trial. Typically, the jury will decide some questions about liability, apportionment, and damages. Each of these kinds of questions creates factors that affect settlement value. Additionally, the context of the case can affect settlement value, things like highly sympathetic and likeable parties on one side of the case or the other, aggravating liability facts, or public knowledge about the facts and circumstances surrounding the case.
Typically, the biggest driver of both values will be the kinds and amounts of damages the jury can consider. In Texas, most damages that can be claimed in a truck wreck are called “compensatory” damages. These are damages meant to fix, replace, or compensate you for your injuries.
Additionally, when the case fits certain legal requirements, the court may also allow you to pursue “exemplary” damages. Exemplary damages, sometimes called punitive damages, are meant to be a penalty or punishment for certain conduct, typically gross negligence. Exemplary damages are usually capped, unless the bad act was a felony the legislature has exempted from the damages cap, a so-called “cap-buster” offense. Cap-buster felonies include murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, and many others. Perhaps the most relevant to vehicle crash cases are intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault, felonies that apply when the defendant seriously harms or kills someone because they drove a vehicle while drunk. The complete list can be found in the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 41.008(c). However, because exemplary damages are not the norm and strongly depend on the bad act and facts about the bad actor, they won’t be discussed further here. If your case presents a possible exemplary damages claim, your lawyer can help you assess the potential value of the exemplary damages.
Compensatory damages are further divided into two categories, economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are those to which a price tag can be attached, that is, the kinds of losses that can be totally replaced with money. This commonly includes medical bills incurred for treating injuries sustained in the crash, your loss of income from time off work, any diminished ability to earn a living due to disability sustained in the crash, loss or damage to property, loss of use of property, loss of household services (the value of unpaid home labor, such as cleaning, cooking, home maintenance, etc.), and any other purely financial loss resulting from the collision.
The amount of recoverable medical expense under Texas law is known as the “paid or incurred” amount; that is, (1) what you have paid the providers, plus (2) what you still owe the providers, plus (3) any amounts that were paid to the providers on your behalf by others, such as your health insurer. “Paid or incurred” does not include any amounts that were “written off” under an insurance policy or government plan. To be recoverable, you must generally show that the treatment and associated charges were (1) reasonable and (2) necessary to treat injuries that (3) were caused by the crash. The medical treatments (and the associated costs) you will likely need in the future can also be recovered.
Maintaining accurate documentation of each of your medical expenses and all treatments is critical to recovering medical expenses.
Lost Wages and Wage Earning Capacity
Economic damages include lost wages, or the amount of income you were unable to generate as a result of your inability or limits to your ability to work after the crash. They also include loss of wage-earning capacity, which means if you sustain an injury that reduces your ability to work or generate income for years into the future, you may be entitled to recover the value of that lost capacity, even if you were not employed at the time of the crash.
Property Damage and Loss of Use
Replacement of property destroyed in a crash, as well as the cost to repair property damaged in the crash, are economic damages. This typically means repair of your vehicle, but can include things like prescription glasses, replacement car seats, or merchandise that was being transported at the time of the crash. You may be entitled to payment for temporary loss of use of property, such as when you need to rent a vehicle to replace a vehicle while it is being repaired. And you may also be entitled to diminution of value, the loss of value to property because it has been damaged in a crash. While technically any property may suffer diminution in value, it is usually only economically reasonable to pursue with regard to vehicles that are damaged and lose a considerable amount of their resale value due to having been involved in a crash.
Other Economic Damages
Other out-of-pocket expenses you incur because of your injury may include the cost of making changes to your home so it is safer and easier for you to live as a disabled person; and paying for assistance with routine daily activities while recovering, or due to a permanent disability.
Non-Economic Damages
These are meant to make up for losses that do not have an exact monetary value.
Physical Pain
A jury in Texas is allowed to compensate you for physical pain as long as the money awarded has some logical connection to what you’ve demonstrated through your evidence. The amount awarded can vary depending on the nature, duration, and severity of the physical pain.
Mental Anguish
Mental anguish is the mental and emotional cousin of physical pain. Mental anguish is not merely being sad or upset about a crash, but is a high degree of mental pain and distress that goes beyond ordinary, temporary feelings of anger, resentment, embarrassment, or disappointment, or which results in disruption of your daily activities. Like physical pain, a jury in Texas is allowed to compensate you for mental anguish as long as the money awarded has some logical connection to what you’ve demonstrated through your evidence. The amount awarded can vary depending on the nature, duration, and severity of the mental anguish.
Physical Impairment and Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Loss of the normal use of your body is called physical impairment. This is not the same as the loss of ability to work, even if a physical disability resulting from the crash affects your ability to work as well. In addition to the ability to use your body, this element includes the losses to your ability to engage in physical activities, such as recreation, exercise, sports, or hobbies. As such, it is sometimes seen as the element that compensates for loss of enjoyment of life due to an injury. It is important to understand that physical impairment compensates for a different loss than physical pain caused by the injury or financial losses caused by bodily impairment (which will typically be compensated as a loss of wage-earning capacity).
Disfigurements
You may also receive additional compensation if you sustain injuries that leave noticeable scars or disfigurements which affect your physical appearance. While scars from lacerations or abrasions are the obvious sources of disfigurement, this can also include things like a permanent limp or changes to the shape and structure of your body—for example, a permanently bent finger or changes to the shape of your nose after it is broken in the crash.
Other Elements
There are other elements of damages too. For example, when a person is killed, there are special categories of damages for their parents, children, and spouse to pursue. Another possible kind of damages is called loss of consortium, which compensates for loss or damage a spouse suffers from harm to the other spouse. This includes harm to the marital relationship, including the ability of the injured spouse to provide care, comfort, and physical companionship to the uninjured spouse.
Calculating The Total
To determine the value of a case, whether to make a demand, consider an offer, or recommend a settlement, an attorney considers the total amount of economic damages and the nature, duration, and severity of the physical pain and mental anguish, any impairment, disfigurement, and other elements of damages to determine what the value is. Some lawyers evaluate non-economic damages based on a “multiplier” of economic damages, but that gives a rough estimate at best. The Supreme Court of Texas rejected applying “ratios” of economic to non-economic damages, noting that it distorted values of noneconomic harms based on wealth. It makes no sense that a wealthy person who has more economic losses due to lost income from a high-paying job should recover more for pain and suffering than a more seriously injured person just because that person may have lower economic damages (since their treatment is provided by low-cost government programs and they may lack employment to lose wages from).
Truck Accident Attorney
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Get Compensated For Your Injuries & Damages! Call Us For A FREE Case Review. Call Us For A FREE & Confidential Case Review Today!What are Average Truck Accident Settlement Amounts?
An “average” settlement value is inherently misleading. Truck accidents, like all personal injury cases, will have varying settlement amounts as a function of specifics regarding each case. Therefore, while some truck wrecks can result in significant amounts of damages awarded to plaintiffs, in others the settlement value will be more modest.
Even a soft-tissue injury claim, where the primary injuries are minor strains and sprains that can be expected to fully heal, can differ substantially in value mainly depending on liability, medical evidence, duration of symptoms, wage losses, and insurance coverage available. Damages for claims based upon fracture(s), surgeries, and prolonged hospitalizations may be higher than other claims; however, there is no specific dollar range (i.e., “standard”) to use as an upper limit for settlement purposes. The people who get injured in these accidents also have much longer recovery times and often some level of permanent impairment. Damages may be substantial with catastrophic injury claims; however, the actual damages that are recoverable will depend on all the evidence that relates to liability, all relevant defenses, and all potential sources of recovery.
The most serious injuries are catastrophic and require massive amounts of expensive medical treatment. As an additional consideration, many people who are catastrophically injured by trucks cannot return to work after the truck accident.
Some victims of trucking negligence are killed in the crash. A Texas wrongful death claim can permit the deceased person’s parents, children and spouse (the “wrongful death beneficiaries”) to recover damages arising from the loss of their loved one, but once again, settlement amounts are very case-specific.
There is simply no reliable statewide average for settlement amounts that will predictably establish a value for any specific Texas truck accident claim.
Since there are numerous factors that influence the outcome of each individual’s claim, it takes significant experience in settling, litigating, and trying cases to allow a lawyer to estimate a claim’s value.
What Determines The Amount of Money Received for a Texas Truck Accident Injury Claim?
There are many factors involved in determining the potential amount of money received from a Texas truck accident injury claim:
Level of injuries
Claims involving serious injuries resulting in long-term medical treatment or permanent disability tend to have higher settlements.
Evidence & liability
The existence of stronger evidence regarding liability issues may help demonstrate that a valid cause of action exists; however, the extent of the potential recovery remains dependent on the total proven damages. In order to successfully establish liability, evidence of a driver’s fatigue; evidence of the failure to properly maintain equipment; evidence of vehicles being overloaded; or evidence of any regulatory violations that were directly responsible for causing the collision would be relevant if those elements meet both the applicable statute as well as the issue of proximate cause.
Insurance available to pay the claim
Commercial trucking insurance will depend on many different factors, including the type of operation being conducted (for example, interstate vs. intrastate or whether hazardous materials are involved), vehicles in use, and the type of cargo being transported. The required commercial insurance for a trucking company varies depending on those factors. In some cases, the limit on an insurance policy affects the amount of money that is recoverable under the policy. However, the total amount of potential damages that could be awarded against a defendant is not determined solely by the value of their commercial trucking insurance.
Attorney representation and ability to handle case
A legal representative will be able to assist in investigating possible negligence on behalf of the defendant(s), locate any possible defendants or their insurance carrier(s), and negotiate an appropriate amount of money based upon evidence and the applicable laws that support your claim.
Client conduct and/or contributions
Finally, Texas has a modified comparative negligence law. That is, if a jury finds that your negligence contributed to causing your injury, your recovery will be reduced by the amount of fault attributed to you. Moreover, if you are found to be 51% or more at fault, you cannot recover any tort damages from the other parties involved. However, you could potentially receive some no-fault insurance benefits such as Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage.
What Makes Truck Accident Claims Different than Car Accidents
Cases involving truck accidents have a number of characteristics which make them different from typical automobile accidents.
These include the fact that there are many potential defendants in addition to the truck driver; for example, the trucking company; those who load the cargo on the tractor-trailer; the maintenance personnel who service the vehicle; and possibly the manufacturer of the vehicle. Depending on the parties involved in a truck crash and how they have structured their insurance coverages, there could be several different types of policies that apply or from which you might receive compensation for your injuries.
FMCSA regulations govern many interstate commercial-motor-carrier operations, while Texas law also regulates intrastate commercial carriers. In general terms, if a party has violated a provision of a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulation that was intended to promote safe driving practices, such a violation could support a claim for negligence based upon the specific language of the rule at issue, the facts surrounding the violations, and how those violations related to causing the accident.
Trucking companies often maintain records of their operations. However, these records can sometimes be destroyed, either intentionally or unintentionally. In addition to physical loss of data, electronic records may also be lost or overwritten. For this reason, it is very important for victims of accidents caused by commercial vehicles to take action quickly to preserve all available evidence. This can create an obligation to save evidence even prior to filing a lawsuit.
Trucking companies and insurers may investigate serious crashes immediately and may retain attorneys, investigators, or other professionals to evaluate and defend claims.
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Get Compensated For Your Injuries & Damages! Call Us For A FREE Case Review. Call Us For A FREE & Confidential Case Review Today!Steps After a Truck Wreck Are Very Important
Steps taken after a crash can help preserve evidence and document injuries, but they do not guarantee a particular settlement amount.
Get medical care for yourself as quickly as you can. Even if you do not believe that you have suffered serious injury, it is very possible that you could be suffering from an injury that will manifest over time. For example, injuries to a spinal disc, including in cases that ultimately need to be surgically treated, are sometimes painless for several days after a crash. Many times, people do not realize they are suffering from a serious injury until many hours or days later. An unknown “treatment gap” can arise based upon whether you have a question of liability, or a claim for damages based on the specific circumstances.
Take photographs of the damaged vehicles involved in the accident. Also take pictures of road conditions, where skid marks were located on the pavement, etc., and any visible injuries. Obtain witness contact information (names and phone numbers) of anyone who witnessed the wreck.
You should contact the proper enforcement authority as required by Texas Transportation Code §550.026 when that happens, and ask the officer to prepare a crash report. An accident report created by law enforcement documents lots of important factual details about the collision.
Before providing a recorded statement to an adverse insurer, consider consulting with counsel. An insurer may use a recorded statement when evaluating liability, causation, injuries, and damages, so focus on getting legal advice before giving one to an opposing insurer.
Maintain a complete record of ALL of your medical visits, bills, and other medical-related costs, as well as how your injuries have affected your quality of life. Documenting these areas helps support your claims for financial recovery.
Consider speaking with an experienced Texas truck-accident attorney immediately so you can identify applicable deadlines and evidence-preservation issues. Hiring counsel early can help identify deadlines and take steps to preserve important evidence, although preservation cannot be guaranteed.
Working with Wyly & Cook Law Firm
The attorneys at Wyly & Cook Law Firm know how difficult it is to deal with the aftermath of a truck accident. Wyly & Cook Law Firm represents clients in Texas truck-collision claims and pursues compensation, which is supported by the facts, evidence, available coverage, and appropriate law.
We offer contingency-fee representation in qualifying cases. Attorney fees are payable from a recovery. We advance litigation costs, like the cost of expert witnesses, and our clients only pay those expenses if we make a recovery. All aspects of the agreement are specified in our written fee agreement, which we are happy to discuss and explain to clients.
This type of agreement lets you pursue your right to seek justice against those responsible for your injuries and expenses resulting from the truck collision without having to worry about paying for the attorney’s fees before the conclusion of your case.
As appropriate, an attorney can investigate the collision thoroughly, consult qualified specialists, negotiate with insurers, and pursue compensation supported by the evidence and applicable Texas law.
Settlement calculators and published averages can illustrate general factors considered in claims, but they should not be treated as reliable predictors of an individual Texas truck-accident settlement.
It is important to always remember that each client has their own specific set of facts that need to be evaluated individually.
Beginning Work on Your Claim
Do not allow yourself to be uncertain as to what your case is worth in order to learn if you actually have an actionable legal claim. Texas usually imposes a two-year limitations period on many personal-injury claims, but accrual rules, tolling provisions, governmental notice requirements, and other statutes can create distinct deadlines.
If you would like to speak with one of the experienced attorneys at Wyly & Cook Law Firm to discuss your truck collision claim, please contact us today for a complimentary consultation. During this meeting, we will go over all of the facts surrounding your collision, inform you of your legal options, and give you an honest evaluation of what we believe your claim could ultimately be worth based upon our experiences with other similar claims.
An attorney can advocate for the compensation supported by the evidence and relevant Texas law. At Wyly & Cook Law Firm, we want to assist you in focusing on recovering from your injuries and restoring your life after being seriously injured in a truck collision.
