Truck Accident Lawyer Toronto

Unfortunately, personal injury claims involving trucking accidents are complicated. That’s why you need an experienced truck accident lawyer with specialized knowledge of personal injury law and federal trucking regulations. The skilled truck accident lawyers at Joshua Goldberg Law will use their wealth of knowledge and many years of experience to win your case.

Truck drivers play a crucial role in modern society by delivering supplies, materials, goods, and other types of cargo to the desired destinations. They help keep Toronto connected to the entire country by providing the essential services that the city’s residents need. However, commercial truck accidents are common and when they happen, they can be catastrophic.

According to the yearly safety report from the Ontario Provincial Police, truck accidents have reached a decade-high. While these accidents account for approximately 12 percent of the province’s motor vehicle accidents, commercial truck crashes and passenger vehicles are disproportionately fatal.

Common Causes of Truck Accidents

Some environmental factors often contribute to road conditions that cause collisions between passenger vehicles and large commercial trucks. For instance, low visibility, inclement weather, and encounters with wildlife on the highway may cause truck accidents. Poorly maintained roads are also a common cause of these trucking accidents.

Far from environmental causes of car accidents and other types of automobile crashes are driver negligence and recklessness. In the context of a truck accident, driver negligence often takes different forms. These include:

Driver Fatigue

To drive motor vehicles safely, drivers must be alert, attentive, and rested. Driving a truck while fatigued can cause errors in perception and judgment. It can also reduce the driver’s reaction times, and this puts all other road users at risk.

Unfortunately, truck drivers are often under pressure from a trucking company (the employer) to meet the gruelling demands of their duties. That’s why some truck drivers often forego sleep to reach their destinations on time. Others continue to drive their commercial trucks past the point of severe exhaustion.

There have been reports that most truck drivers rely on amphetamines, stimulants, and controlled substances to combat the effects of sleep deprivation and driver fatigue. Doing so may help them stay alert for an extended period while driving. However, the use of drugs could negatively affect their perception of risk and impair their decision-making abilities.

This can lead to risky driving behaviours such as tailgating, unsafe lane changes, and aggressive driving. Stimulants and amphetamines can cause restlessness and hyperactivity, a sense of invincibility and overconfidence, agitation and irritability, and a distorted sense of distance and time.

These adverse side effects can cause unnecessary risk-taking, impaired coordination, road rage, and erratic driving behaviours. All these behaviours increase the risk of causing truck accidents, and when these accidents involving huge commercial vehicles happen, many people get injured, and others lose their lives.

Furthermore, the truck driver may experience extreme fatigue when the side effects of these stimulants start to wear off. Thus, fatigued truck drivers who rely on controlled substances to stay alert often run a greater risk of inadvertently causing truck accidents. Such collisions are quite common in Toronto and the entire province.

Speeding

The faster a commercial truck is travelling, the longer it’s likely to take to slow down and eventually stop. Furthermore, larger vehicles are hard to reach sudden and complete stops, particularly at high speeds. Speeding reduces the period a truck driver has to react to unanticipated objects or events on the road.

For example, suppose a truck driver is operating a commercial rig weighing 63,500 kilograms and exceeds the recommended speed limit. In that case, they may be unable to break enough to avoid colliding with other road users. The driver may lose control of the vehicle and probably crash into nearby buildings.

Driving at a high speed makes it challenging to navigate road curves or sudden changes. This increases the risk of unexpected accidents and could cause the truck driver to lose control of the rig. That’s why speeding trucks are likely to drive off the road, veer into oncoming traffic, or roll over, and nothing good comes out of these mishaps.

Additionally, speeding trucks often follow too closely behind other vehicles. This can lead to serious car accidents if the cars ahead of the commercial trucks break unexpectedly. After all, the truck driver doesn’t have enough time to react. Such scenarios may lead to accidents that involve multiple vehicles.

While truck drivers may feel pressured to exceed the recommended speed limits to reach their destinations on time, doing so only increases the risk of fatal accidents. Other causes of Ontario truck accidents include:

• Drunk driving
• Distracted driving
• Texting while driving
• Ignoring traffic rules and regulations
• Improper lane changing
• Eating while driving

Overspeeding, fatigued driving and other risky road behaviours listed are different forms of truck driver negligence that often cause truck accidents. At Joshua Goldberg Law, we understand that a truck accident can cause severe injuries that are sometimes fatal. That’s why our truck accident lawyers are dedicated to helping truck accident victims.

Also, we represent families that have lost their loved ones in truck accidents. We leverage our wealth of knowledge of personal injury law and many years of experience to protect your rights and fight for the amount of compensation you deserve.

Indeed, we take a client-centred approach to advance your injury claim. This way, we ensure the trucking company, their insurance company, and any other responsible party is held liable. Furthermore, you are more likely to get fair compensation when you retain our help than when you choose to represent yourself.

Trucks are larger than cars and other regular vehicles. When collisions happen, the accident victims are likely to sustain serious injuries like traumatic brain injuries. Depending on the nature of the crash, the victims could suffer catastrophic injuries such as spinal cord injuries or lose their lives.

These injuries suffered in truck accidents often have a profound impact on the victims’ lives. The impact may be psychological, financial, or physical. Some injuries may take a shorter period to heal. Others may last a lifetime and change your life completely.

All our Toronto truck accident lawyers understand this impact. We also firmly believe that accident victims should never be forced to pay the price for any entity’s negligence. That’s why we work with the survivors of a truck accident in Toronto to identify the entities responsible for the accident and file a personal injury claim against them. This is the beginning of the long process of recovering the amount of compensation you are entitled to. Here are important aspects of a truck accident case.

Negligence and Liability in Truck Accident Cases

According to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act, all motor vehicle operators and other road users must maintain a reasonable level of care while driving, and truck drivers are no exception. When these drivers violate the local traffic regulations, their actions could lead to a collision. Thus, they must be held liable for their negligence and are potentially responsible for any damages suffered by the injured parties.

Truck Driver Liability

Like all other road users, truck drivers are required to obey all traffic rules. If their failure to do so results in accidents causing injuries, they may face accountability for their negligent behaviour. As mentioned earlier, some truck drivers may feel the pressure to overspeed to reach their destinations according to their schedule. As such, they turn to substance abuse to stay alert. Others drive while fatigued or indulge in distractions.

These actions don’t abide by traffic regulations. Unfortunately, a seemingly harmless action like adjusting the stereo can cause a serious truck accident if done while driving. Regardless of their reasons for driving recklessly, the driver’s actions can have profound and life-changing consequences. Victims of such negligence can seek legal assistance to pursue claims against the at-fault truck driver for compensation. Our personal injury lawyers at Joshua Goldberg Law are ready to help.

Trucking Company Liability

In some trucking accident cases, there could be negligence of another party that played a role in the key circumstances leading to the serious truck crash. For instance, the owners of the trucking companies and private employers may be considered responsible for their employees’ negligent actions.

You probably know that a trucking company has the duty to ensure that all its trucks on the highways meet Ontario’s strict commercial vehicle safety requirements. Suppose the company (the truck driver’s employer) doesn’t comply with these safety requirements, and a truck malfunction causes an accident resulting in severe injuries. In that case, the company must be held liable for all damages associated with the accident.

Further, trucking companies have the duty to ensure their employees (truck drivers) operate their vehicles professionally and cautiously. Suppose a company knowingly employs a driver with a history of reckless driving. The company can be considered negligent.

Failure to reprimand or terminate the negligent employee’s contract could put lives at risk. Therefore, if trucking companies continue to send the negligent drivers on assignments, they may be considered contributorily negligent in case the negligent employees cause a truck accident. Thus, trucking companies may be held responsible for damages sustained by victims of trucking accidents.

It’s not uncommon for victims of trucking accidents to suffer substantial financial losses due to the catastrophic injuries they suffered. In Ontario, anyone involved in a motor vehicle accident is entitled to no-fault accident benefits through their insurance company, and truck accidents aren’t an exception to such laws.

However, truck accidents are often associated with very serious injuries. Owing to the catastrophic or severe nature of these injuries, the total accident benefits available to injured accident survivors aren’t always enough to cover the financial losses and pain and suffering associated with the injuries from truck accidents.

By working with our skilled truck accident lawyers, victims of accidents involving trucks may be able to get a larger compensation. This is because we will help you recover compensation from your insurance company. We will also file an injury claim against the negligent operator of the truck in question or the employer. To build a strong truck accident claim, our lawyers will focus on the following:

Investigate your Trucking Accident Case

The investigation phase is crucial in building a strong truck accident claim. It is the foundation upon which your case stands. This underscores the importance of gathering detailed and reliable evidence. Our team of skilled truck accident lawyers excels in this investigative process. We leverage our experience and commitment to uncover any piece of evidence that could strengthen your claim.

Our personal injury lawyers understand that the strength of your claim hinges on the quality of evidence collected. That’s why we delve deep into the specifics of your case. We gather facts, get credible testimonies, analyze the police accident report, and collate any relevant data. Our skill in unearthing and organizing this information is paramount to crafting a persuasive argument in your favour.

Additionally, our dedication is evident in our relentless pursuit of every detail to ensure your case is as strong as possible. We leverage our extensive experience to interpret the evidence effectively. This way, we ensure every piece of information serves to strengthen your claim. Thus, when you entrust your injury claim to our knowledgeable and dedicated lawyers, you can be confident that they will leave no stone unturned in their quest to get fair compensation for you.

Calculate the Value of your Personal Injury Claim

In truck accident cases, an accurate calculation of damages is pivotal in ensuring fair compensation for the injured party. This complex process involves assessing various types of losses to determine the value of your claim. Considering the complex aspects that must be assessed, you need experienced trucking accident lawyers by your side. Some of the factors to be assessed include:

Medical Expenses

Most of the injuries sustained in trucking accidents are catastrophic and permanent. Unfortunately, the medical costs associated with their treatment can be prohibitively high. For instance, if a truck crash victim survives with a serious spinal cord injury, the anticipated medical costs throughout their life could be millions.

Even those who suffer injuries that aren’t catastrophic are likely to incur increasingly expensive treatment for the rest of their lives. Others may never go back to their jobs, while others may experience pain for an extended period. Working with our Toronto truck accident lawyer makes it possible to factor in the cost for the following aspects of your treatment.

• Professional nursing & ambulance services
• Surgery
• Hospital accommodation
• Prescriptions
• Chiropractic treatment
• Physical therapy
• Medically necessary equipment
• Occupational therapy
• Psychological counselling
• Home modifications
• Massage therapy
• Necessary dental work

Our team of legal professionals specializes in truck accident claims. We combine our experience, skill, and commitment to justice to ensure our clients receive the compensation they deserve. We will work with your medical treatment team and other experts to ensure we calculate all your medical expenses accurately.

Lost Wages

The impact of an injury on a victim’s ability to work and earn a living is a critical component of damage calculation. This not only includes the wages you lost during recovery but also potential future earnings, especially if the victim’s capacity to work or advance in their career is compromised.

If you missed work because of the injuries you suffered, your lost wages can be recovered. Our Toronto truck accident lawyers can determine the total amount of lost payments using your recent pay stubs. Also, the benefits you accrued while recovering from injuries may be included in your claim. Some of these benefits include sick time or time off benefits.

Our lawyers will carefully evaluate these aspects to claim compensation that reflects the true economic impact of the injury. We will work with certified experts to ensure every detail about your unpaid wages is considered and factored into your personal injury claim.

Pain and Suffering

Unlike your medical expenses and other economic damages in a truck accident claim, pain, suffering, and other bob-economic damages are hard to quantify. It’s difficult to put a price tag on the pain you endured and how much you suffered due to the accident.

However, suppose the specific injuries you suffered in the truck accident make it impossible to engage in the activities you enjoyed before the accident. In that case, your truck accident lawyer can argue that these injuries diminished your overall quality of life. As such, you may be entitled to damages for emotional distress, pain and suffering, and other pecuniary damages.

It’s crucial to note that the damages available in any truck accident claim are unique and specific to the losses that each victim suffered. That’s why it’s recommended to work with experienced truck accident lawyers. The legal professionals can help you understand the nature of the damages you suffered and determine the financial value to be included in your claim.

Generally, the calculation of damages is a fundamental element of a truck accident claim. It requires a comprehensive evaluation of various types of losses. Our lawyers’ experience and dedication are instrumental in this process as they ensure every claim is accurately valued and that our clients are justly compensated for their suffering and losses.

Indeed, our competence provides a solid foundation for building strong, compelling claims. This reflects our law firm’s commitment to fighting for the rights and dignity of truck accident victims. Therefore, if you or a loved one was injured in a trucking accident, we can help calculate damages and build a strong claim.

The litigation process in a truck accident claim is a structured journey aimed at achieving justice and compensation for the injured party. Our personal injury lawyer can navigate this process with dedication and a deep commitment to our client’s best interests. Here’s an overview of the legal process in trucking accident cases.

Step 1: Free Consultation

The litigation journey begins with a free consultation where our Toronto truck accident lawyers evaluate the case’s viability based on the accident’s facts and the client’s injuries. This step involves reviewing pertinent documents and establishing the attorney-client relationship. During this session, it’s recommended to share all the details regarding your case with our knowledgeable truck accident lawyer.

Step 2: Preparation and Exchange of Pleadings

The official litigation process starts with the filing of a Statement of Claim. This document details the injuries and the responsible party. It also sets out the specific amount of compensation being sought and all relevant facts that support the client’s entitlement to that compensation amount.

The defendant will respond with a Statement of Defence. This is a statement that outlines the denials or legal defences of the complainant’s statement. We (your lawyers) may decide to issue a reply to the defendant’s denials or defences highlighted in the statement of defence. Upon completion of the exchange of pleadings, the parties involved may choose to engage in the discovery process.

Step 3: Discovery

Discovery is a critical phase where both parties exchange evidence and undergo questioning under oath. It’s a chance for our lawyers to scrutinize the defendant’s defences and gather crucial information to strengthen the client’s case. Remember, it’s recommended to have a truck accident lawyer during the discovery process. After all, you don’t want to say something that can harm your injury claim and can’t take it back.

Step 4: Mediation

In Ontario, mediation is a mandatory step aimed at resolving a personal injury claim outside court. This is a way to avoid the long and complex trial process. It allows the defendant and the plaintiff to negotiate a settlement and resolve their dispute out of court. Our Hamilton truck accident lawyer works alongside mediators to find a settlement that aligns with our client’s best interests. We will leverage our negotiation skills to fight for your right to fair compensation.

Step 5: Pre-trial Conference

If mediation doesn’t lead to a settlement, your personal injury claim will move to a pre-trial conference. This is where the judge assesses the case’s strengths and weaknesses. This often happens about six months before your case trial. Our personal injury lawyer will use this opportunity to refine our strategy based on the judge’s feedback.

Step 6: Case Trial

Should the case go to trial, our lawyers are prepared to present compelling arguments. This will be supported by evidence and expert testimony. Indeed, we will work tirelessly to achieve a favourable verdict and the amount of compensation you are legally entitled to. Remember, we are skilled in courtroom advocacy and this ensures your case is presented clearly and persuasively.

Step 7: Appeal

If you feel that the trial verdict was incorrect in law, your Toronto truck accident lawyer may recommend appealing the court decision, and when necessary, our lawyers are equipped to handle appeals. They challenge trial outcomes based on legal grounds to ensure justice is served.

Throughout each step of this litigation process, our lawyers’ skill and dedication shine through. We are committed to thorough preparation, unwavering advocacy, and relentless pursuit of our clients’ best interests. Our experience in truck accident claims allows us to navigate complex legal challenges and advocate for fair compensation. Therefore, whenever you need an experienced truck accident lawyer with a thorough understanding of the litigation process and can appeal your case, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Our Toronto truck accident lawyer understands the profound impact a truck accident can have on an individual’s life and is dedicated to securing the justice and compensation their clients deserve. They are not just legal representatives. They are also steadfast advocates who stand by their clients at every litigation stage, ensuring their rights are protected, and their voices are heard.

If you have been involved in a car accident or truck accident, hiring a skilled personal injury lawyer should be a priority. The lawyer can fight for your rights and ensure you receive the compensation you deserve. Here’s why having a lawyer is crucial in a truck accident case.

Knowledge of Trucking Industry Laws and Regulations

Trucking laws are complex and multifaceted. A professional truck accident lawyer understands these regulations deeply. This knowledge can be pivotal in establishing negligence in your case. For instance, if a truck driver violated hours-of-service regulations leading to an accident, your lawyer could use this to substantiate the driver’s negligence.

By leveraging their knowledge and experience, lawyers can identify all possible regulatory violations that may have contributed to the accident. They can use this information to significantly strengthen your truck accident case and gain the upper hand during settlement negotiations. As a truck accident victim, you would want to get fair compensation, wouldn’t you?

Dealing with Insurance Companies

Did you know that all insurance companies involved in accident claims often have teams of lawyers and adjusters protecting their interests? They understand accidents involving huge commercial vehicles can lead to serious injury and other forms of damage. That means a costly claim, which is why they may try to undermine your personal injury case.

Remember, insurance companies are in the business of making profits, and many do not just hand money over to you. An experienced personal injury lawyer knows how to navigate their tactics. This will ensure the insurance company takes your claim seriously and that you receive a fair settlement. Without legal representation, you might find yourself undervalued or outright denied the compensation you are entitled to.

Gathering Evidence and Investigation

Building a compelling truck accident claim requires thorough investigation and evidence gathering. Our lawyers have the resources to undertake such investigations. They can enlist experts to reconstruct the accident scene, gather medical insights, and preserve vital evidence like the vehicle’s GPS and surveillance footage, all of which are critical in substantiating your claim.

Determining Liability

Truck accidents can involve multiple liable parties, from the driver to the trucking company and even vehicle parts manufacturers. A skilled and knowledgeable lawyer can investigate the details of the case, identify all liable parties, and ensure they are held accountable, maximizing your potential compensation.

Maximizing Compensation

An experienced vehicle accident lawyer will thoroughly assess all your damages—medical costs, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more—to ensure your compensation is comprehensive. They will negotiate rigorously on your behalf, ready to take your case to trial if necessary to secure the compensation you rightfully deserve.

When you choose our law firm to handle your injury claim, you are not just getting a lawyer. You are getting a knowledgeable and dedicated ally who will stand by you every step of the way. Right from our initial free consultation through to the resolution of your case, we will be on your side. Our lawyers’ commitment to excellence, combined with their extensive knowledge and strategic planning, makes them invaluable in your pursuit of justice and fair compensation following a truck accident.

At Joshua Goldberg Law, we have a track record of handling personal injury cases successfully. Therefore, if you sustained injuries in an accident involving transport trucks, you can count on us for effective legal representation. Schedule a consultation to discuss your case with an experienced accident lawyer.