Our Experienced Central Kentucky Truck Accident Lawyer Says Never Wait to Hire an Attorney After a Crash
If you’ve been in a truck accident, it’s important to hire a personal injury attorney right away. If you delay obtaining legal counsel, critical evidence can be lost and important deadlines missed, and both could hurt your ability to receive fair compensation for damages. 
The truck accident lawyers at Skeeters, Bennett, Wilson, & Humphrey can help injured victims understand their legal rights and the steps to take toward obtaining the compensation they deserve.
Why You Should Contact a Kentucky Truck Accident Attorney Immediately After the Crash
In 2020, U.S. truck accidents caused approximately 5,000 fatalities and over 145,000 injuries, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Kentucky ranked 10th as one of the deadliest states for truck crashes. Any accident can have serious consequences, but truck crashes can be especially devastating, so it’s important to understand why getting legal representation immediately after the accident is so critical.
When you delay contacting a Central KY personal injury lawyer, you can hurt your personal injury claim and your right to fair compensation. Obtaining legal representation from the truck accident attorneys at Skeeters, Bennett, Wilson & Humphrey can help you in the following ways:
Preserve Valuable Evidence to Support Your Claim
Trucking companies usually have many lawyers and investigators working on a personal injury claim. Their job is to protect the interests of the company and pay out as little money as possible to the victim. That’s one reason why you need to hire an attorney immediately after the crash. When you delay contacting a Central KY personal injury lawyer, you can hurt your claim.
The trucking company might try to hide or destroy evidence that is critical to your case. But your truck accident attorney can take prompt action to preserve that evidence by sending the defendant a spoliation letter requesting that all relevant evidence be preserved. Without this intervention, the people in possession of this evidence can simply get rid of any evidence in your favor, including black box data, the trucker’s travel logs, cell phone records, and any other information that could be vital to your claim.
Video and Data Evidence
Skilled and knowledgeable truck accident lawyers know that important evidence can be found through dash cam videos and security camera footage from local businesses. When you hire a truck accident lawyer right away, you improve your chances of getting a video before someone destroys it. Additionally, the crash data found in the truck’s black box can be critical in determining liability in your truck accident. All types of event data and event video can be important to a successful outcome in your claim.
Hour and Maintenance Logs
A successful outcome in a personal injury lawsuit requires evidence of the defendant’s liability for the accident. Evidence to prove liability can sometimes be found in the trucker’s hour logs and maintenance logs. These logs may show that the trucker drove more hours than allowed by law or did not take the required breaks, or the required maintenance on the truck did not happen. If this data disappears, proving the defendant’s negligence becomes more difficult. But the spoliation letter by your attorney can help protect and preserve those logs.
Determine Liability
Personal injury claims for truck accidents can be very complex because there may be many causes for the crash and multiple responsible parties. The wreck that caused your injuries may have simply been caused by negligence on the part of the truck driver. However, it’s possible that the trucking company, maintenance contractors, cargo loaders, and/or truck manufacturer or owner may be responsible. Anyone involved in loading freight, maintaining the vehicles, and/or providing any type of service to the carrier could be partially at fault for the accident.
Our Central Kentucky personal injury lawyers understand there are many companies to consider when determining liability in a truck accident, and we will investigate all potential at-fault parties. However, it’s important that you talk to us quickly after being injured. If you delay obtaining legal representation, it can become more challenging to prove fault.
Meet Legal Deadlines
Under Kentucky law, the statute of limitations for motor vehicle collisions generally gives truck accident victims two years to file a personal injury claim. While that may seem like a long time, the sooner you have an attorney working to gather and protect evidence, collect witness statements, and assess your damages, the better your chances are of receiving fair compensation.
If you haven’t filed a truck accident claim by the time this deadline passes, you may be barred from moving forward with your case.
Potential Damages for a Kentucky Truck Accident
When we pursue compensation on behalf of clients who have been injured in a truck accident, we seek to obtain a payout that compensates them for all of their legally recognizable losses, including:
- Medical and rehabilitation expenses
- Lost income
- Decrease in future earning potential
- Pain and suffering
Identifying all of your damages and providing evidence that documents them is another way your attorney can help protect your legal rights and move you toward fair compensation.