Shreveport Truck Accident Attorneys

Unfortunately, the massive, heavy semi-trucks, 18-wheelers, and other commercial vehicles play a central role in some of Shreveport's most severe and tragic accidents.

When commercial trucks collide with a passenger car, the smaller vehicle's occupants face a high risk of catastrophic or even fatal injuries. For victims and their families, the physical and financial fallout from these incidents can change their lives. 

If you, or someone you love, is dealing with injuries from a truck accident, you may recover compensation for medical expenses, lost income, and other major losses. At Stewart J. Guss Injury Lawyers, we've handled these kinds of cases for more than two decades and have a solid track record of standing up to trucking companies. Navigating Louisiana's personal injury laws is incredibly intimidating, but our Shreveport truck accident lawyers here to protect your legal rights.

We are a national law firm with multiple offices around the country, including in Louisiana. We also work with affiliate law firms in most states that share our focus and dedication to excellence. No matter where you are located, we may be able to help you, so call or contact us now. We are open, for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 800-898-4877, or you may contact us now by clicking here to submit your case for review.

Shreveport Truck Accident Guide

Compassionate Truck Accident Lawyers in Shreveport, LA

After a commercial truck accident, victims pursuing compensation face a complicated legal process that far exceeds the typical car accident claim. One main reason is that trucking companies and their insurers have vast resources to defend themselves, even when they explicitly contributed to the accident.

At Stewart J. Guss Injury Lawyers, we have the resources and skills to handle the challenges of these heartbreaking cases, especially establishing liability. We're proud to win substantial settlements and court verdicts for clients in the Shreveport community that commercial truck accidents injured. 

Choosing the Stewart J. Guss Injury Lawyers team as your legal representatives means you'll have empathetic support and tireless advocacy every step of the way. Louisiana has the shortest legal deadline in the country for civil cases, so you can expect our team to get straight to work investigating and preparing your claim. Call now for a free consultation to discuss the specific details of your accident and how we can place you in the strongest possible position for a good outcome. 

Common Causes of Shreveport Truck Accidents

Commercial trucks have many characteristics that make sharing the road with them inherently dangerous, especially for smaller vehicles. One of the main factors contributing to severe collisions is the massive size of these vehicles, which makes trucks much less maneuverable and causes significant visibility issues due to multiple blind spots when monitoring traffic. Commercial vehicles weigh as much as 80,000 pounds, a staggering 20 times more than the typical passenger car.

While the trucking industry is closely regulated to minimize the risk of these devastating accidents, they still happen nationwide, often due to negligence from either the truck driver or their employer. Understanding the root causes behind these kinds of collisions is crucial for being able to establish liability and hold irresponsible trucking companies accountable.

Some of the underlying reasons truck accidents can happen in Shreveport include:

• Inadequate training, supervision, or maintenance: Trucking companies have many legal obligations to ensure public safety. They include maintaining vehicles in good working condition and properly training and supervising their employees. They can be held liable for neglecting these basic duties in a way that leads to a preventable accident, especially if the business has a demonstrated pattern of these failures.
• Traffic violations: Truck drivers under pressure to meet tight delivery schedules might resort to speeding, erratic lane changes, and other serious traffic violations that lead to accidents.
• Distracted driving: Using a smartphone is one of the main culprits for diverting the truck driver's attention away from concentrating on the road, but many other distractions can also have tragic consequences, like eating or drinking and adjusting the GPS.
• Driving under the influence: Drugs or alcohol will significantly increase the chances of severe collisions in even a regular-sized car, let alone when trying to control massive vehicles with poor maneuverability.
• Fatigued driving: Drowsiness from long hours on the road can reduce concentration and slow reaction times, which can affect safety performance just as much as controlled substances. Fatigued driving is such a common cause of truck accidents federal regulations mandate minimum rest periods for truck drivers. 
• Poorly loaded cargo: Issues related to overloaded or improperly-secured cargo can seriously compromise the truck's stability and make accidents much more likely to unfold. In these situations, you can hold both the truck's owners and the company responsible for loading the cargo legally responsible for not adhering to safety standards. 

Compensation You May Recover After a Serious Trucking Accident

The catastrophic nature of truck-related accidents can cause significant hardships for victims and their families, some of which will last a lifetime. Under Louisiana's personal injury laws, you may be legally entitled to seek compensation for economic and non-economic losses resulting from this harrowing experience.

While receiving money can never undo the effects of suffering severe injuries, the legal process aims to at least provide some relief from the physical and financial toll these accidents can cause. 

At Stewart J Guss Injury Lawyers, one of our biggest priorities is evaluating the immediate and long-term effects of our client's injuries and helping them understand the compensation types they can recover. We work closely with medical experts and financial specialists to create a future projection of the victim's medical costs, ability to earn an income, quality of life issues, and other ongoing impacts from the accident. The types of compensation victims recover after a truck accident can include: 

Economic Damages 

Economic damages are the measurable financial implications of being in a truck accident. This type of compensation can cover all medical expenses, including long-term care like physical rehabilitation, reimbursement for lost income if you had to take time off work, and property damage costs like replacing your crashed vehicle. For injuries severe enough to cause permanent disabilities that affect the victim's future income, economic damages can also include a permanently-diminished earning capacity.

Non-Economic Damages 

Non-economic damages aim to recognize the extreme physical, emotional, and psychological distress victims experience in the aftermath of these serious accidents and potentially for months or years to come. Intangible damages like pain and suffering are much harder to quantify than medical bills, but they're still very real, significant, and deserving of fair compensation.

A skilled Shreveport personal injury attorney can properly evaluate these losses and recover compensation for them as part of your claim. 

Wrongful Damages 

In the most tragic cases, collisions that involve a commercial truck can result in the victim's preventable death. Louisiana law allows surviving family members to pursue a claim for "wrongful death," which is the legal term for causing someone's death through negligence. Wrongful death damages aim to alleviate the financial burdens of losing a loved one, especially if the deceased was one of the household's primary breadwinners.

Compensation can cover the deceased relative's end-of-life medical care, funeral and burial costs, loss of financial support, and intangible damages like loss of companionship and emotional anguish.  

Punitive Damages 

Unlike other types of compensation, punitive damages do not compensate the victim but punish the at-fault party for severe negligence or intentional harm—for example, if a trucking company's gross disregard for public safety caused your accident.

How Long Do I Have to Pursue Compensation for My Truck Accident Injuries?

Louisiana's statute of limitations for filing a personal injury lawsuit after getting hurt due to someone else's actions is only one year after the incident. This is significant because it's the shortest time limit in the country and presents a pretty serious challenge for victims of negligence, especially for very complicated cases like those involving a commercial truck accident. If you can't begin the legal process within this time limit, it would mean forfeiting the right to pursue compensation for your medical bills, lost income, emotional distress, and other damages from this heartbreaking experience. 

Preparing a strong, persuasive truck accident case requires gathering extensive evidence to establish fault, identifying all parties that can be held liable, and substantiating the victim's damages, among many other crucial steps. Doing this detail-oriented work takes a lot of time, as well as highly skilled lawyers.

If these dangerous vehicles injured you or someone you love, contact the experienced truck accident attorneys at Stewart J Guss Injury Lawyers as soon as possible. We're ready to work immediately, placing your case in the strongest possible position to meet these deadlines, demonstrate the full extent of your losses from the accident, and recover fair compensation.

Why Choose Stewart J. Guss Injury Lawyers

Suffering severe injuries in a commercial truck accident is a nightmare no one's ever prepared to navigate. It's also an incredibly high-stakes situation for victims and their families due to the potential for long-term physical and financial consequences. At Stewart J. Guss Injury Lawyers, we know that securing fair compensation after a truck accident is essential for having the resources you need to recover and get life back on track. 

We understand how to handle truck accident cases as effectively as possible. We're committed to using that knowledge to advocate for our clients every step of the way. Trucking companies and their defense lawyers are known for using dishonest tactics to avoid being held accountable for negligence, but we can help you level the playing field. Here's how we make a difference for truck accident victims in Shreveport: 

In-Depth Knowledge of Trucking Regulations

The trucking industry is heavily regulated by specific federal and state laws for everything from adequate vehicle maintenance to the necessary driver credentials. Our lawyers are well-versed in the intricacies of these regulations and how they apply, which is essential for identifying violations that may have caused your accident. 

Comprehensive Investigations 

Winning a truck accident case will depend heavily on the quality of the evidence, which requires a thorough investigation. We use every possible resource to understand what happened during the accident, including the police reports, surveillance footage from traffic cameras or nearby businesses, any available physical evidence, and witness testimony. We also use specialists and experts to testify on important technical issues, such as whether the truck was properly loaded or maintained. 

Skillful Negotiations to Maximize the Value of Your Claim

Trucking companies and their insurers are highly motivated to minimize their liability, often by offering quick settlements that don't even begin to cover the victim's economic or non-economic damages. Our team is experienced at pushing back against lowball offers, demonstrating our client's current and future expenses, and negotiating for higher payouts. If necessary, we're also prepared to escalate your claim to a formal court trial and argue for compensation before a judge or jury.

When you hire the Stewart J. Guss Injury Lawyers to handle your truck accident claim, we'll take the time to listen to you, answer any questions, and provide regular updates about the progress of your case. We know that the uncertainty surrounding the legal process is one of the most difficult aspects of this experience, and we strive to take out as much of the stress as possible.

We also provide our services on a contingency-fee basis, which means you only pay our legal fees if we secure a favorable settlement or court verdict on your behalf. This makes high-quality legal services available for all Shreveport truck accident victims, regardless of their financial situation.

The legal team of Stewart J. Guss, Injury Accident Lawyers, is nationally recognized for protecting the rights of injured victims for more than 20 years. If a Shreveport truck accident injured you, call our office right now for a free consultation! Because we take all of our personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis, you will not owe us a dime unless we win your case. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so call us today at 800-898-4877 or contact us now by clicking here.