Tips for Maximizing a Truck Accident Settlement

Tips for Maximizing a Truck Accident Settlement

Common Mistakes That Lower Your Truck Accident Settlement

Even strong claims can lose value when victims make preventable mistakes early in the process. Here are several costly missteps you should avoid if you're seeking a fair and full settlement:

• Talking to the insurance company alone: Adjusters may seem friendly, but their job is to limit payouts. Never give a recorded statement or sign anything before consulting a lawyer.
• Not following medical advice: Skipping doctor appointments or failing to follow treatment plans creates gaps in your medical record — which insurers will use to argue you’re exaggerating your injuries.
• Posting on social media: Insurance companies often monitor your public profiles. Photos or comments can be taken out of context and used to undermine your claim.
• Settling too quickly: Early settlement offers rarely reflect your long-term damages. Once you accept, you forfeit the right to ask for more — even if new symptoms appear.
• Delaying legal help: Valuable evidence can disappear quickly. Surveillance footage, skid marks, black box data, and eyewitness contact info are time-sensitive. The sooner you involve an attorney, the better your chances of building a strong case.

What Types of Compensation Can You Recover?

In Texas truck accident claims, you may be entitled to multiple categories of compensation. Many blogs mention "medical bills" and "lost wages," but here's a more comprehensive breakdown of what's potentially recoverable:

• Past and future medical expenses: Includes hospital stays, surgeries, physical therapy, medications, assistive devices, and long-term care needs.
• Lost income: Wages lost during your recovery period, including bonuses, tips, and commission-based pay.
• Loss of earning capacity: If you can’t return to your previous profession or must reduce work hours due to lasting injuries, this accounts for projected lifetime income loss.
• Pain and suffering: The physical and emotional trauma you’ve endured — including chronic pain, PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
• Loss of enjoyment of life: Compensation for missed life milestones, hobbies you can no longer enjoy, or inability to participate in family activities.
• Disfigurement or disability: Covers permanent physical changes or limitations caused by the crash.
• Property damage: Costs to repair or replace your vehicle and any personal property damaged in the accident.

In rare cases involving extreme recklessness or intentional misconduct — such as a trucking company knowingly sending a driver on the road without brakes — you may also seek punitive damages. These are meant to punish and deter egregious behavior, and can significantly increase a jury verdict or settlement value.

How Trucking Insurance Coverage Impacts Your Case

Another factor that influences settlement value — and one that’s often left out of generic blogs — is the trucking company’s insurance coverage. Most commercial trucks are required by the FMCSA to carry a minimum of $750,000 in liability insurance. However, that’s just the minimum.

Depending on the cargo, trucking companies may carry policies worth $1M–$5M or more. If multiple parties share liability (for example, the driver, a cargo company, and a truck maintenance provider), there may be several policies available. This is why it’s critical to:

• Identify every potential defendant
• Investigate layered or umbrella insurance policies
• File appropriate notices with insurers quickly to avoid denial

Our attorneys at Francis Injury perform deep insurance research to uncover every available source of recovery — ensuring that your claim is not artificially limited by policy gaps or delays.

Real-World Example: Settlement Value Differences

Let’s compare two similar truck accident victims with very different settlement outcomes — to highlight how strategy impacts results:

Case A: John suffers a lower back injury after a semi rear-ends his car. He accepts a $40,000 settlement within 60 days, before finishing physical therapy. Months later, he needs surgery. He cannot recover additional compensation — he already signed a release.

Case B: Maria suffers a nearly identical injury, but works with a legal team that waits until she reaches maximum medical improvement. They document lost earning potential from missed promotions and bring in a vocational expert to validate it. They demand $225,000 and settle for $180,000 — over four times more than John’s result.

The lesson? Documentation, timing, and strategy make a major difference — and insurance companies are betting you won’t know the difference.

Why Truck Accident Settlements Require Elite Representation

At Francis Injury, we don’t just push paperwork and wait for checks. We play to win. We dig deep into FMCSA violations, subpoena GPS and maintenance logs, and collaborate with nationally respected experts in crash reconstruction, orthopedics, and vocational rehab. Our team has successfully fought national trucking carriers and their insurers in some of Texas’ toughest courtrooms.

Whether your injuries were caused by a fatigued driver, overloaded trailer, equipment failure, or negligent hiring practices, our firm has the firepower and experience to help you recover what you're owed — and then some.

Contact Francis Injury to Discuss Your Truck Accident Settlement

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Call 817-329-9001 or contact us online for a free, no-risk consultation. You owe us nothing unless we win your case.

Francis Injury — Texas Truck Accident Lawyers Who Win.