There’s really no such thing as an industry-wide “average” truck accident settlement. The circumstances of each case are unique and the range of possible outcomes is vast.
However, it would be fair to say that truck accident claims generally tend to result in larger settlements than passenger vehicle accident claims. There are a number of reasons this is true, which we’ll get into below. And because of the size of the insurance policies involved, crashes that involve large commercial vehicles provide greater opportunity for a significant settlement when the circumstances allow.
If we look at the kinds of cases we take at Crosley Law, a typical personal injury claim settles for about $250,000, with truck cases specifically averaging a bit more than that. And many of our largest settlements and verdicts over the years have been trucking cases. For example:
- $16 million trial verdict for a man who suffered a brain injury after a head-on collision with a semi-truck driver.
- $9 million settlement for a young man who was struck by a delivery driver while walking down the street.
- $9 million settlement for the family of a young woman who was killed when a tractor trailer driver ran a red light and lied about it afterward.
But it’s important to understand that, while truck accident settlements can be very high, insurance companies fight these claims aggressively. Without an experienced truck accident lawyer at your side, you may struggle to recover anything at all.
In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at the key factors that drive truck accident settlement amounts and how a Texas truck accident lawyer can help you get the compensation you deserve.
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What drives truck accident claim settlement amounts?
The amount of medical expenses and other economic damages
A big part of your settlement demand will come from totaling up your current and expected future financial losses, such as medical bills, lost wages, medications, future surgeries, and costs of replacement services (child care, domestic services, etc.)
As you probably guessed, truck accidents tend to result in more severe injuries for victims on average than crashes involving smaller vehicles. The size and weight of big trucks means they have immense destructive force in a collision, even at relatively low speeds.
The impact your injuries have on your daily life
Of course, if you’ve been hurt badly in a crash, you will also have non-economic damages to deal with. Broadly speaking, these include all the ways your quality of life has been diminished due to your injuries that don’t cost you real dollars. Physical pain and suffering, emotional trauma, mental anguish, disfigurement, and loss of relationship benefits are all common examples of non-economic damages.
Often, insurance companies and juries use the economic damages as a starting point to calculate non-economic damages. A common example is the “multiplier method,” which takes the total value of the financial losses and multiples it by some factor. The typical range of factors is between 1 and 5, with 3 being the most common. The more seriously the victim is hurt, the higher the factor used.
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The amount of insurance coverage available
This really is the No. 1 reason why commercial truck accidents get higher average settlements than passenger vehicle accidents.
In practice, no matter how serious your injuries are, your ability to recover compensation is usually limited by the amount of insurance coverage available. In Texas, that could legally be as little as $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for crashes involving regular motor vehicles driven for personal use.
But when a truck driver is acting in the course and scope of their employment and causes an accident, the trucking company is legally responsible for the resulting damages. And trucking companies are required to maintain a significant amount of liability insurance coverage for their drivers and vehicles.
For example, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires a minimum of $750,000 in coverage for semi-trucks that carry non-hazardous freight across state lines. Trucks carrying certain hazardous materials can be required to carry $5 million in coverage. On top of that, many trucking companies voluntarily carry more than the legal minimum.
Aggravating or upsetting facts
As your attorney investigates your truck accident case, they might uncover facts that most people would find upsetting, angering, or even shocking.
This is, unfortunately, common in trucking cases. There are strict federal and state laws that establish important standards for how long truck drivers can work in a day, how many days they can work in a row, how often trucks need to be inspected and maintained, and more. The trucking company will also typically have their own strict policies on hiring practices, training practices, and operational safety.
However, actually complying with all these standards costs trucking companies time and money. When profits are on the line, an alarming number of drivers and companies ignore them and cut corners. In one shocking case a few years ago, we discovered that the truck driver who injured our client had probably been driving for 18 hours (or more) without a break. And even under normal circumstances, he would regularly drive 10-hours on, 10-hours off (rotating with another driver) for months without a day off. The rule violations in this case were so upsetting and flagrant that Crosley Law filed a federal complaint and the story made the local news.
RELATED CLIENT STORY: Truck Crash Investigation Uncovers Shocking Rule Violations | Crosley Law
When a personal injury case contains shocking or aggravating facts like these, the average settlement tends to be higher. This really comes down to simple human nature. Juries that are upset and have strong negative feelings against a defendant tend to award more damages than they otherwise would. Insurance companies understand this, so they may make better settlement offers if they’re worried a jury will return a large award against an unlikable truck driver or trucking company.
An experienced attorney can make a huge difference
As we mentioned above, trucking companies and their insurance providers fight claims aggressively—especially when they know they have a lot to lose. Their goal is to save money. And far too often, they’ll use every tool at their disposal to keep truck accident victims from getting the fair compensation they deserve.
Sometimes, they even resort to outright dishonesty. In the case we referenced above, it was virtually certain that the trucking company knew about, and even encouraged, the flagrant hours violations. But because they had already destroyed the driver’s hour logs, they consistently denied any wrongdoing whatsoever and insisted we had no proof that they had done anything wrong.
In the case of the young driver who was hit by a truck, the truck’s dash cam took a clear recording of the driver blowing through a red light and smashing into a turning vehicle. The trucking company safety director saw the footage—and chose not to disclose it to anyone, even though the car driver was killed. We had to go to court to force the company to hand over the recording.
Winning a complex truck accident case can require years of hard work. We may need to pour through thousands of pages of legal regulations, company policy documents, logbooks, records, and more. We may need to subpoena cell phone records and vehicle black box data. We may need to hire multiple expert witnesses and interview dozens of colleagues, friends, company representatives, doctors, and other relevant individuals.
Because the simple reality is that if we don’t dig for the truth, it won’t be found. The insurance company is not going to do this work for you. And they aren’t going to give you a fair settlement offer unless they know you have the goods to defeat them at trial.
Car Crash? Call Crosley
If you’ve been hurt in a truck crash, don’t try to take on the insurance company alone. With decades of experience and more than 50 case wins of $1 million or more, Crosley Law has the resources, expertise, and determination to get you the best possible truck accident settlement amount.
To schedule a free consultation with a San Antonio truck accident attorney, call us today at (210) 529-3000.
The content provided here is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject.
