Each year, Vermont drivers are involved in hundreds of accidents involving heavy trucks. Most of these take place on major routes like I-89 and I-91, but truck accidents resulting in serious injuries also take place in cities like Burlington as well as on rural town roads.
If you or someone in your family suffered serious injuries in a Vermont truck accident, you don’t have to go through the claims process alone. A truck accident is no ordinary insurance claim; you need an experienced truck accident attorney who can hold negligent transportation companies responsible and fight for the maximum amount of compensation you deserve. Contact Munley Law for a free consultation with a truck accident attorney today. There’s no fee unless we win your case.
$32 Million Wrongful Death
$26 Million Truck Accident
$20 Million Commercial Vehicle Accident
$17.5 Million Car Accident
$12 Million Work Injury
$11 Million Truck Accident
$9 Million Truck Accident
$8 Million Truck Accident
$8 Million Truck Accident
$7.5 Million Auto Accident
$6.9 Million Garbage Truck Accident
$6.5 Million Traumatic Brain Injury
How Are Car Accidents and Vermont Truck Accidents Different?
While car accidents and truck accidents may seem similar at first glance, truck accident cases present an entirely different set of challenges, both in terms of the injuries involved and the legal issues at play. Understanding these key differences is essential when pursuing a claim and highlights the importance of working with a lawyer who has experience handling commercial truck accidents.
Truck Accidents Can Cause Catastrophic Damage
Commercial trucks — such as tractor-trailers, log haulers, or delivery trucks — can weigh 20 to 30 times more than a standard passenger car. When a truck collides with a smaller vehicle on Vermont highways like I-89 or Route 7, the force of the impact is far more destructive. Truck accident victims are much more likely to suffer catastrophic injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, or multiple fractures, often requiring long-term medical care or leading to permanent disability.
More Complex Liability
Determining liability in a Vermont truck accident is often far more complicated than in a typical car crash. While a car accident might involve just two drivers, a truck accident can involve multiple companies and contractors, each with a legal duty to ensure safety. To obtain full, fair compensation, you will need a truck accident lawyer to identify all liable parties.
If the truck driver was speeding, distracted, fatigued, impaired, or otherwise acting negligently at the time of the crash, they may be personally liable. Truck drivers are held to high standards of care due to the danger posed by large commercial vehicles.
At the same time, trucking companies are often responsible for the actions of their drivers, especially if the driver is an employee. But companies can also be directly negligent if they fail to:
- Properly vet or train drivers
- Enforce safe driving schedules
- Maintain vehicles adequately
- Comply with Vermont and federal safety regulations
If a company pushed a driver to meet unsafe deadlines or ignored red flags in a driver’s history, they could be held accountable for the resulting crash.
Other potentially liable parties include vehicle maintenance providers, manufacturers of defective auto parts, third party brokers, and more. Each of these parties may carry separate insurance policies, which can affect the amount of compensation available in a truck accident case.
Federal and State Regulations
Unlike regular drivers, truckers and trucking companies must follow a long list of federal and state safety regulations. These include limits on driving hours, vehicle maintenance rules, cargo weight restrictions, and licensing requirements. Violations of these rules, such as exceeding hours-of-service limits or failing to maintain brakes, can form the basis of a negligence claim. A skilled Vermont truck accident lawyer will know how to access driver logs, black box data, and maintenance records to uncover these violations.
Larger Insurance Policies and Tougher Opposition
Commercial trucking companies typically carry much higher insurance limits than individual drivers. While this opens the door for larger settlements, it also means dealing with aggressive insurance adjusters and legal teams whose job is to protect the company’s bottom line.
Depending on the type of cargo and distance traveled, commercial truck insurance limits may range from $750,000 to over $5 million. This makes it possible for seriously injured victims to pursue full compensation, but it also means facing strong resistance from powerful insurance companies. Without legal representation, truck accident victims risk being lowballed or denied compensation altogether.
How Does a Truck Accident Lawyer Prove Negligence?
To recover compensation from a truck driver or a trucking company, you must first prove that those parties were negligent. Negligence is a legal concept and plays a major role in truck accident cases.There are four elements of a negligence claim: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
Duty
To prove the duty element, a truck accident attorney must prove that the person who did wrong (for example, the truck driver), owed you a duty not to cause harm. Whether a duty exists is a complex question. But generally, under the law, a person owes you a duty to not cause foreseeable harm by their actions. That means you can generally hold a truck driver, or a trucking company, responsible after a truck crash because they owed you a duty as a passenger, pedestrian, or someone else on the road.
Breach
Then, you must show that the defendant breached their duty of care by failing to act with reasonable care and caution. If a truck driver crashes because they weren’t paying attention, or if a trucking company fails to properly maintain their trucks or permits an unskilled or overtired truck driver to be on the road, they may have breached a duty. Many of the most common causes of truck accidents represent a breach in the duty of care. For example:
- Truck Driver Fatigue: Truck drivers often face long hours behind the wheel, and despite federal regulations limiting their drive time, fatigue remains a major cause of accidents. Drowsy driving can slow reaction times and impair judgment, making a tired trucker just as dangerous as a drunk driver.
- Speeding or Driving Too Fast for Conditions: Even if a truck is going the speed limit, it may still be traveling too fast for road, traffic, or weather conditions. Trucks require much longer stopping distances, and speeding increases the likelihood of catastrophic collisions — especially on downhill grades or curving roads common in Vermont’s landscape.
- Distracted Driving: Using a cell phone, adjusting GPS, eating, or other distractions can be deadly when a large truck is involved. A moment of inattention can result in a devastating rear-end crash or lane departure accident.
- Improperly Loaded or Overloaded Cargo: If a truck’s cargo is not properly balanced or secured, it can cause the vehicle to become unstable, leading to rollovers or spilled loads. These incidents are particularly dangerous on Vermont’s rural roads and inclines.
- Mechanical Failure or Poor Maintenance: Brake failure, tire blowouts, steering issues, and lighting problems are all preventable with proper inspection and maintenance. When a trucking company or maintenance provider cuts corners, they may be liable for the consequences.
Causation
To successfully bring a negligence claim, there must be proof that the breach of a duty, what the wrongdoer did, caused your injuries. This can sometimes be difficult when it comes to medical injuries. That’s where expert witnesses come in.
Damages
The final element of a truck accident claim is damages. You must prove that the breach of a duty caused you financial or emotional damages. Said differently, this is where we must prove the amount of money involved.
Why Choose Munley Law for Your Vermont Truck Injury Case?
With so many personal injury law firms to choose from, how do you know who you can trust to fight for you and your family? Selecting a Vermont truck accident attorney is an important decision. But Munley Law sets itself apart, and we’re ready to prove it to you. Here are just a few reasons to let us fight for you and your family:
Experience: When it comes to a truck accident lawsuit, experience counts. Each of our partners has decades of experience representing individuals and families who have suffered serious injuries or been denied benefits. Because we are a family firm, we often work closely together on our cases to achieve the best possible results for you.
Industry Leaders: The board-certified truck accident lawyers at Munley Law are among the highest-rated and most respected legal advocates in the country. Other lawyers regularly look to us as the industry experts in trucking law and recovering from truck accident injuries. All of our credentials (including Best Lawyers in America, Best Law Firms, and Million Dollar Advocates Forum) reflect the extremely high standards we’ve set for ourselves, and the recognition of our clients and peers.
Resources: Successfully recovering money after a Vermont truck crash is challenging. At Munley Law, we have access to resources that are typically available only to big law firms. We work closely with our network of engineers, investigators, experts, and in-house medical personnel to build your case. What’s more, unlike at other law firms, you aren’t on the hook for paying these professionals out of pocket.
Our No-Fee Promise: We do not collect a fee unless we win your case. If we do not produce results for you, you owe us nothing. Also, at no point will you ever pay anything out of pocket; even when we win, our fee comes out of the money we recover for you.
Get in touch with us today for a free consultation. Contacting us is free, and doesn’t obligate you to do anything. But the first step to getting you the recovery you deserve is to speak with one of our Vermont truck accident lawyers who are ready to get results for you.
Vermont Laws That May Affect Your Truck Accident Claim
If you’ve been injured in a truck accident in Vermont, it’s important to understand the state laws that could impact your ability to recover compensation. From strict deadlines to rules about fault and liability, these laws can influence the outcome of your truck accident claim.
Modified Comparative Negligence
Vermont follows a modified comparative negligence rule (12 V.S.A. § 1036). This means that, even if you share some of the blame for the crash that caused your injuries, you can still recover compensation if you were less than 50% at fault for the accident. However, your total compensation will be reduced by your percentage of fault.
For example, if you are awarded $100,000 but found to be 20% at fault, you would recover $80,000. But if you’re found to be 50% or more at fault, you cannot recover any compensation at all. This makes it especially important to have a lawyer who can push back against insurance companies trying to shift blame unfairly.
No Damage Caps on Personal Injury Claims
Vermont does not impose damage caps on personal injury claims, including truck accidents. This means there is no legal limit to the amount you can recover for economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are the measurable, out-of-pocket losses you suffer after a truck accident, such as medical bills, lost wages, rehabilitation costs, and damage to your vehicle. Non-economic damages compensate you for the intangible impacts of the crash, including pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and the impact of permanent injuries or disfigurement.
The amount you receive will depend on the severity of your injuries and the strength of your case. A personal injury lawyer specializing in truck accident claims will work with licensed physicians, economic experts, and other specialists to calculate the full extent of your damages so you and your family will be made whole again.
Vermont Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Cases
In Vermont, you generally have three years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. If you fail to file your claim before this deadline, the court will likely dismiss your case, regardless of how strong your evidence is. For wrongful death claims, the statute of limitations is also typically three years from the date of death. There may be exceptions in rare cases, such as if the injured person is a minor or mentally incapacitated, but it’s best to act quickly to preserve evidence and protect your rights.
Contact a Truck Accident Attorney at Munley Law for a Free Consultation
If you or a loved one has been injured in a truck accident in Vermont, you don’t have to face the legal process alone. At Munley Law, our nationally recognized attorneys have decades of experience handling complex truck accident cases and a proven track record of securing maximum compensation for our clients. We’ll fight to protect your rights, uncover the truth, and hold all responsible parties accountable.
Your consultation is free, and you won’t pay anything unless we win your case. Contact us today to speak with a Vermont truck accident lawyer and take the first step toward justice.
