In the blink of an eye, a wayward truck can devastate life as you know it. The injuries and mental anguish you can experience in a truck accident can be extensive, reshaping nearly every aspect of your life. This can be financially and emotionally overwhelming, leaving you uncertain about your future and where to turn for help. Fortunately, you might be able to find a sense of accountably and recover compensation by pursuing a personal injury claim against the negligent trucker who caused your wreck and their employer.
That said, there’s no guarantee that you’ll win your case. In fact, there’s a good chance that you’ll find yourself squaring off against aggressive defense arguments aimed at slipping past liability. If you don’t want to lose to one of these arguments, then you have to anticipate and be able to effectively counter these defenses. With that in mind, let’s look at some of those defense strategies here.
Depending on the facts of your case, there may be one or more aggressive defense strategies implemented. These can include any combination of the following:
- Comparative negligence: Minnesota recognizes comparative negligence, meaning that the jury in your case can find you to be partially at fault for the accident. And if they do, then the amount of compensation awarded to you will be reduced by the percentage of fault assigned to you. This can dramatically reduce your financial recovery, which is why this is a favorite defense strategy for errant truckers and their employers. So, be aware of any actions that might give rise to this defense and figure out the best way to mitigate the impact your actions had on the accident in question.
- Frolic and detour: Truck companies are better positioned to pay you for the damages you’ve experienced. To try to escape a large payout, then, a truck employer might try to shift the blame entirely onto the trucker who caused the accident. One way for them to do this is to argue that the trucker was engaged in some activity that was outside the scope of their employment when the wreck occurred. If you suspect that you’ll be facing this defense, then you’ll want to scrutinize the facts to find the best way to tie the trucker’s actions to some benefit received by their employer.
- Sudden emergency: Many defendants in truck accident cases argue that the crash in question was the result of an emergency situation and that the trucker acted reasonably under the circumstances. To successfully make this argument, though, the defense must show that the emergency wasn’t caused by the trucker’s negligence and that their actions were reasonable. This might give you plenty of room to argue that improper action was taken leading up to your wreck.
Keep in mind that there may be other defense arguments available. For example, the defense might try to shift the blame onto a third-party or try to argue that you failed to mitigate your damages. So, stay on your toes when considering what defense strategies you might face so that you can aggressively fight back against them.
An inadequate personal injury case can leave you without the resources and closure needed to move forward with your life. But you increase your chances of securing the outcome you want by thoroughly analyzing your case and developing the sound legal arguments needed to present a persuasive case.