How Much Is My Truck Accident Claim Worth in Colorado?

If you’ve recently been involved in a collision with a large commercial vehicle, you may be wondering, How much is my truck accident claim worth in Colorado?

As well as significant physical injuries and emotional stress, truck accidents can cause a lot of financial difficulty. Getting the right compensation is therefore crucial.

You might be thinking only about your accident-related medical bills, but you could be entitled to compensation on a number of other fronts as well. In this post, we’ll explore all the damages that can arise from Colorado truck accidents and explain how you can maximize the value of your claim.

Truck Accident Compensation

The compensation you may be entitled to following a Colorado truck accident falls into three broad categories: economic, noneconomic, and punitive damages.

Economic Damages

These are the tangible costs related to your truck accident. They compensate you for the financial losses you’ve incurred due to the accident, such as:

Medical expenses: This covers the cost of emergency care, surgeries, hospital stays, medication, rehabilitation, and ongoing medical treatment. Crucially, you’ll need compensation for future medical expenses as well as those you’ve already sustained; if you accept a settlement that is too small, you could end up running out of money to cover your healthcare costs in years to come.
Lost wages: If the injuries from the accident caused you to miss work, you can recover compensation for the income you would have earned during that period. Again, you should be entitled to lost future earnings potential as well.
Property damage: This includes the cost of repairing or replacing your vehicle and other damaged property.

Noneconomic Damages

These are intangible losses that are harder to quantify but can be just as significant. In Colorado, you can seek compensation for noneconomic damages which include:

Emotional distress: Many truck accident victims suffer psychological effects like anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); these can be compensated through noneconomic damages. It’s worth noting that conditions like these may also give rise to economic damages if you need psychiatric care because of them. To learn more about what this might mean for you, you should discuss the situation with your lawyer.
Loss of enjoyment of life: If your injuries prevent you from participating in activities you once enjoyed, such as hiking, reading, or playing with your kids, you may be able to recover damages for this loss.

Punitive Damages

In Colorado, punitive damages (also known as exemplary damages) are awarded in cases involving particularly egregious defendant behavior. Punitive damages are intended to punish the defendant in your case, rather than compensate you as an injured plaintiff. Courts also use them to deter similarly reckless and malicious conduct in the future.

To receive punitive damages in Colorado, you must show that the at-fault party’s actions were made with reckless disregard for the safety and rights of others. This might be the case if, say, the truck driver was intoxicated at the time of your accident.

Punitive damages in Colorado are generally capped at an amount equal to the total economic and noneconomic damages awarded. However, this isn’t a concrete rule; courts can increase punitive damages to as much as three times the amount of compensatory damages in extreme cases.

Will Insurance Cover All Your Costs?

When you’ve had a truck accident, or any kind of road accident, you should always figure out whether an insurance claim will cover your costs before considering legal action. However, if your injuries and damages exceed policy limits, you’ll have to consider a personal injury claim.

The state requires drivers to carry minimum liability insurance of:

$25,000 for bodily injury per person
$50,000 for bodily injury per accident
$15,000 for property damage.

Truck accidents often cause damages far in excess of this. As a result, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires that semi-trucks and other large vehicles traveling interstate to carry a minimum combined single limit of $750,000. Most 18-wheelers will have a minimum of one million dollars in a combined single limit.

How Trucking Regulations May Impact Your Case

Trucking companies are required to follow strict federal and state regulations. If there was some violation of these rules in your truck accident case, it may make it easier to prove your case. Depending on the specific rules broken and the severity of the violation, it might also make it easier for you to secure punitive damages.

We often deal with truck accident disputes involving violations of the federal hours of service (HOS) regulations. These rules govern the number of hours truckers can spend on the road and the breaks they must take. Other important rules regarding commercial trucks include:

Truck weight and size limits: The state imposes limits in this area because overloading increases the risk of serious damage in the event of an accident.
Drug and alcohol testing: Commercial truck drivers are subject to stricter rules on drug and alcohol use than drivers of passenger cars or motorcycles. For example, the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for commercial drivers in Colorado is 0.04%, compared to 0.08% for the average driver.
Maintenance and inspection requirements: Federal regulations require trucks to undergo regular inspections and maintenance to ensure roadworthiness.

Colorado’s Modified Comparative Negligence Rule

Colorado’s modified comparative negligence rule allows you to recover damages even if you share some of the blame for your accident, as long as you are not more than 50% at fault for what happened. However, your compensation will be reduced by the percentage of fault assigned to you.

Let’s say you’re in a truck accident and the total damages are valued at $100,000. After the investigation, it’s determined that you were 30% at fault because you were speeding when the accident occurred, while the truck driver was 70% at fault for running a red light. Your overall compensation entitlement would be reduced by 30%, leaving you with $70,000.

It’s important to note that calculations like this are never as simple as in this hypothetical example. In reality, truck accident attorneys often fight over small details of crashes in order to decrease or increase their client’s share of the blame by a few percentage points, as this can translate to thousands (if not tens of thousands) of dollars.

This is why you need to hire a truck accident lawyer who’s a highly skilled negotiator and who has plenty of experience when it comes to cases like yours. Ed Smith worked in the insurance industry before founding this firm, so he’ll know exactly how to represent you to recover the largest possible amount in compensation for you. Get in contact today to discuss what this might look like in your case.

Working With a Colorado Truck Accident Lawyer Who Will Fight for You

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how much your truck accident claim might be worth in Colorado. Many factors will play a role in the final outcome, and understanding these elements will help you to make informed decisions as you pursue your claim.

Contact Ed Smith today to schedule a free initial consultation about your case. During this no-obligation session, you’ll learn how the law will be applied to the facts of your case and what the best course of action is likely to be for you going forward. Don’t delay; the sooner you start the process, the better your chances of making a full recovery will be.