You trust UPS with the safety of your packages and mail. What about your safety on the road, though? Unfortunately, the truck drivers affiliated with UPS are as likely to be negligent as any other motorist In Illinois. A driver who’s distracted, stressed, or negligent at the wheel can cause you long-term physical and financial strife.
Neither the aforementioned distraction nor stress relieves a truck driver of responsibility for your roadway losses. Who do you hold responsible for a UPS accident, though: UPS or the truck driver? Our UPS truck accident attorneys in Belleville, IL, can help you determine what each of these parties’ roles in your accident were and who to hold responsible in court.
Negligence Lets You Bring UPS Truck Accident Cases Forward
When you get on the road, you expect every motorist to act reasonably. This means that motorists are expected to both abide by Illinois roadway laws and take reasonable care to protect you and everyone around you from undue harm.
Truck drivers, including UPS representatives, have a particular responsibility to safety, in this regard. The size of their vehicles puts you and your fellow drivers at a greater risk for loss should a truck driver lose control of their vehicle.
This responsibility held between motorists is referred to as a “duty of care.” Should you get into an accident, particularly with a UPS truck driver, you may have the right to claim that the truck driver violated your duty of care. In turn, this violation May entitle you to compensation based on the cost of your recovery.
Proving Negligence in a UPS Truck Accident
You have to prove negligence and the violation of the aforementioned duty of care if you want to bring a UPS truck accident claim forward in civil courts. This is the case regardless of who you are able to hold liable for your losses. To prove negligence after a car accident with a UPS truck in Belleville, IL, you can work with a Belleville UPS truck accident attorney to gather evidence.
The evidence to bring forward serves several purposes. To begin, it establishes a duty of care between yourself and the party you want to hold liable for a UPS truck accident. You need to establish the studio of care as well as that duty’s violation to bring your case before a county clerk.
The evidence you can gather alongside a UPS truck accident attorney includes:
- Black box data
- Video footage of the accident from dashcams, security cameras, and streetlights
- Bystander testimony regarding negligence
- Expert witness statements
- Police reports
- Professional accident recreations
Assigning Liability in the Face of Corporate Protection
It’s hard to know who to hold liable for your UPS truck accident. Generally speaking, when a truck driver works for a corporation, that corporation offers its employees some degree of legal protection. As such, there is a chance that you may bring a civil claim up after a UPS truck accident and find yourself contending with UPS’s legal team.
However, UPS is a corporation. It wants to protect its bottom line. That’s why the vast majority of truck drivers who work for UPS do not operate as employees but rather as independent contractors. UPS is not obligated to offer independent contractors the same legal protection it has to offer its full-time and part-time employees.
You need to determine how UPS classifies its truck driver in the wake of a truck accident with one of its vehicles. If you are contending with an independent contractor, you’re likely bringing a claim against an individual. Comparatively, if you’re contending with an employee, a Belleville UPS truck accident attorney may have to intercede with UPS’s legal team on your behalf.
Belleville UPS Truck Accident Lawyer Near Me 877-751-9800
The Benefits of Filing a UPS Truck Accident Claim in Civil Court
Victims of UPS truck accidents tend to pursue civil claims in the wake of their losses because claims can give you the right to demand damages based on the value of your case. As such, the party liable for your accident may be responsible for helping you financially recover from the harm they did to you.
You need to present an estimate of your desired UPS truck accident damages when bringing your claim before a county clerk. Our UPS truck accident lawyers in Belleville, IL, can establish this estimate on your behalf by finding the sum of your economic expenses and modifying that by your non-economic expenses.
More specifically, we can look at the bills generated by your recovery in the wake of your accident. We can then use state-approved multipliers to stand in for losses ranging from PTSD and emotional distress to wrongful death caused by a UPS truck driver. You can establish what economic and non-economic losses you may be entitled to during an initial case consultation.
Your UPS Truck Accident Claim Needs to Reach a County Clerk Within Illinois’s Personal Injury Statute of Limitations
Your UPS truck accident claim, regardless of its assertion of liability, must abide by 735 ILCS 5/13-212. This is known as the Illinois statute of limitations on personal injury cases. This statute dictates that victims of UPS truck accidents have two years to take action and thus fight to recover compensation for their losses.
Illinois civil courts do not allow you to take action against an offending party if you attempt to file a UPS truck accident claim outside of this statute of limitations.
This is why working with a personal injury attorney can be so helpful when building your case. Our team can take on the stress of gathering evidence, compiling your information, and submitting your claim before your deadline passes.
Take Action After a UPS Truck Accident in Belleville
UPS drivers and their parent company are not immune from legal action in the wake of negligence on the road or with your packages. You can collaborate with a Belleville UPS truck accident lawyer to elaborate on the nature of your accident and pursue compensation equal to or exceeding the value of your accident’s losses.
Morelli Law Firm prides itself on the expertise it offers to victims of UPS truck accidents. If you want to pursue legal action against a negligent party but aren’t sure how to divide liability, you can request a case evaluation from our team. Contact us by calling our office or by sharing your story through our website.