Being involved in an accident can leave you with many questions alongside the injuries you face. Knowing who to file your claim against, how much your damages are worth, and how to pursue the compensation you need can be difficult without the help of an experienced attorney.
Working with an Amazon delivery truck accident lawyer can help you fight to get the compensation you need from the appropriate parties. In many of these cases, there are fact-specific questions that you will need help answering to determine whom to sue and what damages they can be ordered to pay.
For a free case review, call the Amazon delivery truck accident attorneys at Howe Law today. You can reach us at (844) 876-4357.
Suing Amazon for Truck Accidents in Gulfport, MS
When you are injured in an accident with a truck that has a large Amazon logo on the side, you may expect that you can sue Amazon to hold them accountable for the accident. Sometimes that is the case – but many times, there are legal limitations that prevent this. Amazon has taken care to set itself up in a legal situation where it simply cannot be reached by many injury lawsuits, but that does not mean that your case is shut down. In any injury case involving a truck driver, there is usually someone you can hold responsible for the accident.
Suing for Truck Accidents in Gulfport, MS
First off, it is important to understand whether there are limitations on your right to sue, in general, after a car accident. Some no-fault states create schemes where you cannot sue after an accident unless you meet certain damage thresholds or definitions of serious injuries. Fortunately, Mississippi does not have these rules.
In Mississippi, we use an at-fault or “tort” insurance system. This allows our Amazon truck accident attorneys to file an injury lawsuit against the at-fault parties for any injuries another driver caused you on the road. That includes cases involving Amazon delivery trucks.
Suing Amazon for Truck Accidents
In many cases involving commercial truck drivers or delivery drivers, you are able to sue their employer for the accident. Generally, employers can be held liable for their workers’ mistakes committed on the job. For this to work, the worker must be an employee rather than an independent contractor. Additionally, the mistake must constitute negligence – it must have been caused by a violation of some legal duty that they owed the injury victim. Lastly, the negligence must have occurred “within the scope” of the workers’ employment.
Generally, the scope of employment for a truck driver is that they drive the truck and perhaps load and unload cargo. For delivery drivers specifically, they will also typically deliver the packages to the recipient’s door. That generally means that if they caused a car accident by committing a traffic violation or by committing negligence in some other form, that would be within the scope of employment, and their employer could be held liable instead.
However, the first element causes trouble with many Amazon truck accident cases: the drivers are not necessarily Amazon employees. Even though many Amazon truck drivers use vehicles with large Amazon logos on the side, they are not necessarily on Amazon’s payroll. Many drivers work through a partner program where they are employed by a third-party transportation company that contracts with Amazon. Here, that third-party company can be held liable instead of Amazon.
Some drivers are also independent and work as independent contractors. Some laws might prevent this classification and impute them to be employees instead. However, if they are properly classified as independent contractors, then the lawsuit stops with them. Even if this is the case, they are required to have insurance that can cover injuries they cause on the job.
Filing Through Insurance
All commercial and non-commercial drivers are required to carry insurance in Mississippi. This means that our Amazon delivery truck accident lawyers can often file insurance claims for our clients’ injuries. Whether a driver works as an amazon employee or not, they will be required to have insurance that can cover car accident injuries.
However, insurance claims often undercut damages and fail to fully cover a victim’s needs. Instead, it might be best for you to file a lawsuit against the trucker and their employer. When this happens, their insurance companies should still step in and pay the majority of the damages, with the driver or their company covering anything beyond what their insurance pays. Our truck accident attorneys can help you decide when a lawsuit like this is appropriate.
Damages in an Amazon Delivery Truck Accident in Gulfport, MS
In an injury case involving an Amazon delivery truck driver, there are often three main areas of damages that you might want to claim:
Medical Expenses
The cost of seeking treatment for a serious truck accident is often prohibitively expensive. As such, these damages can be one of the biggest expenses in your case, and our Amazon delivery truck accident lawyers will fight to get you full compensation for these damages.
Lost Wages
If you are out of work because of your injuries – whether on a temporary or permanent basis – you are often able to claim compensation for your lost wages. This can also include claiming damages going forward for the future wages and earnings you will not be able to achieve. Our attorneys can hire financial experts to help calculate these costs and fight to get the damages paid at their fair value.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages account for the non-economic harms you face after an accident. Our Amazon delivery truck accident attorneys often help our clients claim damages for things like emotional distress and other intangible harms that they suffered because of their accident and the resulting injuries. Learn more about these damages in a free case review with our lawyers.
Call Our Gulfport, MS Amazon Delivery Truck Accident Attorneys for Help
If you were hurt in an accident involving an Amazon driver, call the Gulfport, MS Amazon delivery truck accident attorneys at Howe Law today. Our phone number is (844) 876-4357.
