If you have been injured in a semi truck accident in Las Vegas, the compensation you recover will depend on the severity of your injuries and the insurance coverage available. Truck accident settlements are typically far larger than car accident settlements.
Drummond Law Firm offers a free consultation to evaluate your truck accident claim. Call (702) 366-9966 to get started.
Semi Truck Accident Attorneys Serving Las Vegas
Drummond Law Firm represents semi truck accident victims throughout Las Vegas with direct, attorney-led legal representation. Every client works with a licensed attorney who investigates the crash, reviews federal compliance records, and pursues every available source of compensation. You will never be passed off to a paralegal for the decisions that count.
Las Vegas sits at the intersection of I-15 and US-95, two of the busiest commercial freight corridors in the western United States. Thousands of semi trucks pass through Clark County every day carrying goods between California, Arizona, Utah, and points east. That volume of heavy commercial traffic means serious truck accidents happen regularly on Las Vegas roads.
Craig Drummond has litigated truck accident cases against major carriers throughout Nevada and brings more than 20 years of trial experience to every case. As a former U.S. Army Captain and JAG attorney, he brings the discipline that complex trucking litigation demands.
What Sets Drummond Law Firm Apart?
Our attorneys pursue claims against every liable party, not just the driver, to maximize the total recovery available to you. When a trucking company, a maintenance contractor, and a cargo loader all share responsibility for a single crash, we file against all of them.
We subpoena electronic logging devices, driver qualification files, and maintenance records to build cases the trucking company cannot dismiss. These records reveal hours-of-service violations, skipped inspections, and hiring decisions that put a dangerous driver on the road. Trucking companies know that firms willing to dig through this evidence are the ones they cannot lowball.
The Reduced Fee Guarantee ensures our attorney fee will not exceed your net recovery, and you will not pay a fee unless we win your case.
Types of Compensation Available After a Semi Truck Accident
Semi truck accident victims in Nevada can pursue truck accident compensation through a personal injury or wrongful death claim, recovering economic, non-economic, and punitive damages. The categories of compensation are the same as in any motor vehicle accident case. The dollar amounts tend to be significantly higher because of the severity of the injuries and the size of the insurance policies involved.
Economic damages cover your medical bills, hospital stays, surgeries, rehabilitation, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and property damage to your vehicle. These damages are calculated from documented expenses and financial losses, and they grow substantially when the injuries require years of ongoing treatment.
Non-economic damages account for pain and suffering, emotional distress, post-traumatic stress disorder, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium. Nevada places no cap on non-economic damages in truck accident cases, so a jury is free to award the full amount it believes your suffering warrants.
Punitive damages may apply when the driver or trucking company acted with willful disregard for safety. Falsifying hours-of-service logs, allowing an impaired driver behind the wheel, or knowingly operating a truck with failed brakes are examples of conduct that can support a punitive damages claim.
For families who lost a loved one, a wrongful death claim allows recovery for funeral expenses, lost financial support, and the grief the loss has caused.
How Nevada Law Affects Your Semi Truck Accident Settlement
Nevada is a fault state, meaning the driver or company responsible for the accident must compensate the victims for their losses. You file your claim against the at-fault party’s insurance or pursue a lawsuit if the insurance offer does not cover what you are owed.
Nevada follows modified comparative negligence under NRS 41.141. Your settlement is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if a jury finds you more than 50 percent responsible, you are barred from recovering anything.
A trucking company’s legal team will attempt to shift blame onto you to push your fault percentage above that line. They argue you were speeding, failed to signal, or entered the truck’s blind spot, and each percentage point they add to your fault reduces your recovery.
This makes the fault determination the single highest-stakes variable in your truck accident settlement. Below 50 percent fault, your non-economic damages have no ceiling under Nevada law. Above it, you recover nothing. Your attorney must counter the trucking company’s strategy with crash scene evidence, the truck’s electronic data, and federal compliance records that place responsibility where it belongs.
Why Are Truck Accident Settlements Higher Than Car Accident Settlements?
Truck accident settlements are higher because the injuries are more severe, the insurance policies are larger, and multiple parties often share liability. Each of these factors compounds the others, which is why truck accident claims routinely reach six and seven figures while car accident claims often settle for far less.
A fully loaded semi truck can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, compared to roughly 4,000 pounds for a passenger vehicle. That weight disparity produces catastrophic injuries at impact speeds that would cause only moderate damage in a car-on-car collision. Traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, crushed limbs, and fatal injuries are far more common in truck accidents than in standard motor vehicle crashes.
FMCSA requires commercial carriers hauling non-hazardous freight over 10,000 pounds to maintain minimum insurance of $750,000. Private oil tankers must carry $1,000,000, and carriers transporting hazardous cargo must carry $5,000,000.
Nevada requires only $25,000 in bodily injury coverage per person for passenger vehicles. The available insurance pool in a truck accident is 30 times larger at the federal minimum alone, and many carriers maintain policies well above the floor.
What Is the Average Semi Truck Accident Settlement?
Semi truck accident settlements vary widely, and no single number can predict the value of your individual case. National data from over 400 settled trucking cases shows an average 18 wheeler accident settlement of approximately $100,000. The median sits closer to $30,000 because many minor claims pull the average down.
Those figures do not reflect the reality of serious truck accident injuries. Cases involving traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, amputation, or permanent disability regularly produce settlements exceeding one million dollars. Fatal truck accidents that result in wrongful death claims can reach into the millions when lifetime lost earnings, funeral costs, and non-economic damages are factored into the calculation.
The value of your case depends on your specific injuries, the available insurance, and the strength of the evidence your attorney presents. An average is a statistical snapshot, not a forecast, and accepting a settlement based on what other victims received is one of the most common mistakes truck accident victims make.
Factors That Affect the Value of Your Truck Accident Claim
The value of your truck accident claim is shaped by three primary variables. How badly you were hurt, how much insurance is available, and how many parties share responsibility for the crash all affect the final number.
Severity of Injuries
Catastrophic injuries requiring long-term care, multiple surgeries, or permanent disability produce the highest settlements. A victim who requires lifelong rehabilitation after a catastrophic crash will recover far more than a victim with soft tissue injuries that resolve within months. Life care planners and medical experts calculate the cost of future treatment, and those projections form the foundation of the economic damages claim.
Available Insurance Coverage
The total insurance available sets the practical ceiling for your settlement unless the trucking company has assets beyond its policy limits. The federal minimums described above set the floor, but many carriers maintain policies well above those amounts. Umbrella and excess policies can expand the available pool further. Your attorney identifies every applicable policy to ensure no source of coverage goes untapped.
Number of Liable Parties
A single truck accident can open three, four, or five separate insurance policies depending on how many parties contributed to the crash. Each defendant carries separate coverage, and pursuing claims against all of them simultaneously increases the total recovery available to you.
Who Can Be Held Liable in a Semi Truck Accident?
Liability in a semi truck accident can fall on multiple parties, and identifying every responsible defendant directly affects the size of your settlement.
The trucking company can be held liable under respondeat superior, a legal doctrine that holds employers responsible for the actions of their employees performed within the scope of employment.
The company can also face independent liability for its own failures in hiring, training, supervising, or retaining a dangerous driver. If the company hired a driver with a history of violations or pressured a driver to exceed hours-of-service limits, those decisions become independent grounds for a claim.
Maintenance contractors that fail to inspect or repair safety-critical components face direct negligence claims when a brake failure, tire blowout, or steering defect causes a crash. Cargo loading companies that improperly secure freight can be held liable when shifting or falling cargo destabilizes the truck or strikes another vehicle.
Equipment manufacturers may face product liability claims when a defective component contributed to the accident.
Your attorney investigates every link in the chain to ensure no responsible party and no insurance policy is left out of the claim.
How Long Do You Have to File a Truck Accident Lawsuit in Nevada?
Nevada gives you two years from the date of your accident to file a personal injury lawsuit under NRS 11.190. Wrongful death claims must also be filed within two years, with the clock starting on the date of the victim’s death.
Trucking companies are required to preserve electronic logging device data and other records for only limited periods under federal law. If you wait too long to contact an attorney, the electronic evidence that could prove hours-of-service violations, speeding, or fatigue may be overwritten or destroyed.
Filing early gives your legal team the time it needs to obtain and preserve the data before the trucking company is no longer required to keep it.
How Drummond Law Firm Can Help
Drummond Law Firm provides attorney-led representation for semi truck accident victims across Las Vegas and Clark County. Our truck accident lawyers in Las Vegas pursue every liable party and every insurance policy to recover the full value of your claim. Craig Drummond, a former U.S. Army Captain and Bronze Star recipient licensed for more than 20 years, brings military discipline to every case our firm handles.
The Reduced Fee Guarantee ensures we will never take more than you receive in a settlement, and you will not pay a fee unless we win your case. Call the Captain today at (702) 366-9966 to schedule a free consultation.
