How Long‑Term Care Claims Grow After A Trucking Injury
When someone sustains a serious injury in a large commercial collision, the immediate physical harm is often just the start. An accident can quickly give rise to long‑term care needs, from in‑home assistance to skilled nursing facilities. According to a truck accident lawyer familiar with such cases, pursuing a long‑term care claim after a trucking injury demands careful strategy and foresight.
What Makes Long‑Term Care Claims Unique After Truck Accidents
Trucking accidents tend to generate high damage potential due to the weight, speed, and commercial insurance backing involved. But when the injured party is older, the stakes escalate:
- Preexisting conditions: Many seniors already have conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, or cardiovascular issues. After a crash, defendants may argue that much of the care would have been needed anyway.
- Life expectancy and care outlook: Because aging adults may require care for a longer remaining lifespan, claims must project costs decades into the future, not just for a short recovery period.
- Overlap of health and accident injuries: Differentiating between care needed because of the crash and care that would have been necessary due to aging can be challenging.
Building A Persuasive Long‑Term Care Demand
To secure compensation for long-term care needs, a claimant (through their attorney) must substantiate future care plans with solid evidence. Here are three critical steps to build a long-term care plan for aging adults:
- Care-Provider Opinions and Care Plans: Work with medical, nursing, and life‑care planners to draft a reasonable future care projection, hours per week, types of assistance, escalation over time, costs, and contingency factors.
- Supporting Documentation: Include personal history, functional assessments (mobility, ADLs), medical records, therapy notes, and specialist reports. Show how the crash worsened or triggered additional care needs.
- Inflation, Survival, and Discounting Adjustments: Use actuarial or economic adjustments: inflate care costs, discount for present value, and consider the potential for survival or earlier mortality. These calculations must be robust and defensible under cross‑examination.
Common Defenses And How To Counter Them
Opposing parties often challenge long‑term care claims aggressively, especially when the injured is older. Here are defenses and responses:
- Claiming that any care received would’ve been necessary without the accident due to the victim’s age or existing conditions. This can be countered by isolating the care needs that are strictly traceable to the accident, supported by professional testimony and/or a comparative assessment by a care provider
- Arguing that projections or estimates for a long-term care plan are overly speculative. By presenting peer data, such as provider estimates and analyses by medical professionals, these claims can be easily disproven
- In extreme circumstances, there can be claims that long-term care is unnecessary due to assumptions about the victim’s life expectancy. While rare, these claims are easily disproven when lawyers present medical prognosis reports from a healthcare professional or have a medical professional provide testimony of the patient’s health.
Practical Steps For Aging Adults Or Their Families
- Act early: Secure medical, functional, and therapy records from day one. Delays weaken the link between the accident and care needs.
- Document daily life changes: Keep a journal or log of struggles with daily tasks, increased assistance, or safety risks.
- Evaluate insurance layers: Large trucking carriers often carry significant liability policies; capture all possible sources (auto, umbrella, and employer’s policies).
- Communicate with medical personnel: Bring a life‑care planner, rehabilitation nurse, or geriatric specialist into your case early.
- Plan for alternatives: Explore whether in‑home care, assisted living, or skilled nursing is appropriate, and conduct cost comparisons.
As our friends at Disparti Law Group can share, cases involving aging adults and long-term care claims require not just legal acumen, but interdisciplinary coordination. Attorneys must integrate medical, actuarial, and rehabilitation expertise. With a firm equipped to marshal those resources, clients stand a better chance of recovering full compensation to support a lifetime of care needs. Speak with a local attorney to learn more.