There is no set figure for what a Maine truck crash is worth, and anyone who quotes you an average is guessing. What a settlement actually comes to is decided by a few Maine and federal rules: how much insurance sits behind the truck, who was at fault and by how much, what your losses add up to, and how long you have to act. This page sticks to what those rules say in Maine. The national hub covers how a truck claim works in general.
Why truck cases settle higher than car cases
The biggest reason a truck settlement outpaces a car settlement is insurance. Maine only makes a private driver carry $50,000 in bodily injury coverage per person, $100,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage, plus $2,000 in medical payments.1 A commercial truck crossing state lines carries far more. Federal law requires a for-hire carrier hauling ordinary freight in interstate commerce, in a vehicle rated above 10,001 pounds, to keep at least $750,000 in public liability coverage.2 If the load is oil or hazardous material, that floor climbs to $1,000,000, and certain hazardous materials in bulk require $5,000,000.2
That difference drives the money. In a serious injury case the practical ceiling on a settlement is usually the coverage available, not how strong your claim is. A trucking policy has more room in it than a personal auto policy, which is why the same injuries can settle for far more when a big rig caused them.
There's a catch worth knowing. The federal floors apply to interstate carriers. A small Maine outfit hauling only within the state may carry much less, sometimes not far above the private-driver minimum. When the truck at fault is underinsured, your own coverage can fill the gap, which comes up further down.
The deadline is six years, with one shorter exception
Maine gives you an unusually long window. Most injury claims, including those from a truck crash, have to be filed within six years of the crash.3 Plenty of states cut this to two or three years, so six years is generous by comparison. Waiting is still a mistake. The evidence that decides a truck case (the driver's hours-of-service logs, the engine control module data, the maintenance file) gets overwritten or discarded quickly, and the carrier's insurer starts building a defense the day it happens.
One deadline is much tighter. If part of your case is that a bar or restaurant over-served a visibly intoxicated driver, a claim under the Maine Liquor Liability Act must be brought within two years.4
How your share of the fault cuts the payout
Maine uses modified comparative negligence. If you're found partly to blame, your damages shrink by your percentage of fault, and if a jury puts you at 50% or more, you recover nothing at all.5 A $400,000 case with 20% of the fault on you settles around $320,000. The same case at 50% on you is worth zero.
Adjusters know this and press on it. Expect the carrier to argue you were speeding, following too closely, or had time to react. Every point of fault they shift onto you comes off the top, and getting you to the 50% line wipes the claim out. This is one place where a Maine truck case is won or lost on the police report and the reconstruction, not on sympathy.
What Maine caps and what it doesn't
For an ordinary truck crash injury, Maine puts no cap on compensatory damages. Your medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering are limited by what you can prove, not by any statutory ceiling.
Wrongful death runs on different rules. When a crash kills someone, Maine limits damages for the loss of comfort, society, and companionship to $1,000,000, adjusted each year for inflation, and caps punitive damages at $500,000.6 Medical bills, funeral costs, and lost financial support fall outside that $1,000,000 cap and are recovered separately.
Punitive damages are hard to reach in Maine, which keeps them from inflating most settlements. Under Tuttle v. Raymond, you have to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with malice, and reckless driving on its own, even drunk driving, doesn't clear the bar.7 So the threat of a punitive award, which pushes up settlements in some states, carries less weight here.
More defendants means more coverage
A truck crash rarely involves just the driver. The motor carrier, a separate trailer owner, a maintenance contractor, a freight broker, or the company that loaded the cargo can each be on the hook, and each may bring its own insurance. Federal safety rules (the FMCSA regulations on driver hours, vehicle inspection, and driver qualification) give you liability theories that don't exist in a normal fender bender. A logbook showing a driver past the hours-of-service limit, or a maintenance record showing bad brakes, turns a single-defendant claim into a case against a company carrying a $750,000 or larger policy.2 Sorting out who pays, and in what order, is much of what a Maine truck case actually involves.
When the trucker is underinsured or uninsured
Maine requires every auto policy to include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matching your liability limits, unless you signed a written rejection before the policy took effect, and it can't drop below the state minimums.8 If a lightly insured intrastate hauler causes serious injuries, your own UM/UIM coverage can pay the difference once the truck's policy is exhausted. Check the declarations page of your own policy after a crash. That coverage is often the second-largest source of money in the case.
Drunk driving and bar liability
If the trucker was drinking, two things change. A commercial driver in Maine is held to a stricter alcohol limit behind the wheel, and the bar or restaurant that served a visibly intoxicated driver can be liable under the Maine Liquor Liability Act. Damages against a server are capped at $350,000 for any single accident, though that cap excludes medical expenses, and the claim must be filed within two years.94
Maine roads and why crashes here turn serious
Maine crashes skew rural and severe. Of the 177 traffic deaths in the state in 2024, 80% happened on rural roads, one of the highest shares in the country.10 Two-lane state highways and long winter driving seasons put passenger vehicles and heavy freight traffic on the same narrow roads. Nationally, 4,354 people died in large-truck crashes in 2023, and about 65% of them were in the other vehicle, not the truck.11 The physics are lopsided, and injuries in a Maine truck case tend to be worse, which is part of why the numbers behind these claims run high.
Getting the value right
The honest answer to "what's my case worth" is that it depends on the coverage behind the truck, your own share of the fault, and what your losses total, none of which fit a chart. Pull the crash report early so the facts are locked in, document every bill and missed workday, and if your vehicle held value before the crash, a diminished value claim is separate from your injury claim. Because truck cases mean several insurers and federal regulations at once, most people do better with a lawyer who handles them. You can start with the legal directory.
This is general information about Maine law, not legal advice.
Sources
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Maine Revised Statutes, 29-A M.R.S. § 1605 (minimum motor vehicle liability and medical payments limits). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1605.html
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49 C.F.R. § 387.9 (FMCSA minimum public liability limits for for-hire carriers: $750,000 / $1,000,000 / $5,000,000). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/part-387/section-387.9
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Maine Revised Statutes, 14 M.R.S. § 752 (six-year limitation for civil actions). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec752.html
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Maine Revised Statutes, 28-A M.R.S. § 2514 (Maine Liquor Liability Act; two-year limitation). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/28-a/title28-Asec2514.html
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Maine Revised Statutes, 14 M.R.S. § 156 (comparative negligence; recovery barred at equal fault). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec156.html
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Maine Revised Statutes, 18-C M.R.S. § 2-807 (wrongful death; $1,000,000 loss-of-society cap and $500,000 punitive cap). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/18-C/title18-Csec2-807.html
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Tuttle v. Raymond, 494 A.2d 1353 (Me. 1985) (punitive damages require clear and convincing proof of malice; recklessness insufficient). https://law.justia.com/cases/maine/supreme-court/1985/494-a-2d-1353-0.html
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Maine Revised Statutes, 24-A M.R.S. § 2902 (mandatory uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/24-a/title24-Asec2902.html
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Maine Revised Statutes, 28-A M.R.S. § 2509 (Maine Liquor Liability Act; $350,000 damages cap excluding medical expenses). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/28-a/title28-Asec2509.html
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Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Fatality Facts: State by state (Maine, 177 deaths in 2024, 80% on rural roads). https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state
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Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Fatality Facts: Large trucks (4,354 deaths in 2023; 65% were occupants of other vehicles). https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/large-trucks