Practice Area
Los Angeles
Truck Accident Lawyer
A collision with a commercial truck is not a big car accident. The injuries are worse, the rules are federal, the evidence is on a hard drive that gets overwritten, and the company on the other side has a claims team working the file before you leave the hospital. Here is what that means for your claim.
The short answer
In a California truck accident claim, the trucking company, not just the driver, is usually responsible, and it is typically required to carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage, far more than a private driver. The most important evidence, including the truck's electronic logs and engine data, can be lawfully overwritten within months, so a written preservation demand should go out within days. You generally have two years to bring an injury claim, and only six months if a government vehicle or road condition was involved.
Why truck cases are different
A loaded tractor-trailer can weigh 80,000 pounds. A passenger car weighs around 4,000. The physics is why truck collisions produce spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, crush injuries, and deaths at a rate ordinary crashes do not. The legal side is different too:
- The company is a party, not just the driver. A motor carrier is responsible for its driver's negligence on the job, and often for its own hiring, training, maintenance, and scheduling decisions.
- Federal regulations set the standard of care. Hours-of-service limits, inspection requirements, drug and alcohol testing, and driver qualification rules give you concrete rules to measure the company against.
- The carrier moves first. Trucking companies and their insurers frequently send investigators to the scene the same day. Their file is being built while yours has not started.
- The coverage is real. Unlike a minimum-limits auto policy, commercial trucking coverage is usually large enough to pay for a serious injury, which changes what the case is worth pursuing.
Who can be held responsible
Part of the early work in a truck case is figuring out who was actually involved in putting that truck on that road. It is often more than one company, and each may have its own policy.
- The driver
- For speeding, fatigue, distraction, impairment, following too closely, or unsafe lane changes.
- The motor carrier
- The company operating the truck. Responsible for the driver's conduct and for its own hiring, supervision, dispatch pressure, and maintenance.
- The owner of the tractor or trailer
- Sometimes a different company from the carrier, particularly with leased equipment and owner-operators.
- The shipper or loader
- Improperly loaded or secured cargo shifts, spills, and causes rollovers.
- The freight broker
- A broker that hired an unsafe carrier without checking its safety record may share responsibility.
- Maintenance contractors and manufacturers
- Brake failures, tire blowouts, and defective parts can bring in whoever serviced or built them.
Evidence that disappears
Modern trucks record almost everything. That evidence is only useful if it is preserved, and the rules allow much of it to be discarded on a schedule.
- Electronic logging device data. Records driving hours. Carriers must keep it for six months; after that it can be lawfully deleted.
- Engine control module data. Speed, braking, throttle, and hard-brake events in the seconds before impact. Can be lost if the truck is repaired or returned to service.
- Dash cameras and telematics. Many fleets run forward and driver-facing cameras. Footage is often overwritten within days or weeks.
- Driver qualification and drug test files. Hiring records, training, prior violations, and post-accident testing.
- Dispatch and delivery records. Show the schedule the driver was under and whether it was realistic without breaking hours rules.
- Maintenance and inspection records. Pre-trip inspection reports and repair history.
The first thing I do on a truck case is send a written preservation demand to the carrier, its insurer, and anyone else identified, putting them on notice that this evidence must be kept. Once that letter is received, destroying the evidence has consequences in court. Before it is received, it usually does not.
Federal rules that matter
Interstate motor carriers are regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and California applies similar rules to intrastate trucking. The regulations most often at issue in an injury case:
- Hours of service. A property-carrying driver may generally drive no more than 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off, within a 14-hour window, with weekly caps. Violations point directly to fatigue.
- Driver qualification. Licensing, medical certification, and a review of driving history before hiring.
- Drug and alcohol testing. Required pre-employment, randomly, and after certain accidents.
- Inspection, repair, and maintenance. Systematic inspection and documented repair of brakes, tires, lights, and coupling devices.
- Cargo securement. Specific standards for how loads must be tied down and distributed.
A regulation violation does not automatically win the case, but it gives a jury, and more importantly an adjuster pricing the file, a clear rule the company broke.
Commercial coverage, and finding all of it
Federal law requires most interstate motor carriers to carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage, and $5,000,000 for certain hazardous cargo. Many carriers carry more, and larger fleets often have excess and umbrella layers above the primary policy. When more than one company is involved, each may have its own tower.
Reading those layers, working out which policy is primary and which is excess, and identifying coverage that nobody volunteers is the part of a truck case I am most at home with. Before I practiced injury law, I spent years reading exactly this kind of layered document for banks and investment funds. A commercial insurance program is built the same way.
Your own underinsured motorist coverage may also apply if, unusually, the truck's coverage is not enough for the injury.
What a claim may include
- Medical
- Emergency and trauma care, surgery, rehabilitation, and the cost of future care, which in a catastrophic injury can be the largest number in the case.
- Lost income
- Wages missed, and reduced earning capacity where the injury changes what work you can do.
- Pain and suffering
- Physical pain, and the loss of the life you had before the crash.
- Property
- Your vehicle and its contents.
- Wrongful death
- Where a family member was killed, the surviving family's separate claim. More on wrongful death claims.
Serious injury cases often need a life-care planner and an economist to put future costs in numbers. Those experts cost money, and the fee agreement explains how case costs are handled before any of them are hired.
Deadlines
- Injury claims
- Two years from the date of the collision.
- Wrongful death
- Two years from the date of death.
- Government vehicle or road
- Six months to file a written government claim. Applies to city, county, and state vehicles, and to dangerous road design or maintenance.
- Evidence
- No fixed deadline, but electronic logs can be discarded after six months and camera footage much sooner. Treat evidence preservation as the most urgent date in the case.
How I handle a truck case
On a truck case, the first week matters more than any other. I send preservation demands, request the police report and any CHP Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team report, identify every company connected to the truck, and start pulling coverage. Then the case follows your treatment, because a serious injury should not be valued until the doctors know what recovery looks like.
- You deal with me directly. I keep the caseload small enough to personally handle every file.
- I build the file for trial even though most cases settle, because a carrier prices settlement against what it expects to happen in court. When a case needs a courtroom, it gets one.
- No attorney fee unless there is a recovery. The fee and how costs are handled are written down before any work begins.
Truck accident questions
Who is responsible after a truck accident, the driver or the company?
Usually both. A trucking company is responsible for its driver's negligence on the job, and it can be separately responsible for its own decisions about hiring, training, maintenance, and scheduling. Other companies, such as the trailer owner, the shipper that loaded the cargo, or the broker that hired the carrier, may also share responsibility.
How quickly do I need to act after a truck accident?
Faster than in an ordinary car accident. Electronic logging data can be lawfully discarded after six months, dash camera footage much sooner, and the truck itself may be repaired and returned to service. A written preservation demand should go out within days. The legal deadline to sue is generally two years, but the evidence deadline is much shorter.
How much insurance does a trucking company have?
Federal law requires most interstate carriers to carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage, and $5,000,000 for certain hazardous materials. Many carriers have more, including excess and umbrella layers. Identifying every layer is a core part of the case.
What if the truck driver was an independent contractor?
It often does not matter. Under federal regulations, a motor carrier is generally responsible for the operation of trucks running under its authority, including leased equipment and owner-operators. The label on the driver's contract is not the end of the analysis.
The trucking company's insurer already called me. What should I do?
Do not give a recorded statement and do not sign anything. Trucking insurers move quickly because early statements and early settlements save them money. Take their contact information and let a lawyer handle the communication.
What if I was partly at fault?
California uses pure comparative fault, so your recovery is reduced by your share of responsibility rather than barred. Given the injuries in truck cases, even a reduced recovery is usually worth pursuing.
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