Improper cargo loading is one of the most underlitigated causes of serious truck accidents, and the reason it is underlitigated has nothing to do with how often it contributes to crashes. It has to do with how invisible the loading process is to everyone outside the supply chain, and how deliberately the parties responsible for […]
What Insurance Coverage Do Trucking Companies Have to Carry?
The insurance picture in a commercial trucking case is more complicated than most people realize, and the complications run in directions that can either dramatically expand or unexpectedly limit the coverage available to someone seriously injured by a commercial truck. Federal law sets minimum requirements that are substantially higher than what passenger vehicles must carry, […]
What If the Trucking Company Knew the Driver Had a Bad Record Before Hiring Him
If the trucking company hired a driver they knew was dangerous, or that a basic background check would have revealed was dangerous, the company’s liability for what happened to you is not merely vicarious — it is direct. And that distinction matters enormously for the value of your case, for the availability of punitive damages, […]
What If the Truck Driver Tested Positive for Drugs or Alcohol After the Accident?
A positive drug or alcohol test following a commercial trucking accident is among the most consequential pieces of evidence that can exist in a personal injury case, and it is consequential in ways that go far beyond the obvious fact of the driver’s impairment. The test result does not just tell you something about the […]
What If the Trucking Company Leased the Truck From Someone Else
This is one of the most legally complex questions in commercial trucking litigation, and it is a question the trucking industry has invested enormous effort in making as confusing as possible. The leasing of commercial trucks — equipment leasing, owner-operator arrangements, trip leases, long-term leases between related entities — is standard industry practice, and it […]
What Should I Do If a Trucking Company Investigator Contacts Me After an Accident?
If someone has contacted you after a trucking accident and identified themselves as an investigator for the trucking company, for the carrier’s insurer, or for a third-party investigation firm retained by either of them, you are not dealing with a neutral fact-finder. You are dealing with a professional whose job is to build the documentary […]
What If the Truck Was Overloaded
An overloaded commercial truck is not simply a heavier vehicle that does more damage when it hits something. It is a vehicle whose fundamental handling characteristics — its braking distance, its stability in curves, its response to sudden steering inputs, its susceptibility to rollover, and the forces it imposes on the road surface beneath it […]
What If the Truck Driver Was Fatigued?
Fatigue is the most underacknowledged cause of serious trucking accidents in the United States, and it is underacknowledged for reasons that are not accidental. The trucking industry’s economic model depends on freight moving as fast as possible over as many hours as drivers can legally, and in some cases illegally, sustain. The regulatory framework that […]
What If the Truck Driver Violated Hours of Service Rules
A hours of service violation in a commercial truck accident case is not simply evidence that the driver was tired. It is evidence that the driver, and potentially the company that dispatched them, violated a specific federal safety regulation that exists precisely because the government has determined that driving beyond those limits creates an unacceptable […]
How Long Do Trucking Companies Keep Data After an Accident?
The answer depends entirely on which type of data you are asking about, and the differences between them are not small variations on a single theme. Some data disappears within hours. Some is retained for six months by regulation. Some must be kept for three years. Some exists in forms that the regulation does not […]