A crash with an 80,000-pound truck is not a car accident with a bigger car. There’s a trucking company, a driver, sometimes a broker and a shipper, a federal rulebook, and a commercial insurer whose investigators can be at the scene before the ambulance leaves. You need someone moving just as fast on your side.
What we do for you
- Send an immediate preservation demand for the truck’s electronic control module data, driver logs, dashcam footage, dispatch records, and maintenance files — evidence that legally can be destroyed after a short retention period.
- Investigate hours-of-service violations, driver qualification, drug and alcohol testing, cargo loading, and maintenance under federal motor carrier regulations.
- Identify every liable party: the driver, the carrier, the owner of the trailer, the shipper or broker, the maintenance contractor.
- Work with reconstruction and trucking-industry experts when liability is contested.
- Manage catastrophic-injury cases with life-care planners and economists so future needs are fully counted.
What your case may be worth
No honest lawyer can give you a number on the first call. What we can tell you is what California lets you recover, and we’ll give you a realistic range once we’ve seen your medical records and the facts.
- Emergency care, surgeries, hospitalization, rehabilitation, and lifetime medical needs.
- Lost income and loss of future earning capacity.
- Pain and suffering, disability, and disfigurement.
- Wrongful death damages for families who lost someone.
Deadlines that can end your case
- Two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit in California (Code of Civil Procedure §335.1). Miss it and the claim is gone, no matter how strong.
- Six months if a government entity is involved — a city bus, a public road defect, a county vehicle, a school. You must file an administrative claim first (Government Code §911.2), and that clock is unforgiving.
- Trucking companies are only required to keep some records for months. If a preservation letter isn’t sent quickly, key evidence can be gone legally. This is the case type where calling a lawyer in the first days matters most.
What to do now
After a truck crash:
- Get medical care first. Even if you feel okay. Adrenaline hides injuries, and a gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster uses against you.
- Report it. Police report for a crash; incident report to the property or business for a fall. Get a copy or the report number.
- Photograph everything. The scene, vehicles, hazards, your injuries, and anything that changes quickly (weather, lighting, a wet floor).
- Get names. Witnesses, the other driver, the store manager. People vanish fast.
- Don’t give a recorded statement to the other side’s insurer, and don’t sign anything, before you’ve talked to a lawyer.
- Call us. (818) 230-8380, any hour. We take it from there.
Questions we hear most
The trucking company’s insurer already called and offered to ‘help.’
Their job is to close your claim cheaply before you understand your injuries. Be polite, take their information, and give them ours. Don’t give a recorded statement.
Why are truck cases worth more than car cases?
Commercial policies are much larger — often $1 million or more — and the injuries are usually more severe. That combination means insurers fight harder, which is why these cases need a firm willing to litigate.
What if the truck driver was an independent contractor?
Carriers use that label to try to avoid responsibility. Federal rules and California law often make the carrier liable anyway. We look at the actual relationship, not the paperwork.
Hurt in an accident? Talk to us before you talk to the insurance company.
Free case review, any hour, English or Spanish. No fee unless we win.
This page is general information about California law, not legal advice about your situation. Every case is different. Talk to an attorney about yours — the consultation is free.