Who Can I Sue if a Drunk Truck Driver Injured Me in an Accident?
There's no such thing as a good DWI accident, but the result of one tends to be far worse when the drunk driver is in a commercial vehicle like a delivery truck or 18-wheeler. Over the years we've spoken with countless people who were hurt or lost someone dear to them in a crash with...
Should I Give a Recorded Statement to an Insurance Adjuster after a Truck Accident?
After a truck accident people tend to have a dozen or more urgent and immediate concerns, so answering some questions from an insurance representative may not make much of a blip on their radar. Despite that, the conversation they have with a claims adjuster after an 18-wheeler wreck could affect their lawsuit against the truck...
What Are My Rights if I’m Injured in an 18-Wheeler Accident?
People sometimes make the mistake of thinking that a commercial truck accident is little more than a car crash on a larger scale, but they're truthfully worlds apart. The amount of damage an 18-wheeler can cause dwarfs all but the worst car accidents, and resolving a commercial accident with a trucking company is almost inevitably...
What Is My Commercial Truck Accident Worth?
One of the questions the firm gets a lot is "What is my truck accident case worth?" I wish I could say there's an easy answer to that, but as with most topics of law the answer depends on many factors. The simplest boiled-down answer we can provide is just below, but there's a great...
How are Criminal Charges Useful to a Truck Accident Victim’s Lawsuit?
After many commercial truck accidents, investigating authorities arrest the truck driver for some kind of criminal offense. In many ways this can be a boon to an injured accident victim, but the value of criminal charges to a civil case may not be clear right away. Because of that, people may wonder: How would a...
How Much of an 18-Wheeler Settlement in Texas Goes to the Lawyer?
Most law firms handle personal injury cases on a contingency basis. That means the lawyer receives a payment only if their client receives a settlement or a verdict at trial. How much does a lawyer get from a truck accident settlement? If we recover compensation for you, the firm will keep around 33% of the...
What is the Typical Duration of an 18-Wheeler Lawsuit in Texas?
Thousands of people are injured or killed in crashes involving large trucks each year. If you suffered an injury, you may want to settle your claim as soon as possible so you can collect your money and move on with your life. However, you may leave money on the table if you settle too soon....
When are Truck Drivers Tested for Drug and Alcohol Use?
Among the many federal and state regulations governing truck drivers' behavior are several that govern how often they must be tested for alcohol or drug use. Considering the damage an intoxicated driver can cause in a 40-ton truck, those tests are important for identifying them and keeping them off the road. So how often are...
How Many Times Can a Truck Driver Fail a DOT Physical?
To make sure they're in adequate physical condition to operate 18-wheelers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires commercial truck drivers to pass physical examinations at least once every two years. If a doctor finds the driver isn't in good enough shape to safely do their job, the driver must be removed from service....
Who Investigates 18-Wheeler Accidents in Texas?
According to NHTSA statistics, Texas tends to see more fatal commercial truck accidents annually than any other state. It's obviously important to investigate each of those incidents carefully and thoroughly, both to help the victims and hopefully to reduce the number of future crashes. Those investigations can be quite complicated, however, and many different parties...
Can I Trust a Trucking Company’s Insurer?
Trucking insurance companies are most often responsible for paying injured victims after an 18-wheeler accident, but they'll do everything they can to avoid it. Their actions in pursuit of that goal may vary, but they'll try hard to protect the company's assets and avoid honoring their client's commercial policy. That may lead people to wonder:...
How Do I Prove the Truck Driver Who Hit Me Was Intoxicated?
By their sheer size and bulk alone, tractor-trailers are already inherently more capable of inflicting harm when something goes wrong than most other vehicles on the road. The matter is made considerably worse when a truck driver is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This raises the question: When someone is hurt or killed...
How Big of a Problem Are Unsafe 18-Wheelers?
Most people are aware that commercial truck drivers occasionally make serious or even fatal mistakes at the wheel, but concerns about those misbehaviors sometimes overshadow another major issue: malfunctioning trucks, particularly those in states of terrible disrepair. A significant number of trucks and trailers in bad shape hit the road every day, but how big...
What is an 18-Wheeler Accident Investigation Kit?
When a commercial vehicle accident occurs, information must be gathered. Most trucking companies provide their truckers with something called an accident investigation kit, aka a "compliance kit," which is ostensibly used as a tool to tell truck drivers what information they need to collect at the accident scene. In our view, however, the whole thing...
What Kind of Inspection Does the State of Texas Require for 18-Wheelers?
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and state governments require 18-wheelers to meet certain minimum standards before they're deemed roadworthy. To be sure the trucks are in compliance, state and federal inspectors regularly evaluate them and their operators. That may lead some to wonder: What kind of inspection does Texas require for tractor-trailers? Answer:...
How Do Trucking Companies Cheat Electronic Logging Devices?
The regulations requiring truck drivers to rest after an interval of work are called hours of service (HOS) rules. Most modern truck drivers' hours of service are now monitored by federally-required Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs), which use data from an active 18-wheeler to create a picture of its movement and its driver's activity over a...
Are Side Underride Guards Required on 18-Wheelers?
An 18-wheeler's underride guard or "Mansfield bar" helps prevent a smaller vehicle from traveling underneath a semi-trailer during a rear-end collision. The standard guard design has room for improvement and a mixed success rate, but most would agree that something between a car and a trailer's undercarriage is generally better than nothing. The government seemingly...
Who Is Liable if an 18-Wheeler Underride Guard Fails?
A semi-trailer typically sits higher off the ground than the bumpers of many passenger vehicles, which means when a car hits the rear or side of that trailer there's a strong risk that it will travel underneath in what's commonly called an underride accident. Such collisions are often devastating to the people in the car,...
Can You Sue the Owner of a Trailer if the Underride Guard Fails?
An underride guard, or "Mansfield bar," is designed to keep passenger vehicles from traveling underneath a commercial truck's trailer during a collision—a situation that often causes serious or even fatal injuries. Unfortunately, many underride guards are poorly designed or maintained and don't achieve their stated purpose. When someone is hurt or killed in a crash...
How Much Alcohol Can a Truck Driver Legally Have in Their System?
There are few people capable of causing more carnage than an intoxicated truck driver. In an effort to prevent that from happening, the federal government imposes heavy restrictions on alcohol consumption by commercial drivers, including lowering the legal intoxication limit for truck drivers with respect to alcohol. So what is a truck driver's maximum legal...