Most truck accident claims are resolved without a trial, and a good many without a lawsuit being filed at all. But what a claim settles for is decided by what a lawsuit would have produced, so it is worth knowing what that process is and where in it the real work happens.
It is not the courtroom. On a commercial trucking case the outcome is largely fixed in the first weeks, before anything is filed, by whether the vehicle and the carrier’s records were secured while they still existed. Everything below that point is the process of putting them in front of somebody.
Free case review
You speak to the attorney who would try it, not to a screener.
No fee unless we win
Nothing up front, and the fee comes out of the recovery.
Prepared as though it will be tried
Most cases settle. They settle better when the file is ready for a jury.
The Burden
What actually has to be proved
The burden is on the person bringing the claim, to the civil standard — more likely than not, rather than beyond reasonable doubt.
- 01
A duty was owed
Rarely in dispute. Every driver owes other road users reasonable care, and a motor carrier owes duties of its own in how it hires, trains, schedules and maintains.
- 02
It was breached
The contested half. On a commercial vehicle much of it is measured against written federal standards rather than against a jury’s sense of what a careful driver would do.
- 03
The breach caused the harm
A violation with no connection to the collision proves nothing. This is where reconstruction, the module data and the medical records do their work.
- 04
There are damages to award
Proved with treatment records, earnings evidence and, where the loss runs into the future, an economist. It is the element most often under-documented by the time an insurer makes its first offer.
The First Week
What to do before anyone is hired
None of this needs a lawyer and all of it is easier with one. If you are reading this weeks later, do what is still possible — the list is not a set of preconditions.
- 01
Get treated
Even if you feel able to walk away. Internal and head injuries are not all visible at the roadside, and a gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster points at.
- 02
Report it and get the number
Call the police, get the crash report reference, and ask for a copy when it is available. Your lawyer can obtain it too.
- 03
Photograph everything
Both vehicles, the road, the debris field, skid marks, the lettering and the USDOT number on the truck, and your own injuries as they develop.
- 04
Collect names
The driver and their licence, the carrier and its insurer, and anyone who stopped. Witnesses become unreachable within days.
- 05
Say nothing recorded, then call
You are not obliged to give the carrier’s insurer a statement or sign its medical release. Call before the retention clocks on the records start to run down.
The Process
How one of these actually proceeds
Seven stages, and most cases stop somewhere in the middle. Worth reading in order, because the stage that decides the outcome is the first one rather than the last.
- 01
The investigation, before anything is filed
Preservation letters go to the carrier, its insurer and whoever is holding the vehicle, so the engine control module, the driver logs, the maintenance file and the damage survive long enough to be examined. Where it matters, the truck is inspected before it is repaired.
- 02
The claim, and sometimes the end of it
Once the treatment has reached a point where the future is predictable, the claim is presented: liability, the records behind it, the medical picture and the losses. A carrier’s insurer that can see a prepared file sometimes resolves it here.
- 03
Filing suit
A petition is filed in the right county against every defendant the investigation has identified — which on a trucking case is frequently more than the driver and the company whose name is on the door. Filing also stops the two-year limitations clock.
- 04
Discovery
The formal exchange, and the reason a lawsuit gets things a letter cannot. Written requests for the driver qualification file, the training records, the dispatch and load documents, the maintenance history, the ELD data, the phone records, the insurance policies and the carrier’s own internal reports on the crash.
- 05
The experts
A reconstruction engineer for how the collision happened, a trucking safety expert on what the regulations required, treating and consulting physicians on the injuries and what they will need, a vocational expert on what work is still possible, and an economist to price a lifetime of it.
- 06
Mediation
A day in front of a neutral third party, with the authority to settle in the room. Most truck cases end here, and they end on what the file shows rather than on how the day goes.
- 07
Trial
A jury of twelve in a Texas district court, answering questions about responsibility, percentages and damages. It takes days rather than weeks in most of these cases, and you would be prepared for it well before it arrives.
Valuation
What decides what it is worth
A different question from what a claim can include, and the one people actually mean. Six factors, and the first three carry most of it.
How strong liability is
A case where the logs show a driver eleven hours in and the module shows no braking is valued differently from one where responsibility is genuinely arguable.
How permanent the injury is
The single largest factor, and it is about the future rather than the past. A fracture that heals and a fusion that does not are separated by a whole order of magnitude, and neither is decided by the bills already paid.
What the medical evidence actually says
Not how much you hurt, but what a treating physician has written down and is prepared to say about causation and prognosis.
What the injury has done to your earning capacity
The difference between what you could earn before and what you can earn now, projected over a working life and discounted.
How responsibility divides
Texas reduces an award by the claimant’s own share of responsibility and bars recovery altogether above 50%.
How much cover there is, and in how many layers
The practical ceiling. A federally regulated freight carrier must hold at least $750,000, but a large fleet typically carries a primary policy with excess layers stacked above it, often with a different insurer on each.
Deadlines
Three clocks, and the shortest is not the famous one
Everybody has heard about the two years. It is the one least likely to be the problem in a trucking case.
The evidence
3–6 mo
Notice to a government
6 months
Filing suit
2 years
- 01
Three to six months, for the evidence
The deadline nobody is warned about. A carrier may lawfully destroy the driver’s inspection reports at three months and the duty logs at six, and camera footage overwrites itself in weeks.
- 02
Six months, or far less, against a government
If the other vehicle belonged to a city, a county, a school district or the state, written notice is required within six months — and Texas cities may shorten that by charter. Some allow as little as 45 days.
- 03
Two years, for most claims
From the date of the crash for an injury claim, and from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. Miss it and the claim is gone whatever its merits.
Questions
Questions about the process
What people ask once they realise a claim against a trucking company is a piece of litigation rather than an insurance form.
Will my truck accident case actually go to trial?
Probably not. The large majority of these cases resolve by settlement, most often at mediation, and that is usually the better outcome for a client — it is faster, it is certain, and it is private.
How long will it take?
A straightforward claim that settles pre-suit can be months. One that is filed, worked through discovery and mediated is commonly a year to two, and a case that goes to trial can run longer.
Do I have to be in court, or give a deposition?
You would be deposed if the case is filed — the other side is entitled to ask you questions under oath, usually for a few hours in a conference room rather than a courtroom. You are prepared for it beforehand and your lawyer is beside you throughout.
What does it cost to bring one of these, and what if we lose?
There is no fee unless there is a recovery. The case expenses — the reconstruction, the experts, the depositions, the records — are carried by this firm as the case runs and are repaid out of the recovery.
Can I still sue if I was partly to blame?
Yes, as long as your share is 50% or less. Texas divides responsibility between everyone who bears some of it, and your award is reduced by your own percentage rather than wiped out.
Also Handled Here
Where to go from here
The rest of the firm’s trucking pages, and the neighbouring claims a commercial vehicle crash turns into.
- 01Texas Truck Accident LawsThe federal and state rules a carrier operates under
- 02Truck Accident LawsuitsWhat happens once one of these claims is filed
- 03Fatal Truck AccidentsWhere a crash killed a member of the family
- 04Car AccidentsCollisions between passenger vehicles
- 05Motorcycle AccidentsRiders struck by commercial and passenger vehicles
- 06Wrongful DeathWho may bring a Texas death claim, and what it covers
- 07Construction AccidentsSite injuries, including vehicle and machinery claims
- 08Pedestrian AccidentsPeople struck on foot, including by turning trucks
