California Truck Accident Lawyer

Get medical care, call law enforcement, and if it is safe, photograph the truck, its markings and the scene. Write down the company name and the USDOT number on the cab door. Keep your own vehicle until someone has decided whether it is evidence, and get advice early, because some of the carrier’s records can lawfully be discarded after six months.

At least six months. Under 49 CFR 395.8(k), a motor carrier must keep each driver’s records of duty status and supporting documents for no less than six months from the date it receives them. After that, the carrier can discard them unless it has been asked to preserve them.

For interstate property carriers, 49 CFR 395.3 allows 11 hours of driving after 10 consecutive hours off duty, no driving after the 14th hour on duty, and a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving. Drivers who stay inside California follow Title 13, section 1212.5, which allows 12 hours of driving and no driving after the 16th hour on duty.

Often, yes. A carrier can be responsible for an employee driver acting within the scope of the job, and separately for its own negligence in hiring, training, supervising or retaining the driver, or in maintaining the truck. Other parties, such as a loader, trailer owner or repair shop, may also share responsibility.

The label in the contract does not settle it. California’s jury instruction on disputed employee status, CACI No. 3704, treats the right to control how the work is done as the most important factor, alongside others. Even where the driver is not an employee, the carrier may be responsible for its own negligence.

Not always. The federal rules mainly govern interstate commerce. Trucks that operate only inside California are covered by state rules, including the Vehicle Code and Title 13 of the California Code of Regulations, which set their own hours limits and inspection requirements. Which set applies is one of the first things to check.

It can create a presumption of negligence under Evidence Code section 669, but only if the violation caused the injury, the harm was the kind the rule was meant to prevent, and you were in the group it was meant to protect. The presumption can be rebutted, so the link between the rule and the crash still has to be shown.

In some crashes, yes. Under 49 CFR 382.303, a carrier must test its surviving driver after a crash involving a death, and after one where the driver is cited for a moving violation and someone was treated away from the scene or a vehicle was towed. Whether the required tests were done, and when, can itself be evidence.

For-hire interstate carriers hauling general freight in vehicles of 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000 under 49 CFR 387.9, with higher minimums for oil and hazardous materials. California requires intrastate property carriers to carry at least $750,000 under Vehicle Code section 34631.5. These are minimums, not a measure of what a claim is worth.

Generally two years for personal injury or wrongful death, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If a public entity may be responsible, a written claim is usually due within six months under Government Code section 911.2. Property damage claims generally have three years under section 338.

Yes. California applies comparative fault, so your damages are reduced by your percentage of responsibility rather than barred. The defence has to prove both that you were negligent and that your negligence was a substantial factor in causing your own harm.

We handle truck accident cases on a contingency fee. There is no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery. Case costs are separate from attorney’s fees, and both the fee percentage and how costs are handled are set out in the written fee agreement before anything is signed.