Who Can Be Held Responsible

When you are injured in a Missouri or Illinois Semi-Truck Crash, you might think that the only responsible party is the truck driver.  However, as an experienced Semi-Truck Crash Attorney, we know this is often not the case.  We believe there is no such thing as an "accident" when it comes to tractor-trailer wrecks.  Rather, in every instance the wreck is just a culmination of multiple negligent acts which led to the wreck.   Below are other commons areas that we investigate for potentially unsafe acts which caused your injuries:

The Truck Company

There is no question that every truck accident lawsuit needs to include claims of independent negligence against the truck company.  If you have a current lawsuit pending and your lawyer has not filed claims against the truck company for their own unsafe acts, you are not in the hands of an experienced truck accident attorney.  This is because, pursuant to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, truck companies are responsible for virtually every act of their employees.  The ways in which a truck company can be independently responsible for your injuries is detailed further in the Trucking Company Liability section of this website.

We use this approach in every case.

Shipper Liability

In some instances, semi-truck collisions occur because the load shifted in the trailer and caused the truck driver to lose control.  When this occurs, the shipper may be held responsible if they were involved in the loading process for failing to properly secure the load.  In some instances, the truck driver will be unaware of who loaded the trailer because it was already sealed when he arrived with the truck to pick it up.   Some lawyers who do not specialize in semi-truck litigation believe that this forecloses any further action because they cannot prove who loaded the truck.  However, there is specialized law which indicates that there is a presumption that the shipper participated in the loading process if the trailer was sealed before the driver arrived. 

We use this approach when there is evidence that the wreck occurred due to a shift in the load or the vehicle being overweight and thus uncontrollable.

Broker Liability

Brokers are the persons/companies that arrange the contracts between the shippers and the trucking companies.  Generally, a broker cannot be considered the employer of the truck driver and therefore cannot be vicariously liable for the driver's unsafe driving in the same manner the driver's trucking company can.  However, Brokers have been required to conduct a very minimum level of investigation into the truck company's safety rating.  If the broker chooses not to conduct this minimum level of investigation then they too are responsible for putting an unsafe driver on the road.  Generally, this is often a tough avenue and we only pursue this if the truck driver nor it's employer has sufficient insurance to pay for our client's injuries. 

We use this approach when there the truck company has insufficient insurance to compensate our injured clients due to their driver's negligence. 

The Insurance Company

As a general rule, lawyers cannot mention the existence of insurance or the insurance company in a lawsuit.  However, a new trend emerging in trucking litigation is the rule of the Insurance companies in the hiring process of new truck drivers.  This is especially true for smaller truck companies.  Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, truck companies are required to do an extensive investigation into the potential driver's background to make sure they are safe drivers.  However, this is more often being handled by the insurance companies.  A smaller trucking company will often get the required information and then pass it on to the insurance company which then reviews the information and determines if it will provide coverage for the new applicant.  Thus, the truck company then hires the new applicant, not based on any evaluation of whether he/she is a safe driver, but rather solely on whether their insurance company will provide insurance for the new driver.  Generally, insurers have no duty to screen potential drivers.  However, if they undertake to do so, and if they then negligently fail to reject an unsafe driver, they may be liable.  However, this is a very new and novel approach and there are no known appellate cases on the issue.

We use this approach when there the truck company has insufficient insurance to compensate our injured clients due to their driver's negligence.