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Preserve the evidence. A truck case involves federal rules and a corporate defendant with its own investigators. The electronic data and driver logs are held on retention periods measured in months, some as short as six. An ordinary crash claim can wait a few weeks without much harm. A truck claim usually cannot.
The carrier moves first. Motor carriers and their insurers routinely dispatch a rapid response team to the scene the same day, often before you have left the hospital. They photograph, measure, download the electronic control module and interview witnesses, and that work product belongs to them. What cannot wait is a preservation letter to the carrier and its insurer. The logs and the video may not last. Call 713-521-0059.
A federal regulatory scheme applies to the driver and the carrier, and violations of it are evidence. The defendant is a company with its own investigators on scene within hours. The evidence expires on a schedule, and some of it on a schedule set by regulation.
Your claim also reaches past the driver. The carrier can be liable for the driver acting in the course and scope of employment. It can also be liable separately for its own conduct in hiring, training, supervising, retaining and dispatching the driver.
Coverage is different too. A federally regulated interstate carrier must carry substantially more than a private motorist. Above the primary policy there are often excess layers, a self-insured retention and the broker’s or shipper’s own coverage. Finding every layer is part of the work.
Interstate motor carriers and their drivers are governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Texas has adopted much of that scheme for intrastate carriers as well.
The parts that usually matter most are Part 390 and Part 391, general applicability and driver qualification. Part 392 covers driving. Part 395 covers hours of service and records of duty status. Part 396 covers inspection, repair and maintenance.
A regulatory violation is not automatically liability. It is evidence. In front of a jury, it can show that the crash followed a decision rather than an accident.
Electronic logging device and hours of service records come first. Section 395.8(k)(1) requires a motor carrier to retain records of duty status and supporting documents for a period of not less than six months from the date of receipt. That sets a floor, not a promise, and in practice these records are frequently unavailable soon after it passes.
Engine control module and telematics data show speed, braking, throttle and fault codes in the seconds before impact. That data can be overwritten by continued operation of the truck. It can also be lost when the vehicle is repaired or sold for salvage.
The driver qualification file holds the application, prior employer checks, medical certification, road test, motor vehicle records, and drug and alcohol testing. Maintenance and inspection records include Part 396 files, roadside inspection reports and repair invoices.
Dispatch records, bills of lading and cargo documents show the schedule the driver was under, which is frequently the real cause. Dashcam and facility video is often overwritten within days.
A spoliation letter sent in the first week is one of the most valuable steps available in a truck case, and it costs you nothing. You can also help. The trailer markings, the USDOT number on the door and the bill of lading identify the carrier, the broker and the shipper, and they are frequently three different companies.
One point comes up often in Texas. Where a carrier stipulates that the driver was in the course and scope, it may argue that the direct negligence claims against the company should be dismissed as unnecessary. That would keep the hiring and safety record away from the jury. Whether the argument succeeds turns on how the claims are pleaded and on the exemplary damages posture of your case.
Commonly recovered expenses and damages include:
Future care and lost capacity are usually the largest numbers. They are proven with medical, vocational and economic evidence, not with a pay stub and a hospital bill.
Medical damages are measured under Section 41.0105 by what was actually paid or incurred, not what was billed. Cost and necessity can be established by affidavit under Section 18.001, unless a controverting affidavit is properly served. The affidavit does not prove causation. Exemplary damages require clear and convincing evidence of gross negligence, malice or fraud under Section 41.003. They are generally capped by Section 41.008. Under Section 41.008(c), the cap does not apply where the claim is based on one of the listed felonies committed knowingly or intentionally, and intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter need not be knowing or intentional. The exception reaches only the defendant whose conduct it was.
Your own share of fault matters. Under Section 33.001, a claimant found more than 50 percent responsible recovers nothing. Otherwise, Section 33.012 reduces the award by the claimant’s percentage of responsibility, and a claimant at exactly 50 percent is still reduced.
If someone was killed, the family has a wrongful death claim under Chapter 71, and the estate has a separate survival claim for what the person suffered before death. Under Section 71.004, the surviving spouse, children and parents may bring the wrongful death action.
We do not publish a settlement range because there is no accurate one. Case values in truck litigation turn on the injury, the liability picture, the layers of coverage available and the carrier’s own safety record. A dollar range presented as typical tells you nothing accurate about your own case.
In most cases, under Section 16.003(a), suit must be filed within two years after the day the claim accrues, which is usually the date of the injury. For a death claim, Section 16.003(b) runs the period from the date of death.
If a governmental unit operated the vehicle, Section 101.101 generally requires notice within six months. A city charter period permitted by law governs where it applies, and the City of Houston requires written notice within 90 days. Under Section 101.101(c), the notice requirement does not apply where the governmental unit had actual notice. The practical deadline in a truck case is much shorter than the two-year limitations period, because the records of duty status may be gone after six months.
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Each item is held by the carrier or a business it works with, and each is on its own clock. Photograph the trailer markings and the USDOT number if you can, and keep the names of every witness. You generally do not have to give a recorded statement to another party’s insurer. Your own policy may require you to cooperate with your own insurer.
The letter goes out first. Before anything else is decided, the first step is written notice to the carrier and its insurer to keep their records. It demands retention of the electronic control module data, the electronic logging device records, the driver qualification file, maintenance records, dispatch records and any video. Then we identify the carrier, the broker and the shipper, and every layer of coverage above the primary policy.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people across Texas.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Written by Jacob Schiffer, Attorney, Schiffer Law Firm. State Bar of Texas No. 24105175.
Call 713-521-0059.
In most cases, suit must be filed within two years after the day the claim accrues, which is usually the date of the injury, under Section 16.003(a). In a death case the period runs from the date of death. The practical deadline is much shorter, because records of duty status need be retained for as little as six months under 49 C.F.R. Section 395.8(k)(1), which sets a minimum.
Often, yes. A carrier can be liable for its driver acting in the course and scope of employment, and separately for its own negligence in hiring, training, supervising, retaining and entrusting.
It is the engine control module, along with any telematics or electronic logging device. It records speed, braking, throttle and fault data around the time of the crash. It can be overwritten by continued operation of the truck or lost when the vehicle is repaired or salvaged.
Yes for interstate carriers, under 49 C.F.R. Parts 350 through 399, and Texas has adopted much of the same scheme for intrastate carriers. A violation is evidence of negligence rather than automatic liability.
You can still recover unless your percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent, under Section 33.001. At or below that line, including at exactly 50 percent, Section 33.012 reduces your award by your percentage.
You generally do not have to give a recorded statement to another party's insurer. Your own policy may require you to cooperate with your own insurer. The carrier usually had investigators at the scene within hours and already has its own account of what happened.