Living in Stockton inevitably involves spending considerable time on I-5, making local residents witness many tractor-trailer crashes and traffic jams resulting from collisions involving large trucks.

Whether these trucks carry produce for processing or pallets of goods bound for Stockton’s Walmart or Weberstown Mall, their sheer size poses unprecedented dangers to other motorists navigating the roads and highways of San Joaquin County.

If you have suffered injuries in a truck accident, don’t hesitate to contact our skilled personal injury attorneys at (209) 227-1931 for a complimentary case assessment.

As experienced personal injury attorneys, we have been representing Stockton residents seriously hurt by negligent truck drivers and commercial carriers since 1982. This experience is invaluable when taking on large trucking companies and their national insurance carriers.

The best truck accident attorney in Stockton must have extensive knowledge of the unique issues involved in trucking litigation. Trucking accidents often constitute the most deadly motor vehicle collisions because of the size and weight disparity between a massive commercial truck and a passenger car. A fully loaded tractor-trailer can weigh 26 times more than a passenger vehicle.

Other factors make trucking accident lawsuits unique, including the need to possess comprehensive knowledge of the extensive matrix of state and federal regulations that govern the trucking industry. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is the primary regulatory agency for commercial carriers and truck drivers engaged in interstate trucking (i.e., trucking across state lines).

For trucking companies that operate exclusively within California (intrastate), the California Department of Transportation is the primary regulatory agency. Trucking accident lawsuits also are complicated by the widespread trucking industry practice of distorting or hiding critical evidence.

When searching for the best trucking accident attorney in Stockton to handle your case, you want to work with a law firm with extensive experience handling commercial truck litigation.  

Our personal injury law firm routinely works with experts in the trucking industry. We’ve had extensive experience dealing with commercial carriers that attempt to avoid liability by hastily repairing commercial trucks, doctoring driver logbooks, and “losing” data stored in the truck’s “black box” data recorder.  

This evidence can be essential to proving issues, such as safety violations by the driver or trucking company and the role of driver or trucking company negligence in causing your injuries.

Our injury lawyers recognize the importance of acting quickly. This ensures that the commercial truck involved in the accident is not put back into service and critical evidence does not disappear.

If damage to the truck is repaired, these changes to the vehicle’s condition can impair the efforts of accident reconstruction experts. Further, the onboard data recorder that functions as the “black box” in a commercial flight might record over previously-stored data when the truck is placed back in service.

While most truck drivers are conscientious, unrealistic shipping schedules that result from economic pressure or carriers trying to increase profits can result in drivers making critical driving errors. An experienced attorney knows that most truck accidents in Stockton are caused by avoidable mistakes that include:

• Speeding to deliver a load more rapidly
• Exceeding maximum time behind the wheel without adequate rest
• Failure to check blind spots
• Lack of screening of driving records when hiring
• Lack of vehicle maintenance 
• Poor route selection, including those with steep grades
• Failure to conduct vehicle inspections
• Use of alcohol or drugs 
• Inadequate supervision and training of truck drivers

We have extensive experience representing injured parties and families of decedents as personal injury attorneys. We recognize the importance of proactive steps to preserve and gather evidence in trucking litigation. While truck drivers must keep logbooks that track hours of service (HOS) to reduce the risk of fatigue-related tractor-trailer crashes, drivers often manipulate the entries or keep two sets of books. We analyze fuel receipts, “black box” data, lodging records, GPS data, and other information to expose falsified logbooks.

Our lawyers also routinely send a spoliation notice to the trucking company advising that the big-rig and black box data are the subjects of litigation.   Also known as a letter of preservation of evidence, this notice warns the commercial carrier that alteration or destruction of the indicated evidence will expose the carrier to the risk of sanctions.

These sanctions can amount to an attorney fee award or the court entering rulings that impair the defense’s position on specific issues or about certain evidence. In some cases, our attorneys will even seek temporary restraining orders from a judge to prevent the loss or alteration of valuable evidence.

A crash involving a semi-truck and a passenger vehicle often results in catastrophic injury or wrongful death. Because of the substantial difference in mass between commercial trucks and passenger vehicles, it is almost always the case that the passenger vehicle occupants are the ones who suffer devastating injuries.

A trucking accident can result in the inability to provide for one’s family or enjoy simple life experiences free of pain. From our experience with commercial truck accidents in San Joaquin County and throughout California, we know how these collisions often result in serious injuries that include:

• Spinal cord injuries (paraplegia, quadriplegia)
• Traumatic Brain Injuries
• Injury to Internal Organs
• Loss of Extremities
• Bone Crush Injuries
• Extensive Burns
• Wrongful Death