Truck Accident Lawyers

Trucks are an essential part of the American economy -- but on the road, they can be deadly. Thanks to lax federal regulations and manufacturers that put profit first, personal trucks like pickups aren’t held to the same safety standards as passenger cars, even though they’re often used for the same purposes. Large commercial trucks like tractor-trailers or eighteen-wheelers weigh up to 20 times as much as a passenger car, virtually guaranteeing that they’ll crush smaller vehicles in an accident. Worse, some truckers and trucking companies, in an effort to maximize profits and make their deadlines, ignore safety regulations. Victims of truck accidents -- those in or outside the truck -- are likely to be killed or sustain brain damage, spinal injuries, amputations and other very serious injuries.

Commercial truck drivers are professionals with special training and special safety regulations governing when and how they may drive. Truckers and trucking companies routinely ignore those laws in order to meet strict delivery deadlines. Sometimes, that leads to truckers piloting ten-ton vehicles on very little sleep, or taking drugs to stay awake. At other times, trucking companies fail to maintain brakes, tires, lights and other equipment, putting their own drivers and everyone around them at risk of a serious truck accident. And a few unscrupulous companies knowingly employ cheap but unqualified drivers who never earned a commercial driver’s license in the first place. Federal statistics show that large trucks are only three percent of the vehicles on our roads but are involved in 12 percent of traffic fatalities.

Smaller and personal trucks share some of these dangers. They may not weigh 80,000 pounds, but they’re still taller and higher than many of the passenger cars on the road, giving them the potential to crush smaller vehicles in an auto accident. Statistics show that pickups and other personal trucks are also more than twice as likely as passenger cars to have a fatal rollover accident. And recent-model pickups have seen a slew of recalls and product defects that can put their occupants at grave risk, including defective tires, door latches that don’t work and improperly secured seat belts.

Panish, Shea & Boyle has a strong record of success in litigation over car and truck accidents. Our recent wins include a $21 million settlement for a child killed by a municipal truck that ran onto a sidewalk; and $5.64 million for a teen who was brain-injured and needed multiple facial surgeries after a commercial truck ran a red light and hit her family’s minivan. Together, our attorneys have won more than 150 verdicts or settlements of $1 million or more, including several that number in the tens of millions or higher.

Panish, Shea & Boyle personal injury attorneys are nationally recognized as leaders in auto part defects and auto accident litigation, in part because they’ve won record verdicts and settlements. Partners Brian Panish and Keven Shea have made headlines with the nation’s largest defective tire verdict and the largest jury verdict of any kind in U.S. legal history. We have the expertise, skills and resources to take on and win these complicated, lengthy cases. Our attorneys have repeatedly been honored as leaders among consumer-focused lawyers, and frequently speak and write to other attorneys about consumer law.