California Commercial Truck Accident Attorneys
California Truck Accident Lawyer
A serious truck collision can involve more than the driver who caused the crash. The motor carrier, vehicle owner, maintenance company, cargo operation, manufacturer or other parties may also need to be investigated. Burg & Brock identifies the responsible parties, preserves trucking evidence and evaluates every potentially applicable source of insurance.
UberLawyer.com is operated by the Law Offices of Burg & Brock, a California personal injury practice based in Sherman Oaks.
Since 1996
Cameron Yadidi Brock has been licensed to practice law in California since June 1996, State Bar No. 183112.
Injury only
The firm’s work is personal injury: motor vehicle collisions, catastrophic injury and wrongful death.
Free review
Talk through the collision with the firm before deciding anything. There is no charge for that conversation.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts.
The attorney behind this practice
Cameron Yadidi Brock
Founding Attorney, Law Offices of Burg & Brock · California State Bar No. 183112 · Admitted June 11, 1996
Do I Have a Truck Accident Injury Claim?
Potentially, if negligence or another legally actionable condition involving the truck driver, motor carrier, vehicle, cargo, roadway or another party contributed to the crash and caused injury.
What separates a commercial case from an ordinary collision is how many of those threads have to be pulled at once. The driver’s conduct is one question. Whether the company that dispatched him scheduled a run that could only be completed by driving past a legal limit is a different question, answered by different records. Whether the brakes had been inspected is a third.
Those records exist, in most commercial operations, because federal or state rules require them to exist. They are also held by the company whose conduct is in question, which is why the timing of a claim matters more here than in a two-car crash.
None of this is decided from the police report. It is decided from what the investigation turns up, and the investigation has to start while the evidence is still there.
Why Commercial Truck Accident Cases Are Different
An ordinary two-car collision is usually one driver, one policy and one set of facts. A commercial case is rarely any of those things, and the differences are not cosmetic.
More than one potential defendant
The driver may be one part of the case. A carrier, an owner, a maintenance provider, a loader or a manufacturer may each have contributed in a different way, and each may bring separate insurance.
Commercial safety rules can apply
Depending on the operation, federal or California motor carrier regulations may govern hours, qualification, inspection, maintenance and load securement. Whether they apply is itself a question of fact.
There is far more evidence, and it has a shelf life
Commercial operations generate driver records, dispatch records, maintenance histories and electronic data that ordinary drivers never create. Much of it is kept only for a set period.
The vehicles are heavier
A loaded commercial vehicle can weigh many times what a passenger car weighs. The forces involved mean injuries in these collisions are often severe, and the medical picture takes longer to resolve.
Different insurance rules can apply
Commercial operations can be subject to financial responsibility requirements that have nothing to do with private auto minimums, and may carry layers of coverage above the primary policy.
Company decisions can be part of the case
Hiring, training, supervision, dispatch, scheduling, maintenance and safety practices are company choices. Where the evidence supports it, those choices can be examined alongside the driver’s conduct.
If your collision involved an ordinary passenger vehicle rather than a commercial one, the California car accident page covers that ground instead.
Commercial Truck Accident Cases We Handle
“Truck accident” covers a wide range of vehicles and operations. Which rules apply, and which records exist, depends on what was actually being driven and who was operating it.
Tractor-Trailers and Semi Trucks
The classic long-haul configuration, and the one most likely to involve a federally regulated interstate carrier.
18-Wheelers
Tractor and trailer may be owned and maintained by different companies, which can put more than one business in the case.
Delivery Trucks
Route pressure, tight schedules and frequent stops. Ownership is often layered between a brand, a contractor and a driver.
Box Trucks
Common in local commercial work. Whether federal rules apply can turn on weight and on whether the operation crossed state lines.
Dump Trucks
Load weight, distribution and site conditions matter, and a construction project may add contractors to the analysis.
Construction Vehicles
Often operating near or on public roads. Project control and roadway conditions can become part of the case.
Tanker Trucks
Liquid loads shift in transit. Where the cargo is hazardous, different regulatory requirements can apply.
Utility and Service Trucks
Frequently stopping, reversing or working in traffic lanes, sometimes for a public agency, which changes the deadline analysis.
Commercial Fleet Vehicles
A vehicle no bigger than a van may still be a commercial operation with an employer, a policy and maintenance records behind it.
Other Heavy Commercial Vehicles
Refuse trucks, buses, car carriers, flatbeds and specialised equipment each carry their own operational and evidentiary questions.
Being a large vehicle does not automatically make an operation federally regulated. Which rules apply depends on the carrier, the vehicle, the cargo and whether the operation was interstate or purely within California.
Common Commercial Truck Crash Scenarios
Each pattern points the investigation somewhere different. What follows is what each one usually turns on, not a description of the crash itself.
Rear-End Collisions
Stopping distance for a loaded commercial vehicle is far longer than for a car. Following distance, brake condition and speed become the questions, and brake records can answer them.
Unsafe Lane Changes
Mirror coverage, signal use and what the driver could actually see. Damage patterns along both vehicles usually establish the geometry.
Wide-Turn Accidents
A tractor-trailer swinging left to complete a right turn can trap a vehicle alongside it. Turn planning, positioning and route suitability come into it.
Jackknife Crashes
The trailer swings out of line with the tractor. Braking, load distribution, road conditions and vehicle condition all feed into how it happened.
Underride and Override Collisions
A car passing under a trailer, or a truck riding over a smaller vehicle. Guard condition and equipment become central, and injuries are frequently catastrophic.
Cargo-Related Crashes
A load that shifts, falls or destabilises the trailer. Who loaded it, who secured it and who inspected it are separate questions with separate answers.
Tire and Mechanical Failure
A blowout or brake failure can be a maintenance issue, a component issue or both. The physical parts are evidence and should not be discarded.
Driver Fatigue
Rarely admitted and rarely visible at the scene. It is established, where it exists, through duty records, electronic data and the trip’s own timeline.
Distracted Driving
Phone records, in-cab systems and dispatch communications can show where a driver’s attention was. Much of it is only obtainable through the legal process.
Speeding and Following Too Closely
Many commercial vehicles record speed and braking data. That data has a retention window, which is why it is requested early.
Blind-Spot Collisions
Large vehicles have substantial areas the driver cannot see. Mirror setup, equipment and lane positioning all bear on whether the driver should have seen you.
Multi-Vehicle Freeway Crashes
Several vehicles, several insurers and competing accounts. Establishing the sequence of impacts early tends to decide how responsibility is divided.
Who Can Be Responsible for a Commercial Truck Crash?
Not every party below is responsible in any given case, and some will turn out to have no involvement at all. Each is simply a party that may need to be investigated before responsibility can be established.
The collision
Responsibility works outward from the vehicle to the people and businesses whose decisions put it on the road in that condition, on that schedule, with that load.
Truck Driver
Conduct behind the wheel, and compliance with the rules that applied to the driver.
Motor Carrier
The company operating the vehicle. Hiring, training, dispatch, scheduling and safety practice.
Vehicle Owner
Sometimes a different business from the operator, with its own responsibilities for the equipment.
Employer
Where the driver was working at the time, the employment relationship may bring the employer into the claim.
Maintenance or Repair Company
Where servicing, inspection or repair work bears on how the vehicle performed.
Trailer Owner
Tractor and trailer are frequently owned separately, with separate maintenance histories.
Cargo Loader or Shipper
Only where the facts and the legal theory support it. Who loaded and who secured the cargo are distinct questions.
Vehicle or Component Manufacturer
Where a tire, brake, coupling or other component failed rather than simply wore out.
Another Motorist
A third driver’s conduct can contribute to a truck collision without that driver ever being touched.
Government Entity
Only where roadway design, signage or maintenance facts support it. These claims carry much shorter deadlines.
Another Responsible Party
Brokers, contractors and other businesses in the chain, depending on their actual role.
Identifying every responsible party is not about widening a claim for its own sake. Each party may carry separate insurance, and where several contributed, California allocates non-economic damages by each defendant’s own share of fault under Civil Code section 1431.2. Missing a party can mean missing both the coverage and the correct allocation.
When Can the Trucking Company Be Responsible?
Not automatically, and not as a matter of course. A trucking company’s responsibility depends on the relationship it had with the driver and on its own conduct as a business.
Through the driver
Where the driver was acting within the scope of work for the company, the company may be responsible for that conduct. The employment or agency relationship, not the label on the contract, is what gets examined.
Through its own conduct
Hiring, training, supervision, dispatch and scheduling are the company’s decisions. Where the evidence shows a decision contributed to the crash, that is a separate route to responsibility from the driver’s conduct.
Through the equipment
Maintenance and inspection practice belongs to whoever was responsible for the vehicle. Records either show a system that was followed or they do not.
Through regulatory compliance
Where safety rules applied to the operation, whether they were followed is a question the records can answer. Non-compliance is evidence to be weighed, not an automatic finding of liability.
What this section deliberately does not say is that the trucking company is always liable for its driver’s crash. That is not the law, and a page that tells you otherwise is setting up an expectation the evidence may not support. Equally, an independent contractor label on a driver does not by itself end the question. The FAQ below covers it.
Do Federal Trucking Regulations Apply?
Sometimes. Not always. Whether federal motor carrier safety rules govern a particular truck is a question of fact, and it is one of the first questions worth answering, because it determines which records were required to exist in the first place.
Federally regulated operations
The federal rules generally reach a commercial motor vehicle operating in interstate commerce, broadly a vehicle rated at 10,001 pounds or more, or carrying enough passengers, or carrying placarded hazardous materials. Where they apply they cover hours of service, driver qualification, inspection, maintenance, load securement and recordkeeping.
California intrastate operations
A carrier operating only within California sits in a different framework. The state adopts some federal parts by statute and writes its own rules elsewhere, and on hours of service the state limits are materially different from the federal ones.
This distinction is not academic. A California intrastate truck driver and an interstate driver on the same freeway, in the same size vehicle, can be operating under different driving limits, different break requirements and different record retention obligations. Establishing which regime applied is part of the investigation, not a detail to be assumed.
Can Driver Fatigue Contribute to a Truck Accident?
It can, where the evidence supports it. Fatigue is not visible in a police report and is almost never admitted, so it is established, if at all, from records rather than from impressions.
For many federally regulated property-carrying drivers, hours-of-service rules in 49 CFR Part 395 set the outer limits of a working day.
11 hours
Driving limit
A driver may drive up to 11 hours, but only after 10 consecutive hours off duty.
14 hours
Duty window
Driving is not permitted beyond the fourteenth consecutive hour after coming on duty. It is a window, not fourteen hours of driving, and taking a break inside it does not push the end of it back.
30 minutes
Break requirement
After 8 cumulative hours of driving time, an interruption of at least 30 consecutive minutes is required. Since the 2020 amendment, on-duty-not-driving time can satisfy it.
Weekly limits also apply: 60 hours in 7 consecutive days, or 70 in 8, depending on whether the carrier operates every day of the week. A period may restart after 34 or more consecutive hours off duty.
Exceptions matter as much as the limits. Short-haul drivers operating within a 150 air-mile radius and released within 14 hours are treated differently, as are non-CDL property drivers, passenger-carrying drivers, agricultural operations and several other categories. California intrastate drivers are on a different schedule entirely: broadly 12 hours of driving within a 16-hour window, 80 hours in 8 days, and no state 30-minute break requirement.
How fatigue is actually established
A long shift is not a violation, and a violation is not automatically the cause of a collision. What the evidence can show is what the driver’s day actually looked like, and whether the trip as scheduled could be completed within the applicable limits. That comes from electronic logging data, duty records, dispatch records, the trip schedule, fuel and toll receipts, communications and GPS data, cross-checked against each other, because each can be incomplete on its own.
Which is why this section carries no statistic about how many crashes fatigue causes. The honest answer in any individual case is that the records decide it.
Was the Truck Driver Properly Qualified?
A crash does not by itself indicate a qualification problem, and most commercial drivers are properly licensed and medically certified. Where federal rules applied, though, the carrier was required to build and keep a driver qualification file, and that file either supports the hire or it does not.
Licensing
A valid commercial license of the right class, issued by a single state, with any endorsements the vehicle or cargo required.
Medical certification
Federal rules require periodic medical qualification, generally re-examined at least every 24 months and more often in some circumstances.
Driving history
The carrier is required to make inquiries into a driver’s record and prior employment, and to keep what it obtained.
Road test or equivalent
A road test, or an accepted equivalent, is part of the qualification process.
Training
What the driver was trained on, and whether it covered the vehicle and the conditions actually being driven.
Prior safety issues
Where legally discoverable and relevant to how the collision happened, rather than as a general character inquiry.
Driver qualification files are generally kept for the period of employment plus three years, which is longer than most of the operational records on this page. That makes them one of the more durable sources of evidence in a commercial case.
What If Poor Maintenance Contributed to the Crash?
A commercial vehicle that is not maintained does not usually fail all at once. It fails in one system, on one trip, and the records show whether anyone had been watching that system.
Where federal rules applied, the carrier was required to have a systematic inspection, repair and maintenance program and to keep records for each vehicle it controlled. Drivers were required to complete inspection reports at the end of each day’s work covering brakes, steering, lighting, tires, coupling devices and other listed systems, and the carrier was required to certify that any defect affecting safety had been repaired.
None of that means a maintenance failure occurred here. It means the question is answerable from documents rather than from argument, which is the whole point of asking for them early.
The vehicle itself can be evidence. A worn brake component, a failed tire or a damaged coupling is a physical fact that no record can contradict. Once the vehicle is repaired, sold or scrapped, that evidence is gone, and it usually goes long before anyone files anything.
Can Improperly Loaded or Secured Cargo Cause a Truck Crash?
It can, and the way it does is often indirect. Cargo does not have to leave the trailer to cause a collision. A load that shifts changes how the vehicle handles, and a driver can lose a vehicle that was stable when it left the yard.
Shifting load
Weight that moves in transit alters braking and stability, particularly in a turn or an evasive maneuver.
Falling cargo
Cargo leaving the vehicle becomes a hazard to everyone behind it, and securement rules exist specifically to prevent it.
Overweight or imbalanced loading
Distribution matters as much as total weight. An unevenly loaded trailer behaves differently from a heavy one.
Securement failure
Straps, chains, blocking and bracing are rated, and federal rules set out how much restraint a given load requires.
Trailer instability
Liquid loads move continuously. High or narrow loads change the vehicle’s center of gravity.
Who was responsible
The loader, the securer and the carrier may be different businesses, and the contracts between them do not always match what actually happened.
Where federal rules applied, a driver was generally required to inspect the cargo and its securement within the first 50 miles and to re-examine it as the trip progressed. There is an exception for sealed loads a driver has been ordered not to open, and for situations where inspection is impracticable, which is one reason responsibility for a shifted load is not automatically the driver’s, and not automatically the shipper’s either.
What If a Truck or Component Failed?
A component that fails may have been defective, may have been neglected, or may simply have reached the end of its life without anyone noticing. Those are different findings with different responsible parties, and the physical part is usually what separates them.
| Component | What the examination looks at |
|---|---|
| Tire failure | Manufacture, age, inflation history and inspection practice all bear on why a tire came apart. |
| Brake failure | Component condition, adjustment and service history, on a system that is inspected precisely because it wears. |
| Steering | A failure here is rarely survivable at speed and rarely ambiguous once examined. |
| Coupling | The connection between tractor and trailer, where design, maintenance and daily inspection all meet. |
| Trailer components | Often owned and serviced by a different business from the tractor, with separate records. |
| Lighting and conspicuity | Whether a vehicle could be seen, particularly in underride collisions and at night. |
Responsibility may fall on a manufacturer, a distributor, a maintenance provider, the vehicle owner, the carrier or another party, and it is not assigned until the component has been examined. A page that tells you a defect caused your crash before anyone has looked at the part is guessing.
Evidence That Can Matter After a Commercial Truck Crash
Not every category below exists in every case. Where an operation was federally regulated, much of it was required to exist, which is a different and stronger position than hoping something was written down.
Driver
- The driver’s own account
- License and qualification records
- Duty status information
- Electronic logging records where applicable
- Phone and communications where lawfully obtainable
Truck and trailer
- Vehicle damage and impact points
- Event and electronic data where available
- Inspection reports
- Maintenance and repair history
- Tires and brakes
- The physical components themselves
Company and operations
- Dispatch information
- Trip and route records
- Safety policies
- Relevant training records
- Carrier identity and operating authority
- Ownership and lease arrangements
- Insurance information
Crash and third-party
- Police and CHP records
- Photographs of the scene
- Dashcam footage
- Nearby surveillance video
- Witness accounts
- Roadway evidence
- Data from other vehicles
Why Early Preservation Matters
6 months
Under federal rules, a carrier must retain records of duty status and their supporting documents for not less than six months, and must keep a back-up copy of electronic logging records for the same period.
Other records run on their own clocks. Driver vehicle inspection reports are kept for three months. Maintenance records run about a year. Annual inspection reports run fourteen months. Driver qualification files last the longest, generally employment plus three years.
Commercial truck cases can involve records and physical evidence that may not remain available forever. That is not an accusation. Retention periods are set by regulation, and a company following the rules exactly may still no longer hold the logs from the week of your collision by the time a claim gets going.
This is also why the two-year filing deadline is a poor guide to urgency in a commercial case. Depending on the circumstances, an attorney may consider appropriate preservation measures early, so that the records and the vehicle are still there when the case needs them.
How Much Insurance Does a Commercial Truck Carry?
There is no single answer, and anyone offering one is describing a regulation rather than the crash you were in. What is required turns on the carrier, whether the operation was interstate or purely within California, the vehicle, the cargo and whether hazardous materials were involved. What is actually carried is a separate question again.
Federal financial responsibility rules illustrate the range rather than answering it:
$750,000
The minimum for many for-hire interstate carriers of nonhazardous property in vehicles rated at 10,001 pounds or more. This is the general freight figure, and it is the one most often misreported.
$1,000,000
Applies to oil, and to hazardous materials, waste and substances not covered by the bulk categories in the $5 million tier. It is not the general freight number.
$5,000,000
Reserved for specific bulk hazardous materials categories and certain radioactive quantities. It is not a general hazmat figure, and it can reach vehicles below the 10,001 pound threshold.
These are regulatory examples from 49 CFR 387.9, not an assumption about the policy behind any particular truck. A purely intrastate California carrier operates under separate state requirements, and a private carrier is treated differently from a for-hire one.
One distinction worth understanding, because it explains why a federal minimum is not a measure of coverage. The endorsement that guarantees a minimum to an injured member of the public is a form of surety, not insurance for the carrier. Its own text says the limits shown “do not provide coverage”, and where the insurer pays under it, the carrier has to reimburse the insurer. So the minimum tells you what a judgment creditor may reach. It tells you nothing about what the carrier bought.
A commercial case can involve several policies
The motor carrier’s liability policy
Usually the primary policy, and often larger than any regulatory minimum.
Excess or umbrella coverage
Sits above the primary layer. Whether it exists, and whether it responds, has to be established rather than assumed.
Another company’s coverage
A vehicle owner, maintenance provider, loader or broker may carry its own policy relevant to its own conduct.
Your own uninsured or underinsured coverage
May apply in some circumstances, subject to the policy terms and to California’s offset rules.
The work is to identify every potentially applicable policy rather than to accept the first one disclosed. And for completeness on the other side of the comparison: California’s minimum liability limits for ordinary private drivers rose on January 1, 2025 to $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 for more than one, and $15,000 for property damage. Those limits attach to policies issued or renewed on or after that date, so a policy written earlier and not yet renewed can still carry the previous, lower figures.
What Compensation May Be Available After a Truck Accident?
The categories are the same ones that apply to any serious injury claim. What differs in a commercial case is usually the scale of the loss and the number of policies that may respond to it.
Medical expenses
Emergency care, surgery, imaging, rehabilitation and the treatment in between.
Future medical care
Treatment that will still be needed after the claim resolves.
Lost income
Wages, shifts and self-employed earnings lost while recovering.
Reduced earning capacity
Where an injury changes what a person is able to earn going forward.
Pain and suffering
The non-economic harm the injury caused, which is real but not invoiced.
Physical impairment
Lasting limits on movement, function or independence.
Property damage
The vehicle and the property in it.
Other supported losses
Out-of-pocket costs the collision created, where they can be documented.
A commercial policy being larger does not by itself make a claim worth more. What a claim is worth depends on the losses that can be proved, not on the size of the policy behind the defendant.
Serious Injuries in Commercial Truck Collisions
The weight difference between a loaded commercial vehicle and a passenger car is the reason these collisions so often produce injuries that change how someone lives.
- Traumatic brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Fractures
- Crush injuries
- Internal injuries
- Amputation
- Burns
- Paralysis
- Catastrophic injury
- Fatal injuries
Where an injury will require care for years, the value of that future care has to be established rather than estimated. That work belongs at the start of a claim, not at the end.
What If a Family Member Was Killed in a Truck Crash?
Where a collision is fatal, California law may give certain surviving family members the right to bring a claim. Who may bring it, and what may be recovered, depends on the relationship to the person who died and on the circumstances of the death.
These claims run on the same two-year limitation period as other personal injury actions under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, and the same shorter deadline applies where a public entity may be responsible.
This is the part of a truck case where the investigation and the family’s need to be left alone are hardest to reconcile. The evidence work does not wait, but it also does not have to be the family’s job.
What Should I Do After a Commercial Truck Accident?
01
Get appropriate medical care
For anyone hurt, including yourself. Adrenaline hides a great deal at the scene.
02
Contact law enforcement when appropriate
Where there is injury or death, Vehicle Code section 20008 requires a written report to police or the CHP within 24 hours. The same section puts drivers of common carrier vehicles on a different timetable, reporting by the tenth day of the following month.
03
Document the vehicles and scene
From where you are safely standing. Wide shots for position, closer shots for damage.
04
Identify the truck, trailer and carrier
Company name, tractor and trailer numbers, and the license plates of both if they are visible.
05
Photograph DOT and company markings if it is safe
Only from a safe distance. Never approach a commercial vehicle in a live traffic lane or an unstable scene to get a photograph.
06
Identify witnesses
A name and a phone number taken at the scene is worth more than a memory of a face.
07
Preserve dashcam and digital evidence
Save your own footage before the device overwrites it, and note any nearby cameras.
08
Save medical, wage and property records
Bills, treatment notes, time away from work and repair or valuation documents.
09
Be careful with an early final settlement
A release signed before the medical picture is clear is difficult to undo.
10
Consider legal advice in a serious commercial case
The records that matter are held by the company whose conduct is in question, and they are not kept indefinitely.
How Do We Identify the Trucking Company Involved?
The name painted on the door is a starting point, not an answer. The business that owns the tractor, the business that owns the trailer, the business holding the operating authority and the driver’s actual employer can be four different companies.
Company markings
Useful, but branding can belong to a contracting arrangement rather than the operator.
DOT number
Displayed on many commercial vehicles and traceable to a registered carrier record.
Plates and unit numbers
Tractor and trailer are separately identified and may trace to different owners.
The police or CHP report
Usually records the carrier, driver and insurance information collected at the scene.
Insurance exchange
Identifies a policy, though not necessarily every policy that may respond.
Carrier records
Registration, operating authority and lease arrangements establish who was actually running the vehicle.
Should I Talk to the Trucking Company or Its Insurer?
In a serious commercial collision, contact often comes quickly, and it may come from a carrier representative, an insurer, an adjuster or an investigator working for one of them. That is normal, and it is not evidence of bad faith. It does mean the people contacting you are working for someone else.
Before giving a recorded statement, signing a broad medical authorization or accepting a final release, it is reasonable to understand four things.
Who is asking
The person, and the company they are calling from.
Whom they represent
An adjuster or investigator for the carrier represents the carrier.
What is being requested
A broad authorization can reach records that have nothing to do with this collision.
What rights may be affected
A release ends a claim, including the parts of it not yet known.
How Burg & Brock Investigates a Commercial Truck Accident
01
Identify the driver, truck and motor carrier
Including the owners, lessees and operating authority behind the vehicle.
02
Preserve crash and commercial evidence
Written preservation demands for records and data that are otherwise kept only for a limited period.
03
Investigate driver conduct
What the driver did, and what the physical and electronic evidence shows about it.
04
Review hours and qualifications where relevant
Duty records, logs and driver qualification materials, where those rules applied to the operation.
05
Investigate maintenance and vehicle condition
Inspection and repair history, and examination of the vehicle itself where it can be secured.
06
Investigate cargo and operations where relevant
What was carried, who loaded it, who secured it and how the trip was scheduled.
07
Identify every responsible party and policy
Including layers of coverage above the primary policy and coverage held by other businesses.
08
Document injuries and financial losses
Medical records, treating physician input on future care, earnings and out-of-pocket costs.
09
Negotiate or litigate when necessary
Filing suit where a claim cannot be resolved on acceptable terms.
How Long Do I Have to File a California Truck Accident Claim?
2 years*
Many California personal injury lawsuits generally have a two-year limitation period running from the date of injury, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1.
*This is not a universal deadline. Government-related defendants, different causes of action and other circumstances can carry shorter or different requirements.
Government entities: 6 months
Where a public agency may be responsible, an administrative claim must generally be presented within six months under Government Code section 911.2, and presenting it is a prerequisite to filing suit.
Property damage: 3 years
California Courts lists a general three-year period for property damage actions. It is a different deadline from the injury one and should not be confused with it.
Evidence has its own clock
Commercial records and electronic data are retained for defined periods far shorter than any filing deadline. The legal deadline is not the evidence deadline.
If a city, county or state vehicle was involved, or a roadway condition may have contributed, the six-month clock is the one to check first.
How Much Is a Truck Accident Case Worth?
There is no reliable online calculator that can determine the value of an individual truck accident claim, and a commercial defendant does not set a floor under one.
- Injury severity
- Future treatment
- Permanent effects
- Lost income
- Reduced earning capacity
- Fault
- Commercial liability
- Available insurance
- Number of responsible parties
- Strength of the evidence
- Regulatory issues
- Whether litigation is needed
Policy limits are not the same thing as case value. A large commercial policy tells you what may be available to pay a claim. It tells you nothing about what a particular claim is worth, which depends on the losses that can actually be proved.
The Attorney Behind This Practice
Cameron Yadidi Brock
Founding Attorney, Law Offices of Burg & Brock
California State Bar No. 183112
Admitted to the State Bar of California, June 11, 1996
Cameron Yadidi Brock founded the practice that operates UberLawyer.com and has spent his career representing injured people in motor vehicle cases. The firm’s work covers personal injury, motor vehicle collisions, catastrophic injury and wrongful death.
Commercial cases reward preparation over volume. The questions that decide them, which company was actually operating the vehicle, what the maintenance history shows, whether the schedule was possible to drive legally, are not answered at the scene. They are answered by records that have to be asked for in time.
Why Burg & Brock
Personal injury focus
The firm represents injured people. It is not a general practice that takes injury cases when they arrive.
In California since 1996
Cameron Yadidi Brock has been licensed in California since June 1996, and the practice has worked California motor vehicle claims throughout.
Motor vehicle experience
Ordinary collisions, multi-vehicle crashes, commercial vehicles and rideshare claims, each with its own coverage and evidence questions.
Catastrophic injury work
Cases where the medical picture and the future care needs are the largest part of the claim.
Contingency representation
Ask how fees and case costs are handled before you decide anything. Both should be explained to you in writing.
Litigation capability
Claims that cannot be resolved on acceptable terms can be filed and tried rather than accepted.
Frequently Asked Questions About California Truck Accidents
What makes a truck accident different from a car accident?
Three things: there is usually more than one potential defendant, commercial safety rules may apply to the operation, and the case generates records an ordinary collision never produces. A car crash is largely reconstructed from the scene. A commercial case is reconstructed from the scene plus the company’s own paperwork.
Who can be liable for a commercial truck crash?
Potentially the driver, the motor carrier, the vehicle or trailer owner, an employer, a maintenance company, a cargo loader, a component manufacturer, another motorist or a government entity. Which of them is actually responsible is settled by the evidence. Each may need to be investigated, and each may carry separate insurance.
Can the trucking company be responsible for its driver?
It can, but not automatically. Where the driver was acting within the scope of work, the company may be responsible for that conduct. The company may also be responsible for its own decisions about hiring, training, supervision, dispatch and maintenance. Both routes depend on facts rather than on the driver’s job title.
What records can show whether the truck driver was fatigued?
Electronic logging data, duty status records, dispatch records, the trip schedule, fuel and toll receipts, communications and GPS data. They are cross-checked against each other because any one of them can be incomplete. Fatigue is almost never established from the police report.
What are truck driver hours-of-service rules?
For many federally regulated property-carrying drivers: up to 11 hours of driving after 10 consecutive hours off duty, no driving beyond the fourteenth hour after coming on duty, a 30-minute break after 8 cumulative hours of driving, and weekly limits of 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8. Exceptions apply, and California intrastate drivers follow different limits.
Do federal trucking regulations apply to every truck?
No. They generally reach commercial motor vehicles operating in interstate commerce, broadly those rated at 10,001 pounds or more, carrying enough passengers, or carrying placarded hazardous materials. A carrier operating only within California is governed by state rules that differ, particularly on hours of service.
What if poor truck maintenance caused the crash?
Where federal rules applied, the carrier had to run a systematic inspection and maintenance program and keep records, and drivers had to file inspection reports covering brakes, steering, lighting, tires and coupling devices. Those records either show a system that was followed or they do not. The vehicle itself is also evidence, which is why securing it matters.
Who can be responsible for improperly loaded cargo?
That turns on who loaded it, who secured it, what the contracts said and what the driver was able to inspect. Federal rules generally require a driver to check securement within the first 50 miles, but there is an exception for sealed loads a driver was told not to open. Responsibility falls where the facts put it, not on the shipper or the driver by default.
How much insurance does a commercial truck carry?
There is no single figure. Federal minimums vary by carrier type, vehicle, cargo and whether hazardous materials are involved, and a purely intrastate California carrier is under separate state requirements. What a carrier actually purchased is a different question from the regulatory minimum, and both have to be established.
Is every truck required to have $1 million in insurance?
No, and this is one of the most repeated errors about trucking. The federal minimum for many for-hire interstate carriers of general freight is $750,000. The $1 million figure applies to oil and to certain hazardous materials, and $5 million applies only to specific bulk hazardous categories.
What if the truck driver was an independent contractor?
The contractual label does not by itself resolve every liability question. The driver’s work, the carrier relationship, how the vehicle was operated, the regulatory responsibilities involved and the surrounding facts all have to be evaluated. An independent contractor designation is a fact to examine, not an answer, and it does not automatically end a claim against the company.
What if more than one company was involved?
That is common. The tractor owner, the trailer owner, the carrier holding operating authority and the driver’s employer can be four different businesses, and a broker or shipper may sit above them. Each may carry separate insurance, and where several contributed, California allocates non-economic damages by each defendant’s own share of fault.
What evidence should be preserved after a truck crash?
Driver duty and logging records, vehicle event data, inspection and maintenance histories, dispatch and trip records, and the vehicle and its components. Retention periods are short: duty records and electronic logging back-ups are kept for six months, and driver inspection reports for three. Waiting is what loses them.
What if a family member died in the collision?
California law may give certain surviving family members the right to bring a claim, depending on the relationship and the circumstances. The two-year limitation period generally applies, and the six-month deadline applies where a public entity may be responsible. The investigation work does not have to be the family’s job.
How long do I have to file a California truck accident claim?
Many California personal injury actions carry a two-year limitation period under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. It is not universal: claims involving a public entity generally require an administrative claim within six months, and property damage carries a three-year period. The evidence deadlines are much shorter than any of these.
How much is a truck accident claim worth?
Value turns on injury severity, future treatment, permanent effects, lost earnings and earning capacity, fault, available insurance, the number of responsible parties and the strength of the evidence. A larger commercial policy does not set a floor under a claim. Policy limits and case value are two different things.
How much does a truck accident lawyer cost?
The initial case review is free and puts you under no obligation. Ask any firm you speak with to explain in writing how its fee is calculated and how case costs are handled if there is no recovery, because fees and costs are two separate things.
Talk to a California Truck Accident Lawyer
Commercial truck cases can involve the driver, motor carrier, vehicle, maintenance, cargo, insurance and other parties. Burg & Brock can investigate the evidence and determine which parties and policies may be relevant to your claim.
Free consultation. Ask us how fees and case costs are handled before you decide anything.
Attorney Advertising. This page is provided by the Law Offices of Burg & Brock, which operates UberLawyer.com, with an office of record in Sherman Oaks, California. Cameron Yadidi Brock, California State Bar No. 183112, is responsible for its content.
The information here is general in nature, describes California and federal law as of September 2026, and is not legal advice for any particular situation. Whether any regulation described on this page applies to a specific collision depends on the carrier, vehicle, cargo and operation involved. Reading this page or contacting the firm through it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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