Articles Posted in Trucking Litigation

If we have a nearly unique niche in our law practice it is the search for vastly more insurance for catastrophic truck crash cases where the visible insurance coverage is terribly inadequate. Other law firms — in Georgia and elsewhere — call us in to handle that part of a wrongful death or catastrophic personal…

What do you do when insurance coverage is grossly inadequate for a catastrophic truck crash personal injury or wrongful death case? Big truck wrecks can cause a lot of carnage. When a small passenger car is run over at highway speed by a 80,000 pound tractor trailer bigger than a Sherman tank, a tremendous amount…

Ken Shigley of Atlanta, who was president of the State Bar of Georgia in 2011-12, is now chair of the largest practice area section in the American Association for Justice (AAJ), the national organization of plaintiffs’ trial attorneys. Shigley took the helm of the Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section of AAJ and…

The families of the Georgia Southern nursing students killed or injured this week when a tractor trailer ran over them on I-16 bear a huge burden of pain and grief. As a parent, I cannot imagine anything worse than the sudden death of a child who has had you wrapped around her finger from the…

For years, whenever I have visited Savannah, I have loved to sit at the riverfront and watch with fascination the huge ships stream past, with freight containers stacked high like a child’s colorful building blocks, filled with goods shipped to and from distant shores. On Georgia highways – especially I-16, I-95, I-75 and I-85 –…

Several times recently, I have written about the projected inflation adjustment to minimum liability insurance coverages for interstate commercial vehicles. The process continues. A few days ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a 14-page Report to Congress, concluding the following: 1. Current limits are inadequate in covering catastrophic crashes. 2. Simply adjusting existing…

When a commercial truck driver is killed or seriously injured due to the negligence of the driver of a smaller vehicle, it is important to find out whether the insurance policy on the commercial truck includes uninsured / underinsured (UM/UIM) coverage. If so, that UM/UIM coverage would be available to compensate the truck driver or his/her…

In our Atlanta personal injury and wrongful death law practice, which includes many accidents involving large commercial trucks, we sometimes encounter instances of parts flying off trucks and striking other vehicles. Fortunately, it is rare for cases like one in Texas that occurred in 2012. In that case, a South Texas jury returned a verdict…

NOTE TO TRUCK DRIVERS: Our law practice focuses on representation of people who are seriously injured, and families of those killed, in crashes with large commercial vehicles. While those are often truck drivers, we do not handle truckers’ employment law matters. For legal advice on issues with your employer, see Truckers Justice Center.    As…

Georgia has long allowed people hurt in wrecks with intrastate trucking companies to sue the trucking company’s insurer directly, either alone or in the same lawsuit with the trucking company and truck driver. But it is necessary to have independent grounds for venue as to both in order to sue both the insurer and trucking…