Commercial Trucking Crashes Are Not Just Big Car Wrecks

Any lawyer who assumes that a large commercial truck crash is just a bigger car
wreck is dangerously naive. Investigation, discovery, technology and law involved in the
crashes of large commercial trucks are substantially different from other motor vehicle
accident cases.

Counsel must be familiar with a national body of trucking law based primarily on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, technology in the trucking industry, trucking insurance coverage issues, multistate discovery practice, and other aspects of investigation and discovery particular to trucking litigation.

Lawyers who are not prepared to invest the time required to master the intricacies involved should consider the ethical duty to associate other counsel.

Since many interstate trucking cases are removed to federal courts, competent handling includes and familiarity federal court practice and local rules.

For criteria useful in selecting an attorney, see The Smart Consumer’s Guide to Hiring a Great Lawyer.

Ken Shigley is a civil justice attorney in Atlanta, Georgia who has been listed among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale).  He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Mr. Shigley has extensive experience representing parties in trucking and bus accidents, products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases.  Currently he is Treasurer of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.