Finding All Insurance After a Michigan Truck Accident

Most lawyers inexperienced with truck accident cases make one critical mistake — they fail to identity all of the possible defendants and insurance policies during their legal investigation. In the event of a catastrophic injury or wrongful death, finding all the applicable insurance to protect the accident victims or family of a lost loved one becomes essential to ensuring the most adequate recovery possible.

The relationship between the truck driver and the company, as well as other potential parties must be determined. To do so, a truck accident lawyer must look at all of the contractual relationships to identify responsibility for insurance coverage and sister corporations that may also bear financial responsibility. Truck accident lawyers should identify the following if applicable: any independent contractor, owner, lessor, lessee, load broker, shipper and purchaser. Lawyers should remember to plead fictitious parties in the complaint in order to add additional parties who may later be determined to have responsibility.

After all possible defendants have been established, investigate the company conduct and how it contributed to the truck accident. Not only is the trucking company responsible for putting its drivers on the roads, but the company is charged with ensuring they are competent, well-trained and safe. Therefore, research the following questions:

• Is the commercial truck company encouraging unsafe driving practices?
• Is it supervising the drivers?
• Is the trucking company hiring truckers that have caused other truck accidents (including in other states) and who have a history of unsafe driving?
• Does the trucking company comply with its own safety standards?
• Was the company negligent in hiring or retaining the employee who was at-fault for the truck accident?

Look at the trucking company’s hiring policy, driver training process, safety procedures, discipline procedures, accident classification policies and systems, compensation and bonus practices, employee manual and employee file. Look at sign-in sheets and documents distributed to drivers and employees during company safety meetings. Also, a motor carrier’s mission statement can be telling.

Often, a deposition of the safety director of the trucking company may be required. Discover what industry resources the safety director uses in carrying out his or her job. In addition to the safety director, a dispatcher may need to be deposed to determine his or her knowledge about the truck crash, subsequent communication with the driver after the crash, the computer programs used by the company and the dispatcher’s familiarity with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations.

The Internet can be a useful tool in conducting the preliminary investigation on Michigan trucking companies as well. Check out the company’s Web site and print out the pages with the date on them.  
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