Why a truck accident is always the truck company’s fault

Rule 10 of “Big 10 Rules of the Road”

• Presented by: Steven M. Gursten
• Description: This is the eleventh of a series of 13 videos for truck accident attorneys, on handling truck accident lawsuits. In this video, Steve Gursten shares Rule 10 of his “Big 10 Rules of the Road” during the American Association for Justice Interstate Truck Litigation Group conference. Rule 10, “It’s the motor carrier’s fault, not the trucker,” shows how a truck accident lawyer can put the onus for a truck accident on the trucking company. In other words, when motor carriers are being negligent and pushing their drivers to operate illegally, they must be held accountable.
• Length: 2 minutes, 2 seconds.

Video Transcript:

Slide: Do not aid or abet

A. No person shall said, abet, encourage, or require a motor carrier or its employees to violate FMCSA regulations

B. Perfect opportunity for finger-pointing

Do not aid or abet. If you’ve heard our current chair Morgan Adams speak in the past, he is absolutely dead-on and right that everyone of these cases must be about the motor carrier and not about the truck driver. And this rule let’s you do that. This rule makes it about the motor carrier, because whatever it is that the driver did, if you went over the hours of service, for example. If the driver says that dispatch made him do it, or the transportation manager made him do it, or the owner made him do it, or whatever it is, because he had a hot load and pressure to meet a deadline, this is how you get from the truck driver to the truck company. And the takeaway on this, from my own experience has been this: It is very, very rare to have a bad truck driver, a rogue truck driver, and have no one at that trucking company that knows about it. And what you’ll find when you start deposing these truck drivers, is normally they job hop quite frequently. And normally they’re at a new job by the time you get to them and depose them, is that they will not be willing to fall under a sword and take all the blame. They will blame the trucking company for forcing them, or pushing them to break truck driver laws. So this is how you get to the trucking company, and this is how you get to the reptile.

How the truck accident attorneys at Michigan Auto Law can help you

If you’re an attorney and you need help with your truck accident case, take a look at our online guide, Help for attorneys handling truck accident cases. For more information, here’s a blog on how truck companies dodge federal safety laws.

If you’ve been in a truck crash, call (800) 968-1001 to speak with one of our truck accident attorneys now. The call and the advice is free, and we’re here to answer all of your questions.