Michigan Logging Truck Accident Lawyer: No Fees Unless We Win!
If you or a loved one has been injured in a crash involving a log truck in Michigan, one of the most important things you can do is hire an experienced truck accident lawyer who has the specialized knowledge and skill to get you the best possible result in your case.
These types of cases are different from other types of truck crashes, and they’re nothing like automobile accident cases involving passenger cars. Because of the extremely heavy loads they carry and the increased frequency of rollovers, these cases often involve catastrophic injuries and death.
Experience with these cases is paramount when hiring a Michigan log truck accident lawyer.
To find out what your case may be worth, please check out our Settlement Calculator.
Truck types
Often called a timber lorry, a logging truck will generally come in one of two types:
- Long logger trucks (transporting logs 28-52 feet in length), and
- Mule train trucks or “short logger” (transporting logs/pulp 14-24 feet in length).
How common are crashes?
Our Michigan log truck accident lawyers are aware that logging truck crashes have been on the rise across the United States. The reported number of log trucks involved in a fatal crash increased 41% over a five-year period.
Although few studies have characterized these crashes by region, crashes occurred more frequently in more forest-dense areas of the country, such as northern Michigan and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
A Michigan Department of Transportation study of 96 timber truck accidents over a 3-year period in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan indicated that 64.6% involved a log truck and another vehicle whereas 25% were single-vehicle accidents.
Causes of log truck accidents
Our Michigan log truck accident lawyers understad the causes for crashes involving loggin trucks include driver error, driver fatigue, lack of training, speeding, and so forth, but there are several safety concerns that are unique to log trucks.
Dangers of rural driving
Our Michigan log truck accident lawyers know that these types of trucks often have to take rural roads to reach their destinations. Driving a heavy truck loaded with timber on often very narrow rural roads is often fraught with danger. This danger is exacerbated by truckers who choose to take rural roads to bypass weigh stations and avoid fines for driving an overweight load. Either way, this puts the log truck at greater risk for a tragic crash involving unsuspecting motorists.
Dangers of night driving
Log trucks are often driving on the road in the middle of the night so they can be first in line at a lumber mill when it opens in the morning. Our Michigan truck accident lawyers recognize that this is a common strategy that may help logging companies save money and increase the loads for logging transportation companies, but it also significantly increases the risk of a serious wreck due to poor lighting and driver fatigue.
Dangers of loose or improperly loaded cargo, and overloading
This factor is particularly unique to log-hauling vehicles as the cargo is all shapes and sizes. If the load is not secured properly, or improperly loaded, the timber can shift, causing the truck driver to lose control or causing a rollover accident.
Driver error
Michigan Auto Law is one of the few law firms in the country today with significant litigation experience in this area. Although our attorneys primarily handle cases in the state of Michigan, we have also litigated serious truck accident cases in 14 states, from California and Arizona to Florida. Often this is at the request of attorneys who hear our attorneys speak at trucking seminars throughout the nation. Steven Gursten, the head of Michigan Auto Law, is a past-President of the AAJ Truck Accident Litigation Group and has been voted by his peers as one of only 3 lawyers to win the “AAJ Truck Accident Lawyer Hall of Fame” award. He has spoken at over 200 trucking seminars in 27 states.
Our Michigan lawyers have found that there are often common causes in log truck accident cases. The most common is driver error. Tipping-over accidents are also common when the timber is not properly chained or strapped down. Night driving and fatigue, often exacerbated by narrow and very dark rural roads, are another significant factor in wrecks involving these types of vehicles. When the log truck driver causes a wreck and is at fault, the company that owns the log truck and employs the driver is also liable and legally responsible. Companies in Michigan are responsible under the state’s owners liability statute, and in addition they have a non-delegable duty to safely train, supervise, and monitor their drivers, as it does with all commercial motor carriers.
Crashes involving these vehicles are usually part of a larger failure in the trucking company’s safety management systems, whether that be negligent hiring, training, or supervision and monitoring of drivers.
Our Michigan log truck accident lawyers are informed of other common logging truck driver-related causes of crashes which include: (1) negligent hiring of unsafe and unqualified drivers; (2) drivers operating vehicles under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs and/or prescription medication; (3) dangerous out-of-service-trucks caused by improper maintenance; (4) truck driver fatigue due to hours-of-service violations; (5) distracted driving; (6) violating traffic laws; (7) speeding; (8) failing to yield; (9) improper lane usage; (10) lack of training and experience; (11) shifting of negligently loaded cargo and freight.
Significantly, financially incentivizing drivers to make multiple runs per day (and night) and paying by the mile instead of by the hour also contributes to driver fatigue, impaired judgment, and often incentivizes drivers to speed, as the more miles they drive, the more they are paid.
Log truck accident liability
Our Michigan log truck accident lawyers realize that liability for these serious and all too often deadly crashes generally starts with the driver, the trucking company, and the owner of the tractor (or cab) and the trailer. Other potentially liable parties may also include the maintenance company, the loading company and a load broker if a third-party was involved in selecting an unsafe trucking company to ship freight.
Pain and suffering after a log truck accident
When you have been seriously injured in a log truck accident in Michigan, you can hire a lawyer to recover pain and suffering compensation and other economic damages from the logging trucking company, the at-fault truck driver and any other responsible parties involved in the crash. A party can be responsible even if they aren’t implicated in the sequences of events that occur just before a crash occurs. For example, a maintenance company that failed to properly maintain steer tires, or a load broker that negligently selects an unsafe trucking company can also face liability.
Wrongful death lawsuit after a log truck accident
If you have lost a loved one in a log truck accident in Michigan, you and your family can hire a lawyer pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the trucking company, the at-fault logging truck driver and other responsible parties.
A Michigan wrongful death lawsuit after a logging truck crash allows you and your family to recover damages for: (1) medical, hospital, funeral, and burial expenses; (2) pain and suffering compensation; and (3) loss of the deceased’s financial support, society and companionship.
Who can you sue for a log truck accident?
An experienced Michigan log truck accident lawyer will help you determine which of the following parties you may be able to sue after a logging truck crash: (1) the trucking company; (2) the log truck driver who caused the crash; (3) the maintenance company; and (4) the log truck manufacturer.
Settlement and compensation
Your settlement in this type of case will, as with any personal injury case, partly depend on how much liability insurance coverage the driver and the trucking company are carrying on the log truck involved in your crash.
Federal law requires interstate commercial trucks to have a minimum of $750,000 to cover bodily injury and property damage. Often, however, there are additional layers of insurance or an insurance tower that has several layers of insurance. This is one reason why it is so important to hire an experienced Michigan log truck accident lawyer so all layers of insurance and all responsible parties can be identified. Other factors that may affect the amount of your settlement after a crash involving a log-hauling vehicle include: (1) your injuries; (2) your accident-related medical needs (present and future); (3) whether and for how long your injuries will disable you from working; and (4) your attorney’s experience and track record.
Were you injured in a log truck accident in Michigan and need a lawyer? Get help now!
If you are injured in a log truck accident and you want to know about your legal rights to sue for pain and suffering compensation as well as other noneconomic and economic damages, you can speak to an experienced truck accident lawyer at (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation. You can also get help from an experienced log truck attorney by visiting our contact page or chat feature on our website.
Michigan Auto Law specializes in all types of truck accident cases, including log truck accidents, and receives referrals from lawyers all over Michigan and the U.S. Michigan Auto Law attorneys have spoken at nearly 300 seminars and legal education programs throughout the country, educating other personal injury lawyers on how to handle truck accident cases. Attorney Steven Gursten is a past-president of the American Association for Justice’s Truck Accident Litigation Group and has been voted into the Truck Accident Lawyer Hall of Fame, one of only three trucking lawyers in the entire country to have won this award. Michigan Auto Law is also the only law firm in Michigan that has national board certification in truck accident law.
Our law firm has an extensive record of success, including recovering the highest recorded truck accident jury verdicts and settlements over multiple years, according to year-end compilations of settlements and trial verdicts by Michigan Lawyers Weekly. These include:
- $34.5 Million – A Michigan Auto Law attorney and his team secured the largest-reported tractor-trailer crash settlement in the U.S. for the year of this crash. It is the largest truck settlement to date by any Michigan attorney or law firm. The defense’s “final offer” before trial was $14 million. The case settled for $34.5 million in trial.
- $14.3 Million – Our attorneys won this truck accident verdict in Clinton County in a case involving a traumatic brain injury, extensive economic damages and loss of consortium. The defense’s final pre-trial settlement offer was $25,000. This was the largest-reported motor vehicle trial verdict in Michigan for that year.
- $13.5 Million – Our attorneys settled a case for a victim in a car vs. tractor trailer crash who suffered major burn injuries.
- $10.5 Million Truck Accident Settlement – A Michigan Auto Law attorney obtained this recovery for a woman who was seriously injured when a truck crashed into her vehicle.
- $9 Million – Our attorneys obtained this recovery for a man who lost both of his legs in a rear-end collision. This was the largest pain and suffering trucking settlement of the preceding decade for a rear-end crash in the state. The insurance company for the trucking company attempted to settle this case for $1 million with the client’s previous attorney, who had urged the client to take this offer before a Michigan Auto Law attorney got involved in the case.
- $6.2 million – This confidential out of state trucking death case was settled by a Michigan Auto Law attorney who was brought in to try the case by another attorney after the insurance company made a “final” offer of $1 million dollars to the widow of the man who was killed.
For more than 50 years, our Michigan ruck accident lawyers have been helping people like you who have been injured in a log truck accident or lost a loved one in a crash. Our attorneys understand the physical, emotional and psychological hardships you are experiencing. We can help.
