COMMON ISSUES IN TRUCKING CASES:

Trucking accident cases can be more complex than a standard automobile collision. Often times, the policies on a commercial vehicle are much higher than what a typical individual would posses on their own car. Therefore, companies have much more resources at stake in these types of claims and will often times fight much more aggressively to ensure that the minimum amount if paid out.

Don’t All Trucks Have Coverage?

They should. However, there are many fly by night and shady companies that might used legal loopholes or other asset protection strategies to go without insurance. This leaves the public in severe danger because these types of vehicles can result in much more serious types of injuries.

How Could a Lawyer Help Me?

Tom and Kyle take the time to throughly investigate all types of coverages that might be available to compensate you for your injuries. This often involves getting the insurance policy directly from the insurance company and analyzing the law to see if coverage is applicable.

Won’t The Insurance Company Tell Me if Coverage Applies?

Sometimes. However, we have seen several cases where these companies deny coverage when it should be available. When that happens an attorney needs to file a Declaratory Judgment Action in the correct Court to have a judge decide on whether coverage applies.

What Situations Could Coverage Be an Issue?

One type of situation is when the company fails to list a driver or vehicle on their commercial insurance policy. This will result in the insurance company denying the obligation to defense the party that hit you in Court. What this means for you is that you will be out of luck if the trucking company that hit you does not have any assets to satisfy your claim. Often times, these can be small companies that will declare bankruptcy if you get a judgment and leave you will no practical resource of ever getting a recovery.

What Happens Then?

We will explore whether or not policy exceptions like an MSC-90 could apply to your situation. An MSC-90 is an endorsement to a commercial insurance policy that requires that insurance company to provide $750,000 in coverage if the underlying policy is found to be void. 

This is critical because now you would have a source of recovery. Other statutory mechanisms could also exist at the state level to find coverage.