How Attorneys Gather Truck Accident Evidence

Attorney Gregory Herrman | 888-981-1283 | Free Consult

After a tractor-trailer collision, how do attorneys gather truck accident evidence?

Gregory Herrman is a personal injury attorney and managing partner with the law firm Herrman & Herrman, P.L.L.C., which has offices in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley.

In this Quick Question, he explains that attorneys spring into action after a truck crash to begin gathering and preserving evidence to help their client’s case.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 888-981-1283 or by submitting a contact form on this page. The consultation is free and confidential, and you owe no out-of-pocket attorney fees.

After a truck accident, an attorney will contact the trucking company and take steps to preserve evidence.

Certain types of evidence exist in truck accident cases that may not be available in other types of accidents. The challenge regarding this evidence is that trucking companies have been known to hide, erase, and alter potential evidence.

Immediately after a truck accident, an attorney can send the trucking company in question a spoliation letter, asking them to keep the truck involved in the accident off the road until it can be investigated. If the company declines, the attorney can move on to contacting a judge in order to obtain a temporary restraining order, creating a legal requirement for the company to do so.

Driving logs are important pieces of evidence in truck accident cases, but they are sometimes falsified.

Truck drivers are required to record data such as when they left a destination, where and when they stopped to rest, as well as when they arrived at the destination. These logs are intended to make sure truck drivers are following industry regulations regarding how long a truck driver is allowed to drive before stopping to take a mandatory rest break to prevent fatigue; driving while fatigued is one of the most prevalent causes of 18-wheeler accidents.

The problem with driving logs is that they can be altered to show whatever information the driver or trucking company wants people to see. Additionally, it is unlikely that a trucking company will surrender these or any logs without the help of an attorney.

Truck accident attorneys know how to recognize fraudulent logs. They are also aware of other evidence such as the data boxes installed in the cabs of newer trucks that contain information including how fast the driver was going before and after the accident in addition to other prevalent information. This data can be another piece of vital information that the average person is unlikely to obtain on their own. Attorneys know what kind of evidence to ask for, and how to get it even if a trucking company refuses.

If you or a loved one were injured in a truck accident, don’t try to handle the situation alone. Reach out to a truck accident attorney who knows exactly what evidence to gather before it can be lost or deleted.

To learn more, contact Gregory Herrman directly by calling 888-981-1283 or by submitting a contact form on this page. The consultation is free and confidential, and you owe no out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Video Transcript:

Rob Rosenthal:

How can having an attorney help you protect evidence after you've been in a truck crash? For this AskTheLawyers™ Quick Question, we asked attorney Greg Herrman.

Greg Herrman:

What we try to do is, we try to immediately contact the trucking company and send them a spoliation letter and see if they will voluntarily take that truck off the road and sideline it until our experts can get out there. If they won't, then we run over to the courthouse, we get a judge to sign a temporary restraining order, we get it served on them to stop that. We also ask for the driver's log books, and believe it or not, some drivers falsify their logbooks or have multiple sets. They've got one they show the cops and then they get on for everybody else, and there's just lots of other evidence that needs to be preserved immediately, and if you don't hire a lawyer, I guarantee you that stuff's not gonna get preserved.

Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. In some states, this video may be deemed Attorney Advertising. The choice of lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.