Hardworking Milwaukee Attorneys Litigate Trucking Accident Cases

Smart case management leads to optimal results for injured clients

At highway speeds, the destructive force of a semi-truck can cause widespread destruction, catastrophic injuries and death. If you’ve sustained severe injuries in a large commercial vehicle crash, your future may depend on the damages you recover from the at-fault driver. But without an experienced and capable lawyer representing you, a fair settlement or jury award may be out of reach. Fortunately, Sperling Law Offices LLC can help you get the compensation you deserve. Through smart, aggressive case management, based on more than 35 years of litigation experience, we take decisive legal steps to deliver the results you need and deserve.

The most common causes of trucking accidents

Commercial truck accidents are on the rise in Wisconsin and across the country. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the division of the U.S. Department of Transportation charged with regulating commercial motor vehicles, there were 4,050 large trucks involved in fatal crashes in 2015. This represents an eight percent increase from 2014. Increased economic activity by itself cannot explain the uptick in fatal crashes, since the rise in vehicle miles traveled by commercial trucks was only 1.4 percent.

However, there are several common causes of commercial truck accidents, which taken together might explain the current trend:

  • Truck driver error
  • Truck driver distraction
  • Operating a truck while impaired by drugs or alcohol
  • Fatigued truck driving
  • Aggressive truck driving and speeding
  • Mechanical failure of the truck, especially tires and breaks
  • Poorly loaded cargo
  • Poorly designed or maintained roadways
  • Negligent passenger-car drivers

At Sperling Law Offices LLC, we’ve investigated numerous tractor-trailer accidents to discover the cause and assemble the evidence to prove liability.

Potential defendants in a trucking accident lawsuit

Depending on the cause of the accident, potential defendants include:

  • Trucking company — If the driver is at fault, the company is liable under the ancient legal principle of respondeat superior. The company is also liable if its violations of safety regulations led to the crash.
  • Maintenance company — When equipment fails, the company charged with maintaining the equipment may be liable for faulty maintenance.
  • Equipment manufacturer — When equipment fails due to a built-in defect, the manufacturer is generally held strictly liable for damages due to an accident.
  • Loading company — If improperly loaded cargo causes a rollover accident, the company that loads the trailer may be liable.
  • Another driver — Passenger-car drivers are notorious for not knowing how to drive around big-rigs. If a careless maneuver by a motorist caused the trucker to lose control, the motorist could be liable for the entire accident.
  • Government entity — When road design or poor maintenance makes travel unreasonably dangerous, the entity charged with maintaining the roadway could be held liable for damages.

Trucking accidents can be very complex, so only trust an attorney with a track record of success in such  high-stake personal injury litigation.

Special factors at play in truck accident cases

There are many factors that distinguish a commercial truck accident from a normal passenger-car accident, but two differences are potentially important for the outcome of your case:

  • Government regulations — Commercial trucking is a highly regulated industry. Unfortunately, regulatory violations are rampant, and the government does not have enough inspectors to enforce the law. It is not unusual, for example, to find that a tractor-trailer involved in an accident had recently failed a brake inspection but was put back on the road without anyone addressing the problem.
  • High levels of insurance — Commercial truck owners must carry much more liability insurance than car owners. But, even though this means there are potential resources to pay your damages, it also means that the trucking company’s insurance lawyers will aggressively defend the truck company to prevent losses for the insurer.

It takes an experienced attorney to use the discovery process to bring to light any regulatory violations and to match the resources of a large insurance company determined to limit the victim’s personal injury recovery. We have that experience and the determination to fight for your full compensation.

Contact a determined Milwaukee truck accident attorney at our firm today

Sperling Law Offices LLC works hard to win compensation for truck accident victims throughout Wisconsin. To schedule a free consultation in our office, or at your home or hospital bedside, call 414-273-7777 or contact us online.