Updating a Legal Treatise on Trucking Accident Litigation

I have recently been working on the revision and update of the Trucking Accident Litigation chapter for Handling Motor Vehicle Accident Cases: Treatise and Forms, published by Thomson Reuters.

The assignment has involved reviewing and updating a substantial body of material concerning commercial motor vehicle litigation, including federal regulations, state law, statutes, and case authority. The objective is not simply to add recent cases, but to make sure that the chapter accurately reflects the law and provides useful guidance to attorneys researching trucking cases.

That process requires attention to the details that often distinguish trucking litigation from an ordinary automobile-accident case.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations can affect issues ranging from driver qualification and disqualification to hours of service, vehicle and equipment requirements, and the duties imposed on motor carriers.

The update has also required reviewing the developing case law addressing these issues and checking older authorities to determine whether they remain accurate and useful. In a treatise, citations and explanations have to withstand the same scrutiny that attorneys applying the law to an actual case would expect.

I have found the work particularly compelling because it involves many of the same issues that arise in the serious trucking cases we handle at The Hamilton Firm. A truck-wreck investigation can require much more than determining how the collision occurred. Driver qualification records, electronic logging data, company policies, inspection and maintenance records, training materials, regulatory compliance, and other evidence may all become significant depending upon the circumstances of the collision.

The chapter is still a work in progress, but I have appreciated the opportunity to contribute to a legal resource devoted to motor-vehicle litigation and to spend the time necessary to work through the underlying authorities in detail.

For a lawyer handling a serious trucking case, that kind of detailed research is not academic. The regulations, the facts, and the evidence have to fit together.

By: Patrick A. Cruise

Patrick Cruise is an attorney with The Hamilton Firm in Chattanooga, Tennessee, representing people seriously injured in trucking and other serious motor-vehicle collisions.