A truck crash is not a big car crash. It is a corporate event, with a professional driver, a motor carrier, layered insurance policies, and evidence that starts disappearing the day of the collision. The Vertanous Firm has recovered more than $60 Million for injured Californians, including a $2.5 Million settlement for a catastrophic injury from a motor vehicle collision, and we treat every truck case the same way: lock down the evidence in the first week, and build the case for trial.
A Different Kind of Case
Three things separate a truck case from an ordinary car accident case, and each one changes how the case must be built.
The rules are different. Commercial trucking is governed by federal safety regulations that reach far beyond the rules of the road: limits on how many hours a driver may operate, mandatory inspection and maintenance programs, drug and alcohol testing, driver qualification standards, and cargo securement requirements. Every one of those rules exists because trucks kill when the rules are broken, and every violation is a thread we pull.
The defendant is different. Behind the driver stands a company: a motor carrier with dispatch records, safety scores, training files, and a financial interest in the story the evidence tells. Trucking companies and their insurers deploy investigators to serious crash scenes within hours. The injured person is still in the emergency room while the defense is photographing the skid marks.
The insurance is different. Commercial trucking policies are far larger than personal auto policies, and coverage often comes in layers: the tractor, the trailer, the motor carrier, and excess policies above them all. Larger coverage means real compensation is possible in a catastrophic case. It also means the carrier fights harder, because the number at stake is worth fighting over.
The Evidence Race
Truck cases are won in the first week and tried two years later. The proof that decides them has a short shelf life:
None of this evidence waits. Logs cycle, data is overwritten, and trucks are repaired and returned to service. Our first move in every truck case is a preservation letter, sent within days, that puts the motor carrier on notice: keep every log, every download, and every record, or answer for its destruction in front of a jury. That letter changes the case before the first phone call with the insurer.
Hit by a truck? The evidence clock is already running.
Free Case ReviewHow These Crashes Happen
The 210 and the 134 carry a constant stream of commercial traffic through Pasadena, past interchanges, grades, and sudden congestion, and delivery trucks work every commercial corridor from Colorado Boulevard to Lake Avenue. The crash patterns repeat:
Each cause points at evidence, and each piece of evidence points at a decision someone made before the crash. That is the case: not an accident, a decision.
Liability
The driver is where the investigation starts, not where it ends.
When a driver is working, California law generally holds the employer responsible for the driver's negligence on the job. That principle turns a claim against an individual into a claim against the motor carrier, its safety program, and its insurance. And the carrier often bears its own fault: hiring a driver whose record warned against it, skipping training, tolerating log violations, or pushing schedules no driver could meet lawfully. Those are claims we plead and prove separately, because they show a jury the company behind the crash.
The legal tools are familiar and powerful. When the driver or the company violated a safety statute, the violation can establish negligence per se under Evidence Code section 669. When the defense claims you were partly at fault, Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804 means your recovery is reduced by your percentage, never erased. And when the roadway itself contributed, a missing signal, a defective merge, a hazard the government ignored, a public entity may belong in the case through our dangerous condition of public property practice.
Damages
The physics are not fair. A loaded tractor-trailer can outweigh a passenger car by twenty times or more, and the injuries follow the physics: spinal injuries, crush injuries, amputations, burns, and traumatic brain injuries. These are not cases about six weeks of chiropractic care. They are cases about the rest of a life.
So the damages must be built for the rest of a life. Medical expenses, past and future, with future care proven through physician-grounded life-care planning, item by item, at real Southern California prices. Lost earnings and the earning capacity the injury took. And the human damages: pain, disability, disfigurement, and the loss of the life you had, which California does not cap in an ordinary negligence case. In a catastrophic truck case, the future care number alone can dwarf everything the insurer offered in the first year.
The layered commercial coverage in a truck case means the money is usually there. Whether it is paid depends on whether the case is built so the carrier can see what a jury will see. That is the job, and it is why our broader personal injury practice prepares every serious case as if it will be tried.
Find out what your case is actually worth.
Free Case ReviewFirst Things First
If you are able, and in a serious truck crash many people are not, here is the order of operations:
Crash forces this large cause injuries that declare themselves late. Go, describe every symptom, and follow the plan.
A collision report in a truck case preserves the driver's identity, the motor carrier's name, the witnesses, and any citation. All of it matters.
The company name and number on the door, the license plates on tractor and trailer, the cargo, the tires, and the full scene.
Truck cases turn on seconds and lane positions. Independent witnesses decide those disputes, and they vanish quickly.
Their representative may call within days, sympathetic and recorded. Decline politely, take their information, and get counsel first.
Early offers in truck cases are priced before the injuries are understood. Once you sign, the case is over.
Not for the lawsuit. For the preservation letter. The evidence that wins the case is in the trucking company's hands, and it will not stay there long.
Deadlines
Two deadlines frame every California truck case. The general statute of limitations: two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. And the government claim deadline: if a public entity is involved, a government vehicle, or a roadway condition that contributed to the crash, a written claim must be presented within six months under Government Code section 911.2, long before any lawsuit.
But in a truck case, the real deadline is the evidence. Logs cycle in weeks. Data is overwritten. The tractor is repaired and back on the interstate before most people have finished physical therapy. Two years is the legal limit. The first week is the practical one.
If we don't win, you don't pay.
The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Questions We Hear Every Week
Usually more than the driver. The motor carrier that employed the driver is generally responsible for the driver's on-the-job negligence, and may face its own claims for hiring, training, supervision, or maintenance failures. Depending on the facts, the trailer owner, a maintenance contractor, or a cargo loader may share responsibility, and a dangerous roadway can bring in a public entity. Naming every responsible party is how full value is reached.
Because the trucking company already has one. Carriers send rapid-response teams to serious crashes, sometimes the same day. Driver logs, telematics data, dashcam footage, and maintenance records can be overwritten or lost within weeks unless a preservation letter demands they be kept. The first week matters more in a truck case than in almost any other injury case. The consultation is free; the delay is not.
It helps, but it does not finish the job. When a driver violates a safety statute, the violation can establish negligence per se under Evidence Code section 669. The defense will still fight causation and damages, and the citation does not prove what your injuries are worth. We use the citation as a starting point and build the rest: the data, the medicine, and the corporate story behind the driver.
No. California follows pure comparative fault under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804: your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, never erased by it. Trucking insurers push fault arguments hard because the numbers are large; every percentage point is worth real money. Juries decide percentages, and the percentage is worth fighting over.
No honest lawyer quotes a number at the first call. What we can tell you is that truck cases often involve catastrophic injuries and larger commercial insurance policies, so the ceiling is higher and the fight is harder. The value is built from medical expenses past and future, lost earnings and earning capacity, and the human damages for pain and the loss of the life you had.
Generally two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If a public entity is involved, such as a government vehicle or a dangerous roadway, a written claim is generally due within six months under Government Code section 911.2. Evidence disappears far faster than either deadline. Call before you assume you have time.
Nothing out of pocket. We work on contingency: the consultation is free, we advance the costs, and if there is no recovery you owe no attorney fee. Trucking companies fund their defense with commercial insurance; contingency is how an injured person funds a fair fight.
Client Reviews
Ani A., Glendalevia Yelp"The guy who hit me had a low max coverage. I don't know what magic Vertanous Firm worked, but I got paid for my damages less than a year out from my accident, and was paid three times more than the policy limit."
Tony K., Burbankvia Yelp"Tom is the absolute best. He knows the law and he also knows medicine. One meeting with Tom and he was able to understand the medicine behind my condition and find the appropriate doctors."
Bobby S., Los Angelesvia Yelp"Tom is a straight shooter and he's whip-smart. He treated my case as though it were his own. He has a gift for compassion that sets him apart from other legal professionals."
Where We Work
From our office at 301 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena, we represent truck crash victims across the San Gabriel Valley and all of Los Angeles County, in English, Armenian, and Farsi.
Contact
Call, text, email, or send a brief message. We respond the same day. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.
