Truck Accident Lawyer

A collision with a fully loaded big rig is not a bad car accident on a larger scale — it is a different kind of case. A tractor-trailer can weigh twenty to thirty times what a passenger car does, and the injuries that result are often catastrophic: spinal-cord and brain injuries, multiple fractures, internal trauma, and worse. On top of the physical toll, a truck crash brings a commercial trucking company, its insurer, and often a defense team that begins working the case within hours — sometimes before you have left the hospital. Boyadzhyan Legal Shield represents people seriously injured by commercial trucks throughout Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, and we handle these cases on contingency: you pay no attorney's fee unless we recover for you.

Founding attorney Knarik Boyadzhyan brings a trial lawyer's discipline to serious-injury claims — building liability on real evidence, documenting the full and future cost of an injury, and refusing to let an insurance company decide what a person's recovery is worth. Truck cases reward that discipline, because the evidence that wins them is technical and time-sensitive: federal driver logs, the truck's electronic control module, maintenance and inspection records, cargo-loading manifests. Much of it sits in the hands of the trucking company, and much of it can lawfully be overwritten or discarded on a routine schedule unless someone demands, in writing, that it be preserved.

There is also more money on the table, and more resistance to paying it. Commercial trucks are required to carry far larger liability policies than ordinary drivers, and multiple parties beyond the driver may share responsibility. That combination — bigger coverage, aggressive defense — is exactly why a truck case should be handled as its own kind of litigation from day one. No lawyer can promise a result, but we can promise a claim built on preserved evidence rather than on whatever the trucking company's adjuster is willing to concede.

This page explains what to do after a truck crash, why so many parties can be liable, what a catastrophic-injury claim may be worth, the deadlines that can end a case before it starts, and how we handle these matters locally in the Valley. It is general information about California law, not legal advice about your specific situation — for that, the consultation is free and confidential.

What you do after a truck crash matters even more than after an ordinary collision, because the other side moves fast. First, call 911 — with the severity of truck-crash injuries, you are entitled to have police and paramedics respond, and the officer's traffic collision report becomes an important early record. Do not leave the scene: leaving the scene of an injury accident is a crime, and even property-damage-only cases carry duties under Vehicle Code § 20002. Get medical care right away, and keep getting it; a gap between the crash and treatment is the argument insurers use most often to claim you were not really hurt.

If you are able, gather what you can before it disappears. Photograph the truck and your vehicle, the position of both, the roadway, and any debris or skid marks — and get the truck's company name, the number on the door or trailer, and the license and USDOT numbers if you can see them. Collect the names and numbers of any witnesses. This information helps a lawyer identify the company and act quickly, but never put your health at risk to gather it, and never assume the trucking company will preserve the evidence for you.

Two things to avoid. Do not admit fault or apologize at the scene — fault in a truck case depends on records you cannot see yet, and an off-the-cuff apology can be twisted into an admission. And do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company's insurer, or accept a quick settlement, before speaking with a lawyer. A truck insurer's early settlement offer routinely arrives before the true extent of a catastrophic injury is known, and once you settle, the case is over. Report the crash to your own insurer as your policy requires, but get advice before you are recorded.

Every California injury claim rests on negligence, and Civil Code § 1714 sets the basic rule that everyone is responsible for injury caused to another by a want of ordinary care. In a truck case, though, the negligence is rarely the driver's alone. Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, a trucking company is generally responsible for the negligence of a driver acting in the course of employment — and a company may be independently negligent for hiring an unqualified driver, pushing schedules that force drivers past their legal hours, or putting an unsafe truck on the road.

Liability can reach further still. The owner of the tractor or trailer, a separate company that loaded or secured the cargo, a maintenance contractor responsible for the brakes or tires, and a manufacturer of a defective part may each share fault depending on what caused the crash. Identifying every liable party is not a technicality — it determines how much insurance coverage is actually available to compensate a catastrophic injury, and it is one of the most valuable parts of building a serious truck claim.

Federal safety regulations shape the whole analysis. The FMCSA rules governing interstate trucking limit a driver's hours of service, require driver qualification and drug and alcohol testing, and mandate regular vehicle inspection and maintenance — and they require companies to keep records proving compliance. A violation of those rules is strong evidence of negligence, which is precisely why the driver logs, ELD data, and maintenance files must be preserved before they can quietly disappear. California also follows 'pure comparative fault,' so even if you are found partly at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault rather than barred entirely.

Because trucks are so much heavier, the injuries — and therefore the stakes — tend to be greater than in a typical car crash. California divides compensable harm into two categories. Economic damages are the measurable losses: past and future medical care, lost wages and lost earning capacity, the cost of long-term or in-home care, and property damage. In a catastrophic case these are often dominated by the future — years of treatment, surgeries, and assistance — and are proven with records, bills, and expert testimony projecting what that care will cost over a lifetime.

Non-economic damages compensate the human cost no receipt captures — physical pain, emotional distress, disfigurement, and the loss of the ability to live as you did before. California uses no rigid formula for these; their value turns on the severity and permanence of the injury and on how fully that impact is documented and presented. In the most serious cases these damages are the largest part of the claim, and in a wrongful-death case, surviving family members may recover for their own losses as well.

Valuing a truck case well means valuing the whole future, not just today's bills — because once a claim is settled, there is no coming back if the injury proves worse than the trucking company wanted to admit. Where a driver or company acted with especially egregious conduct, such as driving drunk or knowingly running an unsafe truck, the law may in some circumstances allow punitive damages on top of compensatory ones. We work to document the full arc of an injury before valuing any claim.

California sets firm deadlines for bringing an injury claim, and missing one generally ends the case no matter how strong it is. For most truck-accident injury claims the statute of limitations is two years from the date of the crash under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. Filing late is one of the few mistakes that cannot be fixed, so the deadline is not something to test — and in a truck case the practical clock runs faster still, because the electronic evidence that wins the case can be gone long before two years pass.

A different and much shorter deadline can apply when a government entity may be responsible — a city or county truck, a state vehicle, or a dangerous condition on a public road. In those situations you generally must present a written claim to the public entity within just six months of the incident under California's Government Claims Act before you can even file a lawsuit, and the rules are strict. Because it is not always obvious at the scene that a government entity is involved, this is a strong reason to get advice early rather than assume you have two full years.

Limited circumstances can change these timelines — claims involving a minor, or an injury that was not immediately discoverable, for example — but they are exceptions, not the rule, and they are fact-specific. The safe course is never to rely on having plenty of time. The sooner a claim is evaluated, the more evidence can be preserved. This is general information, not legal advice about your particular deadline, which should be confirmed with an attorney.

Boyadzhyan Legal Shield is based in Encino on Ventura Boulevard and represents people injured by commercial trucks throughout the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles — Encino, Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills, Studio City, Northridge, and the surrounding communities. The Valley sits at the crossroads of some of the busiest truck corridors in the region: the I-5, the US-101 (Ventura Freeway), and the I-405 all carry heavy commercial traffic, and the interchanges where they meet are where many of the worst truck crashes happen.

That local knowledge is practical, not decorative. Knowing how freight moves through a particular interchange, where the cameras are, and how a stretch of the 5 or the 405 tends to back up helps us reconstruct what happened and anticipate the arguments a trucking company's defense team will make. When a truck case cannot be resolved fairly and has to be filed, San Fernando Valley civil matters are generally heard at the Van Nuys Courthouse, and we appear in Van Nuys and the surrounding Los Angeles County courts.

Working from a single Encino office keeps the firm close to the clients and communities it serves. You work directly with the attorney handling your case — not a rotating cast at a high-volume settlement mill — and because we take these cases on contingency, strong representation is available regardless of your financial situation. The consultation is free, and you owe no attorney's fee unless we recover for you.