Getting hit by a commercial truck is one thing. Dealing with the trucking company afterward is often another fight entirely. These companies carry substantial insurance policies precisely because truck accidents tend to cause serious harm, which also gives them a strong incentive to avoid paying out.
Most won’t just admit fault and cut a check. They have playbooks, and it helps to know what’s in them before you’re negotiating against one.
An experienced truck accident attorney in Baton Rouge has seen these tactics before and knows how to counter them. At Chris Corzo Injury Attorneys, we have a proven record of securing maximum compensation for our clients, and we want to do the same for you.
Call our truck accident lawyers today at (225) 999-1111 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case.
Calling the Driver an Independent Contractor
A lot of trucking companies use independent contractors instead of hiring drivers directly, and historically that gave them a convenient argument: if the driver isn’t technically an employee, the company isn’t on the hook for what the driver does behind the wheel.
Federal regulations have closed many of those loopholes in recent years, but companies still raise the argument when they think it might stick. Untangling a driver’s actual working relationship with a carrier often takes a truck accident attorney who knows exactly what documentation to demand.
Pointing the Finger at Everyone Else
Truck accidents rarely have just one possible cause, and companies know it. Rather than accept responsibility, they’ll often try to spread blame around to:
- The driver personally, rather than the company that employed or dispatched him
- Other motorists involved in the crash
- You, the victim, claiming you contributed to the accident
- The company that owns the truck, if it’s different from the carrier
- A mechanic or repair shop
- Whoever loaded the cargo
- The manufacturer of the truck or one of its parts
Sorting out who actually bears responsibility usually requires a thorough investigation, not just accepting the company’s first explanation.
Running Their Own “Investigation”
Many trucking companies send a rapid-response team to the scene almost immediately, sometimes before local police even arrive. That might sound like a good thing, but these teams don’t work for you. They’re there to gather information that helps the company’s legal position, not to figure out the truth or protect your interests.
Whatever conclusions come out of that internal investigation tend to favor the company, which is why it shouldn’t be the only version of events your claim relies on. A Baton Rouge truck accident lawyer can push back with an independent investigation of their own.
Making Evidence Disappear
Federal rules require trucking companies to keep a fair amount of documentation on hand, including driver logbooks, event data recorder (black box) information, GPS records, maintenance and inspection records, and drug and alcohol testing results.
All of that paperwork can be extremely damaging to a company if it shows a tired driver, a skipped inspection, or a violation of hours-of-service rules.
So some companies simply make it go away. A logbook gets “misplaced.” A black box gets removed from the truck before anyone can pull the data. A driver who should have been tested for drugs or alcohol becomes conveniently unavailable. None of this is legal, but it happens, and the less evidence that survives, the harder your case becomes.
This is one of the biggest reasons it matters to get a truck accident attorney involved quickly, since a formal notice to preserve evidence can stop a company from destroying records it would otherwise be tempted to lose.
Shifting Blame Onto You
Louisiana follows a modified comparative fault system, and trucking companies know it. If they can convince an insurer, a jury, or you that you share some of the blame for the crash, your compensation gets reduced proportionally, and if you’re found 51% or more at fault, you may not recover anything at all.
Expect the company’s insurer to look hard for anything that could be used to shift responsibility your way, whether or not it’s a fair reading of what actually happened.
Contact a Baton Rouge Truck Accident Lawyer Today
If you were injured in a crash with a commercial truck, don’t let the trucking company control the story.
Our truck accident attorneys at Chris Corzo Injury Attorneys can investigate your accident, hold the right parties accountable, and fight for the full compensation you’re owed. You won’t pay us anything unless we win.
Call our truck accident lawyers in Baton Rouge today at (225) 999-1111 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation.