Big rig truck accident lawyers and commercial large truck accidentattorneys in California and other states must consider the applicablefederal and state law applicable to big rigs, semis, 18 wheelers, andall other "large commercial trucks" weighing in excess of 10,000pounds. These laws govern everything from the number of hours that thetruck drivers are permitted to drive between 8 hour rest periods,keeping logs with regard to their driving time and rest periods, andproviding their logs to all employers or contracting trucking companiesor contracting shippers, through permissible load weights and manner ofsecuring the loads.

 In serious injury truck accident cases, the big rig truckaccident lawyers, and large commercial truck accident attorneys, mustalso be knowledgeable of the legal theories of action available againstthe trucking companies and shippers. All to often, unfortunately a bigrig truck accident will result in serious or catastrophic injury. Bigrigs and large commercial trucks weigh between 3 an 30 times theaverage weight of an ordinary passenger car. The car driver and hispassengers, in addition to their devastating and life altering injuriesmay suffer substantial medical expenses, including the prospect offuture medical expense measured in the hundreds of thousands ormillions of dollars, and past and future earnings losses of equalmagnitude. And yet, under federal law and most state laws, the truckdriver is only required to carry $750,000 in liability insurance.Furthermore, as an artificial means of attempting to insulatethemselves from liability, the trucking companies and shippers willcommonly hire the drivers as "independent contractors" rather than"employees." Therefore it is very important for big rig truck accidentlawyers and commercial truck accident attorneys to identify throughinvestigation the evidence to establish the liability of the truckingcompany or shipper under the available legal theories in order to namethem as defendants in the litigation, and access their larger insurancepolicies and their assets to pay for the injury and damages suffered bythe accident victims.

 Examples of such legal theories include "negligent entrustment"and "negligent supervision." The big rig truck accident lawyers, andlarge commercial truck accident attorneys investigation in Californiaand in other states is in part influenced by the federal and state lawdescribed in part above, including everything from obtaining thedriver's personnel file and sometimes the driver's criminal record forDUI alcohol or drug abuse, in particular amphetamine drug use is commonin the trucking industry, to determine whether the driver wasnegligently hired, through examining whether the drivers logs of timeon and off duty were properly and timely submitted to the truckingcompany or shipper, and whether the logs evidenced compliance with theapplicable federal and state laws, through the records of the weightsof the load, and evidence with regard to the manner in which the loadwas secured. For a more complete discussion of the California big rigtruck accident attorneys and large commercial truck accident lawyersinvestigation relevant to establishing the liability of truckingcompanies and shippers in serious injury truck accident litigation, youare invited to consider which we believe would also be generallyapplicable to big rig and large commercial truck accident cases in mostother states, particularly with regard to the application of legaltheories based on federal law as well as analogous state statutessimilar to those enacted in California.

 While auto accident cases, and even big rig truck accident casesmay appear "simple" in terms of the liability of the truck driver - forexample, where the big rig runs a red light, or where the truck"jackknifes," the trailer of the truck moving sideways, sometimescausing the truck to roll - in cases where the car driver andpassengers suffer serious injury it must be recognized by the lawyerswho take on the litigation that they will have the responsibility tobecome knowledgeable about the applicable state and federal law, andconsider the legal theories available against the trucking companyand/or shipper, where the driver's insurance coverage is inadequate topay the accident victim's full measure of general and special damages.The special investigation techniques referred to above and on the citedpage are required, in addition to the normal truck accidentinvestigation. In serious injury litigation, the personal injury lawyeror big rig truck accident lawyers or large commercial truck accidentattorneys must also be knowledgeable and experienced in thepresentation of their seriously injured client's "general" and"special" damages to assure that full and fair compensation is obtainedfor his injuries, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, hispast and future medical expenses and past and future earnings losses.In the latter respect, this requires the attorney to contract with anumber of medical experts, in addition to "life care planners""vocational rehabilitation experts" and forensic economists. Seriousinjury truck accident cases, indeed, while they may "appear" to be"simple" cases of liability and damages, are cases that are mostcommonly highly complex.

 Principle trial attorney,