Florida Truck Accident Lawyer

• 2 yrFlorida Filing Deadline (HB 837)
• 14 dayPIP Treatment Window
• $750KFederal Minimum Truck Liability
• $0Up-Front Fees — Contingency Only

Why Florida Truck Accidents Are Not Like Ordinary Car Crashes

An eighteen-wheeler crash on I-75 or I-95 looks, from a distance, like a bigger version of a car wreck. It is not. A loaded tractor-trailer can weigh 80,000 pounds — roughly twenty times the mass of a passenger car — and the legal infrastructure around it is just as different. A Florida truck accident case is a federal-regulatory case, a multi-defendant case, and an evidence-preservation case before it is ever a personal injury case. Treating it like a fender-bender is the surest way to lose it.

First, federal regulation governs almost everything. Commercial motor carriers operating in interstate commerce are licensed and regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) under 49 CFR Parts 350-399. Hours of service, drug and alcohol testing, vehicle inspection, driver qualification, electronic logging, and minimum insurance levels are all set in federal regulations that the trucking company is required to follow and that you, as a plaintiff, are entitled to enforce. The driver qualification file alone — which is required to be maintained for every commercial driver under 49 CFR 391.51 — can shift a case from a routine negligence dispute to a corporate-liability claim.

Second, the defendants stack. An ordinary car crash usually has one liable party and one insurance policy. A Florida truck crash routinely has six or more: the driver, the motor carrier (the company on the side of the trailer), the truck owner if it is a leased rig, the trailer owner, the freight broker who arranged the load, the shipper who loaded it, the maintenance contractor who serviced the brakes, and sometimes a parts manufacturer or a government entity responsible for a road defect. Each defendant carries its own insurance. Florida's HB 837 (2023) abolished joint and several liability for most negligence claims, which means apportionment among defendants matters more than ever, and identifying every responsible party early is critical.

Third, the policy stack is large — but only if you reach it. Federal law requires interstate motor carriers hauling general freight to carry a minimum of $750,000 in liability coverage; hazmat carriers carry at least $1 million; passenger carriers and bulk oil haulers carry at least $5 million. Most major fleets carry far more, layered through primary, excess, and umbrella policies that can run $5 million to $25 million or higher. None of that money is on the table without proof. The carrier's risk team will be at the crash scene within hours; their accident reconstructionist may arrive before the wrecker. Your job — and your lawyer's job — is to get the evidence preserved before the truck is repaired, the data is overwritten, or the driver's logs are "corrected."

Fourth, evidence in trucking cases has a half-life measured in days, not years. The engine control module, the electronic logging device, the dashcam, the dispatch records, the post-accident drug test, the vehicle inspection report — all of it is governed by federal record-retention rules that allow routine destruction after relatively short periods. A litigation hold letter sent in the first week of representation can be the difference between a fully reconstructed crash and a he-said-she-said dispute that the trucking company's lawyers will win.

The Four Layers of Truck Insurance Coverage

Truck crash insurance is a stack, not a single policy. A serious case in Florida often draws from four distinct layers of coverage, each with its own rules and its own defenses. Knowing which layer applies — and which layers have been disclosed honestly versus which the defense is hiding — is one of the central tasks in the early phase of every truck case we handle.

Florida's HB 837 (2023) included a controversial provision allowing introduction of insurance information at trial under specific circumstances and modified the rules around bad-faith claims and proposals for settlement. The interplay between the federal minimum coverage, the disclosed primary, and the available excess is something every Florida truck accident lawyer needs to know cold — and is one of the most common areas where unrepresented victims leave money on the table.

Florida Law Snapshot for Truck Cases

Six legal rules drive every Florida truck crash claim. HB 837 (2023) reshaped most of them in ways that defense lawyers know cold and that injured Floridians frequently learn about only when it is already too late.

Critical Evidence That Disappears Fast

Trucking cases are won and lost on evidence the trucking company controls and is allowed under federal record-retention rules to destroy on a routine schedule. The single most important thing a Florida truck accident lawyer does in the first week is send a comprehensive litigation hold letter and follow up with formal preservation demands. Here is what we are protecting:

• Engine Control Module (ECM) / Event Data Recorder (EDR). The black box. It records vehicle speed, engine RPM, brake application, throttle position, cruise control status, and other parameters in the seconds before and during the crash. Most modern tractors capture roughly 30 seconds of pre-impact data. The ECM lives in the truck — if the truck is repaired or scrapped, the data is often gone.
• Electronic Logging Device (ELD). Federally mandated since December 2017 under 49 CFR 395.20. The ELD records the driver's hours of service in real time and is the gold-standard evidence on whether the driver was over hours, falsified logs, or had violated the 11-hour daily driving limit, the 14-hour on-duty window, or the 60/70-hour weekly cap. ELD records must be retained for 6 months.
• Driver Qualification File. Required by 49 CFR 391.51. Includes the driver's application, motor vehicle record (MVR), road test certificate, medical examiner's certificate, annual review of driving record, and any prior employer safety performance history. A negligent hiring or retention case lives in this file.
• Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Records. 49 CFR 396.3 requires systematic inspection, repair, and maintenance of every commercial vehicle. Pre-trip and post-trip Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs), annual inspection certificates, and the maintenance file for the tractor and trailer involved are all discoverable.
• Post-Accident Drug and Alcohol Test Results. Under 49 CFR 382.303, the carrier must conduct an alcohol test within 8 hours and a drug test within 32 hours of any qualifying accident (fatal, citation plus injury requiring medical treatment, or citation plus disabling damage). Failure to test, or a positive result, is powerful evidence.
• Dashcam and Forward-Facing Camera Footage. Many fleets (especially Amazon DSP partners, FedEx, UPS, large LTL carriers) install Lytx, Samsara, Netradyne, or similar driver-facing and forward-facing camera systems. Footage is typically retained 30 to 90 days and overwritten on a rolling basis without preservation demand.
• Dispatch and GPS Records. The motor carrier's dispatch system tracks pickup and delivery times, communications with the driver, route assignments, and load details. GPS telematics from Qualcomm, PeopleNet, Omnitracs, or similar systems show route, speed, and stops.
• Bills of Lading, Broker Contracts, and Shipper Records. Identify the freight broker and the shipper. The broker contract often contains warranties of safety performance that, if breached, can establish broker liability under negligent selection theory.
• Cell Phone Records. Subpoenaed from the driver's carrier. Distracted driving and texting at the moment of impact is one of the most common findings in modern truck cases.
• Personnel and Training Records. Disciplinary history, prior accidents, prior moving violations, training completion records, and any prior complaints from supervisors or other drivers about the same driver.

Federal regulations allow the carrier to destroy ELD data after 6 months, DVIRs after 12 months, and many other records on similarly short cycles. A spoliation letter sent the week of the crash — not the month, not the quarter — is what keeps that evidence in the case.

Who Can Be Held Liable in a Truck Crash

One of the most important reasons to retain experienced trucking counsel quickly is the sheer number of potentially responsible parties. Florida truck cases routinely involve five, six, or more defendants, each with its own insurance and its own defenses. Identifying every responsible party early matters even more after HB 837 abolished joint and several liability in most negligence claims:

• The truck driver. Direct negligence — speeding, following too closely, fatigue, distraction, hours-of-service violations, or impairment.
• The motor carrier (employer). Vicarious liability for the driver's negligence under respondeat superior, plus direct claims for negligent hiring, negligent retention, negligent training, negligent supervision, and negligent entrustment. The motor carrier is the deepest pocket in most cases.
• The owner-operator and leasing company. When the driver owns his own tractor and leases to a carrier, both the lessee carrier and the owner-operator can be liable. The MCS-90 endorsement and lease agreements drive this analysis.
• The trailer owner. When the tractor and trailer are owned separately — common in intermodal and dropped-trailer operations — the trailer owner has its own duty of inspection and maintenance.
• The freight broker. Under the Miller v. C.H. Robinson Worldwide line of cases, freight brokers can be liable for negligent selection of an unsafe carrier — for example, by hiring a carrier with a poor FMCSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) score or a recent unsafe-driver pattern. Florida courts have begun to recognize broker liability in appropriate cases.
• The shipper. Shippers can be liable for negligent loading, failure to disclose hazards in the cargo, or selecting an unsafe motor carrier when the shipper retains control over carrier selection.
• The loader. When a third-party loader (warehouse, distribution center, or shipper employee) loads the trailer, errors that cause cargo shift, weight imbalance, or lashing failures can support a direct loader liability claim.
• Vehicle, tire, and parts manufacturers. Brake failures, steering defects, tire blowouts, and trailer coupling failures can give rise to product liability claims against the manufacturer of the defective component.
• Maintenance and repair contractors. Third-party shops that performed brake work, tire service, or annual inspections can be liable for negligent repair when the work contributed to the crash.
• Government entities. When a road defect, missing signage, malfunctioning signal, or improperly designed roadway contributed, Florida Statute §768.28 sovereign immunity rules apply — with strict notice deadlines and sovereign immunity caps.

Common Florida Truck Crash Types

Florida's truck crash patterns reflect its geography. Long, flat interstates with heavy commercial traffic create high-speed rear-end and rollover patterns. Dense urban arteries in Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville create turning, blind-spot, and underride patterns. The most common configurations we see in Florida files:

• Jackknife. The trailer swings out of line with the tractor, usually following hard braking on wet pavement or in a curve. Jackknife crashes block multiple lanes and frequently produce secondary collisions with surrounding traffic.
• Underride. A passenger vehicle slides under the side or rear of a trailer. Underride crashes are catastrophic — the trailer bed enters the occupant compartment at windshield level. Federal underride guard standards (49 CFR 393.86) cover the rear, but side underride remains largely unregulated.
• Override. The truck rolls over the front of a passenger vehicle, typically in a rear-end crash where the truck does not brake in time. The override pattern is often associated with fatigued or distracted drivers.
• Rollover. The tractor-trailer tips over, often on highway ramps and curves where speed exceeds the rollover threshold for the load. Tanker rollovers add hazardous-material spill risk.
• T-Bone Intersection Crash. A tractor-trailer running a red light or failing to yield at a signalized intersection — common at the cross-streets of US-1, US-27, and SR-7 in South Florida.
• Rear-End. The truck strikes a slowing or stopped vehicle. With 80,000 pounds of momentum behind it, even a low-speed rear-end can be catastrophic. Following distance violations and brake delay are the typical culprits.
• Lane Change and Blind Spot. Tractor-trailers have large no-zones on the right side, the rear, and immediately in front of the cab. Lane-change crashes are frequent on I-95, I-75, and Florida's Turnpike during heavy traffic.
• Brake Failure. Loss of air pressure, overheated brakes on long downgrades, or poorly maintained brake systems lead to runaway crashes. Brake-related defects are one of the most common findings in FMCSA roadside inspections.
• Tire Blowout. Underinflated, retreaded, or worn truck tires fail at highway speed. The resulting loss of control or tread separation can cause multi-vehicle crashes.
• Fatigue-Related. Driving past the federal hours-of-service limits, falsifying logs, or fatigue from inadequate rest breaks. ELD data and dispatch records typically prove fatigue cases.
• Drugged or Drunk Driving. Post-accident testing under 49 CFR 382.303 establishes impairment. A positive test or a refusal to test is direct evidence of negligence per se.
• Cargo Shift and Spill. Improperly secured cargo shifts during transit, causing rollovers or roadway hazards. Tanker spills, flatbed cargo loss, and dry van load shifts are all preventable with proper securement under 49 CFR 393.100.

Common Truck Accident Injuries

The size and weight differential between a tractor-trailer and a passenger vehicle drives a different injury profile than ordinary auto crashes. Truck crash victims who survive are frequently changed for life. The injuries we see most often in Florida truck files:

• Traumatic brain injury and concussion. Closed-head trauma from contact with the steering wheel, dashboard, side pillar, or window. Mild TBI and post-concussive syndrome are commonly missed on initial CT and require follow-up neuropsychological testing.
• Spinal cord injury with paralysis risk. Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spinal cord injuries from high-energy impacts. Complete and incomplete spinal cord injuries result in paraplegia, quadriplegia, or chronic neuropathic pain.
• Multiple fractures. Pelvis, femur, tibia, ribs, sternum, scapula, and vertebral fractures are common in truck-on-car crashes. Open fractures require immediate orthopedic surgery and often staged reconstruction.
• Internal organ damage. Liver, spleen, kidney, and bowel injuries from blunt-force trauma. Internal bleeding can be missed on initial assessment and is one of the leading causes of preventable death after a truck crash.
• Amputations from underride. Limb loss from underride and crush injuries. Traumatic amputation, surgical amputation following crush syndrome, and degloving injuries all occur in catastrophic truck crashes.
• Severe burns. Diesel fuel and tanker cargo fires produce thermal and inhalation injuries. Tanker fires, especially involving gasoline or other flammable cargoes, frequently produce burn injuries requiring grafting and long-term reconstruction.
• Wrongful death. Fatalities in tractor-trailer crashes are tragically common. Florida's Wrongful Death Act (Florida Statute §768.16-768.26) governs survivors' rights to recover for loss of support, services, companionship, and mental pain and suffering.
• Permanent disability and lost earning capacity. Truck crash injuries frequently end careers. Future earning capacity, vocational rehabilitation needs, and home and vehicle modifications are major components of damages in catastrophic cases.
• Crush injuries and compartment syndrome. Sustained pressure on muscle and nerve tissue creates compartment syndrome, often requiring fasciotomy and producing long-term functional deficits.
• Psychological injuries. PTSD, driving phobia, sleep disturbance, and depression are documented and compensable damages following severe truck crashes.

A Day That Changes Everything

What You Can Recover

Florida personal injury damages in a truck crash case fall into two categories. HB 837 modified some of the rules around proof and admissibility, but the fundamental categories remain the same. Each requires its own documentation and its own expert support.

Florida does not cap non-economic damages in most truck accident cases. Punitive damages are limited under Florida Statute §768.73 to three times compensatory damages or $500,000 (whichever is greater), with limited exceptions for intentional misconduct. Wrongful death damages are governed by the Wrongful Death Act and recoverable by the personal representative on behalf of the estate and statutory survivors.

Our Six-Step Truck Crash Process

1. Free Consultation

   Call (844) 877-8679 or use the contact form. An attorney — not just an intake clerk — reviews the police report, your medical records to date, the truck's USDOT and MC numbers, and the carrier's FMCSA Safety Measurement System profile. We can travel to your hospital room or home anywhere in Florida.

2. Spoliation Letters Issued

   Within 24 to 72 hours of retention, we send formal litigation hold letters to the motor carrier, the truck owner, the broker, the shipper, and any maintenance contractor demanding preservation of the ECM, ELD, dashcam footage, dispatch records, driver qualification file, vehicle inspection records, drug and alcohol test results, and cell phone records. This step alone changes the trajectory of the case.

3. Investigation

   We retain accident reconstructionists, download the ECM ourselves where possible, audit the carrier's FMCSA compliance history, pull the driver's CDL record and any prior employer history, and obtain traffic camera footage, business surveillance, and witness statements before memories fade. Where appropriate, we visit the scene and document conditions while they still match the day of the crash.

4. Multi-Defendant Claim Development

   We open claims against every applicable policy — the driver, the motor carrier's primary and excess layers, the broker, the shipper, the maintenance contractor, any product liability defendant, and your own UM/UIM where applicable. The Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.280(b)(2) requires disclosure of all liability insurance, and we enforce it.

5. Litigation in the Appropriate Venue

   If insurers refuse to make a fair offer, we file suit well within the two-year statute. Most cases are filed in Florida circuit court — the 17th Judicial Circuit for Broward, the 11th for Miami-Dade, the 13th for Hillsborough/Tampa Bay, the 9th for Orange/Orlando, or the 4th for Duval/Jacksonville. Federal diversity jurisdiction is available where the carrier is out-of-state and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, and we use it strategically.

6. Settlement or Trial

   We mediate when productive, negotiate hard, and try cases that need to be tried. Trucking defense lawyers know which firms are bluffing about trial readiness and which are not. We do not bluff. We get paid only if we recover.

What NOT To Do After a Florida Truck Crash

• Do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company's insurer or any "claims specialist" before you have an attorney. Their first call — often within hours of the crash — is designed to lock in unhelpful admissions while you are still in pain or on medication.
• Do not sign anything offered by the carrier's adjuster in the first weeks. Releases, "courtesy payment" forms, medical authorizations, and property damage settlements all contain language designed to limit your future claim.
• Do not assume the police report tells the whole story. Roadside reports rarely capture FMCSA violations, hours-of-service issues, or the carrier's safety record. The real case is built from documents the patrol officer never sees.
• Do not miss the 14-day PIP medical treatment window. Even if you feel okay, see a doctor or urgent care within two weeks — the consequences of waiting longer are permanent.
• Do not let the truck be repaired or returned to service before your attorney has documented it and downloaded the ECM. Once the truck is back on the road, the physical evidence is gone.
• Do not post about the accident on social media. Adjusters and defense lawyers comb Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X for material to attack damages and credibility.
• Do not assume the four-year statute still applies. HB 837 cut the negligence statute of limitations to two years in March 2023. Truck cases require time-consuming investigation, and the deadline arrives faster than most clients expect.

Florida Truck Crash Corridors

Florida's commercial trucking volume is concentrated on six corridors. We handle truck crashes across all of them:

Service Area

Kaiser Romanello, P.A. is a Florida personal injury firm with offices in Parkland, Broward County, representing truck accident victims across the entire state. We handle cases originating in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Brevard, and Volusia counties on the east coast; Monroe County in the Keys; Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Hernando on the west coast; Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Polk, and Marion in Central Florida; and Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau, Alachua, Leon, and Escambia in North Florida and the panhandle. We routinely travel to clients in hospital, in rehabilitation, or at home anywhere in Florida. You do not have to come to us — if your crash happened in Florida, we will come to you.

For brand-specific guidance, see our pages on Amazon delivery truck accidents, Walmart truck accidents, FedEx truck accidents, UPS truck accidents, 7-Eleven truck accidents, and Coca-Cola truck accidents.

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