Fort Lauderdale truck accident lawyers for Broward commercial vehicle, semi-trailer and delivery van crash claims
Commercial trucking claims in Broward County
A collision with a loaded tractor-trailer on I-95 is not a larger version of a fender bender. The vehicle is governed by federal safety regulation, the driver’s hours are recorded electronically, and the company behind both carries commercial coverage with a claims team that answers the phone at three in the morning. On a serious wreck that team can have an investigator on the shoulder photographing gouge marks and collecting witness names before the road reopens. By the time you are discharged from the emergency room, the other side may already know more about your crash than you do.
The Law Offices of Suarez & Montero handle commercial-vehicle injury claims throughout Broward County: semis, dump trucks, tankers, box trucks, delivery vans, tow trucks and buses. The opening moves in a case like this are not the ones an ordinary crash file needs. We work out which companies sit in the chain behind the truck, put each of them on written notice to hold their records, and arrange to examine the tractor and trailer before the units are repaired or sent back out on a run. That window is short, and when it closes the proof is simply gone. A truck file that starts a month late is a different and considerably weaker case.
Start with who is actually on the hook. A tractor-trailer wreck rarely involves one responsible party. The driver may be an employee or an owner-operator leased to a carrier. The motor carrier answers for that driver on the job and, separately, for how it hired, trained and dispatched him. A broker may have chosen the carrier. A shipper may have loaded the trailer, and a badly distributed load lengthens stopping distance and can put a rig over in a curve. A maintenance vendor may have passed brakes that were out of adjustment. Each relationship is documented somewhere, and each carries its own insurance.
Federal rules cap how long a commercial driver can work. A property-carrying driver may drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, may not drive past the fourteenth hour after coming on duty, must take a 30-minute break after 8 cumulative hours of driving, and is limited on a rolling 60-hour or 70-hour weekly schedule. Since electronic logging devices became mandatory the truck records those hours itself rather than the driver writing them in a paper book. Fuel receipts, toll transactions and delivery timestamps either corroborate that log or contradict it.
The engine control module and the carrier telematics platform keep a second account of the same trip: road speed, engine RPM, throttle and brake position, cruise-control status, hard-braking events, and on newer equipment video from a forward-facing camera. That data answers what no eyewitness can, starting with whether the rig braked at all.
None of it survives by default. Carriers must retain electronic logging records and their supporting documents for six months, and the raw telematics feed behind them is often overwritten sooner. Camera footage can recycle in days. A drivable tractor goes back on a route and the tire and brake condition that mattered is corrected at the next service. The counter is unglamorous: a written preservation demand naming specific records, sent within days to the carrier, the broker and the insurer, then an inspection with our own expert before repairs.
Two Florida rules shape the rest. A negligence claim accruing on or after 24 March 2023 must be filed within two years, which is less room than it sounds once months of treatment are subtracted. Under modified comparative negligence a jury assigns each participant a share of fault, your recovery drops by your percentage, and above 50 percent you recover nothing. That is why a defense investigator asks first about your speed, your phone and your lane position.
Where Broward truck crashes happen, and where the claim ends up
Broward freight traffic concentrates in a few predictable places. The I-95 and I-595 interchange funnels container loads between the interstate and Port Everglades, where weaving ramps produce sideswipes and high-speed rear-end collisions. The Florida Turnpike through Broward carries long-haul trailers past exits that back up without warning. State Road 7 and US 441 mix box trucks and dump trucks with constant driveway turns, which yields a different crash entirely: right hooks across a bike lane, wide left turns that trap a car against the curb. Severe trauma is likely to be transported to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, and a Broward suit is filed at the Broward County Courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale, though a case against an interstate carrier can be removed to federal court instead.
Frequently asked questions
Who is liable when a commercial truck causes a crash, the driver or the company?
Usually both, and often others as well. A motor carrier is responsible for a driver acting within the scope of the job, whether on payroll or under an owner-operator lease. The carrier can also be directly at fault for its own decisions: an unqualified driver in the seat, an ignored violation history, a schedule that cannot be run legally, deferred maintenance. Brokers, shippers and repair vendors join when the facts point at them.
What evidence disappears fastest after a truck accident?
Video, almost always. Cab and forward-facing cameras overwrite on short loops, and the nearby business or traffic cameras that caught the approach are frequently gone inside two weeks. Next is the vehicle: once a repairable tractor is fixed and returned to service, the tire wear, brake adjustment and load securement you would have photographed no longer exist. Telematics streams age out on the carrier retention schedule, and gouge marks wash off in the first heavy rain.
Why is a truck claim often worth more than a car claim?
Two reasons, neither a prediction about your case. The first is physics: an interstate combination vehicle can run to 80,000 pounds against a passenger car of three or four thousand, so injuries tend to be permanent rather than temporary, and the treatment, lost earning capacity and future care that follow are correspondingly larger. The second is coverage: interstate carriers must meet federal financial-responsibility requirements set well above what Florida asks of a private driver.
To have a truck crash looked at, call Broward on (954) 529-9377, Miami-Dade on 305-631-1911, or Duval and St. John on (904) 800-5297.
About Jaime Suarez
Jaime Suarez earned his law degree at the University of Miami School of Law, graduating with highest honors, and has spent over 24 years representing accident and injury victims in South Florida. His practice covers serious collision cases, spinal and brain injuries, falls, medication errors, workplace injuries and claims brought after a death. Commercial-vehicle files sit at the heavier end of that work, because they combine federal regulation with catastrophic injury.
He practices with partner Andres G. Montero, whose verdicts and settlements exceed $20 million. The firm is based in Florida and has recovered millions for clients over the years.
Get a truck crash reviewed
Tell us what hit you and where. We will explain what has to be preserved this week, at no cost.
HOLD THE LOGS
We put the carrier and its insurer on written notice to preserve driver hours, dispatch records and telematics data
FIND EVERY COMPANY
Driver, carrier, broker, shipper and maintenance vendor each carry separate insurance, and each has to be identified early
INSPECT THE RIG
Brakes, tires and load securement are examined before the tractor and trailer go back into service
Trucking companies start building their defense the same day. Start yours.
The Law Offices of Suarez & Montero represent people injured by commercial vehicles throughout Broward and the rest of South Florida. A case review costs nothing and the phone is answered at any hour, including from a hospital room. Call 305-631-1911 for the Miami-Dade office, or send us an e-mail. No fee unless we win your case.