Nuclear verdicts are shaking up the trucking industry's legal strategy

Trucking carriers now lose their biggest cases on paperwork generated long before the crash. Knowing how these verdicts get decided keeps a company clear of one.

According to the American Transportation Research Institute, defense lawyers have never won a trucking case built on hours of service or logbook violations. The cases in ATRI's litigation database built on these violations ended up with the carrier losing. In trucking litigation, anything above $10 million awarded in damages is labeled as nuclear verdicts.

It's important that carriers, truckers, and those working in the industry understand how these cases tend to go so that you don't end up with a nuclear verdict ruled against you.

Delay Is Expensive

In fact, ATRI's research shows that delay is expensive; a 1% increase in the time between the crash and the verdict can correspond to a $3 million increase in the damages awarded.

In the past, defense counsel may have once leaned on long discovery periods, but now they're more likely to push toward an early evaluation and resolution. That reversal in timing is the biggest legal strategy transformation that these nuclear verdicts have created in the trucking industry.

Venue Has Become the Primary Battleground

Venue has become the primary battleground in trucking cases with verdicts over $1 million. The median award was $3.6 million in a state court versus $2.5 million in a federal court. In other words, if your case goes to federal court, the verdict is likely to be less severe.

That's what the lawyers are increasingly wary about. They're engaging with the legal process at the state level and preferring to move things to a federal court. Lawsuit costs in trucking follow that decision.

The Evidence Begins Before the Crash

The safety administration puts a cap on how long a driver can stay at the wheel, and there are record-keeping requirements for logging the time that was spent on the road. One category of case has never been won by the defendant in the ATRI litigation database: crashes where hours of service records show the violation.

Trucking fleets have invested in forward-facing and driver-facing cameras. Modern trucks have advanced telematics that log speed and braking. By carefully recording this information, trucking companies can protect themselves legally. These trucking industry changes are standard.

What These Changes Mean for Injured Clients

The same footage and telematics data that protect careful drivers expose negligent ones. An injured client's legal firm will almost always request that data immediately, sending preservation letters within a few days of a serious collision.

For instance, anyone hurt by a commercial vehicle in Arizona will depend on Phoenix truck crash attorneys who have all the legal documentation ready as a template so they can immediately request the data.

Nuclear Verdicts Threaten Serious Financial Impact

The trucking industry and lawsuits have reached the point where insurance pricing, driver hiring, and even the purchasing of equipment are reflective of companies trying to minimize their exposure to litigation risk. Nuclear verdicts threaten to have a serious financial impact on trucking companies, so they're taking measures such as preserving evidence and trying to move the case to federal court. The impact of nuclear verdicts is operation-wide.

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