Florida Truck Accident Lawyers
FLORIDA TRUCK ACCIDENT ATTORNEYS FIGHTING FOR VICTIMS
Large commercial trucks move millions of tons of freight across Florida each year. Most of the time, they complete their routes without incident. But when something goes wrong—when a fatigued driver misses a light, a maintenance failure goes unchecked, or a trailer jackknifes across multiple lanes—the damage can be catastrophic.
If you’ve been seriously injured in a commercial truck accident, you’re not just dealing with a vehicle collision. You’re facing a corporate defense team, a multi-layered insurance structure, and a system built to protect trucking companies. The experienced Florida truck accident attorneys of Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith, PLLC, help accident victims and families across Florida hold commercial carriers accountable and fight for meaningful compensation when lives are disrupted or forever changed.
If you or someone you love was hurt in an accident involving a semi truck or other commercial vehicle, call our commercial truck accident lawyers at (561) 655-2028 for a free consultation.
Have You been Injured
in a truck accident?
Why Truck Accidents Require a Different Kind of Lawyer
Truck accident cases move fast, involve multiple companies, and hinge on technical evidence most lawyers aren’t trained to preserve or interpret. You need an attorney experienced in dealing with commercial truck accidents, who knows what’s at stake—and how these cases are built from day one.
Evidence disappears quickly. Driver logs, black box data, maintenance records, and GPS history may only be retained for a short time unless formally preserved. A lawyer familiar with trucking litigation knows how to send the right notices, request the right documents, and lock down key evidence before it’s lost.
Multiple parties may share responsibility. In many cases, fault doesn’t stop with the driver. The trucking company, a third-party maintenance provider, the freight loader, or even the manufacturer may have contributed. A truck accident lawyer knows how to identify all possible sources of liability—and how to pursue each one strategically.
The defense is already working against you. Commercial insurers deploy investigators and legal teams almost immediately. Their job is to minimize exposure and find ways to shift blame. Your lawyer needs to be ready with expert resources, litigation experience, and the ability to stand up to those tactics.
Truck accident claims aren’t cases that can be rushed or treated like minor collisions from a car accident. They demand precision, urgency, and a legal team that knows how to uncover the full picture—before the defense has a chance to frame their version of events.
Our Florida truck accident lawyers build cases with the same urgency and discipline the trucking companies use to defend them. We secure evidence early, identify every liable party, and develop strategies that hold up under pressure—whether in settlement negotiations or at trial.
What Causes Serious Truck Crashes in Florida?
Trucking companies and the commercial truck drivers they employ are expected to follow strict safety practices. But shortcuts are common—and usually dangerous. Here are a few of the issues we see most in commercial truck crashes:
- Driver fatigue: Even with Hours-of-Service limits in place, fatigued truck drivers may exceed legal drive time or skip required breaks. Fatigue dulls reaction time and decision-making.
- Distracted driving: Phones, GPS devices, paperwork—any lapse in focus behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound vehicle can be deadly.
- Drowsy driving: Long shifts, irregular schedules, and overnight hauls make drowsy driving a serious problem in the trucking industry. Slowed reaction times and lapses in attention can lead to devastating highway collisions.
- Impaired driving: Alcohol, illegal substances, or prescription medications can all affect coordination, judgment, and reaction time. When impaired driving is involved in a truck crash, the consequences are usually severe—for everyone on the road.
- Mechanical failure: Bald tires, brake system defects, missing inspections. Neglected maintenance is a leading cause of truck crashes.
- Unsecured or overloaded cargo: Shifting freight affects vehicle stability, especially on curves or ramps. When cargo isn’t secured properly, a rollover or jackknife crash becomes much more likely.
- Aggressive driving: Speeding, tailgating, or abrupt lane changes in a commercial truck frequently lead to collisions with smaller vehicles that have no chance to avoid impact.
Each of these causes leaves behind a trail—whether it’s in inspection records, driver logs, black box data, or accident reconstruction reports. Our attorneys know how to identify the specific failures that led to the crash and use that information to build a case that holds the right parties accountable. We present a clear, evidence-based picture of what happened and why the responsible parties should be held financially liable.
Types of Truck Accidents and What They Tell Us
Every crash has a story behind it. The type of accident can reveal what went wrong—and who may be at fault.
- Jackknife collisions happen when the trailer swings out beside the cab, typically caused by sudden braking or poor road conditions. The trailer can sweep across multiple lanes, creating a hazard that leads to multi-vehicle pileups.
- Underride crashes happen when a smaller vehicle slides beneath a truck’s trailer. They’re frequently fatal and may indicate that required safety guards were missing or inadequate.
- Rollover accidents may indicate overloaded trailers or cargo shift. Improper weight distribution or excessive speed on curves can tip a rig over entirely.
- Right-turn pinches trap other vehicles between the trailer and curb as the truck swings wide.
- Blind spot sideswipes suggest that a driver failed to check mirrors or wasn’t aware of smaller vehicles in adjacent lanes.
The type of the crash helps us identify contributing factors like truck driver’s negligence, equipment failure, or company oversight—and build a case grounded in the facts.
Who Can Be Held Responsible?
Truck crashes rarely point to a single error. Here are the parties our truck accident lawyer team may investigate:
- The driver: A negligent truck driver may be distracted, impaired, too tired, or simply reckless behind the wheel. Violating safety rules puts everyone else on the road at risk—and can create lasting harm in a matter of seconds.
- The trucking company: Hiring unqualified drivers, pushing unsafe schedules, or neglecting vehicle maintenance all point back to management.
- Cargo companies: Improper loading, unsecured freight, or overweight trailers can lead to serious instability.
- Maintenance contractors: Skipped inspections or poor repair work can result in mechanical failure.
- Manufacturers: If a brake line, tire, or steering component failed because of a defect, the company that made it may bear liability.
Our investigation focuses on preserving records, logs, ELD data, inspection reports, and anything else that points to where the breakdown really occurred.
Federal and Florida Rules That Impact Your Case
Commercial trucking isn’t just regulated by Florida law. Federal regulations enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) cover everything from how long a driver can stay on the road to how cargo is secured. We regularly deal with:
- Hours of Service violations
- Missing or falsified driver logs
- Ignored maintenance schedules
- Improper CDL certification
- Overweight and overheight loads
- Failure to test for alcohol or controlled substances
Trucking companies are also required to comply with Florida-specific laws enforced by the Department of Transportation. When companies ignore these requirements, the risk of large truck crashes increases—and the consequences usually fall hardest on the people who did nothing wrong.
What to Do After a Truck Accident
You don’t need to know everything right away—but early steps can protect your health and your ability to pursue compensation.
- Get medical care: Even if you feel fine, internal injuries, concussions, and spinal damage can take hours or days to appear.
- Call law enforcement: A police report creates an official record and may help identify witnesses or initial fault.
- Preserve evidence if possible: Take photos of the accident scene, including damage to the commercial vehicle and your own, as well as any visible injuries.
- Don’t speak to the trucking company’s insurer: They may ask for a recorded statement or try to settle fast. It’s safer to decline and speak to our attorneys first.
- Contact an experienced truck accident lawyer: Crucial evidence—like black box data, dash cam footage, or inspection logs—may be lost if not secured early.
What Compensation Can Cover
Truck accident injuries usually result in overwhelming medical bills and long-term recovery. If your case is successful, compensation may cover:
- Medical treatment: Hospitalization, surgery, follow-up care, physical therapy, and assistive equipment
- Lost income: Wages you couldn’t earn during recovery, and long-term loss of earning ability
- Pain and suffering: The physical and emotional cost of traumatic injuries and disrupted life
- Property damage: Replacement or repair of your vehicle and any personal items destroyed in the crash
- In fatal crashes: Families may pursue a wrongful death lawsuit to recover funeral expenses and the loss of support or companionship
We calculate damages by looking not just at current bills, but future costs, lost potential, and the lasting effect the crash has had on your life.
How Insurance Companies Defend These Claims
Insurance companies that handle commercial vehicle collisions are well-practiced in minimizing payouts. Trucking companies are usually covered by commercial policies worth hundreds of thousands—sometimes millions. Their goal is to protect that money.
You may face:
- Early settlement offers that sound helpful but don’t reflect the long-term cost of your severe injuries
- Blame-shifting tactics that claim you caused or contributed to the crash
- Minimization of your injuries by disputing your treatment plan or saying your pain isn’t supported by evidence
- Delays and denials designed to exhaust you into accepting less
Our Florida truck accident attorneys are familiar with these strategies and take over communication immediately to keep you protected from bad-faith tactics.
How Florida’s Fault Rules Can Affect Your Case
As of 2023, Florida follows a modified comparative fault system. If you are found to be more than 50% responsible for the accident, you can’t recover damages.
That’s why insurance companies work hard to suggest you made a mistake—whether it’s how you changed lanes, your speed, or your reaction time. We fight those claims by investigating the scene, bringing in reconstruction experts when needed, and presenting a full picture of what actually happened.
You Have Two Years to File
Florida’s current personal injury statute of limitations gives you two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit—or two years from the date of death in a wrongful death case.
That might seem like a long time, but evidence fades quickly. Dashcam recordings are overwritten. Witnesses move. Company logs may be destroyed unless preserved by legal request. Acting early gives us the tools we need to build your case before they disappear.
Why Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith
We’ve spent over 98 years standing up for Floridians across the state. Our lawyers know how to challenge trucking companies, preserve critical evidence, and fight for full compensation in high-stakes truck crash cases. Whether a crash involving tractor trailers, delivery trucks, tankers, semi trucks, or other heavy commercial vehicles, we’ve helped clients recover after catastrophic injuries, spinal trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and fatal crashes.
Here’s what you can expect:
- No out-of-pocket costs: You pay nothing unless we win.
- A real team on your side: We don’t hand your case off. You’ll work directly with the attorney who’s handling it.
- Focused expertise: We understand federal trucking regulations, black box evidence, and how commercial insurers try to avoid responsibility.
If your life has been disrupted by a truck crash, we’re here to help you take the next step forward.
Talk to a Florida Truck Accident Lawyer Today
Don’t wait until the bills pile up or the insurance calls stop. The trucking company already has a team working to protect their interests. You deserve someone doing the same for you.
Contact Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel, PLLC at (561) 655-2028 or by email today for a free consultation. The experienced truck accident attorneys at our law firm will review your case, answer your questions, and explain your options—without any pressure or obligation.
