Orange County Truck Accident Lawyer

Any vehicle accident has the potential to cause life-changing injuries and expensive economic losses, but this risk is much greater with commercial truck accidents. If you or a family member sustained injuries in such an incident, an Orange County truck accident lawyer is the ideal resource to consult to determine your most viable options for recovering compensation.

An Orange County truck accident lawyer has the professional experience and resources you need on your side in this situation.

Why Choose an Orange County Truck Accident Lawyer From Us?

Commercial over-the-road freight companies, delivery vans, and other businesses using California roads and federal highways are required to obey regulations overseen by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), as well as California state regulatory agencies.

When a motor vehicle accident involves an 18-wheeler or other commercial truck or van, it is important to determine whether the trucking company or driver was in violation of any federal or state regulations.

When you secure representation from Easton & Easton, you gain the steadfast support of a law firm that has secured more than $2 billion for clients through focused negotiations and strategic litigation. We bring more than 100 years of combined experience to these matters.

*Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case is different and must be evaluated on its own merits.

What an Attorney Can Do

An Orange County truck accident attorney is an essential ally after you or a loved one sustained injuries and other losses from a collision with a large commercial truck. These vehicles are inherently more dangerous than most of the other vehicles on Orange County, California, roads, simply due to their sheer size.

A fully loaded 18-wheeler can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds and stand over 13 feet tall off the road. This means a much higher center of gravity and greater difficulty in maneuvering. When these large vehicles crash, the incident is likely to involve multiple other drivers, especially if the collision occurs at high speed on a busy road.

Why Do You Need an 18-Wheeler Truck Accident Lawyer?

A truck accident is far more likely than a typical car accident to cause serious injuries, costly vehicle repair and replacement costs, and fatalities. Due to their size, many tractor-trailer accidents in California wind up injuring multiple other drivers. Hiring an Orange County truck accident lawyer can help you navigate the many different complexities that can arise from a multi-vehicle truck accident.

Your attorney can help you gather evidence to determine liability in your accident claim. An Orange County truck accident attorney is also a great asset when it comes to issues of vicarious liability.

For example, if you sustained injuries due to the actions of a truck driver employed by a trucking company, the company may be liable for your damages in some situations. An experienced truck accident lawyer can accurately determine an injured driver’s opportunities for financial recovery in these complex situations.

The Difference a Lawyer Can Make

Hiring a personal injury attorney in Orange County also means you no longer need to fear any procedural or administrative errors with the courthouse jeopardizing your claim. If you attempt to handle a personal injury claim for a truck accident on your own, you will need to file various forms with your local courthouse accurately, in full, and on time. Missing court filing deadlines could lead to a judge throwing out your case before it even reaches the trial phase.

If the defendant in your claim is a large trucking company or major distributor, you should expect them to have an experienced in-house legal team ready to defend their interests in court. An experienced Orange County truck accident attorney knows how to navigate your claim, deal with the defense, and how to make sure that all of your paperwork is filed correctly and on time with the court.

3 Steps to Immediately Take After a Truck Accident in Orange County, CA

1. Get the contact and insurance information of the other driver.
2. Do not talk to the insurance company or give a written or recorded statement to the insurance company without talking to Easton & Easton, LLP.
3. Call Easton & Easton, LLP as soon as possible so we can advise you on what to do next.

Experiencing a serious truck accident can be a life-changing event. Your attorney can become an invaluable resource for you during your recovery, handling legal efforts on your behalf and pursuing your recovery so you can rest and focus on healing from your injuries. It’s vital to seek legal counsel as soon as possible following a truck accident and to have some idea of what to do immediately following an accident.

Once you secure legal representation for your truck accident claim, you and your attorney will begin building your case. The first step in recovery from a truck accident that someone else caused is to identify the party responsible for causing your damages.

Next will be thoroughly exploring and proving the full extent of those damages. Insurance is typically the first step toward recovery after any motor vehicle accident. However, the reality is that most insurance companies will work hard to avoid paying out on claims or paying them out in full whenever possible.

The Importance of Legal Representation

Securing legal representation immediately after your accident means you don’t need to face insurance companies alone. We have handled hundreds of cases for Orange County clients and have dealt with many different insurance carriers. Once an insurance agent notices that an accident claimant has legal representation, the likelihood of the insurance agent pushing back against a legitimate claim drops significantly.

Seek Medical Care Immediately

Truck accidents typically cause serious injuries that require immediate hospitalization, but some drivers are lucky and emerge from truck accidents with seemingly mild injuries. No matter how severely you believe you were injured, it’s vital to seek medical care as soon as possible after your accident.

Your doctor can check for internal injuries that may not have any noticeable symptoms yet, and the medical report your doctor provides will be essential to building a personal injury claim against the party responsible for your accident.

Recovery With Auto Insurance

Every California driver is required by state law to have auto insurance that meets basic coverage requirements for bodily injury liability and property damage liability. If another driver causes an accident with you, filing a claim against their auto insurance policy is a valuable first step in your recovery process. However, you may not be able to fully recover through insurance alone, and you may encounter various problems in dealing with an insurance company representative.

Insurance companies tend to look for any reasons they can find to reduce a claim payout or deny a claim. Some insurance company representatives will even engage in bad-faith tactics to try to minimize their liability for a claim. When an insurance company representative sees that you have legal counsel, however, they will be far less inclined to attempt any such unethical tactics, and you will be more likely to receive a fair settlement offer.

How to Build a Truck Accident Claim

In addition to the medical report from your doctor, you should also secure a copy of the police report from your accident. These two reports, combined with evidence from the scene of the accident and eyewitness testimony, will form the backbone of your personal injury claim. Once your legal team has determined the party or parties responsible for your damages, you can start to establish the four elements of negligence to succeed with your personal injury claim:

• Duty of care. Your attorney needs to prove to the court that the defendant in your claim owed you a duty of care. For example, a truck driver has a duty of care to operate their vehicle safely and never under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Breach of duty. Your attorney must then prove how the defendant in your claim failed to uphold their duty of care. An example of this would be a truck driver driving under the influence of alcohol or a trucking company’s failure to train a driver or maintain FMCSA compliance fully.
• If you did not suffer damages, you have no claim. Your attorney will help you prove the full extent of the losses you incurred due to the defendant’s negligent behavior. California law allows civil claimants in personal injury lawsuits to claim compensation for various types of compensatory damages, and some plaintiffs may receive punitive damages depending on the nature of the defendant’s behavior that caused the accident.
• The court only allows plaintiffs to recover compensation for the direct results of a defendant’s negligence. The plaintiff’s attorney has a responsibility to prove that the claimed damages in the case would not have occurred but for the defendant’s negligence, and that those damages did not accrue from some other cause.

The defendant in a truck accident claim could be a truck driver, a truck driver’s employer, a company, or a third-party driver who caused an accident with a large truck and your vehicle. A successful personal injury claim could allow you to secure compensation for all of your medical bills, any income you lost during your recovery, property damage, and pain and suffering.

Truck accidents can cause severe injuries, including spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and bone fractures, among other injuries. These kinds of injuries not only take a long time to heal but also may result in permanent disability and inability to work. Hiring an experienced Orange County truck accident attorney as soon as possible dramatically increases the chances of holding the party responsible for your damages accountable.

People Injured in Truck Accidents Have a Human Story — Call Us to Tell Yours

If you were injured or lost a family member in a truck accident in Southern California, talk to an attorney at Easton & Easton before you talk to an insurance company. From our offices in the South Coast Metro Area of Orange County, our attorneys represent people injured in truck accidents in Orange County and communities in nearby Los Angeles County, Riverside County,

San Bernardino County and San Diego County. Contact us to arrange a case evaluation with one of our Orange County truck accident injury lawyers today. We handle all personal injury and wrongful death cases on a contingency-fee basis.

Why It Pays to Have an Experienced Orange County Truck Accident Lawyer on Your Side

In many cases, large trucking companies carry additional injury liability insurance, and many even self-insure against catastrophic injury and wrongful death claims. They know they may be held liable for heavy financial damages, so they hire teams of experienced defense lawyers. You deserve a team of trial attorneys on your side to help you get the monetary damages you are entitled to receive.

Our trucking accident lawyers have more than 60 combined years of personal injury trial experience. Our case results include significant monetary recovery on behalf of individuals and families suffering losses in truck accidents.

Our Approach

Doug Easton, the founder of Easton & Easton, has been featured by the Los Angeles Times as one of Southern California’s Best Lawyers and has been repeatedly honored as a Southern California Super Lawyer. For more than 25 years, Doug Easton has earned Martindale-Hubbell’s highest AV Preeminent* peer review rating for ethical standards and legal ability.

**Awards and recognition are not guarantees of future results. Selection criteria vary by organization.

His sons followed in his footsteps many years ago, and together our family of lawyers has earned great respect and name-recognition among our peers in the legal community in Southern California. Our case results include truck accident injuries and wrongful death claims resulting from:

• Overloaded semi-trailers or unsafe loads. An imbalanced truck can easily tip or roll over around a sharp turn. The party responsible for packing the truck is likely to face liability for this type of accident.
• Truck driver DUI. If a truck driver causes an accident due to intoxicated driving, they face many other consequences aside from their liability for the damages they caused. They will also lose their commercial driver’s license (CDL), forcing them to find a new job, and they will face criminal charges. Penalties for a DUI conviction increase with each conviction and/or if the defendant causes great bodily harm or death.
• Truck driver speeding or reckless driving. Truck drivers are expected to follow the rules of the road, the same as all other drivers, and to use reasonable care at all times. Excessive speeding or reckless driving can lead to criminal penalties as well as civil liability if a driver causes an accident in this manner.
• Distracted truck driver, texting or talking on a cellphone. Distracted driving is one of the most commonly cited forms of negligence responsible for vehicle accidents throughout the country each year. In 2024, there were 315,167 people injured by distracted driving, and this type of driver negligence can support an injury claim.
• Truck driver fatigue, violations of FMCSA rest and break regulations. Trucking companies must enforce hours of service regulations to make sure their drivers get adequate rest between shifts. If a truck driver and/or their employer fails to adhere to these regulations, it could lead to a fatigued driving accident.
• Improper truck maintenance. Large commercial trucks have far greater maintenance requirements than standard passenger vehicles. The party responsible for truck maintenance can be liable for an accident if their failure to maintain the vehicle leads to an accident.
• Untrained truck drivers. Trucking companies are required to provide adequate training and experience to handle their job duties. If a trucking company sends an untrained driver on a route and the driver causes an accident, the employer likely faces vicarious liability for the resulting damages.
• Unsafe emergency stops. Truck drivers are required to follow proper procedures when they perform emergency stops. Failure to do so jeopardizes the occupants of all the other vehicles around them.
• Defective truck running lights. The running lights on a truck help other drivers notice when they are slowing down, stopping, or turning.

It’s possible for a truck accident to happen in many ways, and you will need to find an Orange County truck accident lawyer who has the skills, resources, and experience needed to prove the exact cause of your accident if you want to increase your recovery. The attorneys at Easton & Easton have a reputation as a leading choice for personal injury counsel in Orange County for all types of cases, and we’re ready to leverage our experience for you in your impending case.

Understanding California’s Statute of Limitations

Whether you live in Balboa Peninsula, Woodbridge, Old Towne Orange, or elsewhere in Orange County, there are specific filing requirements that must be met for a successful injury claim. In California, there are strict deadlines that control how long you have to file a personal injury claim. In most cases, the statute of limitations permits victims two years from the day of the accident for them to file their claim.

Missing that deadline could mean that your cause is dismissed, even when liability is clear. These deadlines are strictly enforced, and injured parties can reduce the chance of failing to meet this requirement by working with an attorney. If the accident involves a public vehicle, such as one operated by Caltrans, you must typically file an administrative claim within six months of the incident.

How Comparative Negligence Could Affect Your Claim

California follows a pure comparative negligence system, which means your compensation can be reduced based on your share of fault. Under pure comparative negligence, victims can still seek damages even if they were mostly responsible for the accident. For example, if you are found 30 percent at fault, your total recovery would be reduced by that percentage.

Insurance companies often use this rule to argue that you share more blame than you actually do. Evidence such as accident reports, medical records, and witness statements can influence how fault is assigned and how much compensation you may ultimately receive.

Why You Should Hire a Truck Accident Lawyer from Easton & Easton

With 17,809 people injured or killed in Orange County in 2023 due to automobile and truck collisions, the area sees high levels of vehicle collisions that lead to personal injuries. The outcomes of those cases can provide injured drivers and passengers with compensation, but only when they file a truck accident case that complies with the state’s strict truck accident laws.

When you hire a truck accident lawyer from Easton & Easton, you gain the support of a top-rated law firm that brings a track record of success. We understand the challenges and complexities of truck collision injuries, and we can take the time to document the harm you endured so you receive a fair settlement that reflects the full scope of your injuries.

Civil court filings are complicated, and not every one of the 886,644 claims filed in 2024 would have led to favorable outcomes for the plaintiff. With the award-winning legal team at Easton & Easton by your side, you can trust that your case is being personally handled by a results-driven injury lawyer who cares about your case and making sure that you receive fair compensation.

FAQs

Who Is Liable for a Truck Accident in Orange County?

A complicating factor that could arise with your truck accident claim and make it harder for you to prove liability is the concept of vicarious liability. It’s possible for the truck driver who caused your accident to bear sole liability, or their employer could bear vicarious liability. This rule applies when an employer’s negligence enables their employee to cause harm to another party.

How Much Compensation Can I Claim for a Truck Accident?

If you can prove another party is directly responsible for causing your recent accident, you have the right to seek complete repayment of your economic damages as well as compensation for projected future economic damages and your pain and suffering. You could be entitled to a larger recovery than you expect, and the right Orange County truck accident lawyer is your most valuable asset for increasing your case award.

Can I Still Claim Compensation if I’m Partially at Fault?

Yes, it is possible for you to be found partially liable for your truck accident, and you will still be able to recover compensation for your damages. Your fault percentage will be taken from your case award as a penalty, and you can keep the remainder. For example, if you are found 10% at fault in a $300,000 case, it would mean you will lose $30,000 of your case award. Your attorney can potentially help minimize any fault percentage assigned to you.

How Long Do I Have to File a Truck Accident Claim in Orange County?

Recovery from your truck accident will likely require an auto insurance claim against the at-fault driver, and you have only a few days in which to file this claim after your accident. When insurance can’t fully cover your losses, you need to file a personal injury claim, and there is a two-year statute of limitations in which you must file your claim with the court; otherwise, you lose your chance to claim compensation from the defendant who caused the accident.

Why Should I Hire an Orange County Truck Accident Lawyer?

Hiring trustworthy legal counsel makes every phase of your case easier to manage, and you will be more likely to reach the result you hope to see with their assistance. Your attorney can help identify all the various forms of compensation you can claim, assist you in filing your insurance claim, and then help build a comprehensive personal injury claim aimed at a fair recovery.

Office Consultation · Contingency Fees · Se Habla Español

Our office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Evening and weekend appointments are available by special arrangement. We can also arrange to travel to your home, hospital room, or other convenient location to meet with you and your family. If you hire us, we will handle your claim on a contingency-fee basis.

Contact our office to speak with an experienced truck accident injury lawyer in Orange County to inform us of your circumstances.

*AV Preeminent and BV Distinguished are certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards, and policies. Martindale-Hubbell is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the confidential opinions of members of the bar and the judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell ratings fall into two categories: legal ability and general ethical standards.