As of December 4, 2015, pursuant to the FAST Act of 2015, much of the information previously available on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) website related to a trucking company’s safety performance will no longer be displayed publicly. This will prevent easy access to the public and to others who want to know about… Continue Reading
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Morgan Adams Selected as 2015 MidSouth SuperLawyer for Truck Accident Litigation
Posted in UncategorizedI am pleased to announce that I have once again been selected to the 2015 MidSouth Super Lawyers list. This is an exclusive list, recognizing no more than five percent of attorneys in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, is a research-driven, peer influenced rating service of outstanding lawyers who have attained… Continue Reading
MAP-21 Change: Companies MUST Prevent Bad Truck Drivers from Driving
Posted in SafetyMAP-21 made significant changes in the trucking industry regulatory scheme. One change is that Section 32307 of MAP-21 was amended to prohibit employers from allowing employees to drive when the employer knows or should reasonably know that the the driver is disqualified,or when the employee’s driver’s license was suspended, revoked, or canceled. This final rule, issued October 1,… Continue Reading
Spoliation Letter Updated – Version 5
Posted in SpoliationEvery so often I need to revise and update my standard spoliation letter (a letter telling the trucking company to save evidence that shows who is, and is not, at fault for a wreck). In part because of changes in the trucking industry, in part because it can always be made better. In this latest update… Continue Reading
Qualcomm Sells Omnitracs Trucking Division to Vista Equity Partners
Posted in Legal IssuesSemiconductor technology firm Qualcomm Inc. said it has sold its transportation and logistics business, Omnitracs, to Vista Equity Partners for $800 million. This includes the Commercial Motor Vehicle tracking or "telematics" systems. The acquisition by Vista Equity Partners will include all Omnitracs operations in the United States, Canada and Latin America as well as… Continue Reading
Swift Trucking Sanctioned Again for Destroying Evidence
Posted in SpoliationSwift, like many trucking companies, has a history of destroying evidence that shows they were at fault for a wreck. I have posted on this previously. That is one of the reasons it is important to hire a lawyer as soon as possible when you have a trucking case. Recently, in an Arkansas case, the trial… Continue Reading
Increasing Insurance Limits on Tractor Trailers – Long Overdue!
Posted in Legal IssuesI have previously posted on how inadequate current insurance limits are on tractor trailers. In that blog post I stated (regarding the minimum $750K limits being inadequate for catastrophic wrecks, limits having not been increased in almost 3 decades): If you go to any present value calculator on the Internet and use a 4% inflation… Continue Reading
Discovery in Trucking Cases – E-ZPass and PrePass
Posted in Hours of ServiceOne of the things you do when handling a trucking case, whether as a plaintiff or a defense lawyer, is to audit the drivers logs to determine if the driver was over hours and driving in a fatigued state. I have blogged on fatigued driving extensively in the past. A key in auditing logs is to get all… Continue Reading
Morgan Adams Named 2012 SuperLawyer for Personal Injury
Posted in Hiring A Truck Accident LawyerMorgan Adams is selected as a Mid-South Super Lawyer for 2012. Super Lawyers (a Thomson Reuters publication) is a listing of outstanding lawyers in the Mid-South including lawyers from Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Super Lawyers has an extensive election process that involves peer nominations, evaluations and third-party research. Each candidate is evaluated on 12 points that… Continue Reading
Wall Street Journal States Trucking Industry Short 20,000 Drivers
Posted in Driver ProblemsThe Wall Street Journal noted today (July 16, 2012, page C1) that the trucking industry is currently short 20,000 drivers. The ATA has estimated that by 2014 the industry will be 111,000 drivers short – a fact I blogged about HERE back in 2007. The only reason the current shortage isn’t worse is the economy… Continue Reading
June 8, 9, and 10, 2012 – The Most Dangerous Days to be on Road – Roadcheck 2012
Posted in RoadcheckThe truck industry "Roadcheck" is in process. That means from June 5-7 there will be more roadside inspectors looking at trucks – to ensure they are safe and legal – than at any other time of the year. Correspondingly, as those inspectors take a day off after the big push, the following three days have… Continue Reading
Cell Phone Ban For Truckers in Effect Jan 3, 2012
Posted in Driver ProblemsThe cell phone I ban I previously blogged about HERE has gone into effect, making American roads a little safer for 2012. This is not a complete ban, hands free devices are still allowed. The American Trucking Association (ATA) has posted its interpretation of the rule HERE.… Continue Reading
NEW HOURS OF SERVICE REGULATIONS
Posted in Hours of ServiceI thought the new Hours of Service (HOS) Regulations made sense, and that there wouldn’t be much controversy about the new regulations. After all, the new regulation just put back into place the old rule. The old rule required drivers of 80,000 pound tractor trailers to stop after driving 10 hours. The law was changed under President Bush… Continue Reading
Morgan Adams Quoted In Chattanooga Times Free Press on Trucking Safety
Posted in Hours of Service, SafetyBill ignites war of words over trucking safety by Ellis Smith Ringgold, Ga., widow Cindy Whitaker lost her husband, brother and niece in 2009 when a bucket truck hit their vehicle head-on. Now she’s pushing for tighter federal regulations for truckers, even as the trucking industry points to federal statistics indicating that America’s roads… Continue Reading
This Blog Selected as one of the “Top 75 Truck Sites!”
Posted in Legal IssuesI am pleased to report that my blog on trucking litigation has been selected as one of the Top 75 Truck Sites on the internet! The selection criteria states: Truck Injury Lawyer Blog It’s all fun and games until you or your truck gets hurt, and if that’s the case then this is the guy you… Continue Reading
Underride Collsions Preventible Tragedies
Posted in Crashworthiness, Legal Issues, SafetyA new study, discussed below, by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that rear truck underride guards are inadequate, and collisions like the one shown above should never have the catastrophic damages that they so often do in the US. Now there are many reasons that cars hit tractor trailers in the rear, sometimes it is… Continue Reading
Trucking Lawyer Helps Nationwide
Posted in Accident HelpI was happy to learn that a local paper, The Hamilton County Herald ( www.hamiltoncountyherald.com ), wanted to do an article on my practice, the full article published December 31, 2010 can be found here and is pasted below: Locally based truck accident lawyer helps nationwide David Laprad Truck wreck lawyer Morgan Adams represents… Continue Reading
State Laws Regarding Cell Phone Use and Texting While Driving
Posted in SafetyDriver distraction, to include cell phone use, is a major cause of wrecks. This is a huge issue in the trucking industry as truck drivers are required to frequently update their company and are on the road weeks at a time, leaving the cell phone their only means of communication with vendors, friends, and family. Proving… Continue Reading
US SUPREME COURT DETERMINES PRINCIPLE PLACE OF BUSINESS FOR CORPORATIONS
Posted in Legal IssuesThe United States Supreme Court recently held that the principle place of business for a corporation, for purposes of determining whether a federal court has diversity jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1332(c)(1), is that place where: a corporation’s officers direct, control, and coordinate the corporation’s activities. It is the place that Courts of Appeals have called… Continue Reading
Advanced Trucking Litigation College – October 2009 – American Association for Justice
Posted in Legal IssuesSome of the best trucking lawyers in the country recently got together in Atlanta and spent a week teaching other lawyers the tricks and traps of handling a truck, bus or other commercial motor vehicle case. I have not been posting for the last month as my time has been consumed by getting this program… Continue Reading
Preventing Tractor Trailer Rollovers
Posted in Driver Problems, Legal Issues, Rollover Accidents, SafetyTraining remains the number one way to prevent truck rollovers according to government and industry officials. A 2007 report by Battelle Memorial Institute for the FMCSA found “75% [of rollovers] are attributed to driver error.” The primary cause was running off the road, caused by driver fatigue or inattentiveness.” Trucking companies could reduce rollovers by… Continue Reading
Responsibility for Truck Rollovers
Posted in Rollover AccidentsIn a Tractor Trailer rollovers, who is to blame is frequently a major issue. Federal regulations generally require the driver to bear responsibility for the loading, and faulty loading, of the trailer. However an exception is made for loads that are sealed. www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.asp Who then is responsible? Generally speaking it is the company that loaded and sealed… Continue Reading
Driver Factors in Truck Wrecks
Posted in Driver ProblemsThe federal government has listed the reasons that truck drivers are involved in collisions. According to the FMCSA 2007 report on the 2005 crash results, the top 10 causes of truck accidents, where the truck driver is a fault, are: Failure to keep in proper lane Driving too fast for Conditions Fatigue Failure to yield right… Continue Reading
Bad Drivers on the Road Due to Driver Shortages
Posted in Driver ProblemsThe American Trucking Association estimated in 2005 that by 2014 there would be a shortage of 111,000 drivers. This shortage of drivers frequently causes trucking companies to hire drivers that are unqualified rather than having to turn down lucrative trucking contracts. It is critical in a trucking case to have the Driver’s Qualification File reviewed… Continue Reading