If you were hurt in a commercial truck crash anywhere in the St. Louis metro, you're up against trucking companies and insurers who move fast to limit what they pay. Our trial attorneys move faster.
A truck crash on I-44, I-70, I-64/Highway 40 or I-270 is not just a bigger car accident. A loaded semi can weigh up to 30 times as much as a passenger vehicle, and the people in the smaller vehicle are the ones who pay for it — often with life-altering injuries or the loss of someone they love. At Finney Injury Law, our St. Louis truck accident attorneys represent injured people and grieving families throughout Missouri and Illinois, and we prepare every case as if it is going to trial.
That preparation is what changes the number. When a top-50 national trucking company offered our client $1 million and tried to blame him, we tracked the totaled vehicle by VIN, recovered the data with our own Bosch Crash Data Retrieval tool, and settled for $2.95 million. In a separate wrongful-death case where the trucking company offered zero and blamed the victim's mother, we secured a $20,025,000 verdict.
Commercial trucking is governed by federal safety regulations, and a serious crash usually involves more than one company: the driver, the motor carrier, the truck or trailer owner, the cargo shipper, and sometimes a parts manufacturer. Each carries its own insurance and each will try to point the finger elsewhere.
The evidence that proves these cases — driver logs, hours-of-service records, electronic control module ("black box") data, maintenance files, and drug-and-alcohol testing — can disappear quickly. Carriers are only required to keep some safety records for six months. The sooner a lawyer sends preservation demands, the more of that evidence survives.
We handle truck crashes across the region — St. Louis City and St. Louis County, and the surrounding communities in St. Charles, Jefferson, and Franklin counties, as well as the Metro East in Illinois. Cases are filed in the venue where the crash happened or where a defendant does business, and knowing how juries and courts in the City versus the County tend to approach these cases is part of building the claim.
Missouri gives injury victims five years from the date of the crash to file most personal injury claims, and three years for a wrongful death claim. Those deadlines feel far away, but the evidence that wins truck cases is perishable long before then — which is why acting early matters.
See how we've resolved trucking cases for our clients.
View Our ResultsGet medical care, and do not give the trucking company's insurer a recorded statement or sign anything before you talk to a lawyer. Early statements are routinely used to shift blame. Preserving the truck's data and the carrier's records should start within days.
Generally five years from the date of the crash for a personal injury claim, and three years for a wrongful death claim. Waiting, though, lets critical trucking evidence be destroyed, so earlier is always better.
Commercial carriers typically carry policies of $1 million or more, so more compensation is potentially available. But the higher the stakes, the harder the insurer fights — which is exactly why courtroom credibility changes what they offer.
Don't face the trucking company and its insurance adjusters alone. The decisions you make in the days and weeks following a crash greatly impact your ability to recover fair compensation. We serve injury victims throughout Missouri and Illinois. English- and Spanish-speaking staff available.