Can Truck Accident Victim Sue the Driver and the Trucking Company?

California Truck Accident Lawyer
California Truck Accident Lawyer
Truck Accident Attorney

It might not be easy for the victim to determine who is responsible for their truck accident at all times. There may be many parties who could just be held liable for contributing to the underlying cause of the accident.

From a legal viewpoint, truck accidents are extremely complex cases, so figuring out who is at fault for the damages and injuries they suffered is no mean task for the victim. An effective California truck accident lawyer will do a detailed study of the parties who could be held liable. Any party who in some way contributed to the accident has to be held liable for compensating the injured one. In many cases, it is possible to hold a trucking company and the truck driver liable for the accident.

With that known, let us dive into what determines fault, and liability resulting from that.

Determining Liability

Under some circumstances, it is possible to hold trucking companies for their workers’ negligence when the latter was on the job. It is unfortunate that not all drivers are trucking company workers; some are actually independent contractors in California.

This means the first thing which the accident victim has to determine is whether that driver is an independent contractor or works for a trucking company.

A company will usually not be responsible for the negligence committed by one who works as an independent contractor.

A truck accident attorney in service will also be able to lend you assistance in determining whether or not that person is a California independent contractor by finding out all these mentioned below.

  • Can the driver refuse assignment?
  • Can he or she set his or her own work hours?
  • Does he or she wear the company’s uniform or use its equipment?
  • Does he or she work for different customers?

If a person drives his truck, takes the cost of truck repairs upon him or herself, is being paid money for the service per route, does not get employee benefits, and the trucking company does not give instructions to him or her regarding the way to make deliveries, and it does not hold back taxes from the employee’s paychecks, the person is very likely to be an independent contractor.

What is more interesting is that many genuine trucking company workers are termed as an independent contractor instead.

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