The driver who hit you was following a rulebook. Whether that rulebook was followed is the whole case.
Javier Perez Law represents people injured by 18 wheelers, box trucks, and other commercial vehicles across Dallas, Fort Worth, and Texas. Commercial carriers operate under federal safety regulations that ordinary drivers do not, which creates records, deadlines, and duties that a passenger car case simply does not have. We build cases around those records.
Free case review in English or Spanish at +1 (214) 499-0667.
Table of contents
- What Federal Rules Was That Truck Driver Required to Follow?
- How Is a Truck Case Different From a Car Accident Case?
- Do You Handle 18 Wheeler Cases Outside Dallas?
- How Long Do You Have to Sue After a Texas Truck Accident?
- What Does a Truck Accident Lawyer Cost?
- Working With Javier Perez
- Truck Accident Questions We Get From Texas Clients
- Before the Logs Age Out
What Federal Rules Was That Truck Driver Required to Follow?
Several, and each one leaves a paper trail. Interstate commercial drivers answer to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, the federal agency that sets safety rules for trucking. Those rules are not suggestions, and violating them is evidence a jury can weigh.
The rules that come up most in Texas cases:
Hours of service. A property-carrying driver may drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, may not drive past the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty, and must take a 30 minute break after 8 cumulative hours of driving. Weekly caps run 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8. The full summary is published by FMCSA.
Electronic logging. Paper logbooks are gone. Trucks record duty status automatically through an electronic logging device, or ELD. Carriers must keep those records and their supporting documents for at least six months under 49 CFR § 395.8.
Minimum insurance. Interstate carriers hauling general freight must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage under 49 CFR § 387.9, rising to $1 million or $5 million for hazardous materials.
Why this matters to you in plain terms: when a carrier breaks one of these rules, the violation is usually documented somewhere, and it usually happened before the crash rather than during it. That shifts the conversation from what you did in the last two seconds to what the company did in the preceding weeks.
If your crash involved a commercial vehicle, the logs exist right now. Call +1 (214) 499-0667 before the six month clock runs out.
How Is a Truck Case Different From a Car Accident Case?
In three concrete ways. It is not simply a bigger version of the same claim.
More defendants. A car crash usually involves two drivers. A truck crash can involve the driver, the motor carrier, the trailer owner, the company that loaded the freight, and a maintenance contractor. Each may carry separate coverage.
More evidence, held by the other side. Driver qualification files, maintenance records, dispatch messages, and ELD data all sit on the carrier's servers. They are obtainable, but only if someone asks in time and in writing.
A rapid response team. Large carriers dispatch investigators to serious crash scenes within hours. That is standard industry practice, not misconduct. It just means the record starts being built by one side long before the injured person is out of the hospital.
| Category | Car accident claim | Commercial truck claim |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum liability insurance | $30,000 / $60,000 / $25,000 (Texas minimum) | $750,000 federal minimum for general freight |
| Governing safety rules | Texas Transportation Code | Texas law plus FMCSA regulations (49 CFR) |
| Driving-hours records | None | ELD data, retained at least 6 months |
| Typical number of potentially liable parties | 1 to 2 | 3 to 5 |
| Who investigates first | Police | Police plus the carrier's own rapid response team |
If you are working through a standard collision instead, our car accident claims page covers that process.
Do You Handle 18 Wheeler Cases Outside Dallas?
Yes. We take truck cases across North Texas and statewide, and where a case gets filed is a strategic decision rather than an automatic one.
Fort Worth and Tarrant County
Fort Worth sits at the junction of I-35W and I-20, two of the heaviest freight corridors in the state, with Alliance to the north pushing constant distribution traffic through the same interchanges. Tarrant County crashes are typically filed at the Tom Vandergriff Civil Courts Building at 100 N. Calhoun Street in Fort Worth.
Statewide Texas Cases
A Texas motor carrier can often be sued where it maintains its principal office, which is not always where the crash happened. For a driver hit in a rural county by a carrier headquartered in an urban one, that distinction can matter a great deal.
Statewide, the scale of the problem is not small. TxDOT recorded 39,393 crashes involving commercial motor vehicles in Texas in 2024, including 546 fatal crashes. Dallas County alone accounted for 3,857 of those crashes.
Nationally, FMCSA's Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts counted roughly 120,000 large trucks involved in injury crashes in 2022, the most recent year the agency has published.
For a walk through the first 48 hours, see what to do after a semi truck accident. For coverage focused specifically on tractor-trailers, see our page on 18-wheeler accidents.
How Long Do You Have to Sue After a Texas Truck Accident?
Two years from the crash in most injury cases. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003 sets the personal injury deadline at two years from the date the claim accrues. In a death case, the two years run from the date of death.
Texas also apportions fault. Under § 33.001, a person found more than 50 percent responsible recovers nothing, and anything at or below that reduces the award proportionally. Carriers and their insurers invest heavily in raising that percentage, which is the practical reason early recorded statements tend to help them and not you.
What Does a Truck Accident Lawyer Cost?
Nothing unless there is a recovery. Truck cases are handled on a contingency fee, so the fee comes out of the settlement or verdict rather than from you. The firm's terms: $0, no fee unless we win. The first conversation is free and confidential.
That structure matters more in truck litigation than in most case types, because the cost of doing it properly, including accident reconstruction and downloading the engine control module, lands on the firm and not on the client.
Working With Javier Perez
Javier Perez has practiced law in Texas since 2012, is admitted in all four Texas federal districts and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and has taken more than a dozen matters through civil jury trials, bench trials, and final arbitration hearings. He is Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
He has served twice as President of the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association and sits as a Director and Advisory Board Member of the Dallas Bar Association.
Cases are handled in English and Spanish by the attorney directly. En español.
Truck Accident Questions We Get From Texas Clients
The trucking company's insurer offered to pay my rental car and my ER bill. Is that a settlement?
Not necessarily, but read every document. Carriers sometimes pay early expenses without a release, and sometimes attach one. If any paper you are asked to sign contains the words release, discharge, or full and final, stop and have it reviewed. Accepting a rental car should not cost you a claim.
Can I still bring a case if the police report says I was partly at fault?
Yes. A crash report reflects an officer's on-scene judgment, not a legal finding, and it is not binding on a court. Reports are also frequently corrected once ELD data, dashcam footage, or scene measurements come in. A finding of partial fault reduces recovery in Texas but does not bar it unless your share exceeds 50 percent.
What if the truck had an out-of-state license plate?
That is common and it usually helps. Interstate carriers fall squarely under FMCSA regulation and must be registered with the U.S. Department of Transportation, which makes their safety records, inspection history, and insurance filings publicly searchable. An out-of-state carrier can also often be sued in Texas where the crash occurred.
How do I get the crash report for a wreck in Dallas or Tarrant County?
Through TxDOT's crash records system. The investigating officer must file the report electronically within ten days of the collision. A regular copy costs $6 and a certified copy costs $8, and the certified version is the one used in legal proceedings. We routinely pull these for clients at no charge during a case review.
Does it matter that the driver was an owner-operator and not an employee?
Usually less than the carrier hopes. Motor carriers operating under their own DOT authority carry safety responsibilities that do not disappear because a driver is labeled an independent contractor. Contract labels are a starting point in the analysis, not the end of it.
Before the Logs Age Out
Six months from now, the carrier can lawfully delete the records that show how long that driver had been behind the wheel. Nothing about that is sinister. It is simply the retention period, and it runs whether or not anyone has asked for the file.
The single most useful thing a truck accident case gets from an early call is a preservation letter in the carrier's hands before that date.
Javier Perez Law, One Energy Square, 4925 Greenville Avenue, Suite 1450, Dallas, TX 75206.
Talk to a Texas truck accident attorney at +1 (214) 499-0667 or info@javierperez.legal. Free review, no fee unless we win.