Zayed Law Offices represents people injured in collisions with trucks and commercial vehicles, and the families of those who have died in them.
Identification comes first: which company was operating the vehicle, established from its federal motor carrier registration rather than the name on the door, and whether the driver was that company's employee or a contracted business's. One corporate family routinely holds several separate registrations, and waste haulers register a distinct entity in each state.
Then preservation. Engine and telematics data, dispatch and routing records, driver qualification files, hours-of-service logs and maintenance history are all held by the operator under retention periods measured in months. A demand that arrives after they lapse arrives too late to matter.
And where a public body is anywhere in the chain, the procedural rules change before anything else does — a shorter limitation period in Illinois, a pre-suit notice requirement and a statutory ceiling in Florida.
Three commitments shape how a case is handled here. None of them are performance claims — they are choices about how the work is organized.
The firm takes fewer matters than it is offered. Commercial vehicle cases demand document-heavy investigation and move fast at the start; a caseload sized for volume would not allow either. Declining a case we cannot staff properly is part of the model, not an exception to it.
Who was operating the vehicle is settled before a complaint is drafted, from the federal registration rather than the livery. Naming the brand on the door instead of the operating entity is the most common and most expensive early error in these claims, and it is not always fixable afterwards.
Preservation demands go out before the retention clock on telematics, dispatch records and hours-of-service logs runs down. That evidence is held by the defendant, and no amount of later diligence recovers what has already been overwritten.
Zayed Law Offices is a personal injury trial firm, and a truck collision claim is a personal injury case. These are the attorneys who bring them.
Founded the firm in 2009. A J.D. from Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business are an unusual pairing in a trial practice, and this is the practice that uses it: corporate filings, insurance layers and control agreements are usually where the answer to which company was operating a vehicle actually sits. Member of the Association of Plaintiff Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Board of Managers since 2019. Licensed in Illinois and Florida, and a member of the Trial Bar for the Northern District of Illinois.
Admitted in Illinois and before the federal courts for both the Northern and Southern Districts of the state, which counts for more in commercial vehicle work than it first sounds: a carrier sued outside its home state is often in federal court from the first filing. Takes the firm’s appeals and belongs to the Appellate Lawyers Association of Illinois. J.D., Loyola University Chicago School of Law; B.A. in political science, magna cum laude, University of St. Francis.
Lead counsel in more than thirty jury trials to verdict. Carriers of any size are repeat litigants with defence panels that see these cases constantly, and what a claim is worth to them moves with whether the lawyer across the table is equipped to try it — that record is the answer to the question. J.D., Chicago-Kent College of Law; B.A. in English, magna cum laude, University of Illinois at Chicago. Trial Bar, Northern District of Illinois.
Has argued in the First and Second District Illinois Appellate Courts, and handled appeals through the Third District and to the Illinois Supreme Court. The questions that decide who is answerable for a commercial vehicle — when a contractor’s conduct binds the company whose name is on the van, how far vicarious liability reaches, when a public body’s immunity applies — are settled at that level rather than at trial. J.D., Thomas M. Cooley Law School, 2009; B.A. in political science, Purdue University.
The reason Florida is a first-party practice here rather than a referral. Admitted to The Florida Bar in December 2008 and to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, and licensed in Illinois — so a Florida claim against a carrier, a municipal fleet or a delivery network is brought by an attorney of record in the state where it is filed. J.D. cum laude, University of Florida Levin College of Law; B.A. in political science, University of Illinois.
Joined the firm after twenty-five years of defense practice, and on this site’s question that is the useful history: he spent those years evaluating, preparing and litigating claims for defendants and their insurers, and uses that to anticipate the defense strategy rather than react to it. Has tried more than fifty-five cases to verdict across Illinois, in matters including trucking and transportation injuries, medical malpractice, premises liability and wrongful death. Admitted before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Fluent in Spanish. J.D., DePaul University, 2001; Master’s degree in Ancient Languages and B.A., Dallas Baptist University.
Works from one principle: thorough preparation creates leverage, and a defendant should know from the outset that she is prepared to go to trial. Which company was operating a vehicle, and on what terms, is a question of record, and her practice is to answer it early — the theory of the case, the evidentiary record, the medicine and the science behind the injury, the witnesses, and the weak points in the defense position. Member of the Trial Bar for the Northern District of Illinois. J.D. cum laude, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, 2017, with certifications in Trial Advocacy and Health Law.
His background is complex civil litigation — catastrophic injury claims, class and collective actions, mass torts and commercial disputes, in state, federal and appellate courts. A serious commercial-vehicle claim is usually complex in the same way: the operator, the company that hired it and the one that arranged the load each arrive with their own insurer and their own lawyers, and the work is holding every one of them to its share. Has represented plaintiffs and defendants both, and reads a case the way the other side will. Licensed in Illinois, Indiana and Florida, and admitted to the federal courts for the Southern Districts of Indiana and Florida. J.D. with honors, DePaul University College of Law; undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and Policy, Florida State University.
Handles workers’ compensation alongside personal injury, and in this practice the two meet constantly: a driver, a dockworker or a road crew member struck by a commercial vehicle on the job has a compensation claim and a third-party case running at the same time, with a lien between them that changes what any settlement is actually worth. J.D., Valparaiso University, top quarter of the class; B.A. cum laude, DePaul University.
Admitted in Illinois and in New York, where he has handled hundreds of cases — a second state bar, in a practice where the company answerable for a vehicle is as likely to be based out of state as in it. Investigates each matter thoroughly, with the attention to detail that the biggest and most complex cases demand. Member of the Trial Bar for the Northern District of Illinois. J.D., Thomas M. Cooley Law School; undergraduate degree with High Honors, University of Houston.
Founder Adam Zayed is a Licensed Illinois and Florida Attorney, and partner Andrew Miller is a Licensed Illinois and Florida Attorney.
Since 2009
Zayed Law Offices has represented injured people and their families since it was founded — a trial practice in Illinois and Florida built on commercial vehicle and catastrophic injury work.
Common questions about the firm and how this practice works.
The firm was founded in 2009 by Adam J. Zayed. Trucks.law is its truck and commercial vehicle injury practice, representing people injured in collisions with vehicles operated for a business or a public body, and the families of those who have died in them.
Injury and wrongful death claims arising from collisions with commercial vehicles — freight and tractor-trailer carriers, parcel and delivery networks, private and service fleets, refuse and waste haulers, school and passenger buses, and vehicles operated by municipalities and other public entities. The organising question across all of them is which company was actually operating the vehicle, because that decides who is answerable and how much is available.
Illinois and Florida. Both are first-party rather than referral relationships: founder Adam Zayed and partner Andrew Miller are each licensed in both states, and the firm keeps offices in Chicago, Joliet, and Miami. Where a particular filing jurisdiction requires local counsel, that is arranged and disclosed under the applicable state bar rules, and the client relationship remains with Zayed Law Offices.
Commercial vehicle cases are evidence-heavy and front-loaded. Identifying the operating entity, getting preservation demands out before telematics and hours-of-service records age out, and working through several layers of insurance cannot be done well on a volume model. Capping the active caseload is what allows each case the depth of work it needs.
Yes. The parent firm, Zayed Law Offices, handles a broader catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death practice. This site covers the truck and commercial vehicle practice specifically.
Were you or a family member injured in a collision with a truck or commercial vehicle?
A trial firm handling truck and commercial vehicle injury claims in Illinois and Florida.
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