Jacksonville Truck Accident Lawyers

Jacksonville markets itself as America's logistics center, and its regional economic development group lists the reasons: three interstates, three Class I railroads, four deep-water port terminals and an international airport in a single market.

JAXPORT is, by the same group's count, Florida's largest container port by volume, and the region promotes same-day truck access to more than 98 million consumers. Much of that freight leaves Jacksonville by truck, on the interstates you drive every day.

A crash with one of those trucks may involve a carrier headquartered in another state, with its records kept wherever it keeps them. Finding and holding those records is where your case begins.

Federal rules make every motor carrier keep certain records, and after a crash they are often the most important evidence you have. How long each one must be kept explains why the first weeks matter.

The carrier must keep an accident register for three years, listing the date and place of each crash, the driver, and any injuries or deaths. Its drivers' duty-status records, which show hours behind the wheel, only have to be kept for six months.

Maintenance files follow their own rule: inspection, repair and maintenance records stay for a year where the vehicle is kept, and for six months after it leaves the carrier's control. A preservation request asks the carrier to hold everything connected to your crash past those minimums, and it is among the first things we send.

Duval County belongs to Florida's Fourth Judicial Circuit, which also covers Clay and Nassau counties. A truck case from Jacksonville is usually filed in its circuit court.

When the carrier is from another state and more than $75,000 is at stake, it can often move the case to the federal Middle District of Florida, which holds court in Jacksonville. Florida's two-year negligence deadline governs the claim in either court.

We take truck and commercial vehicle cases from Jacksonville and the surrounding counties at our office in the city. Adam Zayed, who founded the firm, holds a Florida license, as does partner Andrew Miller.

The first call costs nothing, and you can make it at any hour. We are paid only if we win.

If the truck belonged to its driver, our owner-operator page explains how the lease behind it assigns responsibility to the carrier.