Orange County Truck Accident Lawyer

Truck Accident Attorney Orange County

A loaded tractor-trailer can weigh 80,000 pounds. When one fails to stop behind slowing traffic on the 91, or drifts out of its lane on the I-5, the people in the smaller vehicle take the harm. If that was you or someone in your family, the carrier’s insurer is probably already working on the file.

We work for you. If you need an Orange County truck accident lawyer, Ravan Law goes after the records that prove what happened, and we move fast, because some are erased on a schedule.

We represent clients in Orange County from our Los Angeles office on San Vicente Boulevard, and consultations are available by phone or video.

Call (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.

Orange County Big Rig Accident Lawyer Guide: The Freight Corridors and Who Investigates

Orange County sits between the ports in neighboring Los Angeles County and the warehouses of the Inland Empire. The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach together form the busiest container port complex in the United States, and most of those containers leave by truck.

SR-91. Commuter and commercial traffic between Orange and Riverside counties funnels onto this corridor. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) operates the westbound Peralta inspection facility on the 91 in Orange County, where trucks are weighed. When your crash happened on this corridor, we ask whether that truck was stopped there and what was recorded.
The I-5. California’s main north-south freight route runs the length of the county, from the Los Angeles County line through Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, and Mission Viejo toward San Diego County. Long-haul fatigue is the issue we look for first.
The 405. Stop-and-go traffic creates the rear-end risk a loaded truck is least able to avoid, and one impact often involves several cars.
SR-55 and SR-57. North-south freeways with frequent merges, where the blind spots along both sides of a trailer matter most.
Surface streets. Box trucks, dump trucks, and refuse trucks work local streets every day. OC Waste & Recycling runs three active landfills, Olinda Alpha in Brea, Frank R. Bowerman in Irvine, and Prima Deshecha in San Juan Capistrano, and trucks haul to all three.

Freeway and toll road crashes are investigated by the CHP, through its Santa Ana, Westminster, and Capistrano area offices. The most serious may be reconstructed by the CHP’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team. Surface street crashes go to city police, or to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in unincorporated areas and in contract cities such as Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano. We request the report from whichever agency handled yours.

Who Pays After an Orange County Truck Crash: Federal Rules and Every Defendant

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules govern hours behind the wheel (49 CFR Part 395), driver qualification (Part 391), and inspection and repair (Part 396). Under Evidence Code 669, breaking a safety rule meant to protect people like you can create a presumption of negligence. That is why our first step is a preservation letter to the carrier.

The kind of truck that hit you points to who may share responsibility:

Truck	Who may be liable	Records we demand first
Long-haul tractor-trailer on the I-5 or the 91	The driver, the motor carrier, a trailer owner, the shipper that loaded it	Electronic logging device data, engine data, dispatch messages
Container truck coming from the ports	The drayage company, an owner-operator, the chassis supplier	The lease, the USDOT number on the cab, maintenance files
Dump or refuse truck	The hauler, a maintenance shop, or a public agency if it owns the truck	Inspection and repair records, the driver qualification file
City, county, or Caltrans truck	The public entity that employs the driver	The government claim comes first (see below)

For-hire interstate carriers must generally carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage for general freight under 49 CFR Part 387, and many carry more. Under Civil Code 1431.2, each defendant pays only its own share of non-economic damages, so a defendant left out can mean compensation left behind. Our main page on truck accident claims covers each rule, and our article on truck driver fatigue accidents in California explains how hours violations are proved.

Truck Accident Attorney in Orange County: Public Trucks and Public Roads

A county public works truck, a city maintenance truck, or a Caltrans vehicle working a freeway shoulder is driven by a public employee, and Vehicle Code 17001 makes the agency liable for that employee’s negligent driving on the job. A dangerous road condition can add a claim under Government Code 835.

Before any lawsuit, each public entity must receive a written claim within six months of the injury (Government Code 911.2):

A county truck: the Clerk of the Board of the County of Orange.
A city truck: that city’s own claim process. Each city publishes its form.
A Caltrans vehicle or a state highway defect: Caltrans takes claims of $12,500 or less at its district claims office, and claims over $12,500 go to the State’s Government Claims Program at the Department of General Services.
The 91 Express Lanes: owned and operated by OCTA, so the claim goes to OCTA Risk Management.
The 73, 133, 241, and 261: owned by the State and operated by the Transportation Corridor Agencies.

Punitive damages are not available against a public entity (Government Code 818). These claims have strict rules and a six-month deadline, and we take them on. Our guide on what to do if you have been injured due to a government entity explains the first steps.

What Your Truck Accident Claim Can Recover

Truck crashes cause a high share of the worst injuries: brain injury, spinal cord injury, crush injuries, amputations, and burns. Orange County’s trauma centers include UCI Health in Orange, Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, and, for children, CHOC in Orange (now part of Rady Children’s Health). If you were not taken to one, get evaluated anyway: internal bleeding and brain injuries can take days to show.

Economic damages include medical and future care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and home modifications. For the most serious injuries we work with a life-care planner and an economist to price decades of care.

Non-economic damages include pain, post-traumatic stress, disfigurement, and a spouse’s loss of consortium. California does not cap them in a truck case.

When a crash takes a life, Code of Civil Procedure 377.60 allows a spouse or domestic partner, children, and certain other family members to bring a wrongful death claim.

Deadlines for an Orange County Truck Accident Claim

Clock	Time	Authority
Injury or wrongful death lawsuit	Generally 2 years	Code of Civil Procedure 335.1
Claim against a public entity	6 months from the injury	Government Code 911.2
Lawsuit after a written rejection	Generally 6 months from the notice	Government Code 945.6
Carrier’s duty to keep ELD records	6 months	Federal hours-of-service rules

For a child, the two-year deadline is generally tolled until 18, but the six-month government claim is not paused, although late-claim relief may be available (Government Code 911.4, 911.6).

How We Handle a Truck Accident Case for Clients in Orange County

Preservation letter. Within days, we demand that the carrier keep the engine data, logs, video, and driver and maintenance files.
The report and the scene. We get the CHP or police report and look for video from nearby businesses before it is overwritten.
The carrier’s record. We pull its federal safety history and identify every company behind the truck.
Any government claim, presented inside six months.
Demand, negotiation, and suit if needed. We file in the Superior Court of California, County of Orange, whose Central Justice Center in Santa Ana hears unlimited civil cases, and we prepare for trial.

Motor vehicle results

These are results from across our personal injury practice, not Orange County results.

Recovery	Case type
$3,500,000	Motor vehicle accident with a county vehicle
$500,000	Motor vehicle accident
$275,000	Bus accident

Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.

Speak With an Orange County Truck Accident Lawyer Before the Records Are Gone

Electronic logs only have to be kept for six months. Engine data can be overwritten once the truck goes back into service. If a public truck or a public road was involved, the six-month claim started on the day of the crash. As your Orange County truck accident lawyer, we move on all three at once.

Call Ravan Law at (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win. For other injuries, see our Orange County personal injury page, along with our Orange County pages on car accidents, Uber and Lyft accidents, slip and falls, dog bites, and sidewalk accidents.

Ravan Law, 6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90048

Attorney Advertising. Ted H. Ravan, Esq., Ravan Law, Los Angeles, CA. This content is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its specific facts.

Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.

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What Our Clients Are Saying

    
 
 
         
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Frequently Asked Questions

The truck that hit me on the 91 belongs to an out-of-state company. Can I still bring my case in Orange County?

Generally, yes. Under Code of Civil Procedure 395, an injury case can generally be filed where the injury happened, and yours happened here.

I was hit in the 91 Express Lanes. Who is responsible?

Usually the driver and the carrier. If the lanes themselves played a part, OCTA owns and operates them in Orange County, and the six-month claim rule applies to OCTA.

A trash truck hit my car on a residential street. Is that a government claim?

It depends on who owns the truck. With a private hauler, the two-year deadline generally applies. With a public agency, the six-month claim comes first. We find out which clock you are on.