Written by Ali Razavi. Read more about the author.

A truck crash on the Bay Bridge approach, a jackknifed semi blocking the 101 near Cesar Chavez — these are not rare events in San Francisco. When they happen, the injured person almost always faces the same situation: serious physical harm on one side, a well-resourced trucking company and its insurance carrier on the other. I’ve represented clients in exactly that position, and the gap between what they’re owed and what the company initially offers is often staggering. This post walks through what California law actually allows, what mistakes to avoid, and how to find qualified truck accident attorneys in California who can close that gap.

Can I Sue a Trucking Company After an Accident in California in San Francisco?

Yes — and in most cases, suing the trucking company directly is both possible and strategically smarter than pursuing only the driver. California follows the doctrine of respondeat superior, which holds an employer legally responsible for the negligent acts of its employees performed within the scope of their employment. If a truck driver caused your crash while making a scheduled delivery or completing a company dispatch, the carrier is on the hook for that driver’s negligence.

Beyond respondeat superior, California also recognizes independent grounds for direct liability against the company itself. Negligent hiring means the company brought on a driver with a known history of violations or failed to run a background check. Negligent entrustment applies when the company handed over a vehicle it knew, or should have known, was unsafe. Negligent supervision covers situations where the company ignored hours-of-service violations, skip-traced brake inspections, or failed to monitor electronic logging device (ELD) data showing fatigue.

Federal motor carrier regulations — enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) — impose specific maintenance, inspection, and driver qualification standards on commercial carriers operating in interstate commerce. Cornell Law School’s overview of federal motor carrier regulations explains the scope of those obligations. When a carrier violates FMCSA rules and a crash results, that violation can serve as evidence of negligence per se under California law.

In San Francisco specifically, the density of commercial traffic on corridors like the 280, the 101, and surface streets running to the Port of San Francisco means there are often multiple parties involved: the driver, the motor carrier, a freight broker, a shipper who overloaded the trailer, or a maintenance contractor who signed off on faulty brakes. California’s comparative fault rules allow you to name all of them. Under California’s pure comparative negligence standard, even if you were partially at fault, you can still recover damages reduced by your percentage of fault.

The statute of limitations for personal injury in California is two years from the date of the accident. Miss that window and your claim is gone. If a government entity — say, a city maintenance contractor driving a truck — is involved, the deadline can be as short as six months to file a government tort claim.

Should I Talk to the Trucking Company’s Insurance Adjuster After an Accident in California?

My short answer: no, not without an attorney present. I’ve seen adjusters call injured clients within 24 hours of an accident, sometimes while the person is still in the hospital. The call sounds sympathetic. The adjuster asks how you’re feeling, expresses concern, and might float a quick settlement number. None of that is accidental.

Insurance adjusters work for the carrier. Their job is to minimize the payout. A recorded statement — which they will almost certainly request — can be used to contradict your later claims about pain, disability, or how the crash happened. If you say “I’m doing okay” while in shock and on medication, that statement can reappear months later to undercut your damages.

California law does not require you to speak with the opposing insurer at all. You are required to cooperate with your own insurer under your policy terms, but the trucking company’s carrier has no claim on your time. If they contact you, it is entirely appropriate to say, “My attorney will be in touch,” and end the call.

What you should do instead: gather what you can at the scene — photographs, the truck’s DOT number and license plate, the driver’s commercial license information, and names of witnesses. Then call a California truck accident attorney before making any statement. The American Bar Association’s guidance on dealing with insurance companies consistently points to the same principle: anything you say can be used against you, and you have no obligation to help the other side build their defense.

How Do I Deal with a Large Trucking Company’s Legal Team After an Accident in California?

Large carriers — think Swift Transportation, Werner, or CRST — retain experienced defense firms before a lawsuit is even filed. By the time you’re thinking about a claim, their lawyers have already contacted the driver, reviewed the black box data, and begun building a narrative. This is not a process that favors the unrepresented plaintiff.

The most important thing you can do immediately after a serious truck accident is send a spoliation of evidence letter. This is a formal legal notice demanding that the carrier preserve specific data: the truck’s electronic control module (ECM), ELD logs, dashcam footage, driver qualification files, drug and alcohol test results, maintenance records, and dispatch communications. Carriers are required by FMCSA regulations to retain many of these records anyway, but ECM data and dashcam footage can be overwritten or deleted quickly if no one demands preservation. I have worked cases where footage disappeared within 72 hours of the crash because no one sent that letter in time.

When the defense team is in play, your attorney handles all direct communication. Discovery — the formal process of exchanging evidence — becomes the battleground. Depositions of the driver, the safety director, and the dispatcher often reveal facts the company’s lawyers would prefer stayed buried: a driver who had logged 11 hours the day before and still went back on duty, a brake inspection that was signed off but never completed, a prior accident that should have triggered remedial training.

FindLaw’s section on commercial truck accident litigation outlines why these cases are more complex than typical car accident claims. The depth of required discovery, the number of potentially liable parties, and the volume of federal regulations make them a different category of case. Trying to negotiate directly with a national carrier’s defense team without legal representation puts you at a severe disadvantage.

Can I Sue a Truck Driver Personally After an Accident in California?

Yes, you can name the driver as an individual defendant. Whether doing so makes financial sense is a separate question. Most truck drivers do not carry substantial personal assets, and a judgment against a driver with no assets to collect from is a hollow victory. The more meaningful recovery usually comes from the employer or the carrier’s commercial insurance policy, which is required by federal law to carry a minimum of $750,000 in liability coverage for general freight, and up to $5 million for hazardous materials.

That said, there are situations where naming the driver personally matters. If the driver was operating as an independent owner-operator, they may be the primary insured party. If the carrier disputes the employment relationship — claiming the driver was an independent contractor rather than an employee — your attorney will need to establish that relationship to trigger respondeat superior. California has strong worker classification rules under AB5, which makes it harder for carriers to classify drivers as independent contractors, but the legal argument still needs to be made and supported.

There are also cases where the driver’s conduct was so egregious — driving under the influence, fleeing the scene, deliberately falsifying logbooks — that naming them personally may support a claim for punitive damages. Under California Civil Code Section 3294, punitive damages require proof of malice, oppression, or fraud. They’re harder to win but potentially significant in cases of intentional misconduct.

For more on how individual versus employer liability works in personal injury cases, Justia’s California personal injury resources provide a solid starting point.

How to Find the Best California Trucking Accident Attorney?

I’ll be honest: the term “best” is doing a lot of work in that question. What you’re actually looking for is an attorney with specific truck accident litigation experience, not just general personal injury work. These are different cases. An attorney who handles primarily car accidents or slip-and-fall cases may not know what to do with FMCSA compliance records, may not have relationships with accident reconstruction experts who work on commercial vehicle crashes, and may not understand how to properly preserve electronic trucking data.

Here’s what I tell people to look for. First, ask whether the firm has actually taken truck accident cases to trial, not just settled them. Carriers and their insurers know which firms will fight and which will fold at the first reasonable offer. A track record of litigation — not just settlements — changes how the defense approaches your case. Second, ask who specifically will handle your file. Large firms sometimes sign high-value cases and then hand them off to junior associates. You want to know that an experienced attorney is reviewing strategy, not just processing paperwork.

Third, check their familiarity with FMCSA regulations. Ask them directly: what are the hours-of-service rules for long-haul drivers, and how have you used violations of those rules in prior cases? An attorney who can’t answer that clearly probably handles truck accidents only occasionally.

You can also verify bar membership and any disciplinary history through the State Bar of California’s attorney search tool, or use the FindLaw attorney directory as a starting point for finding attorneys with relevant practice areas.

Our firm handles California truck accident cases on a contingency fee basis — meaning we don’t collect fees unless we recover money for you. That structure matters because it aligns our incentive with yours. We also handle related California personal injury claims including motorcycle accidents, bicycle accidents, and wrongful death cases throughout the state.

What Damages Can I Recover After a Truck Accident in California?

California allows injured plaintiffs to pursue both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are the calculable losses: medical bills already incurred, projected future medical costs (surgeries, physical therapy, long-term care), lost wages from missed work, and lost earning capacity if your injuries affect your ability to work long-term. In a serious truck accident, these numbers add up fast. A spinal injury requiring surgery can carry a medical cost alone of $200,000 to $500,000 or more before rehabilitation.

Non-economic damages cover pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of consortium, and reduced quality of life. Unlike some states, California has no cap on non-economic damages in personal injury cases involving truck accidents. The limits that exist under MICRA apply to medical malpractice, not vehicle accidents.

Punitive damages, as discussed above, are available in cases of egregious conduct but require a higher evidentiary threshold. They are the exception, not the rule.

One thing I see clients underestimate is future damages. People focus on their current medical bills but don’t account for what ongoing care costs over a 20-year horizon. A qualified life care planner and an economist can project those numbers accurately, and presenting that analysis to a jury — or to a carrier’s claims department — substantially changes the value of your case. Don’t let anyone tell you your case is worth only what you’ve spent so far.

California’s pure comparative fault rule means your damages can be reduced if you contributed to the crash. If you were 20% at fault, you collect 80% of the total damages. That’s still a meaningful recovery, and it’s not a reason to avoid pursuing a claim.

The FMCSA’s crash data resources and Cornell Law School’s materials on tort damages both provide useful background on how these frameworks operate at the federal and state levels.

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If you or someone you care about was hurt by a commercial truck in San Francisco, the clock is already running — on the statute of limitations, on evidence preservation, and on the trucking company’s effort to build its defense. Early legal involvement changes outcomes in these cases.

Razavi Law Group | Who Hurt You? represents truck accident victims throughout California, including right here in San Francisco. We work on contingency, so there is no upfront cost and no fee unless we win your case.

Contact us to schedule a free consultation, or call us directly at (415)-384-5025. You can also visit our San Francisco office at 71 Stevenson St Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States. We’re ready to hear what happened and tell you honestly what your options are.