Every week in my practice at Razavi Law Group | Who Hurt You?, I talk with people in San Francisco who were hurt in truck accidents and have no idea who they can actually hold responsible. The driver walked away. The trucking company’s insurance adjuster is calling. A freight broker’s name is on the paperwork. Figuring out who owes you what — and how to protect your legal position while that’s being sorted out — is where most people lose significant ground in the first 72 hours after a crash.

This post addresses the specific questions I hear most often from clients dealing with commercial truck accidents on California roads. These are not general overviews. They are based on what I have seen play out in real cases.

Can a Trucking Company Be Held Responsible for Their Driver’s Negligence in California in San Francisco?

Yes. California law recognizes a doctrine called respondeat superior, which holds employers legally responsible for the negligent acts of their employees committed within the scope of employment. If a truck driver causes a collision while making deliveries, hauling freight, or otherwise performing duties for a carrier, the company can be held liable alongside the driver under this principle, as described by Cornell Law School’s legal information database.

That said, this is not automatic. The trucking company will frequently argue that the driver was an independent contractor rather than an employee — and California courts actually scrutinize that classification carefully. Under California’s AB 5, the default presumption is that a worker is an employee unless the hiring entity can satisfy a three-part test. Carriers that misclassify drivers to dodge liability face an uphill battle in California courts.

Beyond respondeat superior, a carrier can also face direct liability — separate from anything the driver did — for negligent hiring (if the company put someone behind the wheel with a known history of violations), negligent supervision, or negligent entrustment of a vehicle. I have worked cases where the driver’s record alone made the company’s exposure far greater than the accident facts initially suggested.

In San Francisco, truck traffic on the Bay Bridge approach, the Port of San Francisco corridors, and the 101/280 interchange creates specific patterns of commercial vehicle incidents. Identifying which entity — the carrier, the vehicle owner, a maintenance contractor, a cargo loader, or a broker — bears responsibility in a given case requires a factual investigation, not an assumption.

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

You can bring a civil claim against a trucking company in California the same way you would against any other at-fault party. The company is not shielded from lawsuits simply because it is a large corporation or because its driver was the one operating the vehicle.

Under California Code of Civil Procedure 335.1, the general deadline to file a personal injury lawsuit is two years from the date of injury. For property damage claims, Code of Civil Procedure 338 gives you three years. If a government entity operated the truck — a municipal bus or a state agency vehicle — different rules apply. You would need to file a written government tort claim within six months of the incident under Government Code 911.2 before you can sue. Missing that window typically bars the lawsuit entirely, which is one reason I tell people to call an attorney quickly rather than waiting to see how they feel.

One practical point that affects California truck cases specifically: multiple defendants are common. The driver, the carrier, the vehicle owner, and potentially a cargo loader or maintenance shop may all share responsibility. California’s pure comparative fault system means that each defendant’s share of liability is assessed separately, and a plaintiff’s own contribution — if any — reduces recovery proportionally but does not eliminate the right to recover.

Our California truck accident attorneys handle cases across the state, and the early investigation work — preserving evidence, identifying all defendants, and sending spoliation notices — is where lawsuits are often won or lost before anyone files anything.

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

No. Not without an attorney present, and ideally not at all until you have legal representation.

I understand the pressure. Adjusters call quickly — sometimes within hours of a crash — and they are trained to be polite and sympathetic. They will frame the call as routine, just gathering basic information. What they are actually doing is creating a recorded statement they can use later to minimize your claim or challenge your account of what happened.

California law does not require you to speak with the opposing carrier’s insurance company. You are required to cooperate with your own insurer under the terms of your policy, but the trucking company’s insurer represents adverse interests.

The specific risks in truck cases are greater than in ordinary car accident claims. Trucking companies often have sophisticated claims teams and outside counsel activated immediately after a serious crash. They may be gathering evidence while you are still in the hospital. Anything you say about the speed you were traveling, whether you saw the truck before impact, or how you felt physically can be used to shift fault under California’s comparative fault framework.

What I recommend instead: provide only your name and contact information if contacted. Say you are represented by counsel or that you intend to seek counsel. Then contact us so we can handle all communications on your behalf.

What Role Does a Trucking Company’s Maintenance Records Play in a California Lawsuit?

Maintenance records are often the difference between a case that looks like driver error and one that exposes the carrier’s own negligence.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations — which govern interstate carriers under 49 CFR Part 396 — require carriers to systematically inspect, repair, and maintain their vehicles. When a truck’s brakes fail, a tire blows out, or a steering component gives way, maintenance logs become critical evidence. They can show that a defect was known and ignored, that required inspections were skipped, or that repairs were signed off as complete when they were not.

Under 49 CFR 395.8(k)(1), carriers must retain records of duty status and supporting documents for at least six months. Maintenance records themselves have their own required retention periods under federal regulations. In my experience, one of the first things we do after a serious truck accident is send a preservation letter to the carrier demanding that all maintenance records, inspection reports, driver vehicle inspection reports, and repair orders be preserved immediately. Once those records disappear — and they do disappear in some cases after the retention period passes — it becomes much harder to prove what the company knew and when.

In California courts, spoliation of evidence can support an adverse inference instruction, meaning a jury can be told to assume the missing records would have been unfavorable to the party that failed to preserve them. That is a significant litigation tool. But it only works if you have already put the company on notice that you expect the records to be kept.

Maintenance failures are also relevant to punitive damages. If a carrier knew a truck had compromised brake performance and kept it on the road anyway, that can support a claim for damages beyond ordinary compensation — though getting there requires proving conscious disregard for safety, not just negligence.

The FindLaw legal resources database provides a useful overview of negligence per se doctrine, which applies when a defendant violates a safety regulation and that violation causes harm. Regulatory maintenance violations fit squarely into that framework.

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

The honest answer is: you do not deal with them directly. Your attorney does.

Large carriers — and especially the national ones that run freight through San Francisco — have standing relationships with law firms that specialize in defending trucking litigation. Those attorneys are familiar with every procedural tactic, every way to delay discovery, and every argument for reducing exposure. Going into that situation without a truck accident attorney of your own is not just disadvantageous; it is a serious mistake I have seen people regret.

From a practical standpoint, here is what you should expect after a significant commercial truck accident:

The defense team will conduct their own accident reconstruction investigation. They will gather surveillance footage, black box data (from the truck’s electronic logging device), and witness statements. They will review your medical history looking for pre-existing conditions to blame your injuries on. They will scrutinize your own driving behavior.

Your job is to do nothing that compromises your position while your attorney builds the record. That means not posting about the accident on social media, not giving recorded statements, and not agreeing to sign any medical authorization forms the trucking company’s insurer sends you — which are often drafted broadly enough to pull medical records that have nothing to do with the current injuries.

The American Bar Association provides resources on finding legal representation, including in personal injury and commercial vehicle cases. If you have not yet spoken with an attorney, that is the most important step.

At Razavi Law Group | Who Hurt You?, we take over all contact with the carrier and its legal team from the moment a client retains us. We also handle cases involving other serious injuries — including as California personal injury attorneys for matters involving wrongful death and catastrophic harm — and the structure is the same: the client stops fielding calls, and we start building the case.

What Is the Difference Between a Trucking Company and a Freight Broker in a California Liability Case?

This is a question more clients should be asking because the answer affects who you can recover from.

A trucking company (more precisely, a motor carrier) physically transports the goods. Its drivers operate the vehicles. When a carrier’s driver causes a crash, liability flows through the employment relationship and the carrier’s operating authority.

A freight broker, by contrast, is a middleman. Brokers arrange transportation between shippers and carriers but do not physically haul freight. Under federal law — specifically 49 USC 13102 — a broker is defined separately from a carrier, and that distinction matters enormously in litigation.

Historically, brokers argued successfully that they had no liability for accidents caused by the carriers they hired. That has been shifting. In California, courts have been willing to examine whether a broker exercised enough control over the transportation arrangement to bear responsibility, and whether a broker negligently selected an unsafe carrier. The Justia legal information platform tracks California appellate decisions, including cases that have addressed broker liability in motor carrier contexts.

The key factual questions in a broker liability case are: Did the broker vet the carrier for safety compliance? Did the broker have notice of the carrier’s safety record? Did the broker exercise control over how the shipment was transported? None of these automatically produce a result — they are questions the evidence has to answer.

In real cases, the paperwork trail between shipper, broker, and carrier can be dense. Rate confirmations, broker-carrier agreements, shipper agreements, and bill of lading terms all define the relationships. Getting those documents early — before they are harder to obtain through litigation discovery — is something I prioritize in freight broker cases.

The practical implication for someone injured in a San Francisco truck accident: do not assume the driver’s employer is the only target. If a broker arranged the load, that entity needs to be investigated and potentially named in the lawsuit.

Ready to Speak With a Truck Accident Attorney?

If you or someone you know was hurt in a commercial truck accident in San Francisco or anywhere in California, the decisions made in the first days after the crash have lasting consequences. Evidence is preserved or it disappears. Deadlines run. Insurance companies build their defense.

Our team at Razavi Law Group | Who Hurt You? represents people injured in truck accidents throughout California. We work on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay nothing unless we recover for you. Initial consultations are free.

You can reach us by phone at (415)-384-5025. You can also schedule a consultation through our website. Our San Francisco office is located at 71 Stevenson St Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States.

Written by Ali Razavi. Read more about the author.