Hit by a truck in Alabama: when the trucking company answers too

Attorney Answer

If the truck was being driven for work, the claim can reach the driver's employer as well as the driver. Alabama holds an employer responsible for an employee driver's negligence when the driver was acting within the scope of the job. A trucking company's records of its drivers' hours are kept for a limited time, so ask a lawyer about preserving them promptly. If it was a private pickup, the claim runs like any other claim against a driver. Either way, Alabama's contributory-negligence rule applies.

When the employer answers. In Hulbert v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 723 So. 2d 22 (Ala. 1998), the Supreme Court of Alabama held that an injured person must show, by substantial evidence, that the driver's act was within the scope of employment: part of the duties the driver was hired to perform, or something that benefited the employer. The claim against the employer has the same two years as the claim against the driver. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(n):

(n) All actions commenced to recover damages for injury to the person or property of another wherein a principal or master is sought to be held liable for the act or conduct of his agent, servant, or employee under the doctrine of respondeat superior must be brought within two years.

Claims against the company itself. A trucking company can also be sued for its own negligence in hiring, keeping or supervising a driver, but that claim depends on the driver's own wrongful act having caused the crash. In Jones Express, Inc. v. Jackson, 86 So. 3d 298 (Ala. 2010), a verdict against a carrier that could not be reconciled with the jury's refusal to find its driver negligent was reversed.

The truck's insurance and records. Federal motor-carrier rules require for-hire interstate trucking companies to carry minimum insurance, and require motor carriers to keep their drivers' hours-of-service records for at least six months. After that the records may be gone, which is why a lawyer's preservation letter early can matter.

If the truck's insurance is not enough. Your own uninsured-motorist coverage can apply. Ala. Code § 32-7-23(b) includes, among uninsured motor vehicles, one where:

(4) The sum of the limits of liability under all bodily injury liability bonds and insurance policies available to an injured person after an accident is less than the damages which the injured person is legally entitled to recover.

Alabama's contributory-negligence rule. If the other side proves that your own carelessness helped cause the crash, you recover nothing: not a reduced amount, nothing (Knight v. Alabama Power Co., 580 So. 2d 576 (Ala. 1991)). The same case holds that it is no defense to wanton conduct. And it is a high bar for the defense: the Supreme Court of Alabama has held that simple heedlessness is not enough to decide it as a matter of law, and that it is ordinarily a question for the jury (Lafarge North America, Inc. v. Nord, 86 So. 3d 326 (Ala. 2011)).

What you can do

1. Get the crash report, and note the trucking company's name and any numbers on the truck's door.

2. Photograph the truck, its markings and the scene if you still can.

3. Keep every medical record and bill from the start.

4. Tell your own insurer promptly, and ask about your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

5. Ask a lawyer soon about a letter asking the trucking company to keep its driver's records and the truck's electronic data.

6. Even if you are handling this yourself, you would be best served by a brief phone consultation with a local Alabama attorney before you act. Most lawyers offer a short initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — and on how your court actually handles this — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Two years against the driver under Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l), and two years against an employer on the driver's conduct under § 6-2-38(n):

(l) All actions for any injury to the person or rights of another not arising from contract and not specifically enumerated in this section must be brought within two years.