Most people understand that a truck accident lawyer helps them pursue compensation. What fewer people realize is how much happens in the first hours and days after you hire one — and why acting quickly is not just advisable, but essential. In this video, triple board-certified attorney Marion Munley explains the first steps after taking a case.
What You’ll Learn
- Why securing the truck’s black box is often the first legal action your attorney takes
- What evidence disappears fastest after a truck accident — and how to stop it
- How accident reconstruction experts build the factual record for your case
- How attorneys assess whether to settle or take a case to trial
The first and most urgent action is securing the evidence. Unlike car accident cases, where the key evidence is usually the police report and photos from the scene, truck accident cases involve a large volume of time-sensitive data that can be lost or destroyed if an attorney does not act immediately.
The truck’s black box — the Electronic Data Recorder — captures vehicle speed, braking patterns, engine data, and GPS information in the seconds before impact. This data can be overwritten within days. Your attorney may need to go to court immediately to obtain a temporary restraining order preventing the trucking company from accessing, tampering with, or disposing of the truck before it has been inspected by an independent expert.
Alongside the black box, a truck accident attorney will request the driver’s hours-of-service logs and Electronic Logging Device records, the truck’s maintenance and inspection history, the driver’s qualification file, the carrier’s safety rating, any dashcam or surveillance footage, and the trucking company’s internal communications about the crash. This evidence is the foundation of your case.
After securing evidence, your attorney brings in experts — accident reconstructionists, medical professionals, and vocational specialists — to build the complete picture of what happened and what it cost you. Marion Munley is triple board certified in Truck Accident Law, Civil Trial Law, and Civil Trial Advocacy, and was the first woman to chair the AAJ’s Trucking Litigation Group. Munley Law has recovered over $1 billion for Pennsylvania injury victims.
Contact Munley Law for a free consultation. There is no fee unless we win.
