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The minimum liability insurance required for large trucks in interstate commerce was set at $750,000 forty years ago in 1981 at the beginning of the Reagan Administration. Everything else has gotten more expensive in the past forty years. Nothing costs the same since then–not the truck, the repairs, the gas, or the tolls, so it is completely unrealistic for the truckers to have the same insurance as they did forty years ago.

If adjusted for the Consumer Price Index, it would be $2,203,415.84 today. People who are injured by trucking negligence need to pay their medical bills so trucking safety…

Property insurance policies typically include provisions that the policyholder must cooperate in investigation and adjustment. This includes an examination under oath (EUO) — answering a lot of questions from the insurance company’s lawyer. Failure of the policyholder to submit to the examination may preclude even an innocent insured from any recovery under the insurance contract.

Policyholders who represent themselves against insurance company lawyers make fatal errors.

Generally insurance companies may impose almost any conditions upon their obligations so long as they are not inconsistent with public policy.  An insured cannot avoid the binding effect by neglecting to read the insurance…

child carseatEvery summer there are far too many instances of children dying when left in a hot vehicle. One such tragedy involving a child care center without adequate insurance led to a claim against a city government for negligent licensing of the child care center.

Many child care centers in Georgia have no liability insurance because child care centers in Georgia are not required to carry any specific amount of liability insurance. The regulations governing Family Child Care Learning Homes require only “notification of the absence of a liability insurance policy sufficient to protect its clients,” though the amount of…

As an attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, with a practice heavily concentrated on trial of large truck and bus crash cases, I represent injured truck drivers (and their widows) almost as much as occupants of  other vehicles.  Posts about truckers violations of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations sometimes give folks the mistaken impression that I am condemning truckers as a group.  However, I recognize that most truck drivers are hard working professionals who are conscientious about quality and safety.  I also recognize that they are often placed in untenable situations by the demands of shippers and carriers.

The trucking collision data consistently show that about 80% of fatal collisions involving large commercial vehicles are caused by the actions of other drivers on the road, such as those tho erratically dart in front of a tractor trailer.  When that happens, and a truck driver is seriously injured or killed, it is important to review all insurance information, including Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist coverage in the trucking company’s insurance policy. If that insurance policy includes UM coverage equal to the liability limits, that may be enough to provide substantial help to the trucker and his or her family.