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In Tacoma, delivery vans, rental box trucks, dump trucks, refuse trucks, buses, tow trucks, utility bucket trucks, and container trucks are all driven for business, which usually puts an employer and a commercial insurance policy behind the driver who hit you.
Freeman Law Firm’s attorneys have spent years litigating against corporate defendants and large commercial insurance carriers. If you were injured in an accident with a commercial vehicle in Tacoma or anywhere in Washington call us at (253) 383-4500 for a free consultation. There is no obligation and you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.
Washington ties its commercial driver's license requirement to weight, passenger capacity, and cargo. A vehicle qualifies as a commercial motor vehicle when it meets any one of the descriptions below, per RCW 46.25.010:
A landscaper's pickup or a florist's van can fall below that threshold and still be backed by a commercial auto policy, with an employer answerable for how the driver was operating. Weight determines which safety regulations apply, while responsibility and available coverage generally depend on whether the driver was working at the time of the crash.
Freeman Law Firm works with both the Washington rules and the federal motor carrier regulations, and one of the first steps in a new case is identifying which set applies to the vehicle that hit you, since classification decides which records we can demand and which coverage is available to pay for your injuries.
Pierce County's traffic mix reflects the freight and construction economy around it. Work vehicles behind local collisions typically fall into a handful of groups:
Whichever scenario fits your collision, our attorneys have decades of experience with cases against commercial carriers, delivery contractors, and public agencies. We know the defenses each one raises and pursue maximum compensation from every party responsible.
Washington sets the floor for a private car far lower than the federal floor for a commercial carrier:
Federal minimums apply to interstate property carriers and set a floor rather than a ceiling. Larger carriers commonly hold primary and excess layers far above them.
In a collision between two private cars, a $25,000 policy can be the ceiling on what you recover no matter how serious the injury. Commercial coverage is usually large enough that the policy is not the limit, which changes what the case is about. What you recover depends on finding every policy that applies, naming every company behind the vehicle, and documenting the full extent of your injuries and losses.
Spencer Freeman and Kim Shomer have spent decades proving what injuries like yours cost and pushing commercial carriers and their insurance companies to pay it.
Trucking policies written for interstate operation carry an MCS-90 endorsement, which generally obligates the insurance company to pay a judgment up to the federal minimum even where a coverage dispute would otherwise leave an injured person with nothing to collect. We request the complete policy along with its endorsements, and Freeman Law Firm will hold the insurance company to the MCS-90 when it argues the coverage does not reach your crash.
RCW 51.24.060 divides a third-party recovery in a set order:
Our attorneys will bring the case against the trucking company alongside your L&I claim and negotiate the department's share of the recovery.
An employer answers for a driver acting within the scope of employment. Separate from that, a company's own conduct can be examined through negligent hiring, negligent retention, negligent supervision, and negligent entrustment, which reach decisions the company made before the driver ever got behind the wheel. Federal rules also cap driving hours and require the carrier to log them under 49 CFR 395.3, so duty records showing violations in the days before a collision can support a case against the company that dispatched the driver.
Amazon's Delivery Service Partner program, its Flex app, and FedEx Ground's contracted route model all place drivers in branded vehicles without a direct employment relationship. Our lawyers will examine the contract itself, the routing and scanning software, the delivery quotas, and the degree of control the parent company held over hours, appearance, and performance.
Depending on the facts, responsibility can extend to the motor carrier, a freight broker, the shipper, whoever loaded the cargo, the company that leased the equipment, a maintenance vendor, or a parts manufacturer where a defect contributed.
Washington’s comparative negligence rule generally makes each defendant pay only its own share of the fault, so a defendant with no assets and no coverage can leave part of a judgment uncollected (RCW 4.22.070). Two exceptions apply in commercial vehicle cases.
If the jury finds you were not at fault at all, every defendant becomes responsible for the whole judgment, and you can collect the full amount from whichever one is able to pay it.
An employer also answers for the fault of its own driver, so the trucking company can be made to pay the driver's share even where the driver has nothing.
Most of the proof in a commercial vehicle case belongs to the company, not to you, and much of it disappears on a schedule:
We demand the company's records rather than working from what its insurance company chooses to share.
Suing a government agency takes an extra step before the lawsuit starts.
If a state agency owned the vehicle, you submit a claim form to the state and then wait 60 days before starting a lawsuit (RCW 4.92.100). The same 60-day wait applies when the vehicle belonged to a city, a county, a school district, or a transit agency like Pierce Transit (RCW 4.96.020).
A Postal Service vehicle puts the case under the Federal Tort Claims Act. You send a form to the Postal Service first, called Standard Form 95, and generally have two years to do it (28 U.S.C. 2675).
Washington allows several categories of damages that can be recovered after a commercial vehicle crash, and Freeman Law Firm fights to maximize your compensation so it accounts for your total losses.
Economic losses are the ones with a dollar figure attached:
Noneconomic losses cover what the injury took from your daily life:
Washington does not cap noneconomic damages. An older state law tried, but the Washington Supreme Court struck it down in 1989 because setting damages is the jury's job, and the Legislature repealed it in 2023 (Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp., 112 Wn.2d 636; RCW 4.56.250).
If someone died in the collision, the personal representative of the estate brings the case for the family members listed in RCW 4.20.020. A 2019 change dropped the old rule that parents and siblings had to be financially dependent on the person who died and living in the United States.
Washington gives you three years from the date of the collision to bring a personal injury case, under RCW 4.16.080(2). Cases against government agencies carry the shorter presuit steps described above.
Spencer D. Freeman founded Freeman Law Firm in Tacoma after graduating cum laude from Seattle University School of Law. Alongside attorney owner Kim M. Shomer, he has spent decades getting injured people in Pierce County the maximum compensation available to them, and Freeman Law Firm wins millions in settlements for clients every year.
A commercial vehicle case moves through five phases:
You work directly with an attorney through all five phases. We take commercial vehicle cases on a contingency fee, so there is no cost to start and no fee unless we recover for you.
Whether a commercial truck accident or other type of commercial vehicle accident, Freeman Law Firm provides compassionate counsel and fierce advocacy, and we fight for maximum compensation on behalf of our clients. Schedule a time to talk with one of our commercial vehicle accident attorneys by calling (253) 383-4500 or by sending us an email to discuss your case. The consultation costs nothing, and you owe no fee unless we recover for you.
It can be. A rental truck used for business and rated at 10,001 pounds or more falls under the federal definition at 49 CFR 390.5 even where no CDL was required, and the renting business can be answerable for the driver.
Both are examined. Amazon routes most deliveries through independent Delivery Service Partners, so the answer depends on the contract terms and how much control Amazon held over routing, quotas, and hours.
Six months for records of duty status and supporting documents under 49 CFR 395.8(k)(1), and six months for the backup copy. A written preservation demand sent before that window closes is what keeps the records available.
The three-year limit still applies, and a damage claim has to be presented to the agency first, with a 60-day wait before a lawsuit can begin under RCW 4.96.020.
Cases that settle without a lawsuit can resolve in months once treatment finishes. Where a lawsuit is needed, Pierce County Superior Court issues a case schedule when the case begins, and personal injury cases on the standard track are typically set for trial about a year out.
If an officer responded and wrote a report, no. If nobody responded, which happens when a delivery van clips your car and the two of you exchange information at the scene, Washington gives the drivers four days to submit a report when there is an injury, a death, or at least $1,000 in property damage (RCW 46.52.030).