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Miami Truck
Accident Lawyer

Written by Prosper Shaked, personal injury attorney, North Miami Beach · Updated October 6, 2026

If you were hit by a semi, box truck, dump truck, or any commercial vehicle in Florida, do not treat it like a bigger car accident, because the other side never does. You talk to a real attorney, usually me, on that first call or later the same day.

Call (305) 694-2676 Free case review
  • You speak to the attorney, not a screener
  • Millions recovered for injured clients
  • No fee unless I recover money for you
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No fee unless I recover money for you. If there is no recovery you owe no fee and no costs. When we recover, case costs are paid from the recovery.

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BBB Accredited Business A+ - Prosper Injury Attorneys

What to do after a truck accident

Seven things that protect your claim. Do what you safely can, and if you are reading this from a hospital bed, start with the last one.

01

Identify the truck, not just the driver

If you safely can, record the company name on the door, the U.S. DOT number and the license plate, and make sure a police crash report is created. That is what lets a lawyer trace the companies behind the truck.

02

Photograph everything

Both vehicles, your injuries, the road and the scene. Note nearby businesses or other trucks whose cameras may have caught it.

03

Get witness details before they leave

Names and contact information for every witness.

04

Get medical treatment, and do not let care lapse

Commercial insurers comb treatment records for any gap they can use to argue your injuries came from something else.

05

Do not give a recorded statement

And do not sign anything until you have a lawyer. What the adjuster wants is to get you to accept even a small share of blame. Being pushed over 50 percent wipes out the entire claim.

06

Do not let your vehicle be repaired or scrapped

It is evidence.

07

Call before the trucking company’s team gets ahead of you

A short call will tell you where you stand and what needs to be preserved right now.

Call (305) 694-2676
A 30-second check

Do you have a truck accident case?

If you can answer yes to these two questions, it is worth a call. Usually I can tell you on that one call whether you have a claim worth pursuing.

1

Was a commercial vehicle involved: a semi, box truck, dump truck or delivery van?

2

Were you hurt? Not sure? Call anyway. Usually I can tell you on that one call.

Yes, call Prosper now

The consultation is free ● Available 24/7

What happens when you call

01

You talk to the attorney

Not a screener. Usually me, on that first call or later the same day.

02

You find out where you stand

We walk through what happened, your injuries and what insurance is likely in play. Usually I can tell you on that one call whether you have a claim worth pursuing.

03

We preserve the evidence

If you hire us, the first letters go out fast: to preserve the dashcam video and the electronic logs before they are overwritten, and to make the insurer disclose its policy limits.

04

What we do in the first two weeks

  • Run the truck’s DOT number to identify every company standing behind it, not just the driver.
  • Send each of them a preservation letter for the dashcam video and the electronic logs before they are overwritten.
  • Require the insurer to disclose its policy limits under oath within 30 days, as Florida law allows.
  • If fault is disputed, preserve the truck’s own data: speed, braking and throttle in the seconds before impact.
  • From then on the companies and their insurers deal with me, not with you.
Call (305) 694-2676

Prosper Shaked
truck accident attorney

North Miami Beach

I am Prosper Shaked, the attorney behind Prosper Injury Attorneys in North Miami Beach.

I represent people hurt by semis, box trucks, dump trucks and delivery vehicles throughout Florida.

Call (305) 694-2676, or read more about me.

I am Prosper Shaked, the attorney behind Prosper Injury Attorneys in North Miami Beach.

I represent people hurt by semis, box trucks, dump trucks and delivery vehicles throughout Florida.

Call (305) 694-2676, or read more about me.

What clients say about working with Prosper Injury Attorneys

Most of the people who hire me were in the worst week of their lives when they first called. Many of them have written about what it was like to work with my office, and those reviews are on Google, where I would rather you read them than take my word for it.

Read our reviews on Google

Prospective clients may not obtain the same or similar results.

What is a truck accident case worth?

Three questions tell us most of what we need on the first call.

1

How serious and permanent the injuries are

Including the cost of future care and lost earning capacity, not just today’s bills.

2

How clear the fault is

Florida reduces recovery by your share of fault and bars it entirely above 50 percent.

3

How many layers of coverage can be reached

A catastrophic injury caused by a driver with one minimum policy is a very different case from the same injury caused by a large carrier with corporate defendants behind it.

We have recovered millions of dollars for injured clients. If you want to understand how these cases are valued, we have written about the average truck accident settlement in Florida, but be wary of anyone who quotes you a number before they know your facts. In the worst cases, where a truck crash takes a life, the family may bring a wrongful death claim.

  • Medical bills
  • Cost of future care
  • Lost income
  • Lost earning capacity
  • Pain and suffering
  • Scarring and permanent injury

$150,000

Commercial truck crash on the Palmetto (SR-826). Herniated cervical and lumbar discs treated with epidural injections and radiofrequency ablation. Settled with the trucking company, its driver, and their insurer after suit was authorized.

Want to know what your case is worth?

Call and Prosper will walk through what happened, your injuries, and what insurance is likely in play, usually on that first call.

(305) 694-2676 Free case review

Five numbers that decide truck cases in Florida

2 years

Deadline to file

You generally have two years from a truck crash to file a negligence lawsuit; miss it and the claim is usually gone; some situations run longer, so have the date checked.

Fla. Stat. § 95.11

Over 50%

The fault bar

A person found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing. At 50 percent fault or less, recovery is reduced by their share of the fault.

Fla. Stat. § 768.81

$750,000

Minimum federal cover

For-hire carriers hauling ordinary freight across state lines in trucks rated over 10,000 pounds must generally carry at least $750,000, rising to $1 million or $5 million for hazardous loads, far more than Florida requires of a car driver, who in most cases needs no bodily-injury coverage at all.

49 C.F.R. § 387.9

11 hours

Legal driving limit

Under the federal rules a commercial driver may drive no more than 11 hours in a shift; Florida-only operations can run longer.

49 C.F.R. § 395.3

30 days

Policy limits disclosure

A Florida liability insurer must disclose its policy limits within 30 days of your lawyer’s written request, one of the first letters we send.

Fla. Stat. § 627.4137

Avoid these

Common mistakes that cost truck crash victims

The mistakes that quietly sink a truck accident claim almost all come down to the same thing: moving too slowly while the company’s evidence disappears.

  • Treating it like a car accident and dealing only with the one driver, while the companies and their bigger policies are never pursued.
  • Waiting. The dashcam video is overwritten once its retention loop runs out, the driver’s logs only have to be kept for six months, and the two-year deadline is closer than it feels.
  • Assuming a police report that blames the driver is enough. The company will fight the fault percentage hard.

Who can be liable in a Florida truck crash

In a car crash there is usually one at-fault driver with one policy.
In a truck crash the liability runs in layers, and each layer can carry its own insurance.
Finding all of them is how a truck case is won.

The truck crash

A car crash usually means one driver and one policy. A truck crash has layers, each with its own insurance.

01

The driver

Their negligence is where it starts

02

The motor carrier (employer)

Answers for its driver on the job

03

The truck’s owner

Florida holds vehicle owners responsible

04

The company that loaded the cargo

When improper loading or securing contributed to the crash

05

The maintenance contractor

When the truck itself failed

Trucking companies often try to dodge responsibility by calling the driver an independent contractor rather than an employee. That label does not end the analysis. We look at who employed the driver, who controlled the work, who owned or leased the truck, and what each company actually did.

The federal rules that decide truck cases

Trucking is a federally regulated industry. In Florida, a violation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations is powerful evidence of negligence, not an automatic win, but it hands a jury a clear standard the company was supposed to meet and did not.

The rule What it proves in your case

Hours of service

49 C.F.R. § 395.3

A trucker may drive no more than 11 hours, within a 14-hour on-duty window, after 10 consecutive hours off, for interstate carriers. The electronic logging device records the driver’s hours and can show whether those limits were obeyed.

Driver qualification

49 C.F.R. Part 391

The company must keep a file proving the driver was licensed, medically fit and safe to hire. Put an unqualified driver behind the wheel and that is a claim against the company itself.

Inspection and maintenance

49 C.F.R. Part 396

Trucks must be systematically inspected, repaired and maintained. Bald tires, bad brakes and skipped service turn into liability when they cause a wreck.

Minimum insurance

49 C.F.R. § 387.9

For-hire carriers hauling ordinary freight across state lines in trucks rated over 10,000 pounds must generally carry at least $750,000, rising to $1 million or $5 million for hazardous loads, far more than Florida requires of a car driver, who in most cases needs no bodily-injury coverage at all.

How fault works in a truck case

Under Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if you are found more than 50 percent at fault, you recover nothing at all.

At 50 percent fault or less
You recover, reduced by your share

More than 50% at fault
You recover nothing

▲ Fla. Stat. § 768.81 · the line that decides the case

Under Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule, the fight over fault percentages is the difference between a full recovery and no recovery, and the trucking company’s investigators are on the scene early precisely to shift as much of that percentage onto you as they can.

The way to answer it is with evidence, not argument. The truck’s own data, the dashcam video, the electronic logs, the maintenance records and the qualification file usually tell a truer story than the driver’s statement.

Common truck crashes we handle

In Florida, most truck accidents come down to a few recurring causes: a fatigued or rushed driver, a company that cut a corner on loading or maintenance, and the blind spots that hide a car until it is too late.

Fatigue and hours-of-service

A driver who stayed behind the wheel past the federal limit.

Distraction and speeding

Drivers hauling loads that cannot stop in time.

Improper or overweight loads

Trailers that shift, jackknife or roll.

Mechanical failure

Bad brakes, worn tires and skipped maintenance.

Blind-spot and lane-change

Where a car vanishes into the truck’s no-zones.

Rear-end and underride

At highway speed, among the most catastrophic wrecks we see.

Amazon and delivery trucks

Their own companies and insurance layers.

See Amazon delivery truck claims

Garbage and waste trucks

Municipal and contractor liability.

See garbage truck claims

Around Miami these wrecks tend to happen where the heavy traffic is, the Port of Miami drayage routes, I-95, the Palmetto and the Turnpike, and on the construction routes where dump trucks run.

Frequently asked questions

Often both, and sometimes more. The driver is responsible for their own negligence, and the trucking company is responsible for a driver acting on the job. Florida also holds the truck’s owner responsible in most cases for those it allows to drive it, and the company that loaded the cargo or a maintenance contractor can each be liable. Each layer can carry its own insurance.

Three ways. The rules are federal, and in Florida a violation of them is strong evidence of negligence. The evidence is electronic and disappears fast: dashcam video on a retention loop, the electronic control module, the driver’s logs. And liability runs in layers, so a commercial truck usually carries far more insurance than a car. For-hire carriers hauling ordinary freight across state lines in trucks rated over 10,000 pounds start at a $750,000 federal minimum.

Most heavy trucks record data through an electronic control module that captures speed, braking and throttle in the moments before a crash. Combined with dashcam video and the driver’s logs, it tells a truer story than testimony. It can be overwritten, so preserving it early matters, and if a company intentionally destroys it to keep it out of the case, a court may let the jury presume it was unfavorable.

Usually far more than a car driver. For-hire carriers hauling ordinary freight across state lines in trucks rated over 10,000 pounds must generally carry at least $750,000, and $1 million to $5 million for hazardous loads. In most cases Florida does not require a private car driver to carry any bodily-injury coverage. Your lawyer can require the insurer to disclose its policy limits within 30 days of a written request.

You generally have two years from the date of the crash, and some situations extend that, so call even if more time has passed. The deadline is also not your only timing problem: the electronic evidence a truck case depends on can be gone in weeks. Call early, so the preservation letters go out while there is still something to preserve.

Delivery cases add a layer, because the driver may work for a contractor rather than the brand on the van, and more than one company’s insurance can be in play. Sorting out who actually employed the driver and who owned the vehicle is exactly the kind of layered liability question these cases turn on.

Possibly. Florida uses modified comparative negligence, so your recovery is reduced by your share of the fault, and you are barred if you are found more than 50 percent at fault. The trucking company will try to push as much fault onto you as it can. That is why building the liability case with the truck’s own data matters so much.

Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee: the fee is a percentage of what we recover, and there is no fee if there is no recovery. We advance the case costs, such as downloading the truck’s data and hiring reconstructionists, so you are not paying out of pocket. If we recover, those costs are paid from the recovery. If there is no recovery, you owe no fee and no costs.

Answers written and reviewed by Prosper Shaked, Florida personal injury attorney.

Call a Miami truck accident lawyer

Waiting is what most often costs people their case, because the trucking company’s team is already working and the electronic evidence is already being overwritten. You will talk to an attorney on that first call or later the same day.

Call (305) 694-2676 Free case review




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