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Schneider National Inc. is a large trucking company offering long-haul and logistics services. Schneider trucks can be seen on the road almost everywhere. Unfortunately, accidents sometimes occur, and people get hurt. If this happens, talk to a lawyer about how you can sue Schneider for damages.
When a negligent truck driver causes an accident, their employer, the trucking company, may be held vicariously liable. This means that you may sue Schneider if one of its employees causes an accident. However, vicarious liability does not apply if the truck driver is an independent contractor. Even so, many independent contractors are misclassified and should be considered employees, so you might still be able to sue Schneider. Otherwise, we can find ways to hold Schneider directly liable for the accident.
Call Wruck Paupore at (219) 322-1166 and request a free, private legal evaluation from our Indiana truck accident lawyers.
A trucking company like Schneider may be held responsible for an accident under various circumstances. In some cases, they may be responsible simply because they employed the negligent truck driver. In others, they may be more directly responsible.
Under the legal doctrine of respondeat superior, employers may be held vicariously liable for injuries caused by negligent employees when the employees were acting in furtherance of their normal job duties. Since most truck accidents happen while the truck driver is on the job and performing normal duties, their employers are often vicariously liable.
Vicarious liability might not apply in situations where the trucker was acting outside the scope of their employment or running personal errands.
Vicarious liability applies only to employees, not to independent contractors. Schneider employs a mix of employees and independent contractors to drive trucks, and Indianapolis, IN truck accident lawyers must determine the trucker's employment status in your case.
Even if the trucker is classified as an independent contractor, that classification may be incorrect. Many companies hire independent contractors but treat them as employees, directing their work, controlling their salaries, and treating them as if they are employed by the company. In such cases, we may convince a court that the independent contractor is misclassified and is really an employee, and that vicarious liability should apply.
In other cases, Schneider or other trucking companies might be directly liable for an accident. Often, this is the case when a trucking company knowingly hires a driver who is unfit for the job.
For example, if your accident was the result of the trucker driving while intoxicated, we might uncover evidence that the driver has a history of drunk driving and that Schneider knew this after conducting a background check. If the company hired the driver knowing they had a drinking problem, the company may be held directly liable for negligent hiring.
Even if the truck driver was perfectly suitable for their job, a trucking company like Schneider may still be directly responsible if it enforced policies that contributed to the accident.
Trucks must be inspected and maintained according to federal safety regulations. If the company knowingly shirks its responsibility to keep the trucks in safe, working condition, it may be directly liable if the accident results from unsafe conditions on the trucks.
Starting a lawsuit for a truck accident is far from easy, but it is still possible. A lawyer can review your case and help you gather what you need to begin.
First, you should report the accident to the authorities immediately. Often, truck accidents are serious enough that someone calls 911, and 911 dispatchers will likely send the police along with emergency medical personnel.
The police should investigate the crash to determine what went wrong and whether the driver should be arrested and criminally charged. Even if the driver is not charged, the information uncovered by the police may be used as evidence in your civil lawsuit.
After the accident, call a lawyer as soon as possible. In Indiana, personal injury plaintiffs have only 2 years from the date of an accident to file a lawsuit against those they believe are responsible. If you do not file the case on time, you may lose the right to file the case at all.
Your attorney may need time to prepare your case. Truck accident cases often involve severe injuries, high damages, and complex evidence. It is not unusual for attorneys to spend months preparing a case before filing it. As such, the sooner you call a lawyer, the more time they have to prepare.
Your lawyer must help you investigate the accident for evidence. We can begin at the scene of the accident. Often, crash scenes are cleared away quickly, and evidence is lost. However, many drivers take pictures and record videos of accidents, and these recordings may be crucial evidence in your case.
We can also interview potential witnesses. Interrogatories and depositions may be used to explore potential testimony and determine whether witnesses can provide credible information on the witness stand.
Yes. If the truck driver is an employee of Schneider, the truck company may be held vicariously liable. Alternatively, the company may be more directly responsible if it hired someone it knew to be unfit for the job or allowed the truck to become unsafe to drive.
If the trucker is an independent contractor, the rules of vicarious liability might not apply. We can review Schneider's business records to determine whether the trucker is an independent contractor or has been misclassified. Alternatively, we may find a way to have Schneider held directly liable.
Yes. If Schneider knowingly hired the trucker, whether as an employee or independent contractor, who was unfit for the job and likely to cause an accident, the company may be held directly responsible. Similarly, if Schneider failed to enforce proper safety protocols or regulations, and the accident resulted directly from this negligence, Schneider may be held directly responsible.
In Indiana, plaintiffs have 2 years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. If the lawsuit is not filed on time, the plaintiff may be time-barred from filing the case, and they might never obtain fair compensation.
Call Wruck Paupore at (219) 322-1166 and request a free, private legal evaluation from our Fort Wayne, IN truck accident lawyers.
Don is a founding partner and one of the nation’s top-ranked personal injury litigators. He is a member of the Multi-million Dollar Advocates Forum, which includes less than 1% of the nation’s trial lawyers, and awarded the highest ranking given by Martindale Hubbel and AVVO.
More importantly, Don understands representing personal injury victims is about more than recovering the best settlement: it’s about helping clients get back on their feet and supporting them in every aspect of their recovery.
In nearly all cases, our clients seek compensation from the wrongdoer’s insurance company. Before forming Wruck Paupore, Jason worked for a prominent law firm representing some of the world’s largest insurers. This experience gives Jason a deep understanding of the insurance industry and the strategies it uses to pay injury victims as little as possible.
Jason -- and our entire team -- put this inside knowledge to work to force insurance companies to pay what is actually owed. Often, we use the insurance company’s own tactics against them as we fight for the full compensation our client deserves.
For more than four decades, Keith has been fighting for injury victims. During that time, he’s watched the insurance industry change, with insurers now more interested in protecting their stock price than treating injury victims fairly.
Since the beginning, Keith has put people first. From his childhood in Gary, Indiana during the 1960’s and working his way through law school, Keith has risen to become one of the Midwest’s most respected trial lawyers. He has never forgotten that being a lawyer is about helping people -- and seeing injury victims through struggles in a way that could change their lives forever.
Over the decades, Keith, Don and Jason have fought relentlessly for clients, even when other lawyers have said the case was impossible to win.
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Wruck Paupore P.C.
Injury Lawyers
275 Joliet St. Suite #250
Dyer, IN 46311
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