Truck and Commercial Vehicle Accidents

A collision with a semi, box truck, delivery van, dump truck, or bus is not a regular car accident. The injuries are worse, the company has a safety department and lawyers on day one, and the insurance is written for a business, not a family car.


Thompson Legal, P.A. represents people hurt in these crashes from our Davie office, serving Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach Counties, and throughout the entire State of Florida. Freight runs I-95, the Turnpike, I-75, the Palmetto, and the roads around Port Miami, Port Everglades, and the warehouse corridors in Doral, Medley, and western Broward. In 2024, Florida recorded 46,677 commercial-motor-vehicle crashes. Miami-Dade accounted for 8,546 of them, Broward 4,551, and Palm Beach 3,166 (Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Traffic Crash Facts 2024).


Fearless in the Courtroom. Relentless in the Fight. We are not a settlement mill. If the carrier's number is short of what the injury is worth, this firm takes cases to trial.

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What counts as this kind of case

  • Tractor-trailers and semis
  • Box trucks, straight trucks, and garbage or dump trucks
  • Amazon, USPS contractor, and other delivery vehicles when a company is behind the driver
  • Tow trucks, cement mixers, and construction vehicles on the road
  • Commercial buses and passenger vans that qualify as commercial motor vehicles
  • Crashes caused by a tired, distracted, or untrained driver, a bad load, bad brakes, or a company that put an unsafe driver on the road

A fatal crash is also a wrongful-death case. Those claims are handled with our wrongful-death team:

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Florida law that matters here

These are general points, not a promise or guarantee about your file. 

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Deadline

For negligence claims arising on or after March 24, 2023, Florida generally gives two years to file suit (Fla. Stat. §95.11). Crashes before that date may still fall under the old four-year period. Do not wait to sort out which one applies.

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Fault is not all-or-nothing

In a negligence case, Florida compares fault. If you are found more than 50% at fault for your own harm, you recover nothing. At 50% or under, your recovery is reduced by your share (Fla. Stat. §768.81). Carriers use this. They will say you cut the truck off, sped, or find any way they can to place blame on you.

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Your PIP still comes first if you were in a car

Florida no-fault usually requires your own auto policy to pay personal injury protection: up to $10,000 in medical and disability benefits, and a $5,000 death benefit (Fla. Stat. §627.736). PIP does not pay for pain and suffering.

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Pain and suffering has a threshold when you sue a covered motor vehicle

Against the owner or driver of a vehicle that has the required no-fault security, non-economic damages generally require a permanent injury, significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death (Fla. Stat. §627.737). A truck crash often meets that bar, however it still has to be proven.

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Commercial coverage is a different scale

Florida requires extra liability insurance on commercial motor vehicles by weight: $50,000, $100,000, or $300,000 per occurrence, and the federal minimums when 49 C.F.R. part 387 applies (Fla. Stat. §627.7415). Federal rules set $750,000 for many for-hire interstate carriers hauling non-hazardous property, and more for hazardous loads. The personal-auto bodily-injury minimum in Florida is $10,000 per person and $20,000 per crash. That gap is why these cases are built differently.

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Evidence disappears

Carriers have to keep hours-of-service and other safety records, and some of those windows are measured in months. Event-data recorders, driver logs, drug and alcohol tests, and driver-qualification files get overwritten or "lost" if nobody sends a preservation letter. We send one.

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How Thompson Legal helps

We treat the file as a lawsuit from the start, even if it later settles for the right number.

  • Identify every possible defendant: driver, motor carrier, trailer owner, shipper, or maintenance company. The name on the door is not always the company that answers for the crash.
  • Send preservation letters for logs, electronic control-module data, dash cameras, and the driver-qualification file.
  • Use the police report as a start, not the whole case. We look at hours of service, prior violations, and how the load was secured.
  • Deal with your PIP and health-insurance liens so a settlement is not eaten by bills you did not expect.
  • Negotiate only from a trial posture. Insurance companies pay more when the lawyer across the table actually picks juries and takes cases to trial.

You pay no attorney's fee unless we recover money for you. The percentage is set in a written agreement. Case review is free. Call (954) 510-3366. The Davie office is at 6490 Griffin Road, Second Floor, Davie, FL 33314.

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FAQ

  • I was in a car that a semi hit. Is this just a car-accident claim?

    The injury happened in a car, but the defense is a trucking company. Coverage, records, and who can be sued are different. Our car-accident page covers ordinary car crashes. This page is for a commercial vehicle on the other side.


  • The truck driver was cited. Does that settle fault?

    A citation helps. It does not prove the civil case, and the company can still blame you. Under Florida's comparative-fault rule, a finding that you were more than 50% at fault can wipe out the claim.


  • How long do I have?

    Often two years from the crash for negligence arising on or after March 24, 2023. Some claims, including certain claims against a government vehicle, can be shorter. Call before you rely on a date you found online.


  • Will you take a low offer so the file closes?

    No. We prepare the case for court. Settlement is a tool when the number is fair, not the business model.


Get in touch

If a commercial truck or work vehicle hurt you or someone in your family in Broward, Miami-Dade, or Palm Beach, call Thompson Legal, P.A. at (954) 510-3366 for a free case review. 6490 Griffin Road, Second Floor, Davie, FL 33314. Fearless in the Courtroom. Relentless in the Fight.