750k vs 1 mil liability

In a legal tort, ALL parties involved in a vehicle incident will be named as codefendants. That means shipper, broker, hauler AND driver. The reason all are named is, let's say a driver plows into a car, injuring 3 people. The lawsuit from the ambulance chaser will be filed long before the accident investigation is complete. If they were to only sue the transport company and the investigation revealed that the shipper improperly loaded the trailer causing a shift in cargo and that was the determination of the root cause of the crash, the lawsuit is now void and a whole new lawsuit must be filed. Or say a broker subjects the driver to a load that the broker knew would violate the HoS regs, and the underlying cause of the wreck was fatigued driving. Again, this is not a criminal case but a civil case. The facts are presented differently in each. In a criminal case, it requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In a civil case, merely a preponderance of evidence; meaning if I can prove it is possible, I win. Regardless of whether or not you win your case, lawyers MUST be paid. The broker/shipper who was named as a codefendant is not going to just pay a lawyer and walk away. They are coming after your insurance to pay the attorneys fees. A $750k may not be sufficient to cover a full legal team in a vehicular manslaughter case for all parties involved, but a million will more than likely be sufficient. And since the lawyers get their money before anyone else and they are the ones drafting the requirements for everything, logic precludes they will make stipulations to ensure that you have enough dinero to pay them.

 

First load I pulled that required $1M cargo actually had $900,000 of cargo on the bed. 4 transformers at $225k each. The guy that spent 6 months building them was the one that loaded my truck, and he was pretty darn proud of them.