Being held responsible for negligence if you cause an accident?

Oh, one more VERY important point. I do agree it will be difficult in almost any court to keep a judge from tossing a lawsuit based on a driver would not have been there having they been running legally. The problem is I have seen so many Judges issue wacky rulings I can't fully say one way or another. I will say this is something that needs to be Federally litigated and resolved!

 

Makes sense. As I recall, that one was tossed by the appellate court, but it was about seven years ago, and I need to look it up.

 

I am NOT an Attorney. I have, however, learned a bitter lesson about case law. I left a whole lot out, just so people are not reaching for painkillers for headaches. Let's say that was a Court in Macon that made that ruling. The case law is binding in that state circuit, but NOT binding for other courts in Georgia. To make it binding basically requires the appellate courts to say it is. The Federal Courts work basically the same way. Say a Judge in the Northern District of Georgia makes says NO you can't sue. Then that case law is set for that district. It is NOT binding on other districts. If people will remember how the Supreme Court got involved with Obamacare. It was because several districts and appellate courts had been making conflicting rulings. Now I have a headache!

 

A bit of a thread hijack coming.

One of my neighbors is a black couple both in their 60s. He is retired Navy and she is still working in a local school district. About a year ago one of their grandsons got into some legal trouble. According to the story, I heard the kid was walking on a sidewalk from his home to a local C-store to get some smokes. He was stopped by a city cop who conducted what is referred to as a TERRY STOP. The kid refused to give the cop his ID and was actually arrested and charged with several crimes related to failing to identify. Thankfully the family could afford to hire a real attorney and not some overworked public defender. The attorney got ALL of those charges tossed. The case law with regard to Terry V Ohio is somewhat of a duel edge sword for cops. It gives them the right generally to pat down someone they are making contact with. Here is why those charges got tossed. The cop and his backup had NO reasonable suspicion the kid had committed a crime. In court, they could not articulate a crime, and the judge tossed the case. This same Attorney later filed a lawsuit against those cops but it got tossed because of their qualified immunity. Terry V Ohio IS binding on all states. It is established case law since the Supreme Court made its ruling making it binding.

 

Even if not charged there can be 'issues' too.

A few years ago we were involved in a fatality/body injury incident inside a marine terminal.

The driver was not cited/charged but the state DMV decided to suspend his total driving privledges for 14 months.

The legal team formed by our insurance, doing discovery, obtained a copy of a survelance video showing th substantial number of drivers outside their vehicles, most without the required Hi-Viz vests and two ended up by our MT chassis frame, out of sight of the mirrors, and ahead of the tandems when security told our guy to pull up.

One of the Jr. attourneys brought this video to the drivers suspension hearing and he was not suspended, something that would have not helped our 'case'.

In over 45 years working in trucking I have heard more than my share of gruesome truck accident tales. Watching those two men run [thankfully out of sight] and the seeing the chassis rise up and down twice like over a speed bump is something I will NEVER forget. It send a cold feeling through your whole being.

I'm the the only employee to have seen it. The taped shut DVD envelope is inside the 4" high box containing the entire file, hopefully to never be seen again.

FMCSA suspends the CDL privledges for 12 months upon conviction, clearly the state was out to screw him over.

This guy was not charged, the port authority PD reported to the state but not the DOT so it never showed on our SMS/CMA history.

The lawyers did their job.

The terminal security was neglegent as the pack of drivers waiting [12 lanes wide!] were not suposed to leave their trucks yet dozens were runing around the place.

Searching back on google earth they also noticed that this area was formerly 8 lanes with spacing for forklifts to attach belly mounted gen-sets before changing over to the staging area.

It ended up being a 3 way split and our share was 8/10ths of our liability coverage and without the legal assistance provided by the insurance this could very well have been the end of the company.

Bottom line is you can be criminally charged for a horrific accident and the insurance MAY be helpful and you can count on any civil case it WILL represent you as they are doing 100% to minimize THEIR loss not to make you whole.

The most direct exposure is to criminal charges which won't be applied in most minor situations.

 

like a pilot, you are responsible for the machine.

 

like a pilot you are responsible in the end.

 

yes

 

sorry for the multiple posts. i kept getting error msgs.

 

The one I'm talking about the verdict was in 2018 for 90 million for the company, so yes it can still happen.