- Black box evidence about the truck’s operation at critical times;
- GPS or other tracking evidence of truck locations and speed; and
- Lots of documents that can be effective evidence for one side in the case, including the federally required operation and safety data about the truck, the driver’s operation, and the truck owner’s control, which federal regulations require the truck owner and lessee, the truck operating company, and the truck driver to maintain.
If you are retained to represent a defendant in a truck accident, the reason you have been retained is that litigation is anticipated. It is your legal obligation to advise your client what data and documents need to be preserved, on pain of a court later ordering sanctions for spoliation of evidence. Our form for plaintiffs “Initial Spoliation Letter in Truck Accident Case” will aid you in forming your advice to the potential defendant.
Plaintiff attorneys, believe it — these records will change if not preserved. The electronic evidence in the truck motor’s black box (including vehicle speed and brake application before the crash) is constantly overwritten as the truck is operated. GPS tracking evidence of the truck’s operations is either overwritten or becomes subject to disposal with the passage of time. Every day, the federally required time periods for maintaining records allows another day’s records to be shredded. As for the vehicle, its brakes and its crash impact damage — truck operators have economic pressure to repair the vehicle and get it back on the road to prevent loss of revenue. Add to all of those factors, truck operators are savvy about the evidence that can be used against them in court. They can, and do, seize opportunities to get rid of unfavorable data as soon as there can be a “normal” disposal of past data, documents, and physical items.
If you represent the injured plaintiff in a truck case, one of the first items on your agenda, even before you issue a summons and complaint, is to issue a demand for preservation of evidence, a spoliation letter, to every likely defendant in the case. You do it for two reasons: (1) you want to preserve the evidence that the defendant has a desire to destroy, and (2) you want to set up the defendant for sanctions, if the defendant does destroy evidence.
Ordinarily, at the initial stage when you as a claimant’s attorney send this letter, the complaint has not yet been filed in court by you, and you do not know the name of the attorney for the potential defendants. Hence, send the letter directly to the company or individuals involved. (Of course, if you have been informed that they have retained counsel, send the letter to counsel.) Send the letter by a method that results in a written record of receipt, such as postal mail, return signed receipt requested, or by a delivery service with signature required.
This is one of those forms that both save you lots of time, and also give you information to make you more effective for your clients.
Now, you have the chance to get the far-reaching — Plaintiff’s Initial Spoliation Letter to Truck Company — form that seasoned litigation lawyers and their legal assistants develop after a dozen truck cases. This copyrighted Plaintiff’s Initial Spoliation Letter to Truck Company is so powerful, even experienced truck company risk management officers will know you are organized and loaded for action.
This is a mentor in a box, coaching you on the points you should consider in the discovery process and during your examination of the defendant driver and of the truck owner. (Or if you are the defense attorney, telling you the points on which you need to prepare your defendant.) A good checklist is a lawyer mentor in a box — guiding you and preventing mistakes of omission.
Here is more great news — Initial Spoliation Letter to Truck Company is furnished to you, in PDF format, right to your computer, immediately, as the last step in the purchase process. If you need to get out a Litigation Hold letter in a truck accident case, to the defendant truck company, buy Initial Spoliation Letter to Truck Company and start working with a draft letter ready three minutes from now.
And this item is easy and inexpensive to buy. Initial Spoliation Letter to Truck Company is a very low investment with a high value return.
Not only will you get a great tool, saving you time over the year ahead, you’ll get it for the special pricing of only $18.80
