Preparing For the Professional Driver Deposition in Commercial Vehicle Cases

This article discusses the personal injury lawyer’s preparation approach to deposing professional drivers in commercial vehicle crashes.     

 The Professional Driver’s Deposition

A professional driver is someone that gets paid to drive or where driving is an essential aspect of one’s responsibility to perform the job. The most obvious example of a professional driver is an 18-wheeler or dump-truck driver holding a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Other examples include a service technician that drives around town to make service calls. Although not all professional drivers require a CDL, all professional drivers have policies and procedures to follow while driving.

Obtaining Necessary Documents and Information

As with any deposition, the beginning stage of preparation is to gather all available documents and information that reflects the driver’s history and the applicable safety policies the driver must follow. First, the lawyer must conduct a Texas Crash Report search via the online Crash Records Information System provided by the Texas Department of Transportation. This investigative search tool will provide reliable information about the driver’s Texas vehicle crash history. This easy search also identifies whether the driver’s company conducted the required pre-hire background check on the driver. There are more detailed driver history search tools, but these require the professional driver to consent via an authorization form and unfortunately may not contain all crash incidents—so always cross reference. Moreover, commercial trucking cases have specific written discovery requests to collect vital information only obtainable from the professional driver and the company, so be certain that your discovery request ask the correct questions. If you are not familiar with handling a significant commercial trucking case, ask DeKeyzer Law for assistance.         

Professional Drivers’ Rules of the Road

The plaintiff lawyer can easily obtain applicable CDL rules of the road relevant to the case. The skilled injury lawyer will have a working knowledge of the most common rules and regulations such as the hours-of-service rules or when are drivers are required to stop at railroad crossings. The plaintiff lawyer should also have general knowledge of when a CDL is required such as when the Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR) exceeds 26,001 pounds or any vehicle transporting 16 or more occupants including the driver. The plaintiff lawyer should also have knowledge of the additional requirements and restrictions when hauling hazardous material. Finally, the skilled lawyer must also have knowledge of the requirements imposed on companies that hire CDL drivers.

For non-CDL professional drivers, the company should have a written policy for drivers in addition to the Texas rules of the road. All plaintiff lawyers must have a copy of the official Texas Driver Handbook which details the rules of the road. Through written discovery, the plaintiff lawyer should receive a copy of the company’s driver policy in effect at the time of the crash. A point of interest for these drivers is the cell phone and mobile device policy of the company. Many of the service technicians have multiple devices which creates a dangerous driving environment.

Hiring Professional Drivers

Additionally, the company hiring process of non-CDL drivers must be investigated as this is a simple cost-effective process to ensure the company is hiring safe drivers. We have discovered that the pre-hire background process is lacking in many companies. Here, you want to focus on what the company knew or should have known before hiring the driver which requires collecting documents through subpoena from other entities and state organizations. Essentially, you want to perform a simulated pre-hire background check on the driver and compare the results with what the company provides through written discovery.                      

Conclusion

Although each commercial trucking accident case is factually unique, the preparation approach to deposing critical witnesses is the same—collect all necessary documents and information before the deposition. Personal injury lawyers Meagan and Holland DeKeyzer have been focused on personal injury and wrongful death litigation for over ten years and have extensive experience in all aspect of litigation and jury trials. Contact DeKeyzer Law at (713) 904-4004 for a FREE consultation on your Personal Injury or Wrongful Death case.