Insurance For Personal Liability?

Hello all,

I am concerned about being held personally liable for financial loss and/or criminal charges resulting from a collision. Are there insurance companies that will cover CDL drivers for these losses?

P.S.: I know where NOT to go to: Prepaid Legal Services, based in Ada, Oklahoma. When I was a student driver, I took out their $50 per month plan for commercial drivers, then found out later that they lied to me. That company has been sued by government agencies for their frauds, and big surprise, they hired lawyers NOT affiliated with their plan to represent them.

Thanks!

Hello all,

I am concerned about being held personally liable for financial loss and/or criminal charges resulting from a collision. Are there insurance companies that will cover CDL drivers for these losses?

P.S.: I know where NOT to go to: Prepaid Legal Services, based in Ada, Oklahoma. When I was a student driver, I took out their $50 per month plan for commercial drivers, then found out later that they lied to me. That company has been sued by government agencies for their frauds, and big surprise, they hired lawyers NOT affiliated with their plan to represent them.

Thanks!

Most driver legal plans are for driving issues. Tickets and trucking related issues. When dealing with other issues like the fraud you mentioned they did right and hired lawyers that are better able to deal with it. You would not go to a plumber if you have a car engine problem would you? Same thing.

The best thing to have in case of an accident is a witness. What I mean video. Hard to dispute what really happened if its all on video. Many dashboard cameras are available and there are even a few being sold in the TA's and Petros.

Actually the Driver legal services from the same company you mentioned out of Oklahoma was able to keep me out of court all because of a video I had recorded showing what happened but because of legal issues that could result from the video I had to sign a document stating I would never make the video public but nevertheless it saved me.

That is the one of the reasons people take pictures of accidents so it can help determine fault and damages. Lawyers will love it if there was actually video of it and often times you will never see court.

Thank you, Guy. Yes, a dashcam is an excellent idea - I know the cops use them all the time (although for different reasons). Yes, a truck driver certianly needs to prove that the car suddenly pulled out in front of him, and he couldn't brake in time. Thanks again.

What about insurance to cover for situations where the driver clearly is at fault? Example: as a student driver, I side-swiped a car hauler at a truck stop. My carrier (Swift) covered the damage to the car hauler (the ramp, with no car on it). However, my mentor mentioned that I was lucky that there wasn't a car on the car hauler where I collided with it - if that was the case, he said that I would have been personally liable for it. Does anyone know about liability (and insurance) for something like that?

Eddie, even when the driver is clearly at fault the companies insurance policy handles the liability. You as a driver may lose your job, but you don't have to worry about anyone suing you. When the greedy lawyers get involved you won't be of any interest to them. They are going after that hefty insurance policy that the company invested in to protect themselves.

Thanks very much, Old School !!

Old School, thanks again. Regarding the side-swipe accident with the car hauler: I got a written warning from my driver manager when I returned to the home terminal , but nothing more.

Ya know...we were O/O for alot of years, and insurance was one of the most expensive items in our budget, and I worried about it constantly...whether I had enough, whether there was a better insurance to have, etc. Then one night, while I was driving across NE, I was thinking about it....and it finally hit me...If by any chance there was someone who felt they had the right to sue me past what the insurance companies paid....what the H**l are they gonna get? I truck thats worth less than whats owed on it , a 199=1 Dodge truck , a 1981 motorhome , which we called home. Nope, once they paid an attorney to find out what we had that they could take , there would never be a court case filed... . So I guess there are some benefits to being a truck driver....sad as it is.