Trucking & Transportation Litigation

Cotten Schmidt, L.L.P.’s attorneys handle a significant number of transportation cases across Texas, Louisiana, and nationwide. Past and present clients include trucking companies, rail companies, and insurance companies and their commercial insureds.  Some of the attorneys involved in the transportation practice group are members of the Trucking Industry Defense Association (“TIDA”).

The firm boasts an expansive docket of truck accident cases across the State of Texas. Members of the firm have handled hundreds of cases involving commercial trucks, in all aspects of civil litigation, from case assessment through jury verdict and judgment, in low-speed collisions through catastrophic casualties, in state and federal courts.

As national litigation counsel for a large oil and gas trucking company with locations across the U.S., Cotten Schmidt, L.L.P. is called upon following catastrophic accidents to lead the team investigation. Our firm’s counsel additionally manages major claims developing from accidents. In litigation, our attorneys serve as lead counsel in larger cases or, in minor cases, oversee local counsel.

The firm has defended railroad companies for years in lawsuits arising from railroad operations, derailments, crossing accidents, plant site accidents involving non-railroad employees, and environmental claims resulting from gaseous emissions and liquid spills occurring as a result of derailments or railcar structural failure, involving both implosions and explosions. The incidents giving rise to those claims have occurred from as far north as Chicago, Illinois, and southward to New Orleans, Louisiana. Our attorneys have been called out on an emergency basis numerous times to investigate rail-related claims. We have learned to work closely with local enforcement and environmental agencies as we conduct our investigations.

Cotten Schmidt, L.L.P.’s transportation practice demonstrates the benefits of early response and effective liability assessment of transportation accidents, in coordination with experienced and qualified accident investigators and reconstruction experts. When clients contact us quickly enough after a catastrophic accident, our early assessment team can begin the process of collecting evidence and assessing the liability risk while the evidence is still fresh – and before plaintiffs’ lawyers have been hired. In some cases, we have shared the evidence and early assessment to convince plaintiffs’ attorneys not to pursue a lawsuit at all.