Why Spoliation Letters Are Crucial When Investigating Truck Accident Cases

The moment a new client comes to our law firm, our investigation of their crash begins. The same day that a new case is signed up, we send what are known as “spoliation letters” to all parties involved in the crash.

A spoliation letter advises the at-fault drivers and trucking companies that the accident may result in litigation. It also advises them to keep all documents that may be related to the truck accident or the hiring, training, and supervision of the at-fault truck driver.

Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, trucking companies must retain certain documents for a specific period of time following a crash. A spoliation letter, in theory, prevents parties from destroying or discarding critical pieces of evidence.

If a party destroys evidence after receiving a spoliation letter, there can be huge sanctions imposed on them.

Spoliation letters hold trucking companies responsible when they destroy evidence

Obviously, we send a spoliation letter to ensure access to all of the evidence we need to prove our client’s case. However, spoliation letters are also used against bad actors that destroy evidence.

A few years back, we had a trucking case in which our client suffered catastrophic injuries. Our formerly independent client spent more than two years after the crash confined to hospitals and nursing homes.

As always, we sent our spoliation letter to the trucking company and its insurance company. The company president admitted that he had received our letter and understood that it meant he had to preserve evidence.

Despite this, he claimed that he no longer had several of the documents we requested, including driver training manuals and data from the on-board GPS transponder.

That was not all, however. At the company president’s deposition, he testified that every call into their office was recorded. He also testified that there were phone calls between the office and the driver both before and after the crash.

Those recordings were never produced in discovery. In fact, the president testified that he “accidentally” deleted all of the recordings shortly before his deposition – more than a year after the crash. He claimed that he didn’t realize the “purge system” button would delete all of the recordings.

Making matters more suspicious, the trucking company deleted all of these recorded phone calls days after our client testified that her brain injury left her with no memory of how the crash happened.

Filing sanctions when the other party destroys evidence

Unfortunately, the deleted phone call recordings were not recoverable. Instead, we had to file a motion for sanctions for violating the trucking company’s duty to preserve those documents (among other discovery violations).

Over a period of months, both parties drafted briefs on the spoliation sanctions. The judge never had an opportunity to rule on that motion.

The pressure of the severe sanctions that likely would have been imposed apparently made the insurance company nervous. They offered the full policy limits days before a ruling on the motion was set to be issued.

Injured in a truck accident? Our Chicago lawyers can help.

Trucking companies and their insurance companies begin their investigation within minutes of a crash – often before an injured victim emerges from surgery. Within days, they know what evidence is the most important to their case and they are doing everything they can to get it.

For those reasons, it is essential that you talk to an attorney that can level the investigation playing field. Spoliation letters are one tool that can help level that field.

If you or someone you know is seriously injured in a truck accident, contact our experienced Chicago lawyers today for a free consultation. Call us 24/7 at (312) 578-9501 or fill out the form at the bottom of the page to get started.