A fully loaded commercial truck can weigh 80,000 pounds. When one of those trucks collides with a passenger vehicle, the outcome is almost never minor. The injuries are catastrophic. The deaths are too common. And the companies behind these trucks have legal teams, insurance adjusters, and evidence-preservation protocols in place before the wreckage is even cleared.
McDonald & Cody has handled commercial trucking cases across Georgia for decades. Gerald Cody has focused on this area throughout his career. The firm knows how to investigate these cases, how to fight the corporate defendants behind them, and how to take them all the way to verdict when the number offered is not the number the case is worth.
A trucking case is not a car accident case with a bigger vehicle. It is a fundamentally different type of litigation.
Commercial trucks are governed by a separate body of federal law. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations set strict requirements for driver hours, vehicle maintenance, cargo loading, licensing, and drug and alcohol testing. When those regulations are violated, that violation is evidence of negligence. Knowing which regulations apply and how to prove a violation requires specialized knowledge that most personal injury firms do not have.
The defendants are different too. In a car accident case, the defendant is typically a private individual. In a trucking case, the defendant is often a trucking company, a freight broker, a cargo loading company, a vehicle manufacturer, or some combination of all four. Each has its own legal team and its own insurance coverage. McDonald & Cody investigates the entire chain and pursues every available defendant.
Georgia’s direct action rule allows plaintiffs to sue the trucking company’s insurer directly, in addition to the company and the driver. This matters because it puts the full weight of that insurance policy in play from the start of litigation.
One of the most important things McDonald & Cody does in a trucking case is identify every party that bears responsibility. Settling for one defendant when three or four are liable leaves money on the table that the victim was owed.
The truck driver bears personal liability for negligent operation. The trucking company bears liability for the driver’s conduct under the legal doctrine of respondeat superior, and bears independent liability for negligent hiring, training, supervision, and vehicle maintenance. The freight broker who arranged the shipment may bear liability if they retained an unqualified carrier. The cargo loading company may bear liability if improper loading contributed to the crash. The vehicle or parts manufacturer may bear liability if a defect caused or contributed to the collision.
McDonald & Cody investigates all of these. They do not stop at the most obvious defendant. Every viable theory of liability is pursued until the full picture of responsibility is established.
Trucking companies have seen every move a plaintiff’s lawyer can make. They know which firms will accept a settlement before the full scope of liability is established. They know which firms do not have the resources to litigate through expert witnesses, depositions of corporate safety officers, and federal regulatory hearings.
McDonald & Cody is not one of those firms. They have the resources, the regulatory knowledge, and the trial experience to take a trucking case all the way to verdict against a national carrier. They pursue every defendant in the liability chain. They do not settle cheap because litigation is expensive. They settle when the number reflects the full value of the case, and they go to trial when it does not.
$33 Million
non-confidential settlement
$17.2 Million
VERDICT (2025)
$14.5 Million
Confidential Settlement
$13.1 Million
Confidential Settlement
We review every inquiry at no charge. If we can help, we will tell you. If we cannot, we will say so.
You pay nothing unless we win. We pay every litigation expense except medical bills.
North Office: 383 U.S. Hwy 441 Business, Cornelia, GA 30531 | 706-778-5291
South Office: 4005 Hwy 365 South, Alto, GA 30510 | 706-778-7178
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