The size of semi-trucks, dump trucks, and tankers increases both the likelihood of injuries and their severity. More than 75,000 people are injured in truck accidents annually in the U.S.
In the aftermath of a truck accident in Des Moines, you might be in pain and unable to work while facing mounting medical bills and insurance companies that want to minimize your claim.
You don’t have to face these challenges alone. Working with a truck accident lawyer in Des Moines can help you get your life back on track.
Truck accidents involving commercial vehicles often happen on interstate routes and freight corridors that connect multiple cities across the region. While this page focuses on helping victims in Des Moines, our legal team also represents people injured in serious trucking collisions in other cities, including:
If you or a loved one were injured in a trucking collision, our attorneys are ready to help you pursue the compensation you deserve.
Insurance companies don’t play fair. Their goal isn’t to make you whole it’s to protect their bottom line.
We know, because many of our lawyers used to work for them. Now, they use that insider knowledge to win for people like you.
We don’t just talk tough we deliver outcomes.
Our unique approach leads to bigger settlements and verdicts:
We’re one of the rare firms with a full-time physician focused on litigation injury medicine. He and our medical team evaluate your injuries with recovery and litigation in mind giving your case the credibility it needs to win big.
Accident reconstruction is part of our playbook. Our forensic specialists rebuild exactly what happened—proving liability and exposing any attempt by insurers to shift blame.
Our trial record speaks for itself. When insurance companies see our name on a case, they know they’re better off settling for maximum amounts quickly.
No upfront costs. No hourly bills. You only pay if we win.
Your priority now is to heal. Ours is to win your case. We handle everything from the legal process to gathering paperwork and reviewing your medical treatment.
Let us listen to your story. We’ll provide a free, no pressure case evaluation.
Our team handles everything: the legal process, gathering paperwork, reviewing your medical treatment, and more.
We win your case and maximize your compensation or we don’t get paid, guaranteed.
In the first 30 days after signing with us, you have the right to end the agreement with no obligation to pay for any services rendered.
After an accident, it’s important to find all of the parties who may share responsibility for the crash. That’s because Iowa law allows for fault to be split between multiple parties.
If you only pursue compensation from one identified at-fault party, you may be leaving compensation on the table. To prove negligence, you must be able to demonstrate that the person or entity meets the following criteria:
Often, a thorough investigation of a truck accident by a semi-truck accident lawyer in Des Moines identifies multiple responsible parties who meet the threshold of negligence. Liability could potentially be assigned to any of the following:
Every state places its own limitations on how long you can wait after an accident to file a personal injury claim. Iowa uses the standard two years, which is commonplace throughout the US.
You have two years from the date of the accident to file a claim. However, it’s important not to wait until two years have passed. Evidence can disappear with time, and eyewitness memories can fade. The earlier you work with a Des Moines truck accident attorney, the earlier they can get started with collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses, and building a strong case.
If your loved one was killed in the accident, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death claim. In these cases, the claim can be filed up to two years after the death of your loved one. That means that if someone died days, weeks, or even years after a crash, if their death was the result of their injuries, eligible survivors may be able to file a claim against any liable parties.
Often, more than one party bears responsibility for a crash. The driver is the obvious starting point, but liability may also be assigned to the trucking company, a maintenance or repair provider, the business that loaded the cargo, a parts manufacturer, or the broker who arranged the haul. Sorting out who did what takes real investigation, and identifying every responsible party matters because it can open more than one insurance policy to cover your losses.
Commercial trucks are required to follow federal rules that ordinary motor vehicle drivers don’t have to obey. That includes time limits on their driving hours, inspection and maintenance requirements, and driver qualification rules. One of the beneficial things about these rules is that they generate a collection of records that can be subpoenaed as evidence in a personal injury case. Trucking companies also carry much larger policies and may send investigators to the scene right away, so you are facing a well-funded opponent from day one.
Interstate carriers hauling general freight must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage under federal rules, and that minimum rises to $1 million or more for tankers and hazardous loads. That is far above what most personal drivers carry, which is one reason truck claims can be worth considerably more. It also means the insurer has a great deal to protect, and it will defend the claim accordingly.
Iowa gives you two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit under Iowa Code § 614.1(2). Waiting is risky even inside that window, because the electronic and physical evidence a truck case depends on can disappear within weeks. The sooner an attorney sends preservation demands and starts gathering records, the stronger your position becomes.
Iowa follows a modified comparative fault rule under Iowa Code § 668.3. You can still recover if your share of fault is 50 percent or less. However, your award is reduced by your percentage of fault; if you are found more than 50 percent at fault, you recover nothing. Insurers know this rule well and routinely try to shift extra blame onto you, which is exactly why solid evidence of the trucker’s fault carries so much weight.
It is fine to report the crash to your own insurer if your policy requires it, but be careful with the trucking company’s adjuster. They may push for a recorded statement early, and adjusters are trained to use those statements to chip away at your claim down the road. Let an attorney handle that conversation so your words cannot be turned against you while you are still recovering.
A fully loaded semi can weigh more than 20 times than a typical motor vehicle. When that much force meets your car, the injuries can be incredibly serious, if not catastrophic.
Some of these injuries are obvious at the scene. Others, such as a brain injury or internal bleeding, can stay hidden for hours while they quietly grow worse. These are the ones we see most often:
The sooner your injuries are documented, the harder it becomes for an insurer to downplay what you are living through.
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