Attorneys Steve Gursten and Michael Leizerman settle $34 million truck accident case
On Thursday, Steve Gursten and Michael Leizerman of the Truck Attorneys Roundtable settled a serious truck accident case in Ohio for $34 million after the first day of trial.
Unfortunately, due to a confidentiality agreement, we cannot discuss the specifics of the case, injuries, liability issues, parties or insurance companies.
As of this writing, this is the largest-reported settlement in 2014 for a truck accident in the United States, according to the national VerdictSearch reporter.
But it’s not the settlement amount that matters. What matters is the effect that settlements like this will have on the trucking industry, and the insurance companies that insure motor carriers. Hopefully, a settlement like this gets the attention of every commercial motor carrier and insurance company in the country, and people will begin to realize that endangering the public is not something that can be compromised.
This goes to a larger theme of this trucking industry legal blog, and it was the major reason we created the Truck Accident Attorneys Roundtable law firm. Our mission is to change the trucking industry and aggressively litigate cases against trucking companies that intentionally put profits ahead of safety.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Roundtable, it’s a cutting-edge national law firm that actually aims to prevent truck accidents. Based on a new and innovative business model, the firm is comprised of some of the most experienced and respected trucking attorneys from different states and focuses on catastrophic truck injury accidents.
Any large verdict or settlement hopefully forces the entire industry to re-evaluate safety, and understand there’s a price when they put unsafe trucks and unfit drivers on the roads.
And hopefully, it makes the insurance companies that underwrite these commercial transportation companies re-evaluate the companies they insure – and let the market provide its own additional incentives to force these companies to be more safe.
Finally, and most importantly, it levels the playing field. It makes unsafe companies pay more, and the good companies that play by the rules are not undercut on price by the companies that do not.
