Why Houston Trusts Arnold & Itkin
When everything is on the line after a serious crash in Harris County or anywhere in Texas, families turn to Arnold & Itkin because of our results.
At a Glance: Arnold & Itkin’s Track Record
- Total Recovered: Over $25 billion for injury victims nationwide.
- Landmark Verdict: $604 million against freight broker C.H. Robinson (Dallas County jury, July 2026), one of the largest truck accident verdicts in Texas history.
- Fee Structure: 100% contingency. You pay $0 unless we win.
- Elite Status: Members of the Inner Circle of Advocates (Top 100 plaintiff lawyers).
- Top Recognition: Ranked by Forbes and Super Lawyers for personal injury.
Our Truck Accident Verdicts & Settlements
Here is what we’ve won for people hurt by trucking companies, starting with the largest.
$604 Million Landmark Verdict Against Freight Broker After Fatal 18-Wheeler Crash
- What happened: On March 25, 2021, an 18-wheeler operated by a Lupus Superior driver slammed into stopped traffic on Interstate 20 in Warren County, Mississippi, causing a six-vehicle pileup. Jennifer Lipe, Benjamin Brewer, and Rhoderick Coleman were killed, and two other people survived with serious injuries.
- What the evidence showed: For more than a year before the crash, Lupus Superior carried FMCSA safety alerts for unsafe driving and hours-of-service violations. Freight broker C.H. Robinson ignored those warnings and brokered the load to Lupus Superior anyway. On the day of the crash, the driver falsified his logs and told both companies he was too sick to keep driving. C.H. Robinson failed to reschedule the delivery, and the driver kept going until he crashed.
- The verdict: A jury in Dallas County Court at Law No. 4 found the driver, Lupus Superior, and C.H. Robinson all negligent and returned a $604,025,000 verdict for Arnold & Itkin’s clients. The jury found C.H. Robinson directly responsible for 23% of the harm and vicariously liable for the driver’s 45%, making the broker responsible for 68% of the verdict. It is one of the largest truck accident verdicts in Texas history.
- Why it matters: The verdict followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, which held that federal law does not shield freight brokers from claims that they negligently hired dangerous motor carriers.
- Who represented the families: Roland Christensen served as lead trial counsel, along with Caj Boatright, Alec Paradowski, and Jonathan Mack, with co-counsel from Lyons & Simmons. Read the full case description.
More Truck & Commercial Vehicle Results
- We won a $35.5 million settlement for a family injured in a truck accident.
- We won a $33.35 million settlement after a commercial vehicle accident.
- We won a $12.4 million jury verdict for a worker hit by a UPS truck.
Why it matters: These results aren’t outliers. We prepare every truck accident case as if it’s going to trial, and trucking companies and their insurers know it. That’s how our clients get what they’re owed, not what they’re offered.
That record is why founding attorneys Jason Itkin and Kurt Arnold are members of the Inner Circle of Advocates, among the top 100 plaintiff lawyers in the nation, with additional recognition from the National Association of Distinguished Counsel (Top 1%) and Best Lawyers®. Our clients say it best, so watch their video testimonials or read our verified reviews on Google.
Call (888) 493-1629 for a free consultation.
Our Texas truck accident attorneys are ready to help.
Texas Truck Accident Lawyers: Where We Handle Cases
Arnold & Itkin is based in Houston and fights for people hurt in 18-wheeler and big rig crashes across Texas.
Why it matters: A trucking company can hurt you anywhere in the state, and you shouldn’t have to settle for whichever lawyer is closest. Our Texas truck accident lawyers come to you.
- Our offices: We have Texas offices in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Midland, plus offices in Baton Rouge and Albuquerque.
- Where we take cases: We handle truck accident cases in Dallas, Midland and the Permian Basin, San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, San Angelo, Tyler, and the rest of South and West Texas.
- Beyond Texas: We also handle truck accident cases in Louisiana, New Mexico, and nationwide.
What we do: If your crash happened somewhere else in Texas, we can still help. Call (888) 493-1629 and we’ll tell you how we’d handle your case.
Why Houston Truck Accidents Keep Happening
Most Houston truck crashes come down to a choice. A trucking company decided to keep a tired driver on the road, skip a repair, or overload a trailer, and someone else paid for it.
Why it matters: Federal crash data shows large-truck crashes are rising nationally, and Texas leads the country in fatal semi-truck crashes. Harris County is one of the places they happen most.
What we do: We find out which choice caused your crash and which company made it.
At a Glance: Harris County Truck Crash Factors
- High-Risk Zones: I-10 (The Katy Freeway), I-45 North, and Highway 225.
- Common Texas Truck Accident Causes: Oilfield traffic congestion, FMCSA Hours-of-Service violations (such as fatigue), and unsecured cargo.
- Delivery Fleets: Crashes involving UPS, Amazon, and FedEx delivery fleets.
Below are the specific factors that make Houston roads so dangerous.
Traffic Congestion & High-Risk Freight Corridors
Houston’s freight corridors put loaded 18-wheelers in stop-and-go traffic with passenger cars.
Why it matters: A heavy truck needs far more distance to stop than a car does. When traffic stops suddenly and the truck can’t, the result is a devastating rear-end crash.
- The I-10 & I-45 Interchange: This interchange is known for sudden lane changes and speeding.
- Beltway 8: The Beltway carries a high volume of commercial freight at highway speeds.
- Highway 225: The “Refinery Highway” is crowded with tankers and heavy machinery.
What we do: We pull black box data and traffic camera footage to show how fast the truck was going and when the driver braked.
Oilfield & Hazardous Material Transport Risks
Houston is the energy capital of the U.S., and its highways carry a steady flow of tankers and oilfield trucks.
Why it matters: When a tanker or oilfield truck crashes, what it’s carrying and how long its driver has been working can make the wreck far worse.
- Rollovers: A tanker’s liquid load shifts on sharp turns and exit ramps, and that can tip the truck over.
- Chemical Spills: When oil or hazardous chemicals spill in a crash, everyone nearby is in danger until a hazmat crew cleans it up.
- Shift Fatigue: Oilfield drivers often work long hours in the Permian Basin and then drive back to Houston exhausted.
What we do: We investigate every company involved, including the trucking company and the company that loaded the cargo.
Drowsy & Overworked Drivers
Tired truck drivers cause crashes, and trucking companies are often the reason they’re tired. Fatigue is a leading cause of truck accidents.
Why it matters: Federal rules limit how long a trucker can drive. When a company pushes a driver past those limits to make a delivery window, the company can be held liable for the crash.
- A driver who has been awake for 24 hours reacts about as slowly as someone with a 0.10% blood alcohol content.
- Companies that pay by the mile give drivers a reason to skip the rest breaks the law requires.
- A logbook that shows a driver was over hours is evidence we use to prove negligence.
What we do: We compare the driver’s logs against GPS data and fuel receipts to show when the driver should have been off the road.
Lax Maintenance & Brake Failure
A semi-truck is an 80,000-pound machine that needs constant maintenance, and some companies skip it to save money.
Why it matters: Federal rules require trucking companies to inspect and maintain their trucks. When they cut corners, innocent people pay the price.
- Brake Fade: Worn brake pads can’t stop a heavy truck in Houston traffic.
- Tire Blowouts: Retreaded tires can fail in the Texas heat.
- Steering Failure: A steering failure can make a driver lose control at high speed.
What we do: We pull the truck’s maintenance and inspection records to prove it was unsafe before it hit the road.
Reckless Delivery Drivers (UPS, Amazon, FedEx)
Delivery fleets have filled Houston neighborhoods with trucks and vans, and trucking and delivery companies put their drivers under intense pressure to meet quotas.
Why it matters: That pressure leads to speeding and illegal parking, and the crash numbers show it. These are the crashes each carrier reported to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration over 24 months:
- UPS: UPS reported 2,204 crashes, including 52 fatal crashes and 770 injury crashes (24 months ending September 25, 2026).
- FedEx Express: FedEx Express reported 3,209 crashes, including 83 fatal crashes and 1,119 injury crashes (24 months ending October 30, 2026).
- Amazon Logistics: Amazon Logistics reported 344 crashes, including 5 fatal crashes and 116 injury crashes (24 months ending September 25, 2026).
What we do: Amazon often uses third-party Delivery Service Providers (DSPs) to limit its own liability, so we look at every company involved in the delivery.
Overloaded Trucks & Weigh Station Avoidance
An overloaded truck is a danger to everyone near it.
Why it matters: Weight limits exist for a reason, and weigh stations enforce them. Some drivers are told to take back roads to avoid them, which puts dangerous loads on local streets.
- An overloaded truck needs significantly more road to come to a stop.
- An overloaded truck is also more likely to roll over.
What we do: We hold the company that overloaded the trailer responsible, along with the trucking company that put it on the road.
Life-Changing Injuries in Houston Truck Accidents
When an 80,000-pound truck hits a 3,000-pound car, the people in the car often live with their injuries for the rest of their lives.
Why it matters: Victims are often rushed to Level I trauma centers like Memorial Hermann Health System or Ben Taub Hospital, and the emergency room is only the start. Many need years of rehabilitation.
Common Catastrophic Truck Accident Injuries
The “Life Care Plan” Difference
What we do: We work with medical planners to build a Life Care Plan that accounts for future surgeries, prosthetics, in-home nursing adjusted for inflation, and lost earning potential, so your recovery isn’t left to guesswork.
We fight for the compensation you need to rebuild your life, today and for decades to come.
Maximizing Your Compensation: What We Recover
A truck accident claim should pay for what the crash will cost you over your lifetime, and insurers want to pay for today’s bills and nothing more.
Why it matters: These injuries are often permanent. A settlement that only covers this year’s medical bills leaves you paying for the rest yourself.
What we do: We hire financial and medical experts to put a number on every loss, and we fight for all three kinds of damages.
1. Economic Damages (Your Financial Losses)
- Past & Future Medical Care: We recover the cost of the emergency room, future surgeries, physical therapy, and 24/7 nursing care if you need it.
- Loss of Earning Capacity: If you can’t return to your old job, we calculate the income you would have earned over your career.
- Disability Accommodations: We recover the cost of modifying your home and vehicle, such as wheelchair ramps and bathroom retrofits.
- Property Damage: We recover the full replacement value of your vehicle and any property destroyed in the crash.
2. Non-Economic Damages (Your Quality of Life)
- Physical Pain and Suffering: You can recover for the pain you endured in the crash and throughout your recovery.
- Mental Anguish and PTSD: Truck crashes often leave victims with trauma, anxiety, and depression that need treatment.
- Physical Impairment and Disfigurement: You can recover for scarring, burns, or the loss of use of a limb.
- Loss of Consortium: Spouses and families can recover for the loss of companionship and support, often in wrongful death cases.
3. Punitive Damages (Punishing Gross Negligence)
When a trucking company acted with gross negligence or malice, we fight for punitive damages, which Texas law may allow to punish the company and deter it from doing this again. Here are three examples:
- The company knew the driver was disqualified and hired him anyway.
- The company forced the driver to falsify logbooks to drive illegal hours.
- The driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
You need more than a lowball offer that barely covers your medical bills.
We fight for everything you’re owed.
Proving Negligence in a Texas Trucking Accident Claim
Trucking companies and their insurers will do anything to avoid liability, and they start right away.
Why it matters: They send rapid response teams to the crash scene to control the story, and federal rules only require them to keep driver logs for six months before those records can be destroyed.
What we do: We move faster. The moment you hire us, we demand that the evidence be preserved, we collect it, and we bring in experts to reconstruct the crash.
From the Video: The Question That Decides the Case
“The question that you really need to look at for the family involved is, what allowed this to happen? Why was this driver behind the wheel? Why did the brakes not work on this vehicle? What was it the trucking company was doing and why?”
The Spoliation Letter: Stopping the Destruction of Evidence
The first thing we send is a spoliation letter. It’s a legal demand that forces the trucking company to preserve every piece of electronic and physical evidence. If they destroy it after that, the court can sanction them and tell the jury to assume the evidence was bad for the company.
The Evidence We Seize to Build Your Case
- The Black Box (ECM): Every modern truck has one. We download it to prove the truck’s speed, braking, and RPMs at the moment of impact.
- Electronic Logging Devices & Hours-of-Service Logs: We check the driver’s logs against GPS data and fuel receipts to show whether the driver was fatigued and shouldn’t have been on the road.
- Driver Qualification Files: We audit the driver’s employment history for past DUIs, failed drug tests, and reckless driving to show the company was negligent in hiring.
- Maintenance & Inspection Reports: We review the fleet’s maintenance history for skipped safety checks, because worn brakes or bald tires put the blame on the company.
- Dashcam & Surveillance Footage: We pull footage from the truck, nearby businesses, and traffic cameras to show what the driver did before the crash.
Scientific Proof: Accident Reconstruction
We don’t rely on police reports alone. Our accident reconstruction experts analyze the physics of the crash.
- Tire Marks: Skid marks and yaw marks show the truck’s speed and steering angle before impact.
- Debris Fields: The debris field shows the exact point of impact on the road.
- Crush Profiles: The damage to each vehicle shows the force of the collision.
Evidence disappears fast. We move faster. Call (888) 493-1629 to start the investigation.
Call Our Houston 18-Wheeler Accident Attorneys Immediately
After a truck accident, the trucking company’s insurance team moves fast, and it isn’t moving to help you.
Why it matters: Its job is to pay you as little as possible. Without a lawyer from the start, you’re at a serious disadvantage.
The Insurance Tactic: “Delay, Deny, Defend”
Here’s how insurance companies do it:
- They collect the evidence that helps the company and ignore the evidence that hurts it.
- They pressure you to give a recorded statement before you have a lawyer.
- They let key records be destroyed as soon as the retention period ends.
The Risks of Waiting: Why Time Is Critical
Every one of those tactics works better the longer you wait.
- Lost Evidence: Trucking data is digital, and it can be overwritten or lost if no one demands it be preserved.
- The “Lowball” Trap: Insurers offer a quick, small check, and signing it can waive your right to sue for future medical bills.
- Missed Deadlines: Texas gives you two years to file. Miss the deadline and you recover nothing, however serious your injuries are.
What we do: We take over every conversation with the insurer and lock down the evidence, so you can focus on healing.
Fighting for the Best Results. No Matter What.
We’ve taken on the biggest trucking companies, freight brokers, and insurers in the country, and we’ve won.
Why it matters: We win because we prepare every truck accident case as if it’s going to trial. That’s how we’ve recovered more than $25 billion for our clients and led some companies to change their safety policies.
What we do: When someone isn’t being treated fairly after a truck accident in Houston, our Houston truck accident lawyers step in. We don’t accept excuses. We don’t let our clients get bullied. It costs you nothing up front, and you pay nothing unless we win.
Call (888) 493-1629 for a free, confidential consultation. No matter what.
