Monthly Archives: abril 2011

When a commercial truck accident occurs, if an employment relationship is established between the truck driver and a trucking or shipping company, then that company can be held liable for the driver’s negligence under a legal theory known as “respondeat superior.” Under this doctrine, a trucking company or other employer can be held liable for the wrongful acts of its drivers. Trucking companies may try to fight liability under this theory by arguing that the wrongful act did not occur while within the scope of employment. Motor carriers also try to limit their liability by hiring drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.

In some cases, the manufacturer of the truck may also be held liable if the accident was caused by some defect in the truck.

A shipper of hazardous materials carried by the truck may also be legally responsible for any injuries that were caused or made worse by the type of cargo on board. For example, if a shipper fails to advise a truck driver or trucking company of hazardous material contained in a load of freight, the shipper may be liable for injuries that result if that material catches fire or is released.

If a third party logistics company, which is a company that specializes in brokering transportation services but is not a motor carrier, is involved, it may be difficult to recover from that company. It has generally been held that the respondeat superior doctrine cannot be used against logistics companies because they generally engage in independent contractor relationships with motor carriers so they are exempt from liability. In addition, section 14704 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration often limits the liability of third party logistics companies in personal injury cases.

Legal help is only moments away when you need a personal injury lawyer at your side. We are standing by 24 hours a day. Click here to contact us online. Fill out our online case description or call us at 800-529-8008 to arrange a no-cost, no-obligation consultation.

Bailey & Galyen is investigating the claim that Samsung Electronics has been unlawfully including spyware on laptop computers that it sells. New Samsung laptop computers have been reported to come with Starlogger software that monitors keystrokes and captures screen shots at predetermined intervals. Both the keystrokes and screen shots can be secretly emailed to designated addresses, which could allow Samsung to spy on its own customers.

One report states that you can determine whether you have Starlogger on your Samsung computer by looking for its Registry key, which is used to load it when Windows is started. To see if this has occurred, open a command prompt and type Run Regedit. Then go to the Menu bar, select Edit then Find. You want to search for winsl, without the quotes. If it’s installed you should see a Registry key that looks like this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEsoftwaremicrosoftwindowscurrentversionrunwinsl

If you would like to discuss your rights and interests, or have information relating to this investigation, please contact us at Bailey & Galyen’s Houston office at (281) 335-7744.