Transportation and Motor Carrier Defense

24/7/365: A motor vehicle collision can happen at any time for our motor carrier clients.  After receiving the details of the collision, our clients dispatch the Porzio Rapid Response Team to the scene to preserve and collect evidence, interview witnesses and hire accident reconstructionists to recreate how and why the collision occurred.  From there, we use our decades of trial and litigation experience as trucking company counsel to steer our clients through the litigation of the most catastrophic of personal injury matters. This is the core of our practice. 

Accident Investigation 

Within hours of that first phone call, a member of the Rapid Response Team of arrives at the scene.  Our first goal: protect the interests of the client and driver.  We then: 

• interact with responding law enforcement agencies and witnesses
• coordinate our investigation with the trucking company, insurance claims personnel, investigators and third-party administrators
• hire accident reconstruction and biomechanical experts 

All with our second and third goals in mind: to determine how and why the collision occurred. 

Armed with this information, our trucking attorneys then put the pieces of the puzzle together to assess the client’s potential liability and damage exposure. 

Defense Strategy 

The next step—devise the defense strategy.  We take a team approach.  Innovative thinkers who draw from other groups in our firm, we problem solve to achieve cost-effective solutions.  We collaborate with trucking company executives, drivers, claims personnel, third-party administrators, insurers, and retained experts.  We evaluate, consider, and push for early resolution in appropriate cases before committing to litigation.  If suit is filed, we have the years of experience to defend our clients against various claims. 

Litigation Defense 

We have been representing insured and self-insured trucking companies in New Jersey and New York for over two decades, handling claims involving:

• Negligent driver operation:
  • Violations of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Hours of Service Regulations
  • Driver fatigue
  • Driver cell phone and texting use
  • Driver perception
  • Alcohol and drug use 

• Negligent hiring, training, and supervision 

• Negligent truck maintenance 

• Roadway design and configuration 

• Criminal prosecutions of driver and coordination with civil action 

• Data preservation of Black Box recordings and electronic communications 

• Insurance coverage issues and applicability of deductibles and self-insured limits. 

Who we are 

Geographically, we cover all of New Jersey, the five boroughs of New York City, Long Island, and counties north and west of the City—Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Duchess, Ulster, and Sullivan counties. 

The Group's Co-Chairs, Roy Cohen and Eric Probst, are both past chairs of the ABA TIPS Commercial Transportation Litigation Committee.  Mr. Cohen has been the Co-Program Chair of the nationally acclaimed ABA TIPS Transportation Megaconference programs held in New Orleans since its inception in 1993, and Mr. Probst has been a member of the planning group for almost 10 years.  Our lawyers are also long-time members of the Trucking Industry Defense Association and the DRI Trucking Law Committee and publish and speak frequently on issues that affect the trucking industry.