Williamson County, TX · Free Consultation
Georgetown Truck Accident Lawyer
What Our Clients Say
Written and reviewed by Shane M. Boasberg, founder of SMB Law, PC · Licensed in Texas since 2003 · Updated September 2026
A truck case is not a car case with a bigger vehicle. It is a case against a company, its insurer, and a set of federal records that start disappearing the week of the crash. A Georgetown truck accident lawyer earns his fee in the first two weeks, before those records are gone. Shane M. Boasberg has been licensed in Texas since 2003 and handles these files himself.
Truck wrecks around Georgetown often turn on data most people never think about, and that data does not last long. Getting a lawyer involved early is often what makes the difference.
Where a Georgetown truck accident claim is filed
Georgetown is the Williamson County seat, so a lawsuit stays in town at the Williamson County Justice Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Street. If your case ever needs a hearing, it is a short drive rather than a day lost.
Most truck claims resolve with the carrier’s insurer once the facts are nailed down. Venue still shapes the number, because a national carrier’s defense counsel is pricing what a Williamson County jury would do with a fatigue or maintenance violation in front of them.
The records that decide a truck case, and how fast they vanish
Every commercial truck on I-35 is generating evidence while it drives. The engine control module logs speed, throttle, and hard braking in the seconds before impact. The electronic logging device records the driver’s hours. The carrier keeps driver qualification files, inspection reports, and maintenance history.
All of it has a shelf life. A carrier is required to retain records of duty status for only six months under 49 C.F.R. § 395.8, and driver vehicle inspection reports for three months under § 396.11. Engine module data is routinely overwritten or lost when the tractor goes back into service. Nothing about that is sinister on its own. It is simply what happens if no one sends a letter.
So we send one. A spoliation letter goes out early, naming the specific records the carrier must preserve and putting it on notice that destroying them will be an issue at trial.
Where truck cases are won: the federal safety rules
Interstate carriers operate under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, and Texas adopts those standards for intrastate carriers as well through Tex. Transp. Code § 644.051. A documented violation is powerful evidence of negligence. The provisions that come up most often:
- 49 C.F.R. § 395.3 — driving limits. Eleven hours of driving after ten consecutive hours off, a fourteen-hour on-duty window, and a sixty or seventy hour weekly cap. Fatigue cases live here.
- 49 C.F.R. § 395.8 — records of duty status. What the logs must show, and what a falsified log looks like when it is put beside fuel receipts and toll records.
- 49 C.F.R. § 391.11 — driver qualification. Whether this driver should have been behind the wheel of that truck at all.
- 49 C.F.R. § 396.11 — inspection reports. Whether a defect was reported and whether anyone fixed it.
Who is actually on the hook
People assume a truck case is a case against the driver. Often the driver is the least significant defendant. Liability can reach the motor carrier, the company that owns the trailer, the freight broker that arranged the load, the shipper that loaded it if the cargo shifted, and the maintenance contractor that signed off on the brakes.
That matters for one practical reason: coverage. A minimum-limits personal auto policy is $30,000. A federally regulated interstate carrier hauling general freight is required to carry $750,000 in liability coverage, and most carry considerably more. Finding every responsible party is often the difference between a claim that covers your medical bills and one that does not.
The deadline and the fault rule
You have two years from the crash to file suit. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. Texas also applies proportionate responsibility: § 33.001 bars recovery entirely above 50% fault, and § 33.012 reduces the award by your share below it. Expect a trucking defense team to work hard on that percentage, because in their world it is the cheapest lever available.
Confirm your own deadline with our Texas injury statute of limitations calculator.
Get a range before the carrier’s insurer gives you one
Our settlement calculator works through medical bills, lost wages, and injury severity and returns a working estimate in about two minutes.
Try the Settlement CalculatorThe Georgetown truck wreck we see most often
A Tuesday evening on I-35 south of the Williams Drive exit. Traffic stacks up the way it always does when Georgetown lets out. Somebody ahead taps the brakes. Forty tons does not stop on a dime, and a normal commute becomes the worst day of a family’s life.
Georgetown is not a sleepy town anymore. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and growth arrives on trucks. Cement mixers and aggregate haulers run SH-195 and Ronald Reagan Boulevard out to the new subdivisions. Freight moving between Austin and Dallas grinds through the I-35 bottleneck downtown. Box trucks crowd University Avenue and the Square. Put that much steel on roads built for a smaller city and a collision is not a fender bender. It is broken bones, months away from work, and bills that arrive before you leave the hospital.
The first hours matter more than most people know. A carrier’s rapid-response team can reach the scene before the wrecker does, and their job is to start building the company’s defense. So we tell every Georgetown client the same three things: say little to the insurer, keep every medical appointment, and let a Williamson County truck accident attorney start running down the logs, the footage, and the maintenance records while they still exist.
You do not have to live inside the city limits for us to help. We work these cases along the whole I-35 corridor, so a wreck a few exits south toward SH-130 goes to our Pflugerville truck accident lawyer practice, and the approach we take against national carriers is the same one described on our Austin truck accident lawyer page.
Working with us from Georgetown
Our downtown Austin office is about 30 miles south of Georgetown, a 35-to-40-minute drive on I-35. We come to you when it helps and otherwise work by phone and video so you can focus on recovering.
At SMB Law, PC you work with Shane M. Boasberg directly. He has been licensed in Texas since 2003 and has spent those years opposite insurers and the defense firms carriers keep on retainer. You get his read on the case in plain English, not a version relayed through staff.
Why clients choose SMB Law, PC
- Direct attorney access — you talk to Shane, not a call center or a rotating case manager.
- No fee unless we recover — truck cases run on a contingency fee, so nothing comes out of pocket to start.
- Straight answers — if the fight will cost more than it returns, we say so in the first meeting.
- Fees in writing — explained before you sign anything.
What working with us looks like
- Confidential consultation to understand your goals and the law that applies.
- Strategy and records tailored to your situation.
- Negotiation or court — we settle when we can and litigate when we must.
- Resolution implemented correctly so you can move on.
18-wheelers and the Georgetown corridor
The pattern is documented: an 18-wheeler struck the I-35 overpass and closed the southbound lanes; a six-vehicle collision involving an 18-wheeler sent three people to hospitals. Freight running Austin–Dallas passes through Georgetown every hour of every day, and when it goes wrong, liability runs past the driver — to the carrier, the freight broker, and sometimes the party that loaded the trailer.
Our preservation demands go out immediately: hours-of-service logs, electronic control module data, and maintenance records are all held by the carrier, and all fade fast.
Injuries in Georgetown often overlap with other collisions; we also represent people hurt in car crash injuries, motorcycle accident injuries, and losing a loved one in a crash, backed by our Austin truck accident practice.
Frequently asked questions
What does the truck’s black box actually show?
The engine control module records speed, throttle position, brake application, and often the seconds of data on either side of a hard stop. Put that next to the driver’s hours from the electronic logging device and the carrier’s maintenance history, and you can usually reconstruct not just what happened but why. Fatigue and deferred repairs leave fingerprints in that data.
The carrier’s adjuster called me the next day and seemed helpful. Is that normal?
It is standard practice, and the speed is the point. That adjuster is working for the company whose truck hit you, often before you have seen a specialist or know the extent of your injuries. Anything you say becomes part of their file. Your own insurer is different: your policy requires prompt notice to them.
What does a Georgetown truck accident lawyer cost?
Nothing up front. These cases run on a contingency fee, so the fee comes out of the recovery and there is no fee if there is no recovery. Truck cases carry higher expenses than car cases, because they often require accident reconstruction and records work, and how those expenses are handled goes in writing before you sign.
Do I have to travel to Austin from Georgetown?
No. Our office is about thirty miles south on I-35, and we handle Georgetown consultations and case updates by phone and video whenever that is easier for you.
How long does a truck accident case take?
Longer than a car case, generally. There are more parties, more records, and usually experts on both sides, so a serious truck claim often runs a year or more. That is not wasted time: the case cannot be valued honestly until your doctors can describe the long-term picture, and the records work is what puts pressure on the carrier.
A truck crash puts you against a company that has done this before, with an insurer, a defense firm, and a rapid-response team already in motion while you are still in a hospital gown. The evidence that proves your side is on a clock measured in weeks. Call SMB Law, PC at (512) 561-5003 for a free and confidential consultation, and we will tell you honestly whether you need a lawyer at all.