Transportation Law

Johnson & Bell's Transportation group is comprised of attorneys with years of experience in handling a variety of transportation investigations, arbitrations, and lawsuits. Our experience involves trucking, railroad, intermodal, and other transportation-related claims, disputes, and investigations.

Our attorneys serve on the critical response teams for several trucking and transportation companies and are dispatched within minutes or hours of serious accidents to supervise, coordinate, and assist in investigations. We are involved with the preservation of relevant evidence, the assessment of accident scenes and vehicles involved, and in counseling clients with regard to the multiple legal issues arising at accident scenes. Our attorneys are well-versed in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act, Carmack Amendment issues, and all other aspects of state and federal law.

We have represented clients before various state and federal courts as well as before arbitration panels and administrative agencies. Our clients range from small, single-unit trucking companies to Fortune 500 companies. We serve as national coordinating counsel for trucking and logistics companies and frequently assist our clients in developing major accident investigation protocols.

Representative Cases

Obtained summary judgment in wrongful death action pending in federal court on behalf of trucker and trucking company where plaintiff alleged that defendant improperly merged in front of an oncoming tractor trailer.

Obtained defense verdict in rear-end accident case by establishing that a plaintiff's claims were fraudulent and based on pre-existing conditions unrelated to the incident in question.

Represented commuter railroad in various proceedings before the Indiana and Illinois Supreme Courts and served as lead counsel in class action litigation involving claims of more than 200 passengers injured in the collision of two commuter trains.

Obtained summary judgment in wrongful death case involving a 24-year-old Academic All-American swimmer who pulled out from a stop sign into the path of a loaded refuse vehicle whose driver had admitted to speeding at the time of the accident. We established that the plaintiff decedent's conduct was not only the cause in fact of the accident, but also that her contributory fault was more than 50 percent the cause of the accident, thus barring her claim despite the speed of the defendant driver.

Represent over the road and local trucking companies and logistics companies in numerous catastrophic injury and wrongful death actions pending in state and federal courts.

Obtained summary judgment on behalf of the bus manufacturer in a wrongful death/product liability action involving a six year-old boy run over by a school bus.

Recently obtained favorable defense verdict in case where a truck driver cut in front of a motor cyclist causing alleged severe brain damage by establising at trial that the plaintiff's functional levels were much greater than he claimed.