Phoenix Truck Accident Lawyer
Serving Phoenix from our Tempe office — 222 S Mill Ave Ste 800, Tempe, AZ 85281
Phoenix truck accident lawyer serving commercial crashes from our Tempe office. Insurance layers, ECM/ELD preservation, Arizona comparative fault. Free consult. Call (725) 485-3301.
No attorney fee unless we recover money for you. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Attorney advertising. This information is not legal advice. No attorney fee unless we recover money for you; clients may be responsible for costs and opposing parties' fees as required by law. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Phoenix Truck Accident Lawyer
In short: A Phoenix truck crash is a commercial claim — stacked insurance, more than one defendant, and electronic logs that can be overwritten long before Arizona’s two-year filing clock runs. Serving Phoenix from our Tempe office — 222 S Mill Ave Ste 800, Tempe, AZ 85281. Call (725) 485-3301 or request a callback. There is no attorney fee unless we recover money for you.
Serving Phoenix from our Tempe office
The Ruiz Law Firm does not have a Phoenix office and does not list a Phoenix Google Business Profile. Commercial-truck injury consultations for Phoenix crashes are handled from Tempe:
222 S Mill Ave Ste 800, Tempe, AZ 85281
Attorney Lawrence Ruiz is admitted in Arizona. Confirm current status in the State Bar of Arizona member directory. This page does not publish an Arizona bar number. The public intake line is (725) 485-3301. Tempe office hours are not listed here. Tempe Google Business Profile verification is pending, so this page does not claim a live Maps pack or review count. There is no Arizona-only 480 line on file.
Arizona pages stay on this Arizona hub. Call or use the callback form only — this site does not invite text-message intake.
Commercial insurance layers and multi-defendant carriers
A collision with a tractor-trailer, box truck, dump truck, or other commercial vehicle is not a larger version of a two-car wreck. A passenger-auto claim usually runs against one driver and one policy. A Phoenix truck file often does not. The driver may have made the last mistake, while the motor carrier, a broker or shipper, a cargo loader, a maintenance contractor, or a parts maker still belongs in the case. Each can sit behind a different insurance layer. Identifying those layers is the work; it is not a promise that every layer will pay.
Carrier investigators move quickly. Arizona’s fault statute, quoted below, treats “the car cut off the truck” arguments as jury questions — which is why the company’s records have to be preserved before that narrative hardens.
Preserve ECM, ELD, and driver logs quickly
Interstate and many intrastate carriers are also subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Hours of service, driver qualification, vehicle inspection, and related carrier duties live in 49 C.F.R. Parts 390–396. This page does not quote a CFR section we have not opened here.
Ask the carrier early to keep the ECM (“black box”) download, the ELD file, dispatch messages, the driver-qualification file, maintenance records, dashcam video, cargo documents, and any post-crash drug or alcohol tests. Those files can overwrite long before a Maricopa County complaint is filed. A preservation letter puts the request in the company’s file.
Phoenix crash numbers — and what ADOT does not break out for trucks
ADOT’s 2024 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts (Phoenix Streets host of the 2024 PDF) report 37,472 crashes in Phoenix, 265 fatal crashes, 278 people killed, and 15,057 injured. Maricopa County as a whole had 88,094 crashes and 594 people killed.
Those jurisdiction-table columns are totals, fatal and injury crashes, PDO, persons killed and injured, and alcohol-related figures. There is no Phoenix “truck crash” column. This page does not invent a CMV city count.
The same summary splits 2024 fatalities by road system: 453 killed on the state highway system and 775 killed on local roads. I-10, I-17, and Loop 202 are ADOT freeways in that state highway system. That is not a truck-fatality total for a named interchange.
Freight-adjacent High Injury Network streets
City of Phoenix High Injury Network layers (KSI 2018–2022) flag west-side arterials that also carry freight: 67th Avenue at Thomas, Indian School, and McDowell; 51st Avenue from Roosevelt to McDowell; 43rd Avenue corridors; Buckeye Road & 75th Avenue; Van Buren; and I-10-adjacent McDowell Road from 24th to 28th Street (HIN signalized layer, HIN segments). Those are city KSI flags, not a 2024 truck-crash count at any one of them.
Arizona’s two-year clock — A.R.S. § 12-542
A.R.S. § 12-542 is the two-year limitations statute for injury to the person (and for injury when death ensues):
Except as provided in section 12-551 there shall be commenced and prosecuted within two years after the cause of action accrues, and not afterward, the following actions:
For injuries done to the person of another including causes of action for medical malpractice as defined in section 12-561.
For injuries done to the person of another when death ensues from such injuries, which action shall be considered as accruing at the death of the party injured.
If a truck crash kills, A.R.S. § 12-611 and A.R.S. § 12-612 say who may sue. That belongs on our Phoenix wrongful death lawyer page. The truck-page point is narrower: when death ensues, § 12-542(2) starts the two-year clock at death, not at the crash. ECM and ELD files do not wait two years.
Pure comparative fault — A.R.S. § 12-2505
Arizona does not use a 51% bar. A.R.S. § 12-2505 makes contributory negligence and assumption of risk jury questions and reduces damages instead of closing the courthouse door:
A. The defense of contributory negligence or of assumption of risk is in all cases a question of fact and shall at all times be left to the jury. If the jury applies either defense, the claimant's action is not barred, but the full damages shall be reduced in proportion to the relative degree of the claimant's fault which is a proximate cause of the injury or death, if any. There is no right to comparative negligence in favor of any claimant who has intentionally, wilfully or wantonly caused or contributed to the injury or wrongful death.
A claimant who intentionally, wilfully, or wantonly caused the harm does not get that comparative-negligence path. Ordinary blind-spot arguments remain jury questions. They are not a reason to skip the carrier’s logs.
Public-entity clocks if a government vehicle or roadway is in the case
If a city, county, state, or public employee may be involved, Arizona adds notice and suit deadlines that are shorter than § 12-542. A.R.S. § 12-821.01 requires a notice of claim within 180 days after accrual and a specific settlement amount. A.R.S. § 12-821 requires the action against a public entity or public employee within one year. Those statutes are a caution, not a diagnosis that your crash is a government claim.
Where a Phoenix truck case is filed
Civil injury suits of $10,000 or more (excluding interest, costs, and attorney fees) go to Maricopa County Superior Court, not Justice Court. Hearings are at the downtown Phoenix campus even when a form is dropped at another counter. The Central Court Building is 201 W Jefferson St, Phoenix, AZ 85003. That is the courthouse, not a Ruiz office.
The civil cover sheet (packet CVC1) codes motor-vehicle tort as type 101 (non-death / personal injury) or 103 (wrongful death). Attorneys must e-file civil cases (clerk civil and tax filing). The court’s lawsuit guide is the public overview.
Phoenix Level I trauma hospitals
Serious truck-crash injuries are often treated at an AZDHS designated Level I trauma center. The AZDHS list includes, in Phoenix:
- Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, 1111 E McDowell Rd
- St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center, 350 W Thomas Rd
- Valleywise Health Medical Center, 2601 E Roosevelt St
- HonorHealth John C. Lincoln, 250 E Dunlap Ave
Naming a hospital is geography, not a Ruiz affiliation.
After a Phoenix truck crash
Photograph the cab company name, the USDOT or MC number if it is on the door, the trailer number, the scene, and visible injuries. Save the police report number. Get medical care. Do not give a recorded statement to the carrier’s insurer before you speak with a lawyer. Call (725) 485-3301 or use the callback form. We do not quote Arizona verdicts or review counts on this page.
If you also need the Nevada truck page for a Clark County crash, use the Las Vegas truck accident lawyer page. Nevada comparative-fault law does not govern a Phoenix crash; Arizona’s pure comparative statute does. Start with the Arizona hub for the Tempe office and the other Arizona injury pages.
To talk with a Phoenix truck accident lawyer serving from Tempe, call (725) 485-3301 or request a callback. Consultations are free. There is no attorney fee unless we recover money for you.
Arizona office
Serving Phoenix from our Tempe office
222 S Mill Ave Ste 800Tempe, AZ 85281
There is no Phoenix office. Call (725) 485-3301 or use the callback form. Tempe hours are not published on this page.
Arizona truck accident FAQs
Arizona generally requires personal-injury actions to be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrues (A.R.S. § 12-542). If death ensues from the injuries, that two-year clock is treated as accruing at the death of the injured person. Shorter notice and suit deadlines can apply if a public entity or public employee is involved. Truck electronic logs can disappear sooner than those lawsuit clocks.
Arizona follows pure comparative negligence (A.R.S. § 12-2505). Contributory negligence and assumption of risk are questions of fact for the jury. If the jury applies either defense, the claim is not barred; damages are reduced in proportion to the claimant's fault that was a proximate cause of the injury. There is no comparative-negligence right for a claimant who intentionally, wilfully, or wantonly caused or contributed to the injury or death.
Interstate and many intrastate carriers are subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations in 49 C.F.R. Parts 390–396. Engine control-module downloads, electronic logging-device files, and driver logs often sit on overwrite cycles. A preservation request should go out while those files still exist. This page does not quote a CFR section we have not opened here.
No. Phoenix truck accident claims are handled from the Tempe office at 222 S Mill Ave Ste 800, Tempe, AZ 85281. There is no Phoenix street address for the firm. Call (725) 485-3301 or request a callback. Tempe office hours are not published on this page.
Civil injury cases of $10,000 or more are heard in Maricopa County Superior Court, not Justice Court. Hearings are at the downtown Phoenix complex, 201 W Jefferson St, even when paperwork is dropped at another counter. Cover type 101 is the non-death personal-injury motor-vehicle category on the civil cover sheet; type 103 is wrongful death. Attorneys must e-file civil cases.
Claims against a public entity or public employee can require a notice of claim within 180 days after accrual (A.R.S. § 12-821.01) and a lawsuit within one year (A.R.S. § 12-821). That is a caution for government vehicles or roadway-design issues — not a diagnosis that your crash is a government claim.
A Phoenix truck file may involve the driver, the motor carrier, a freight broker or shipper, a cargo loader, a maintenance contractor, or a parts maker. Each may sit behind a different insurance layer. Identifying those layers is the work; it is not a promise that every layer will pay.
Call 911 so there is a police report. Get medical care. Photograph the cab company name, USDOT or MC number if visible, trailer number, scene, and injuries. Do not give a recorded statement to the carrier's insurer before talking with a lawyer. Call (725) 485-3301.
Call (725) 485-3301 — no pressure for the first 10 minutes.
Free consultation. No hourly fees. No upfront attorney fee. No attorney fee unless we recover money for you.
- 10-minute triage call with a real attorney
- Custom document inventory
- Treatment-resource discussion when appropriate
- Adjuster-contact guidance
