Spoliation Letters
Why They’re Critical After a Truck Accident

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Spoliation Letters After a Truck Accident Critical for Preserving Evidence to Prove Negligence

Spoliation letters are one of the most powerful legal tools to preserve critical evidence after a serious truck accident. If trucking companies erase black box data, dash cam footage, or driver logs, they may face legal sanctions — and it could change the outcome of your case. These letters stop evidence from being destroyed, sold, or “lost” before it can be analyzed by your legal team and independent experts.

Attorney David P. Willis is a Board-Certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyer (Texas Board of Legal Specialization, since 1988) with over 40 years of experience representing truck accident victims nationwide. A former attorney for the Supreme Court of Texas, he leads a national legal team that acts immediately to preserve evidence, secure temporary court orders when needed, and build powerful cases against negligent trucking companies, brokers, and shippers from day one.

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What Is a Spoliation Letter?

A spoliation letter (or preservation letter) is a formal legal notice that demands a party preserve all relevant evidence for an anticipated claim. In truck accident cases, this includes physical components and electronic data that may prove liability.

Once a company or party knows a lawsuit is possible, they are legally required to keep that evidence. If they destroy it? We may seek sanctions, fines, or jury instructions that the missing evidence would have supported your case. (Click Here to Read a Sample Spoilation Letter for a Truck Accident)

What Kind of Evidence Needs to Be Preserved?

Truck accident cases often hinge on a few critical pieces of evidence — and once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. Spoliation letters force trucking companies and related parties to protect this time-sensitive material before it can be altered, deleted, or destroyed. Without this evidence, proving negligence, mechanical failure, or FMCSA violations becomes dramatically harder. A spoliation letter demands that the trucking company — and anyone else with relevant proof — preserve things like:

Event Data Recorder (Black Box): Shows speed, braking, throttle, and impact forces seconds before the wreck.
Dash Cam Footage: Shows what the driver saw and did.
Truck Maintenance & Inspection Records: Uncovers hidden brake failures or tire defects.
Driver Logs & ELD Data: Proves hours of service HOS violations.
Drug & Alcohol Test Results: Required by federal law after a major crash.
Cell Phone Records: Exposes distracted driving.
Physical Evidence: Blown tire pieces, cargo securement devices, or wreck debris.

Without this evidence, proving negligence can be much more difficult in many cases — and the trucking companies and their insurance companies know it

Why Our Law Firm Sends Spoliation Letters Immediately

We don’t wait. We send a spoliation letter within hours of being hired — before evidence disappears or gets “accidentally” discarded. Trucking companies and their insurers often have legal teams, investigators, and salvage operations mobilized the same day a crash happens. If we don’t act fast, crucial proof like black box data, dash-cam footage, or damaged vehicle components may be erased, lost, or sold off before your case even begins. Our rapid response locks that evidence down.

Who Else May Need to be Sent a Spoliation Letter?

Truck wreck evidence doesn’t just stay with the trucking company. Many people touch it before the evidence ever is seen by your own investigators or engineers:

Wrecker & Tow Yards:

Wrecked trucks and trailers often sit in private tow lots. We send preservation letters to the tow yard and the salvage lot to stop them from scrapping or parting out the truck before our experts inspect it.

Salvage Companies:

Insurers love to sell a total-loss truck quickly to salvage buyers. Once dismantled, key parts like blown tires or bent axles vanish forever. We put every salvage company on notice: do not destroy, alter, or sell any component without our permission.

Tires, Tread Pieces & Cargo Securement:

In blowout or load shift crashes, stray tire chunks, broken straps, or damaged load bars may be stored by police, cleanup crews, or storage yards. We notify anyone who has custody to preserve every piece.

Law Enforcement & Third-Party Investigators:

Police crash reports, photos, dash cam or body cam videos, and physical debris may be held by local, state, or federal investigators. We send formal evidence preservation letters to these agencies too.

Shippers, Brokers & Warehouses:

If improper loading or poor securement is an issue, dock records, security footage, and bills of lading must be protected. We make sure every link in the chain of custody gets the message.

What Happens If the Trucking Company or Others Ignore the Preservation Letter?

If a party ignores the letter and evidence is destroyed anyway, we go to court for emergency protection. Ignoring a properly served spoliation letter is a serious legal violation. When a trucking company or third party intentionally discards, alters, or erases key evidence after being put on notice, we can ask the court for immediate sanctions, contempt of court — including fines, adverse jury instructions, or even a default judgment in your favor. Judges take spoliation seriously because it undermines the fairness of the legal process. We don’t just send letters — we follow through. Our team is prepared to file motions, seek temporary restraining orders (TRO) and request hearings to protect your rights and the integrity of your case from day one.

Temporary Restraining Orders (TRO)

A TRO can:

Prevent the truck or trailer, tires, brakes, headlights, reflectors and rear tail light from being altered, repaired or destroyed.
Freeze black box and ELD data, keeping the data intact
Prohibit repairs or destructive testing
Save driver logs, cell phone records, and other documents
Force preservation of all other logs, maintenance records, cargo straps, brake components, and debris

Violating a TRO may result in severe court sanctions, including fines, contempt of court charges, or even a default judgment in your favor. These orders carry the full weight of the judicial system and can be enforced with emergency hearings if there’s any sign of non-compliance. In high-stakes trucking cases, a TRO is often the only way to stop the defendants from “cleaning up” or “losing”, testing or modifying key evidence before your experts can evaluate it properly.

Destructive Testing Destroys Evidence as It Existed at the Time of the Accident — We Stop It

Trucking companies sometimes dismantle brakes, throw away tire pieces or even the entire tire, or cut open mechanical components during so-called “inspections.” But once this destructive testing happens, the evidence is gone forever. We demand:

Written notice in advance
A fair opportunity for our own experts to inspect and document
Full preservation of the evidence’s integrity

If the defense refuses to agree on the examination, inspection or testing protocol, we immediately file for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and, if necessary, initiate a truck accident lawsuit to block any destructive or altering activity. Until both sides agree in writing — with our crash engineers have an opportunity to examine the evidence during the truck accident investigation. experts present — no testing or disassembly should occur. We act quickly to ensure nothing is compromised.

Let a Truck Accident Attorney Preserve the Evidence in Your Case

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a truck crash, don’t wait. Call now and speak to semi-truck crash attorney with decades of experience in quickly sending out spoilation letters to preserve critical evidence until the plaintiff’s own experts can be present and agree to the examine, inspect or test the critical parts or vehicle itself.

If You Have Any Questions, Call us 24/7 at 1-888-LAW-2040 for a Free Consultation

Spoliation Letters Why They’re Critical After a Truck Accident