Texas Splits a Truck Crash Trial in Two. Your Driver File Still Decides Phase One

Why this law matters to a small carrier

Our earlier guide on how a nuclear verdict reaches a small truck carrier made one point above all others. The biggest awards rarely come from the moment of the crash. They come from the company file, the hiring, the training, the hours, and the maintenance, because those claims let a jury judge the business instead of just the driver. Texas is the one big freight state that wrote a statute aimed squarely at that problem. House Bill 19 from the 87th Legislature took effect September 1, 2021. It now sits in Chapter 72, Subchapter B of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Sections 72.051 through 72.055.

How the two phase trial works

Under Section 72.052, when a crash causes bodily injury or death and a commercial motor vehicle is involved, the defendant can ask the court to split the trial, and the court has to grant it. The motion has a deadline. It must be filed by the later of 120 days after the defendant files its original answer, or 30 days after the plaintiff adds a new claim against that defendant. In phase one the jury decides liability and compensatory damages. Punitive damages, which Texas calls exemplary damages, wait for phase two. Section 72.053 also narrows the regulation violations a plaintiff can show the jury in phase one. A broken rule only comes in if it tends to prove the violation actually caused the injury and the rule specifically governs the driver, the carrier, or the equipment at issue.

The stipulation and what it buys you

Section 72.054 is the heart of it. If the carrier stipulates, inside that same motion deadline, that the driver was its employee and was acting within the scope of employment, then for ordinary negligence the carrier's liability rests on respondeat superior alone. In plain terms, the company admits it answers for the driver, and in exchange the plaintiff cannot use phase one to try a general negligent entrustment case against the company. The law also says the definition of employee includes anyone the carrier could be held responsible for under respondeat superior, so leased on owner-operators are not automatically outside it. Ask your defense attorney early, because the stipulation clock starts running with your answer and missing it gives the advantage away.

The driver file items that reach the jury anyway

Here is the part most summaries skip. For a carrier regulated under the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, Section 72.054(c) lists exactly what a plaintiff may still show in phase one to prove negligent entrustment. About the driver, it asks whether they held a valid license, were disqualified under 49 CFR 383.51, 383.52, or 391.15, were under an out of service order, broke a license restriction, had a road test certificate under 391.31 or an equivalent under 391.33, held a medical certificate under 391.41, were driving in violation of the drug and alcohol rules in Part 382 or the hours rules in 395.3 or 395.5, were texting or using a handheld phone under 392.80 or 392.82, had filed an employment application under 391.21 if the crash came in their first year, and had refused a required drug test in the prior two years. About the carrier, it asks whether you let the driver run while prohibited, whether you did the pre employment drug test under 382.301 when an impaired driver crashed within 180 days of hire, whether you made the previous employer inquiries under 391.23 in the first year, and whether the company itself was under an out of service order. It is a checklist of your driver qualification file and your hours records. The law did not take the company file out of the case. It told plaintiffs exactly which pages to pull.

What the law does not touch

Section 72.054(f) keeps two doors open. Negligent maintenance, or any claim that does not depend on the driver being negligent first, can still be tried in phase one. And punitive damages for the company's own conduct can still be pursued in phase two. Section 72.055 also makes properly authenticated crash photos and video presumed admissible without an expert, which cuts both ways depending on what your dashcam shows. None of this lowers the federal floor in 49 CFR 387.9, and none of it caps an award. Our post on why the $750,000 minimum is a floor and not a safe limit still applies in Texas. What HB 19 rewards is a carrier whose file holds up, which is also what an underwriter pricing your commercial auto liability is looking for. If Texas is a big part of your lanes, our Texas truck insurance page covers the state filings and limits.

Get a truck insurance quote built around your real exposure

A clean driver file and the right limits are the two things you control before a crash ever happens. Get a truck insurance quote in under a minute through our quote form, or call or text 423-264-4255 and we will walk through your limits, your lanes, and what an excess layer would cost for an operation your size.