Fresno is the heart of California’s Central Valley and one of the most important agricultural freight corridors in the country. SR-99 and nearby I-5 carry enormous volumes of produce haulers, refrigerated cargo trucks, and farm equipment through the region year-round. Smaller regional carriers operating with less infrastructure than national fleets are common in Fresno-area cases. Below are five highly rated law firms in Fresno that handle truck accident and personal injury cases.
1. Kapetan Brothers Law
About the Firm: Serving Central California for over 30 years, the Kapetan Brothers (Peter and Marc Kapetan) are former Deputy District Attorneys who have worked on both plaintiff and defense sides. The firm is known for winning some of Fresno’s largest personal injury settlements and handles big rig and 18-wheeler cases with specialized expertise.
Services:
- Big rig and 18-wheeler accident claims
- Commercial truck and tractor-trailer litigation
- Personal injury and wrongful death
- Criminal and civil representation
- Free consultations
Address: 7473 North Ingram Avenue, Suite 105, Fresno, CA 93711 (Kapetan & Kapetan, downtown Fresno)
Phone: (559) 498-8000
Website: https://kapetanbrothers.com/
2. Freedman Law
About the Firm: Freedman Law has represented over 10,000 Central Valley residents and recovered over $1.25 billion on behalf of injured clients. For more than two decades, the firm has successfully handled all types of truck accident litigation, including complex big rig collisions across Fresno County.
Services:
- Big rig and commercial truck accident claims
- Multi-vehicle trucking accident litigation
- Catastrophic injury and wrongful death
- Insurance settlement negotiation
- Free case evaluations
Address: Fresno, CA
Phone: (559) 447-9000
Website: https://www.freedmanlaw.com/practice-areas/big-rig-trucking-accidents/
3. GJEL Accident Attorneys
About the Firm: With a 99% success rate and over $950 million recovered for clients, GJEL Accident Attorneys is one of California’s premier personal injury firms. They have recovered over $20 million specifically in truck accident cases and provide a local Fresno presence with deep knowledge of Central Valley road conditions and juries.
Services:
- Truck and commercial vehicle accident claims
- Agricultural equipment accident representation
- Motorcycle and car accident cases
- Wrongful death litigation
- 24/7 availability, contingency fee
Address: Fresno, CA
Phone: (559) 266-2244
Website: https://www.gjel.com/fresno
4. Law Office of Jacob J. Rivas
About the Firm: Jacob J. Rivas has extensive knowledge of California personal injury law and federal trucking regulations. The firm investigates driver negligence, company liability, and regulatory violations to build strong claims and has earned a series of multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements for Fresno clients.
Services:
- Commercial trucking accident representation
- Driver negligence and trucking company liability
- Federal FMCSA regulation violation cases
- Wrongful death claims
- Free case evaluations
Address: 7473 North Ingram Avenue, Suite 105, Fresno, CA 93711
Phone: (559) 263-9667
Website: https://www.rivasinjurylaw.com/aop/fresno-commercial-trucking-accidents/
5. Grossman Law Offices
About the Firm: A dedicated member of the Fresno and Central Valley communities for over 40 years, Grossman Law Offices treats clients as people, not cases. The firm assists in both English and Spanish and handles truck accidents from Bakersfield to Sacramento, with a significant portion of practice devoted to truck accident cases.
Services:
- Truck and semi-truck accident claims
- Agricultural and farming accident cases
- Insurance company communication management
- Wrongful death litigation
- No fees unless you win
Address: 7161 N Howard St STE 202, Fresno, CA 93720
Phone: (559) 221-2261
Website: https://personalinjuryattorney-fresno.com/personal-injury/truck-accidents/
Frequently Asked Questions About Truck Accidents in Fresno, CA
Fresno is the agricultural heart of California’s Central Valley, and SR-99 carries enormous volumes of produce and food processing trucks. Does California have any special rules about truck drivers hauling agricultural cargo that affect liability?
The FMCSA agricultural exemption allows drivers transporting raw agricultural products within 150 air miles of the harvest point to operate outside standard hours-of-service rules. On SR-99 through Fresno, carriers sometimes misapply this exemption to drivers who are operating outside its scope, either because they have exceeded the mileage range, are carrying processed rather than raw products, or are returning empty rather than hauling ag cargo. When a carrier misuses the exemption to avoid hours-of-service compliance, the driver may be operating fatigued without the regulatory safeguard that limits driving time. Your attorney can investigate whether the agricultural exemption applied to the specific haul and driver at the time of your accident by reviewing the bill of lading, the route, and the cargo classification.
California’s strict AB5 worker classification law applies to a large number of Central Valley trucking operations. How does it affect who I can hold liable for a Fresno truck accident?
Fresno’s agricultural and food processing logistics industry relies heavily on independent contractor trucking arrangements. Under AB5’s ABC test, classifying a truck driver as an independent contractor requires proving, among other things, that the driver performs work outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business, which is difficult for any company whose core business involves moving freight. If a driver who hit you was misclassified as an independent contractor, the company that dispatched the load faces employer liability with access to its full commercial insurance policy. This can be the difference between a claim against a minimum-limits individual policy and a claim against a commercially insured employer with millions in coverage.
What is California’s statute of limitations for truck accident cases in Fresno, and does the agricultural or food processing context create any unique considerations around evidence preservation?
California gives you two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure §335.1. Wrongful death claims carry a two-year window from the date of death. The agricultural context creates a specific evidence preservation concern: many Fresno-area carriers are smaller regional operators with less sophisticated recordkeeping practices than large national carriers. Electronic logging device data, dispatch records, and maintenance logs may not be stored in centralized systems and can be genuinely lost if not subpoenaed quickly. California law allows a demand letter to preserve evidence to be sent before filing suit, and sending that demand to the carrier within days of retaining an attorney is standard practice in Fresno truck accident cases precisely because small regional operators sometimes lack systematic data retention systems.
Fresno sits at the junction of Highway 99 and Highway 180, corridors that carry some of the highest agricultural truck volumes in the United States through the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, which produces roughly a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts. Agricultural carriers operating under seasonal harvest contracts frequently work under pressures—tight delivery windows to packing houses and cold storage facilities, pay-per-load compensation structures that incentivize fast turnaround—that courts in California’s Central District have recognized as analogous to the productivity pressures that support negligence findings against logistics companies who set unachievable delivery schedules. California’s AB5 law, which established the ABC test for independent contractor classification, has been extensively litigated in the agricultural trucking context because many Fresno-area carriers use owner-operators who make a single daily trip between a farm and a facility; whether those drivers are employees or independent contractors under the ABC test’s “usual course of business” prong remains disputed in the agricultural sector. A Fresno plaintiff whose accident involved an owner-operator claiming independent contractor status should not assume that status resolves the carrier’s vicarious liability exposure; the California Labor Code classification analysis must be completed before concluding that the carrier bears no employer responsibility for the driver’s actions.