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The KRCL Transportation Practice has a wide footprint in the trucking and rail industries. Our lawyers have decades of experience throughout these core areas of the transportation business. We are available 24/7/365, day and night, for emergency response and also for the legal aftermath. We work all over Texas and in a number of other states.

For emergency response, contact Marcy Rothman, 713.819.7652, or Catalina Booth, 713.594.7606.

Assembling the right team when things go awry is absolutely critical to a good outcome. We put together the best teams when disaster strikes more often than anyone else.

In addition to handling that emergency call that no business ever wants to make, we handle claims resulting from the aftermath, including property damage defense and recovery, and the defense of catastrophic injury and death claims. Our team understands the issues arising under the jurisdiction of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, OSHA, and NTSB. Our work extends to business concerns and involves transactional solutions where appropriate. We are well-known strong litigators, with a long history of good results in court, in case other opportunities to resolve exposure do not pan out.

Trucking

Whether your company runs long haul or locals, whether your drivers are running bobtail, pulling a covered wagon, or driving a straight truck, we have met you on the road. It is an uncomfortable reality that virtually any incident, whether a reportable crash or not, likely will result in a claim. From the most insignificant fender bender to the most serious of multi-sequence highway pileups, we help motor carriers navigate the legal consequences.

Our team routinely provides support that includes forensic investigations and response to law enforcement at scenes as well as the preservation of evidence reasonably necessary to defend against the inevitable. We work with engineers, scientists, compliance professionals, operations experts, and data collection experts to try to ensure that we have what is necessary to determine what happened and to attempt to resolve any risk you may face.

We work hard to help you resolve your claims early using tangible evidence such as ECM data, GPS data, cell phone records and data, and dashcam video, when available. We know how to analyze the physics of accidents. We know how to compare the information to biomechanical forces and literature in order to understand what really happened, rather than just accepting what someone who has a vested financial interest in making a claim might say without sound evidence.

When resolving claims is not possible, we know how to try lawsuits before judges, juries, and arbitrators. We have a history of favorable trial outcomes.  

Railroad

Railroading is not just a business or a job—it is a way of life. The attorneys at KRCL spend substantial time on the railroad to maintain and build our understanding of the industry so that we can assist our clients in all aspects of what it takes to move freight. We work with equipment manufacturers, rail operations, maintenance of way, mechanical, marketing, environmental, human resources, claims and legal departments. We offer business advice, handle rail-related transactions, and litigate and try railroad cases.

We investigate and defend crossing accidents, derailments, and Federal Employers Liability Act claims. We also pursue cost recovery, and have secured millions of dollars for our rail-related clients.

On the business side, we have helped to shape and support teams working through operational and infrastructure developments so that our clients can do their part to make sure that freight is delivered efficiently and on time.  In transactions, we have provided substantive solutions to the unique real estate and other problems posed to railroads by agricultural, riparian, and oil and gas law in Texas. In court, we have consistently provided our clients with significant trial successes in a variety of railroad matters in venues across Texas.

Our real estate and transactional lawyers routinely handle transactions for the creation, expansion, maintenance, and safety of intermodal facilities and related infrastructure. The acquisitions and sales range from single parcels involving small acreage to those involving dozens of parcels and multi-thousand-acre tracts. Our experience not only includes customary purchase and sale documentation and negotiation experience, but also the ability to analyze ancient and modern title, and parse and resolve questions arising from agricultural, riparian, and mineral rights in the context of the purchase and sale of real estate.

In addition, we are experienced in the preparation of covenants and restrictions, easements and agreements for rights of access involving rights of way, intermodal operations, and commercial developments. Our lawyers prepare and revise boundary relocation agreements, work with surveyors and appraisers, and complete transactions involving governmental agencies and international border authorities.

We handle adverse possession and crossing closure matters. We have successfully negotiated for the recovery of millions of dollars in mineral rights arising from the ownership of right of way, including the negotiation of settlements involving oil & gas rights, royalty claims, bonus, and most-favored-nation disputes.