Georgia Injury Lawyers Blog
The Driver Qualification File: Overview
As emphasized, the DQ file is one of the first things to review when putting together a trucking wreck claim. The contents of the DQ file are not a matter of interpretation or speculation. The regulations definitively state what documents must be included. Anything missing equates to non-compliance. The particular reasons why a required form or piece of information may be missing are unlikely to have significant consequences on a case. It is the company’s responsibility to follow safety regulations, and excuses for not doing so are usually not well received. Therefore, it is necessary to organize the file once received and compare it to the regulations. It can be beneficial to carefully indexing the file so that those documents that re-occur, such as the record of violations, are in chronological order.
Bear in mind that a discovery request to produce for the “DQ file as required to be maintained pursuant to regulation standards” may get you just that – the documents referenced regulation standards, and nothing else. In making such a narrow request, counsel has incidentally given the motor carrier a free pass to withhold items from the DQ file that, while not technically required for inclusion, may nonetheless be kept therein. The regulations specifically permit motor carriers to combine DQ files with internal personnel files. Thus, a technicality in a discovery request could incidentally result in the non-production of documents that are of interest to counsel and potentially damaging to the motor carrier. To avoid this situation, the request should be drafted broadly enough to capture all documents that comprise the motor carrier’s DQ file, and if maintained separately, its personnel files.