At our law firm, one of the first steps that we take is to ensure all relevant evidence is preserved. As the trucking company, this means ensuring that all relevant information in your possession is kept. As an injured party, this includes sending a “preservation demand.” This is a formal legal correspondence that tells the other side that there are potential claims and lists evidence that needs to be preserved. In a tractor-trailer crash, this may include the driver’s hourly logs, the pre-trip inspection reports, the engine control data from the crash, and other items. Many of these things may be deleted as a matter of routine course of business, if an attorney does not work to preserve them shortly after the accident.