Truck Accident Pre-Settlement Funding in Massachusetts

Massachusetts allows three years from the date of the crash to bring a truck accident negligence claim, under M.G.L. c. 260, § 2A.

Massachusetts applies modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar: a plaintiff found 51% or more responsible for their own injury recovers nothing, under M.G.L. c. 231, § 85. In a multi-defendant truck case, fault is apportioned among the driver, carrier, and any shipper or maintenance contractor, with FMCSA hours-of-service and maintenance-violation evidence under 49 C.F.R. Parts 390-399 commonly used to establish the carrier's own independent share of that apportionment. Massachusetts's no-fault threshold under M.G.L. c. 231, § 6D bars a tort action for pain and suffering arising from a motor vehicle accident unless the injury exceeds a defined medical-expense threshold or falls into an enumerated serious-injury category such as death, fracture, or permanent disfigurement. Unlike some states, the statute's bar is keyed to whether the accident occurred within Massachusetts, not to which state the at-fault vehicle is registered in — meaning the threshold analysis for an interstate commercial truck involved in a Massachusetts crash is less about the carrier's home-state registration and more about the severity of the injury itself, which serious truck-accident injuries frequently satisfy as a practical matter.

Massachusetts has no general statutory cap on economic or noneconomic damages in an ordinary personal injury or wrongful death case arising from a truck accident.

Massachusetts mandates prejudgment interest in tort actions at a fixed 12% per year, running from the date the cause of action arose — not from the date suit is filed — through the date of judgment, under M.G.L. c. 231, § 6B. This is an unusually high, fixed statutory rate compared with most other states, several of which either deny prejudgment interest on unliquidated damages or set a lower, sometimes variable, rate.

Venue lies in the Massachusetts county where a defendant resides or has a place of business, or where the claim arose, under M.G.L. c. 223, § 1. Massachusetts's I-90 and I-95 freight corridors and the Port of Boston generate meaningful interstate trucking litigation, and because carriers are frequently incorporated or headquartered outside Massachusetts, that citizenship can support removal to federal court under 28 U.S.C. § 1332 diversity jurisdiction as an alternative to the state's county-based venue rule.

Massachusetts has no dedicated consumer litigation funding statute. No statutory cap.

Why is Massachusetts's mandatory 12% prejudgment interest rate significant in a truck accident case?

Because M.G.L. c. 231, § 6B fixes prejudgment interest at 12% per year running from the date of the crash — not from the date suit is filed — a multi-defendant truck case that spends years in discovery before resolution accrues a substantial amount of interest for that entire period. This is a notably higher, and mandatory, rate compared with most states.

This creates a real financial incentive for a carrier's insurer to resolve a well-documented liability case promptly rather than let years of FMCSA-driven discovery run up an interest obligation at a fixed 12% rate, which is meaningfully higher than the market rates that apply in states awarding interest at all.

Does Massachusetts's no-fault threshold apply if I'm hit by an out-of-state commercial truck?

Massachusetts's threshold under M.G.L. c. 231, § 6D turns on where the accident happened and the severity of the injury, not on which state the at-fault vehicle is registered in. A serious truck-accident injury — a fracture, permanent disfigurement, or worse — frequently satisfies the threshold regardless of the carrier's home state.

This is a different analysis than in a state like New Jersey, where the threshold's applicability can turn on whether the at-fault vehicle even meets the statutory definition of a covered vehicle. In Massachusetts, the practical question is almost always whether the injury itself is serious enough, which the forces involved in a commercial-truck collision often make straightforward to establish.