FMCSA · CDL · Commercial Vehicle Litigation
28 years teaching the exact regulations your case turns on. Plaintiff and defense.
Available for consultations Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
W.S. Bill Collins — FMCSA Expert Witness
Why attorneys retain Bill
Bill holds a Class A CDL spanning 51 years — with zero reportable collisions, zero insurance claims, and every DOT audit passed. That is not a credential stack built for a CV. It is a record built over five decades behind the wheel that withstands cross-examination because there is nothing in it to attack.
For 28 years Bill was a certified FMCSA instructor — training commercial drivers on the exact CFR sections your case turns on, including every major regulatory update during that period. When he explains a violation to a judge or jury, it lands because he has spent three decades explaining it to the drivers who are supposed to follow it.
Bill works plaintiff and defense. His analysis is based on what the records show and what FMCSA regulations require — not on the theory the retaining attorney is advancing. That independence is not a limitation. It is what makes his written opinions defensible and his testimony credible when the other side pushes back.
Bill has driven commercial routes, taught the regulations to the drivers who operate on them, and managed a fleet of 24 vehicles under FMCSA compliance requirements. When he testifies about what a driver should have known or what a carrier was required to do, it is not drawn from regulatory reading — it is drawn from 51 years of doing it.
Services
Attorneys retain Bill for the full range of work commercial vehicle litigation requires — from the initial evaluation that tells you whether the regulatory theory holds, through the written opinion that survives a Daubert challenge, to deposition and trial testimony a jury can actually follow. Every engagement is grounded in 51 years of firsthand operational experience that no amount of regulatory study produces. If the records support a defensible opinion, he delivers it. If they don't, he tells you before you commit resources.
Explore servicesCase Types
Commercial vehicle litigation follows patterns: HOS violations that caused driver fatigue, carriers that overlooked their own qualification failures, ELD data that contradicts what the paper logs show. Bill has worked on fatigue and Hours of Service cases, FMCSA regulatory violations, logbook and electronic falsification cases, carrier liability, and driver qualification failures. Many cases involve overlapping issues across more than one category — submit your case and he will tell you what the records support.
See case typesCore service highlights
Hours of Service violations are the most common — and most concealed — factor in commercial vehicle fatigue crashes. Identifying them requires more than reading a logbook. It means cross-referencing ELD data against fuel receipts, toll records, dispatch communications, and supporting carrier documents to reconstruct what the driver's actual duty status was in the hours and days before a crash. Bill has operated under HOS rules for 51 years and taught them to commercial drivers for 28. He knows what compliant records look like, what shortcuts look like, and what falsification looks like — in both paper logs and electronic systems. His analysis produces a timeline and written opinion that hold up against the hardest cross-examination opposing counsel can mount.
Before you commit resources to expert work, you need a clear read on whether the regulatory theory holds. Bill's initial case review gives you exactly that — a direct assessment of what FMCSA violations the records support, what they don't, and what additional discovery would strengthen the analysis. You will leave the consultation with a defensible foundation for your case strategy, not a preliminary opinion that shifts when the other side challenges it. Bill reviews all submitted materials and responds within one business day.
A written expert opinion is only as useful as the scrutiny it can survive. Bill's reports identify the specific FMCSA regulatory violations at issue, explain what the regulations require and why, and connect the regulatory failures to the events at the center of your case — in language a judge and jury can follow without a trucking background. These are not boilerplate documents adapted from prior cases. They are built from the specific records in your matter and written to withstand the hardest challenge opposing counsel can make.
Effective expert testimony requires two things most witnesses have only one of: the substantive knowledge to answer technical questions under pressure, and the ability to explain complex regulatory standards in plain language a jury retains. Bill has both. Twenty-eight years as an FMCSA instructor means he has spent his career translating technical regulations into terms that non-experts understand and remember. His courtroom presence is grounded in that same approach: objective, direct, and built on a factual record opposing counsel cannot unwind.
W.S. "Bill" Collins spent 51 years as a Class A CDL holder and 28 years as a certified FMCSA instructor before he was ever retained as an expert witness — and he came to this work the way credible experts do: through reputation, not solicitation.
Attorneys who knew his background asked for his analysis on a case. More followed. He has since been retained in multiple commercial vehicle litigation matters by both plaintiff and defense counsel, providing opinions grounded in firsthand operational experience — as a driver, an instructor, a fleet manager of 24 vehicles, and a truck driving school owner — that academic expertise cannot replicate. He is based in West St. Paul, MN, serves attorneys throughout the Midwest and Southwest, and is available remotely for case review in any jurisdiction.
FAQ
Bill personally reviews all inquiries and responds within one business day. Plaintiff and defense. All submissions are confidential.
Available for consultations Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
