Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/687054
24 | Overdrive | June 2016 "B ig trucks rule the road, they're dangerous, and they can cause big, bad injuries." Those are the opening words from Atlanta-based personal injury plaintiff 's attorney Ken Nugent, standing atop a reefer trailer in a 2013 commercial. He continues: "Big trucking companies have big insurance, and I make them pay up." Advocates of our legal system's tort law protection contend that such lawsuits rein in reckless behavior by large corporations or other parties that otherwise would go unpunished. When it comes to trucking, however, many in the industry believe the punishments have gotten out of hand with the multimillion-dollar awards won by so-called ambulance chasers. Transportation defense attorney Rob Moseley of the Smith, Moore & Leath- erwood fi rm in Greenville, S.C., says that it's almost like "a switch was fl ipped" in 2011. That was the advent of easy access to carrier information via the new Com- pliance, Safety, Accountability program. With easy public access to carrier data and other tools, plaintiff 's attorneys are "better equipped than they have been in the past" and are working harder, Moseley says. "They know more about companies." He's charted civil jury verdicts of more than $10 million against transportation providers, mostly trucking companies, happening more frequently, every couple months on average since 2011. Award amounts also are growing. Trucking insurance companies, the fi rst line of defense against civil suits for most independent owner-operators, "have been more worried about saving money than spending on lawyers" to fi ght a case, he says. In some ways, that's nothing new, but fear of the gigantic award and extended case time, Moseley says, is leading to more early payouts to injured parties regardless of fault. That contributes to rising insurance premiums for carriers across the board. Also contributing to plaintiff 's at- torneys' arguments for higher awards are escalating health care costs and "a paradigm shift, too, where jurors walk in thinking it's Monopoly money," Moseley says. "They've been conditioned through media to not really understand what a million dollars is." There's plenty for owner-operators, especially independents, to learn from bigger carriers that have been targeted in questionable litigation. Making smart Dodging the ambulance chasers chasers Since the advent of CSA, high-dollar jury awards for truck accident victims have been growing. This means higher risk and insurance costs, especially for independents. BY TODD DILLS