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Ata Litigation Center Trucking Legal Forum

The ATA Litigation Center`s new Trucking Legal Forum, formerly known as the Forum for Motor Carrier General Counsel, is open not only to law firms and in-house lawyers, but also to senior executives, as well as risk, security and human resources professionals in the freight forwarding industry. The event, which also offers continuing education, will take place July 14-17 at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego, California. “Our program has addressed many of the pressing legal issues facing our members today,” said Jennifer Hall, ATA General Counsel. “I think the participants really appreciated the opportunity to share war stories and work together on strategies to combat the plaintiffs` bar. Richard Rahm, a partner at San Francisco law firm DLA Piper, said compensating drivers for sleep time has also received legal attention in more than a dozen lawsuits across the country. Strategies to address these and other legal issues facing the industry — including compensating the driver for time spent in a sleeping place, as well as a wave of staged truck crashes that made headlines — were approached by the nearly 230 lawyers, insurance agents and truck executives who gathered in Washington last month for a four-day legal forum. on trucking. organized by the Litigation Center of the American Trucking Associations. A crucial responsibility for truck advocates is to prepare truck drivers and security guards who will be questioned in testimony, he said. It is particularly important to protect freight forwarders and drivers from abuse of legal process given the persistent shortage of drivers. To that end, maintaining the industry`s independent entrepreneur model is another important legal issue that has been addressed, Greg Feary, managing partner of the Indianapolis-based law firm of Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary, P.C., said in an interview with TT. Feary and four other Scopelitis attorneys briefed participants on legal challenges to the independent entrepreneur model, which he identified in the courts, state legislatures, and federal politics.

Of particular concern are efforts in California and New Jersey to pass laws with strict “ABC” legal tests to reclassify independent owner-operators as corporate employees. “The ATA Litigation Center`s Trucking Legal Forum provides practical information and approaches to address the most pressing legal and compliance issues facing fleet operations and the freight forwarding industry. It is a must-attend event for internal and external transportation legal advisors and also provides valuable information for truck executives as well as safety, risk management and human resources professionals”, – ATA “Each year, the forum focuses on the most pressing legal, risk and compliance issues facing motor carriers”, Hall said. “Topics discussed this year include changes and challenges in wages and hourly rules, both from the perspective of government and auto companies, as well as other sessions on labor law, litigation and business.” “Every day, motor carriers face a number of complex legal issues,” said Jennifer Hall, AtA`s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. “By rethinking and redesigning this forum, we hope to shed light on these issues in a way that will help ATA members and the industry as a whole.” Rahm said one of the main cases involved a lawsuit filed by Walmart drivers in February 2020. In that case, a three-judge panel of Walmart`s 9th Court of Appeals declined to hear again a lower court`s decision to pay a certified class of its California truck drivers more than $54 million in arrears for mostly stopovers and breaks. From increasing multi-million dollar “nuclear” jury verdicts against motor vehicles to federal and state efforts to reshape the business model of independent industry contractors, these are urgent times for lawyers representing freight forwarders. Today, the American Trucking Associations announced that it is opening registrations for the ATA Litigation Center`s Trucking Legal Forum – a newly renamed and expanded event aimed at educating not only industry lawyers, but also trucking executives and other trucking professionals about the myriad legal issues facing their businesses. For more information or to register for this valuable event for lawyers, executives, and risk, safety and human resources professionals in the truck industry, visit ATAforum.trucking.org. “There`s really no particular legal authority for this,” Rahm, also a moderator of the forum, told TT. “So the airlines are a little disappointed because there are no clear guidelines on this issue.” The abuse of the lawsuit was at the center of welcome remarks by ATA President Chris Spear, who said one of the goals of the event was to uncover the methods used by the plaintiffs` bar association and develop strategies on how motor carriers and defense lawyers can combat them. Over the past 18 months, Spear said, the ATA Federation has achieved legislative successes in a number of states where laws have been passed to mitigate the abuse of prosecutions — and that the fight continues.

“Deposits are where they can do the most damage,” Bassett said. “Because what a `reptile` lawyer wants to do is get a statement in the box and play it in mediation – which is a big risk – and try to get the best deal possible.” “My most conservative advice would be to clarify that they don`t pay drivers more than 8 hours for sleep time,” Rahm said. Lawyers who “embrace the reptile theory” will begin with very broad investigations during pre-trial testimony to try to set a trap for truckers, with questions such as, “Will you agree with me that it`s important for drivers to drive safely in general?” “Then they will start shrinking, shrinking and shrinking. Their witnesses, if they`re not careful, can end up in a corner,” Mike Bassett, a senior partner at The Dallas-based The Bassett Firm, said in an interview with Transport Topics. Bassett was one of many presenters who spoke to TT about the event. Specifically, the event focused on what motor carriers and defense lawyers can do to counter the plaintiffs` “reptile strategy,” a method that seeks to anger juries for punishing truckers with grand judgments in crash trials.

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