Freight Broker Liability Lawsuit

What the Supreme Court changed

For years, a legal shield protected freight brokers — the middlemen who match a shipper’s load with a trucking company to haul it — from lawsuits when a truck they hired caused a catastrophic crash. Brokers argued that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA), a 1994 law barring states from regulating a broker’s “prices, routes, or services,” preempted state negligence claims. After the Seventh Circuit accepted that argument in Ye v. GlobalTranz (2023), brokers were largely insulated across much of the country.

On May 14, 2026, that shield fell. In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, No. 24-1238, a unanimous Supreme Court — in an opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, with a concurrence by Justice Kavanaugh joined by Justice Alito — held that a negligent-hiring claim against a freight broker is not preempted by the FAAAA. The decision resolved a split among the federal courts of appeals and now applies in all 50 states. (Primary sources: the slip opinion and the full text and syllabus.)

The “safety exception,” in plain English

The FAAAA contains a carve-out — the “safety exception” at 49 U.S.C. §14501(c)(2)(A) — that preserves each state’s authority to exercise its safety regulatory power with respect to motor vehicles. The Court held that a state’s ordinary duty of care, applied to a broker’s selection of a motor carrier, falls within that exception. In plain terms: keeping unsafe trucks and unsafe carriers off the road is a core state safety power, and the FAAAA does not sweep it away.

Practically, that means a broker or third-party logistics provider (3PL) that arranges a load owes a duty of reasonable care in choosing the carrier it hires — including checking that carrier’s federal safety record before putting it on the road.

Who may have a claim

The plaintiff in Montgomery, Shawn Montgomery, was severely and permanently injured when his tractor-trailer was struck by a truck; the broker, C.H. Robinson, had arranged the load the striking truck was hauling. Cases with a similar shape are the ones this ruling most directly affects. You may have a claim worth investigating if all of the following are true:

• You or a loved one suffered a serious injury — or a death — in a crash with a commercial truck.
• A freight broker or 3PL (not just the trucking company) arranged or brokered the load the truck was carrying.
• The trucking company had a findable poor safety record — for example, a low FMCSA safety rating, a history of out-of-service orders, serious violations, or prior crashes — that a careful broker should have caught.

What proof matters

Negligent-selection cases are built on records that already exist. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) publishes carrier safety data — safety ratings, out-of-service percentages, inspection and violation history, and crash records — much of it public through the FMCSA’s SAFER and SMS systems. If a carrier’s poor record was visible before the broker hired it, that is powerful evidence the broker failed to vet the carrier.

The other half of the proof is the paper trail showing the broker’s role: load confirmations, rate confirmations, dispatch and tender records, and the broker–carrier contract. These documents establish that a broker — not only the driver and carrier — arranged the shipment, and which broker it was.

Why suing the broker matters — beyond the carrier

Many trucking companies operate at or near the federal insurance minimum and can be badly under-insured for a catastrophic injury. A national freight broker is often a far more solvent defendant. Reaching the broker can be the difference between a judgment that can actually be paid and one that cannot. Suing the broker does not replace a claim against the carrier or driver — it adds a potentially deeper-pocketed defendant that, until Montgomery, was frequently out of reach.

Every case is different, and this ruling does not guarantee any outcome or recovery; whether a broker acted negligently depends on the specific facts. People’s Justice is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice — we investigate potential claims and connect people who may qualify with independent attorneys who handle freight-broker and trucking cases. Our reading of the decision is informed by primary sources at supremecourt.gov and law.cornell.edu and by legal analyses from firms including Faegre Drinker and Gordon Rees and reporting from FreightWaves.