Springdale, Arkansas – Arkansas personal injury attorney Jason M. Hatfield said this week’s unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II clears a path for injury victims to hold freight brokers accountable when they hire unsafe motor carriers.

The Court ruled that a Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act exception for state safety regulation covers claims that one company negligently hired another to transport goods. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the opinion. The decision allows a man who lost part of his leg in a 2017 tractor-trailer crash to proceed with his lawsuit against Minnesota-based freight broker C.H. Robinson.

The plaintiff alleged that C.H. Robinson hired Caribe Transport II despite a recordable crash rate that should have signaled the carrier was likely to injure someone on the road.

“For families who have lost loved ones or who are living with catastrophic injuries from a truck crash, this ruling matters,” said Hatfield, founder of the Law Office of Jason M. Hatfield, P.A., based in Springdale with an additional office in Fort Smith. “Until now, brokers in many cases could point at the carrier and walk away. The Court has confirmed that when a broker chooses a carrier with a known safety problem, that choice is part of the case.”

Hatfield has practiced personal injury law in Arkansas for more than 25 years, with a focus on motor vehicle and trucking cases. He noted that Arkansas roads are among the deadliest in the country for large truck crashes. State data shows Arkansas has lost between 600 and 700 people each year in motor vehicle accidents since 2020. A TRIP study placed Arkansas in the top five states for fatal large truck crashes.

“Most of the truck cases I handle involve a chain of decisions that started long before the crash,” Hatfield said. “Who was hired, what their record looked like, whether anyone bothered to check. The Supreme Court has now said that piece of the chain belongs in front of a jury.”

The Court’s opinion explained that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, passed in 1994 and later amended to cover brokers, preempts state laws related to prices, routes, and services. The justices held that state authority to regulate safety with respect to motor vehicles survives that preemption, and that a negligent hiring claim falls within the safety exception.

The Arkansas Trucking Association reacted positively to the ruling. Industry trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association expressed disappointment, arguing that brokers do not have access to the carrier records needed to evaluate safety. Hatfield said modern broker platforms collect more carrier information than they often admit.

“Brokers run sophisticated technology,” Hatfield said. “They see safety scores, inspection results, and crash histories. They have a choice about which carriers they put on a load. The families I represent are not asking for the impossible. They are asking brokers to act on the information already in front of them.”

Hatfield encouraged Arkansas families affected by a serious truck crash to ask questions about every company connected to the load, not just the driver or the trucking company.

“The driver is the most visible person in a truck crash, but the driver is rarely the only person who made a decision that mattered,” he said. “Sometimes the most important decision was made weeks earlier in a broker’s office.”