As the American Trucking Associations' Litigation Center celebrates its 25th anniversary, it finds itself in need of funding as it prepares to take on challenges such as attacks on independent contractor status and another likely court battle on hours of service regulations.


At the ATA's annual management conference in Phoenix this week, ATA Chief Counsel Bob Diggs highlighted a few important areas the center is working on:

LA Port. ATA has been battling the Port of Los Angeles' effort to ban the use of independent contractors in drayage operations. Right now, the association is appealing an adverse District Court decision and trying to keep the injunction in place against the port enforcing the challenged aspects of its Clean Truck Plan, pending the outcome of the appeal. Diggs is confident that once the 9th Circuit Court hears the appeal, that ATA will prevail and will ultimately win this case. They are trying to get a decision by mid summer of 2011.

Independent Contractors. The LA Port isn't the only place where the use of owner-operators is under attack. There is federal legislation that has been introduced to crack down on "misclassification" of workers, the most worrisome of which is a bill that would remove the "safe harbor" provision relied on by the trucking industry. There are also problems at the state level. Seventeen states have passed their own "misclassification" legislation, and state agencies are challenging companies' independent contractor use. "We're starting to see issues in worker's comp and unemployment areas," Diggs said.

Hours of Service. Many in the industry are predicting that new hours of service regulations due out shortly will not be to the industry's liking. A shorter driving time and longer reset time are expected. "I think we'll be in a very good position to litigate," Diggs said. The large drop in truck crashes since the hours of service rules went into effect, and last year's record low crash rates, are going to make it hard to explain to a court why changes are needed, he said. In addition, as the hours rules have been challenged over the last number of years by advocacy groups, he said, the FMCSA has time after time defended the rules it is now changing. "So the court will likely be skeptical of why they suddenly decided to change them."

But to help pay for these challenges, the Litigation Center is preparing to embark on a short fundraising campaign.

In the past, Diggs explained, the center has handled cases where it has been able to earn more than $25 million in attorney's fees, which has allowed the center to pursue expensive litigation. "Unfortunately, those types of cases are no longer available, so ATA is having to shoulder the burden of our litigation expenses," he said. "If the carriers want us to be as aggressive as we have in the past, there's going to be a need for some private contributions to the center."