A federal judge in Utah has ruled that arbitration clauses in C.R. England’s agreements with independent contractors unfairly favor the carrier, thus allowing a lawsuit charging federal truth-in-leasing violations to go forward.

The Owner-Operator Independent Contractors Assn. and several of its owner-operator members sued C.R. England, charging that some of its charge-backs and contract violations violated federal leasing regulations.
C.R. England argued that, under terms of their contracts, disputes are to be settled through arbitration. But a U.S. District Judge ruled that there was an imbalance in the agreements, noting that contractors had only one option -- an expensive arbitration -- while C.R. England could choose between arbitration, a lawsuit, or could sell claims against a contractor to a collection agency.
Citing a similar decision in an OOIDA lawsuit against Landstar, the judge also ruled that owner-operators are exempt from arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act because they are "workers actually engaged in the movement of goods in interstate commerce."
The court joined several others in ruling that owner-operators have the right to sue carriers over leasing rule violations without first going to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Relying on findings in several similar cases, the court also confirmed that the statute of limitations in truth-in-leasing cases is four years.