Drive near any major city and close to half the billboards along the major arteries promote personal injury attorneys. It is human nature that when something bad happens, we have to find someone to blame. Lawsuits are big business, and the lawyers are there to make sure someone pays.Of course, it is fair and just for someone to be compensated when an accident occurs. However, determining whom to blame can often be problematic. Take the world of intermediary brokers. They act as middlemen, contracting with carriers to haul freight for their clients. If they contract with a carrier, are they legally responsible for the carrier’s actions or are they simply matchmakers who align needs with resources?This is a question that the U.S. Supreme Court addressed last month in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II LLC. The court ruled in a surprisingly unanimous vote that brokers can indeed be held liable for the carriers they hire. In this particular case, the court ruled that, since Caribe had a “conditional” safety rating due to violations, the broker, C.H. Robinson, was liable for hiring it.It will take some time to determine how all this shakes out for the industry. We have already seen higher spot rates, and insurance premiums are likely to rise. Costs will only increase as brokers invest more to qualify carriers. Capacity will tighten as carriers with spotty safety records exit the industry.But what role does the government play in all this? After all, it is a government agency—the Federal Motor…
