Suing the Freight Broker: The Solvent Defendant in Trucking-Crash Cases

Matthew E. Wright, Managing Partner | The Law Firm for Truck Safety LLP

Matthew E. Wright is the Managing Partner of The Law Firm for Truck Safety’s Tennessee office and a third-generation Tennessee lawyer. He began his career defending large insurance companies before moving to the plaintiffs’ side, where he now represents people catastrophically injured in truck crashes across the country. He serves as the 2025 to 2026 Chair of the American Association for Justice Interstate Trucking Litigation Group.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Wright earned his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and his B.A. from Vanderbilt University, and he graduated from the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College in DuBois, Wyoming in 2011. He is board certified in truck accident law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and was among the first ten lawyers in the country to earn that certification in 2019. He is licensed in Tennessee and Ohio and admitted to multiple federal district courts, including the Western, Middle, and Eastern Districts of Tennessee, the Northern District of Ohio, and the Eastern District of Texas.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Wright received the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group Roadway Safety Award in 2024 and the group’s Chairwoman’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2019 and 2020. He has been rated 10 of 10 Superb and a Top Truck Accident Attorney by Avvo since 2014, named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 10 Trucking Lawyers each year since 2017, and belongs to the Multi-Million-Dollar Advocates Forum, a group limited to roughly one percent of United States lawyers.

• Professional Involvement

He serves as an Officer and Executive Board member of the American Association for Justice Interstate Trucking Litigation Group, where he is the 2025 to 2026 Chair, and sits on the Board of Regents of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys. He founded and chaired a national litigation group focused on transportation companies’ use of software applications and telematics to control and direct truck drivers. His memberships include the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association, the Tennessee Bar Association, the Nashville Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, and the Christian Trial Lawyers Association.

• Experience

Mr. Wright has more than 20 years of experience in trucking law, personal injury, and wrongful death litigation, with a proven record of multi-million-dollar recoveries against some of the country’s largest trucking and logistics companies. He is a nationwide speaker, presenter, published author, and attorney trainer on truck law and trial tactics. His published work includes the Hidden Motor Carrier (Agency) chapter in Litigating Truck Accident Cases and articles in the AAJ Interstate Trucking Litigation Journal.

Michael Leizerman, Founder | The Law Firm for Truck Safety LLP

Michael Leizerman is a founder of The Law Firm for Truck Safety and handles truck accident litigation across the United States, concentrating his practice in select catastrophic injury truck collision cases. He founded the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group in 2002 and served as its first Chair, and he is a co-founder of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Leizerman is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, New York, and Iowa. He is one of the first board certified truck accident lawyers in the country and one of the writers of the National Board of Trial Advocacy’s Truck Accident Law board certification exam. He also attended truck driving school and holds a Class A Commercial Driver’s License.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Leizerman has obtained record-breaking truck accident settlements and verdicts across the country, including multiple verdicts with punitive damages. He has personally received more than 30 verdicts and settlements of $2 million or more, including six in excess of $10 million. In one matter he handled, the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari review, leaving the ruling in favor of his client’s verdict intact.

• Professional Involvement

He founded the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group and served as its first Chair, cofounded the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, and has taught and lectured well over 100 times to other lawyers on trucking topics for continuing legal education.

• Experience

Mr. Leizerman has taken 15 truck and bus cases to trial since 2002. He is the co-author, with Rena Leizerman, of the multi-volume treatise Litigating Truck Accident Cases, published by West Publishing, and the author of The Zen Lawyer: Winning with Mindfulness, published by Trial Guides in 2018.

Rena M. Leizerman | The Law Firm for Truck Safety LLP

Rena M. Leizerman concentrates her practice in trial and appellate litigation involving serious personal injury and wrongful death arising from commercial motor vehicle collisions. She obtained the first punitive damage verdict against a freight broker for negligent selection, has successfully opposed petitions for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, and has litigated numerous issues of first impression in courts across the country. She also drafts and submits amicus curiae briefs on behalf of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Leizerman earned her J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law in 2000, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served on the executive editorial board of the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy. She received her B.A. in Philosophy with Honors from Washington University in St. Louis in 1995. She is licensed in Illinois and Ohio, admitted to the United States Supreme Court and the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and board certified in trucking law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Leizerman received the National Board of Trial Advocacy President’s Award and the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys Munley Award, both in 2022. She successfully opposed the petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court in Miller v. C.H. Robinson, developed the National Board of Trial Advocacy’s Truck Accident Law board certification exam and standards, and is the founding president of the National Board of Truck Accident Attorneys.

• Professional Involvement

She has served on the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys Board of Regents since 2016 and chairs its Amicus Committee, sits on the board of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and serves on the Executive Board of the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group as Co-Chair of its Amicus Committee. She has taught a seminar on the laws and regulations governing truck and automobile collisions at the University of Toledo College of Law and has taught Jurisprudence and Modern Legal Thought there since Spring 2022.

• Experience

Ms. Leizerman is co-author of the three-volume treatise Litigating Truck Accident Cases, published by West Publishing and updated annually. Her results include a $100 million settlement, an $82.1 million verdict, and a $42.4 million verdict in commercial motor vehicle cases. Before joining The Law Firm for Truck Safety, she practiced for eight years at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and served as a law clerk to the Hon. Mark Filip in the Northern District of Illinois. Her published work includes Holding FAST Against Transportation Brokers in TRIAL Magazine.

SESSION 1 – Pleading Negligent Selection and Vicarious Liability Against the Freight Broker | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This session covers how to plead and survive a motion to dismiss negligent selection and vicarious liability claims against freight brokers following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC (May 14, 2026), which resolved a 2-2 circuit split and confirmed that FAAAA preemption does not bar state-law negligent-hiring claims against brokers. Attorneys will learn how to use publicly available FMCSA data to allege breach, how to distinguish negligent selection from agency-based vicarious liability, and how to anticipate the defenses that remain viable post-Montgomery. Attendees will leave able to evaluate broker liability exposure, structure initial pleadings, and identify the factual record needed to survive early dispositive motions.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Discovery, Proving Control, and Building the Damages Case Against the Freight Broker | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

This session equips plaintiffs’ attorneys with the discovery framework, standard-of-care proof structure, and damages strategy needed to litigate negligent-selection claims against freight brokers in the wake of Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II. Attendees will learn how to identify and preserve broker-held records before suit, build the causation bridge between carrier selection and the crash, and exploit the structural insurance gaps that make the broker the case’s most solvent defendant. Attorneys will leave with actionable document request categories, deposition targets, expert witness criteria, and a damages narrative calibrated to the nuclear verdict environment.