pharmaceutical companies and a larger contractor ( BeavEx , Inc .) who hired the small independent contractor . Pay close attention to details in the police report . Research the entity listed as the registered owner of the vehicle . A recently registered corporation , or a corporation whose registered agent is the same as the driver may indicate a sham independent contractor situation . Figure out who might have responded to the scene : often Amazon and other logistics companies will send representatives to the scene , even if they later deny association .
• Go Beyond the Contract : The contract will insist on the independence of the small independent contractor ( in our case a company run by two brothers and a handful of drivers ) and their driver , but reality is likely far different . Fight the necessary discovery battles to obtain policies and procedures , guidelines and any rules or requirements that the independent contractor and their driver must follow . There will be some , especially if your case involves scheduled drugs . The key is to establish significant and everyday control over the driver . You can do this by showing , for example , that the logistics company controls :
• Routes and route sequences ; Delivery windows and schedules ; What vehicles can be used , vehicle maintenance schedules and vehicle branding requirements ; What drivers can wear and how they must interact with customers ; Requirements regarding driver safety training and providing training materials ; The pace at which deliveries must occur ( e . g ., are there performance metrics and quotas ); The protocols drivers must follow regarding delivery , customer signatures and what paperwork must be filled out and returned ; Whether the logistics company can discipline the independent contractor and driver and terminate the relationship by failure to follow rules and guidelines ; and Whether any equipment such as handheld devices with company specific apps are used .
• Look for Indemnity Obligations : Obtain the policy , not just the declarations page so you can determine if the company who contracted with the independent contractor ( e . g ., Amazon ) is an additional named insured . Also , look at the contracts between the logistics company and any intermediaries for indemnity clauses and conduct insurance PMQ depositions if necessary to determine the amount of coverage .
• The Independent Contractor May Be on Your Side : The small independent contractor may be on your side and may be your best source of records . They were in our case . The independent contractor produced some of the best testimony and records to establish agency . Remember , the independent contractor may recognize the unfairness of attempts to hold them solely responsible . As part of the closing argument in Bradfield , Plaintiff argued the independent contractor was also a victim and that it wasn ’ t fair for Amazon to try to force a small business owner to be held exclusively liable .
• Fight Through Corporate Speak : In PMQ depositions we had to fight through layers of non-responsive corporate speak . Corporations speak their own language , have their own acronyms , and it is often difficult to wrestle a clear answer from their PMQs . Documents help cut through this and so can identifying former employees . Use depositions to obtain admissions , but also get the name and title of every supervisor , manager , and employee who worked on a regional logistics team .
Consider Direct Liability : In our case there wasn ’ t much evidence of direct negligence by the healthcare logistics companies . Unlike Bradfield , the companies did not directly train the drivers and there wasn ’ t strong evidence that the driver was under significant time pressure when making deliveries that day . However , it is worth exploring in discovery — especially with the driver and independent contractor — what training and training requirements there are , and whether there are delivery quotas or other time pressures that contributed directly to driver negligence .
The award in Bradfield and the settlement we were able to obtain in our case demonstrate that it is possible to hold logistics companies accountable for the actions of independent contractors . Cases against these large public companies are never easy , so be prepared for difficult discovery battles and dispositive motions on the agency issue . But it ’ s a fight worth having . The sun is beginning to set on this liabilityavoidance scheme and it ’ s up to us to develop local precedent against lastmile logistics companies .
David C . Shay and Mark J . Nagle are both attorneys at Vaziri Law Group , where they focus on catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases . Mr . Shay is lead trial counsel for the firm and has obtained multiple seven figure verdicts against major corporations . Mr . Nagle made the switch to the plaintiff ’ s bar three years ago after more than a decade as a business litigator . Law school classmates , together they ’ ve tried several seven figure cases to verdict and collaborated to set the landmark ruling Randy ’ s Trucking , Inc . v . Superior Court ( 2023 ) 91 Cal . App . 5th 818 . They can be contacted at dshay @ vazirilaw . com and mnagle @ vazirilaw . com .
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