Trucking verdicts and the cost of auto liability

Trucking cases produce some of the largest bodily injury verdicts in the country because a loaded tractor-trailer can kill or maim, because plaintiffs put the carrier's own conduct on trial, and because the federal minimum of $750,000 sits far below what a serious case can be worth. Insurers have answered with higher auto liability rates, thinner excess capacity and tighter underwriting.

What the numbers show

• Crash severity. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety counted 5,340 deaths in crashes involving large trucks in 2024. About 62 percent were occupants of passenger vehicles, 17 percent were truck occupants, and 19 percent were pedestrians, bicyclists or motorcyclists (IIHS). The people who sue are usually in the smaller vehicle.
• Nuclear verdicts. Marathon Strategies reported on August 18, 2026 that corporate defendants faced nearly 200 verdicts of $10 million or more in 2025, up 40.7 percent from 2024, with more than $25.6 billion in total awards and more than 40 over $100 million (Marathon Strategies). The wider picture is in nuclear verdicts and social inflation: why liability costs keep rising. For trucking specifically, Insurance Business reported in June 2026, citing Marathon, that the median nuclear verdict in trucking cases was $51 million in 2024, up from $44 million in 2023 and $21 million in 2020.
• Carrier cost. The same article, reporting a Demotech analysis of 10-K filings from the ten largest U.S. trucking companies, says their combined insurance and claims spending rose from $992 million in 2021 to $1.53 billion in 2025, a 54.4 percent increase, while their revenue grew 9.95 percent (Insurance Business, June 26, 2026). Those are the largest fleets, not a typical small carrier, but the direction is the same one described in why commercial auto insurance keeps getting more expensive.
• Insurer results. AM Best's data put commercial auto's underwriting loss at about $4.9 billion in 2024, the 14th straight year of losses, and about $1.9 billion in 2025, as summarized in why commercial auto insurance keeps getting more expensive.

Why trucking cases get large

1. Catastrophic injury. Brain injury, spinal injury, amputation and wrongful death involve life-care costs, lost earnings and non-economic damages measured over decades.
2. Direct negligence claims against the carrier. Besides arguing the driver was negligent, plaintiffs plead negligent hiring, supervision, training, entrustment and maintenance against the company. Those claims open discovery into driver qualification files, hours-of-service logs, dispatch pressure, inspection history, FMCSA safety data (How CSA scores and safety ratings affect trucking insurance) and telematics (telematics and dashcams in commercial auto insurance). A carrier with a thin file looks careless even when the driver did nothing wrong.
3. Punitive damages. Where state law allows and plaintiffs can show reckless or conscious disregard, they seek punitive damages. Whether punitive damages can be insured at all depends on state law.
4. More defendants. Shippers, freight brokers, equipment lessors, trailer owners and the owner-operator's lessor can all be named. On May 14, 2026, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court held in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC (No. 24-1238) that a negligent-selection claim against a freight broker falls within the safety exception to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act's preemption clause, as summarized by Faegre Drinker. Brokers can now be sued under state law for carelessly choosing a carrier, because federal law does not preempt the claim, although the plaintiff must still prove it. Legal commentary in Insurance Journal expects plaintiffs to plead more claims against shippers as well, though the decision does not create new shipper duties. It is reasonable to expect shipper and broker contracts to focus harder on carriers' insurance limits, safety data and indemnity.
5. Venue and procedure. County, jury pool and rules on evidence shape the outcome. Texas, for example, lets a commercial motor vehicle defendant ask for a bifurcated trial (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 72.052) and, if the employer stipulates that the driver was acting in the scope of employment, limits ordinary-negligence claims against the employer to vicarious liability (§ 72.054). See Texas and tort reform and liability insurance: what changes for business buyers.

A case study: Werner Enterprises v. Blake

In December 2014, a pickup skidded on ice, crossed a 42-foot median on a Texas highway, and struck an oncoming Werner Enterprises tractor-trailer. A jury later put 84 percent of the responsibility on Werner and its driver and 14 percent on the pickup driver, and the result was a judgment that FreightWaves described as a $100 million nuclear verdict. On June 27, 2025, the Texas Supreme Court reversed and rendered judgment for Werner in Werner Enterprises, Inc. v. Blake, No. 23-0493, holding according to summaries that the truck's speed and presence were not a legal cause of the injuries. Three justices agreed the verdict could not stand but would have ordered a new trial instead (opinion at the Texas Supreme Court; FreightWaves report).

Two lessons for insurance buyers. First, verdicts can be overturned, but it took more than ten years from crash to final judgment, and few carriers can fund that kind of fight without insurance. Second, the majority's ruling turned on causation, and some justices also criticized the way the jury was allowed to treat the employer separately from its driver, which is why defense counsel and a clean paper trail matter long before trial.

What it does to your insurance program

The federal floor for for-hire carriers of non-hazardous freight in vehicles of 10,001 pounds or more is $750,000, with $1 million and $5 million tiers for certain hazardous loads (49 CFR 387.9). The amounts have not changed since 1985, and FMCSA withdrew a 2014 proposal to raise them in 2017 (Federal Register). Contracts commonly ask for more, and serious claims blow through both. Here is how a hypothetical $18 million verdict would sit against a typical tower:

The figures are invented to show structure. In real programs the layers, who writes them and what they follow are negotiated, and umbrella vs excess liability explains the difference. Capacity is part of the problem: Insurance Business quotes Victor US's chief underwriting officer saying some buyers who once purchased $25 million of umbrella can now get $10 million. The same article cites Amwins' 2025 transportation report, which found commercial auto premiums up 9.4 percent in 2025.

Two form details matter. On the ISO Motor Carrier Coverage Form (CA 00 20, 10 13 edition, read from a carrier-hosted copy), the insurer's duty to defend or settle ends when the liability limit has been exhausted by payment of judgments or settlements, and expenses the insurer incurs, including defense costs, are supplementary payments that do not reduce the limit before then. That is why defense costs inside vs outside policy limits: why it matters is worth reading, and why a settlement that exhausts the primary changes who is defending you. And the MCS-90 obligation in FMCSA insurance requirements and filings for motor carriers protects the injured public, not the carrier.

What a fleet can do

1. Test limits against realistic severity. Use the How much umbrella coverage do I need? and ask your broker what peers carry.
2. Build the file a jury will read. Complete driver qualification files, annual MVR reviews, documented training and discipline, maintenance records and hours-of-service compliance. See Driver selection, MVRs and your commercial auto premium.
3. Use technology and follow through. Cameras and telematics help only when events are reviewed and coached.
4. Respond to accidents fast. Preserve evidence, notify the excess carriers, and follow the plan in what to do after an accident in a company vehicle.
5. Handle settlement demands carefully. When a plaintiff makes a demand within limits, tell your broker and every excess carrier immediately. A refusal to settle within limits can raise bad-faith questions for the insurer, and an excess verdict raises uninsured exposure for you.
6. Read your contracts. Shipper and broker agreements set insurance minimums, additional insured status and indemnity. The contract may push exposure to you after Montgomery.

Key takeaways

• Large-truck crashes kill thousands each year, mostly people in other vehicles, which is why bodily injury severity drives trucking liability pricing.
• Marathon Strategies counted nearly 200 corporate verdicts of $10 million or more in 2025, and a report on the ten largest trucking companies found their insurance and claims spending rose 54.4 percent from 2021 to 2025.
• Plaintiffs go beyond driver error, and after Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II (May 14, 2026) freight brokers face negligent-selection claims too.
• Werner v. Blake shows a nine-figure verdict can be overturned, but only after years of litigation and expense.
• The $750,000 federal minimum is a floor. Plan limits and excess capacity against a realistic serious case, and document your safety program.