2022 · $100M+ verdict
GrayCo / TQL nuclear verdict
One of the largest negligent-selection verdicts ever entered against a freight broker. The verdict crystalized the modern plaintiff playbook: pull the FMCSA history, find any pre-load red flag the broker did not document a response to, and ask the jury what 'reasonable care' looks like.
- Verdict
- $100M+
- Year
- 2022
- Court
- State court, Georgia
What happened
- The broker tendered a load to a carrier whose FMCSA profile contained material safety signals before the load was booked.
- A fatal crash followed; the family sued the broker under a negligent-selection theory.
- The jury returned a nine-figure verdict against the broker.
The holding
The jury concluded the broker failed to use reasonable care in selecting the carrier given what FMCSA data showed at the time of booking, and awarded damages that exceeded most broker E&O programs by an order of magnitude.
What brokers should take from it
- A single uninvestigated red flag can support a nine-figure verdict.
- Generic 'we vet our carriers' marketing language is treated as a promise; juries hold brokers to it.
- Per-load evidence is the only thing that survives discovery years later.
What BrokerShield would have produced
- Flagged the FMCSA safety signals on the carrier in plain English before the load was assigned.
- Required a named user to acknowledge each red flag with a written rationale, time-stamped and immutable.
- Stored an unalterable, court-ready Proof of Diligence PDF per load — exactly the artifact plaintiff's counsel asks for first in discovery.
Summary based on publicly reported case materials. Not legal advice — talk to your counsel.