Independent Contractor Truck Driver Lawsuit: How Louisiana Courts Decide Whether a Trucking Company Is Liable

You were hurt in a crash with an 18-wheeler, and now the trucking company or its insurer is telling you the driver was an independent contractor, not an employee.

If you are thinking about a lawsuit against an independent contractor truck driver, that answer can sound like the end of your claim against the company. It may not be. Louisiana courts look at how the relationship between the driver and the company actually worked and, above all, at who had the right to control the work.

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Key Takeaways

• What a contract calls the driver does not, by itself, determine whether the trucking company is responsible for the crash.
• Louisiana courts look at the relationship as it actually worked, and the right to control the work is the main question.
• Federal leasing rules put control of a leased truck with the carrier, but the same rules say they do not decide whether the driver is an employee.
• A Louisiana appeals court held that a federal lease did not make a carrier responsible when the driver was not doing the carrier’s business at the time.
• We handle 18-wheeler cases across Louisiana and Texas.

At Ikerd Law Firm, we handle 18-wheeler wreck cases across Louisiana and Texas. You can reach us online or call (337) 366-8994 to talk through what you were told.

This page provides general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always consult a licensed attorney for advice specific to your situation.

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When the Trucking Company Says the Driver Was Not Its Employee

The answer may come in a call from an adjuster or in a letter from the company’s lawyer.

It can sound like any of these:

• The driver was an independent contractor.
• He owned his own truck.
• He was only leased by a contractor.

Whatever the wording, the point is the same. If the driver was not the company’s employee, the company may argue it is not responsible for his actions behind the wheel and that your claim should be directed solely at the driver.

You do not have to accept that as the final word. Truck accident liability does not always stop with the driver, and the law answers the question of who is liable in a truck accident by looking at the facts.

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Why the Contract Label Does Not Decide Who Is Responsible

Louisiana law addresses an employer’s responsibility in a short article. Article 2320 of the Louisiana Civil Code says that “masters and employers are answerable for the damage caused by their servants and overseers while performing their duties.”

Put simply, a company can be responsible for harm its employee causes while doing the company’s work.

That is why a company may say its driver was an independent contractor instead. In a claim based on vicarious liability, independent contractor status can decide whether the company stays in the case, because the rule above speaks to employers and the people who work for them.

The signed contract is one piece of evidence. In Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Company, the Supreme Court of Louisiana said the relationship is decided “from the contract between them and from their intentions in establishing and carrying out that relationship as manifested in its performance and the surrounding circumstances.”

In that case:

• A man picked up and delivered freight for a transport company under a signed contract.
• The company said he was an independent contractor.
• Nevertheless, the court held that he was an employee.

The court also named what it treats as the main test: “the control over the work reserved by the employer.” What counts is not only how closely the company actually supervised the driver. In the court’s words, “the important question is whether, from the nature of the relationship, the right to do so exists.”

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The Records That Show Who Controlled the Driver’s Work

The answer may not be in the paperwork you were given after the crash. It is in how the work was really done, and the facts the court relied on in Hickman show what to look for.

What to Look At	Where It Can Show Up in a Trucking Case	What the Court Said in Hickman
Who set the driver’s schedule?	Dispatch records, load assignments, and messages telling the driver where to be and when	The depot agent set the time for pickups and deliveries and often decided their order. The court treated that as a limit on the driver’s freedom.
Whether the driver ran his own business	Whether he hauled for other customers or only for this carrier	The driver had no regular work apart from the transport company, other than digging graves after hours. The court said his business was not independent.
Whether the driver could choose how to do the job	Instructions, rules, or discipline from the carrier	The court found it unrealistic to think he could change his pattern of pickups and deliveries without the company reprimanding or disciplining him.
How the relationship could end	Termination terms in the lease	Either side could end the contract on written notice without owing anything for breaking it, and the company could end it any time his work was unsatisfactory. The court called the clause perhaps the most telling point.
How the deal was priced and how long it ran	Pay records and the length of the lease	For a true independent contractor arrangement, the court described a specific price agreed upon for the overall job and work that runs for a specific time.

On how the relationship could end, the court said that a right to end it without cause, where no term is set, “is characteristic of the master and servant or employer-employee relationship.”

These points are weighed together, which is why the documents matter so much. You may not have seen any of them.

Asking for them and reading them against Louisiana law is part of what a lawyer does in a case like this.

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Owner-Operators, Lease Agreements, and the Carrier’s Responsibility

A driver who owns a truck and leases it to an authorized carrier is commonly called an owner-operator. The carrier then uses a truck it does not own to haul freight, and a company may describe an owner-operator as an independent contractor.

Federal rules control what that lease has to say, and the same rule sets a limit:

• 49 C.F.R. § 376.12(c)(1) requires the lease to provide that the carrier “shall have exclusive possession, control, and use of the equipment for the duration of the lease” and “shall assume complete responsibility for the operation of the equipment for the duration of the lease.”
• 49 C.F.R. § 376.12(c)(4) states that nothing in that control requirement “is intended to affect whether the lessor or driver provided by the lessor is an independent contractor or an employee of the authorized carrier lessee.”

A Louisiana appeals court worked through this in Jackson v. Wise, a 2018 decision from the First Circuit.

Here is what happened:

• The driver owned his 18-wheeler and had leased it to a trucking company.
• When the crash happened, he was pulling a Mardi Gras parade float for a private group, not hauling for the carrier.
• The woman who was hurt argued that the federal lease rule made the carrier responsible.
• The court looked to Louisiana law to decide “whether Mr. Wise was acting within the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident” and found he was not acting in furtherance of the carrier’s business.

On those facts, the court held the federal lease rule did not make the carrier vicariously liable.

For you, the lease matters, but it does not automatically make the carrier responsible or let it off the hook. What the driver was doing when the crash happened is a key question. That is one reason liability in a truck accident claim involving a leased truck depends so much on the facts.

If a lease or an independent contractor defense has come up in your claim, contact us about the documents behind it.

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Other Ways a Trucking Company May Still Be Responsible

When you are trying to find out whether a trucking company is liable for an independent contractor driver, the company’s own conduct, such as how it hired, trained, or supervised the driver, can be a separate question.

The Supreme Court of Louisiana recognized that in Martin v. Thomas, a case involving a truck driver who was an employee. We explain how federal safety rules come into these cases in our guide on how federal laws are used to prove truck driver negligence.

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What to Do If You Were Told the Driver Was an Independent Contractor

If the insurer or the trucking company has told you the driver was an independent contractor, these steps can help:

1. Do not treat that answer as the final word on your claim. It is the company’s position, not a ruling from a court.
2. Keep every letter, email, and text you receive from the insurer or the trucking company, including anything that describes the driver, the truck, or a lease.
3. Check the time limits. Legal deadlines and procedural requirements may apply, and our guide on how long you have to file a personal injury lawsuit in Louisiana explains the requirements in more detail.
4. Read our page on what to do in the first 72 hours after a truck accident in Louisiana for the first steps to take after a crash.

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Talk to the Ikerd Law Firm Today

Before you accept that the trucking company is not responsible, let us look at what the driver’s relationship with the company really was. Chad M. Ikerd handles 18-wheeler cases across Louisiana and Texas, and he works on his clients’ cases himself. Chad Ikerd is also a member of the Academy of Truck Accident Lawyers (ATAA), which is a group dedicated to improving trucking safety and collaborating to ensure injured parties receive just compensation when injured by 18-Wheeler truck wrecks.

Consultations for personal injury cases are free. Call (337) 366-8994 or send us a message. You do not have to sort the issue out alone.

This page explains Louisiana law. If your crash happened in Texas, different law may apply, and we handle Texas trucking cases as well.

Every statute, regulation, and court decision on this page links to its source: the Louisiana State Legislature for the Civil Code, the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations for federal leasing rules, and the published opinions for each court decision.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Are Companies Legally Responsible for Independent Contractors?

In Louisiana, Article 2320 of the Civil Code makes employers answerable for harm their employees cause while doing their work. Whether a company is responsible for someone it calls an independent contractor depends on the real nature of the relationship between the parties. In Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Company, the Supreme Court of Louisiana treated control over the worker’s work as the main test and found that a worker the company called an independent contractor was an employee.

Are Truck Drivers Considered Independent Contractors?

A driver may be classified as an independent contractor or an employee, depending on the facts of the relationship, not just the contract and not based on how the company labels the worker’s status. Federal leasing rules require a carrier to take control of a truck it leases, but 49 C.F.R. § 376.12(c)(4) states that this requirement is not intended to decide whether the driver is an independent contractor or an employee.

What Are the Legal Liabilities of an Independent Contractor?

Under Article 2315 of the Louisiana Civil Code, “every act whatever of man that causes damage to another obliges him by whose fault it happened to repair it.” A driver who causes a crash through his own fault can be responsible for the harm, whatever his status. The independent contractor question is about whether the trucking company can be responsible as well.