Iowa bill aims to protect trucking firms from nuclear verdicts
Iowa lawmakers are pushing a bill through that would shield trucking companies from liability for direct negligence if their driver is involved in a serious collision.
Jury awards in a civil lawsuit would be capped at $1 million for cases involving crashes with commercial truck drivers.
Senate Study Bill 1114 has advanced out of Judiciary Committee for consideration by the full Senate. SF228 was introduced Feb. 7.
The bill says a trial court “shall dismiss from the civil action any claim of the employer’s direct negligence in hiring, training, supervising or trusting the employee, or other claim of direct negligence on the part of the employer for the employee’s harmful conduct.”
The total liability cap recoverable by each plaintiff in any civil action involving the operation of a commercial motor vehicle for noneconomic damages for personal injury or death “shall be limited to $1 million, regardless of the number of claims, theories of liabilities, or defendants in the civil action,” the bill reads.
Examples of possible noneconomic damages include pain and suffering, emotional trauma, or loss of a spouse. Medical bills and lost wages are considered economic damages. There is no limit on that liability in the bill.
If the bill becomes law, this amount can be adjusted to account for inflation by the secretary of state beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and every even-numbered year after that.
Further, a claim for punitive or exemplary damages may not be included in the initial claim filed in a lawsuit, according to the bill. It can only be made after the plaintiff establishes proof of an issue that can be brought to trial.
Sen. Michael Bousselot, R-Ankeny, is listed at the floor manager in the Iowa Senate. He was chief of staff to former Gov. Terry Branstad and the budget director for Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines, an attorney, is listed at the floor manager in the Iowa House.
David Scott, a lobbyist for the Iowa Motor Truck Association, told LocalToday.news in late January that the goal of the legislation is to bring “some fairness to nuclear judgments across the country … The legislation provides some degree of predictability to all 804,000 commercial vehicles in Iowa.”
There was an attempt to pass similar legislation last year, but it was coupled with a measure to ban vaccination mandates and failed to pass, according to that news source. LL
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