Lawsuits?

@Ridgeline may know the answer.

 

Possible? It's very likely. In a lawsuit everyone who is even remotely connected to what went on is named in the suit.
That doesn't include class action suits, that's another animal entirely.
If you weren't at fault your chances of having a judgement rendered against you are very small but there are still attorney fees to be paid, depositions to sit through, and all the mental turmoil of being involved in the legal system.
Most of the time the attorneys and the insurance companies will settle out of court but it's still an agonizing process. I've seen partnerships and marriages that didn't survive the strain.
That being said, most drivers go their entire careers and never get sued for anything.
It's just part of what can happen and it can happen no matter what you do for a living.

 

You’re probably more likely to be abducted by aliens.

 

Right. The trucking company can be sued, but in most cases you won't be. There are laws protecting the employee.

 

You're right about laws protecting employees but very few of them will keep a lawsuit from happening.
We've been sued a few times over the years. As a rule if a driver or operator was involved, regardless of blame, they were included in the suit.
Example...A driver from a competing company hit one of our trucks. The competitor's truck ran a red light at an intersection and T-boned our truck. Our driver wasn't injured but the competitor's driver had a broken leg and arm. The police cited the competitor's driver for failure to stop at a traffic light and listed him at fault in the accident report so blame was easily defined.
The competitor's insurance company sued our insurance company for medical expenses. I was named in the suit as a co defendant as was my driver. We knew we wouldn't be held liable for damages but there were still the usual legal hoops to jump through...depositions, attorney fees, travel.
Our insurance company wound up paying the competitor's driver 30 thousand bucks with the requirement that. no further action be taken. Our attorney said that that was common because it cost the insurance company a minimum of 50 grand just to bring a case to trial.... Even a case they'd win. So, they saved 15 grand, the problem went away, and we all kept doing business. I figured it cost me about five thousand bucks...and this was twenty years ago...out of my pocket.
Great system, isn't it?

 

You can be sued by anyone for anything. That doesn't mean they're going to win but that also means you can't ignore the lawsuit no matter how ridiculous.

Any attorney worth his salt is going to go after the deepest pockets. Your, "good sized outfit" probably self insures and in the event they are sued and lose, their assets (trucks, trailers, terminals, drop yards, etc) can bridge the gap between a court ordered judgement and whatever their insurance limit is. Most insurance settlements require an, "exclusive remedy" - meaning if the defendant agrees to take the insurance settlement they agree not to sue anyone else for the same accident - the driver, owners of the company, etc.

Consider the case of Kevin Roper. He was a driver for WalMart. He went 28 hours without sleeping before his shift. He was driving at 20 mph over the speed limit in a construction zone when he hit a limo van with Tracy Morgan, another comedian, James McNair, and three other plaintiffs in it. Tracy Morgan suffered brain damage. James McNair died. WalMart settled with Morgan for an undisclosed sum estimated at $90 million dollars and McNair's estate for $10 million dollars. Kevin Roper didn't have to pay a dime. If he finishes 300 hours of community service the criminal charges against him will be dismissed as well.

 

That guy owned a small trucking company. He had no lease agreement with the other company. It was like, "Hey can I borrow your trailer for a couple of days?" No paperwork involved.

 

We used to do business like that. We had two friendly competitors and we all did basically the same kind of work. We'd send trucks, loan trailers, use each other's shops if it was necessary, throw an extra truck or two onto a job all on a handshake or a phone call. We'd sit down at the end of the month and tried to figure out who owed who how much. The one with the most money coming to him had to buy dinner at the Elk's Club. We did business like that for a lot of years.
We don't any more.
My two friendly competitors are both out of business. Part of it was lawsuits, both serious and frivolous and part of it was the costs of doing business in today's world. Neither one of them kept very good records, paid much attention to the law, and they generally tried to keep a 1960s ethos alive and well into the 21st century. The IRS, DOT, and a couple of other agencies didn't like the way they did business.
A handshake, a promise, your word...that was how we ran things. No lawyers, no bean counters.
Those days are gone forever.