Lawsuit for back solicitation
- Thread starter youngtea
- Start date
30
As my lawyer says...
Anything can be fought in court but everything should be defended in court.
Before heading to a lawyer, you should identify your true actual losses and the amount you could settle for because that will be the scope of work for a lawyer. Although a contract is a great start it rarely gets the results you wanted as you will probably want to settle as the legal fees will quickly add up. Furthermore if your contract states a percentage of the rate of moved loads good luck getting that information.
It is rare that you can legal costs returned if you take it right to the end through court and then you are at the fate of the judge who may not rule in your favor.
Good luck
30
Forget about it.. they will argue (probably correctly) that they had loaded out of that shipper previously and that they therefore had a relationship with that shipper prior to moving your load. It's a gray area. Also, back solicitation won't hold up in court if its too general.. your contract may restrict your carrier from hauling similar loads in the same lanes out of the same plant within a specific time frame; however, back solicitation clauses that are vague or too sweeping in scope carry no weight and are completely unenforceable. For example, if you haul a load out of GM for me I can't expect that you can never haul any more loads out of any GM plant ever again without incurring a penalty from me.
About lawyers.. don't do it. Flushing money down the nearest toilet would be easier and more productive. Most lawyers want a big retainer up front, and you will pay through the nose and get nothing back. In the vast majority of transactions that involve a lawyer there's really only one winner: the lawyer.
The best way to go is to recognise what happened and to discuss it with your customer. If the carrier did indeed back solicit you then your customer is an accomplice to that. Why did they allow that to happen? Talk to them to establish what services you can provide to make back solicitation a nonstarter for them. Ultimately we as brokers have to provide a value above and beyond what a carrier can provide directly.. if we can't do that then we become fair game for back solicitation. What can you do for your customer that a carrier cannot provide directly? Perhaps it's a diversity of services.. lots of different lanes, TL, LTL, rail.. etc.. Perhaps its volume... 50+ trucks a week.. Talk to your customer to discover what value you provide as a third party..
About lawyers.. don't do it. Flushing money down the nearest toilet would be easier and more productive. Most lawyers want a big retainer up front, and you will pay through the nose and get nothing back. In the vast majority of transactions that involve a lawyer there's really only one winner: the lawyer.
The best way to go is to recognise what happened and to discuss it with your customer. If the carrier did indeed back solicit you then your customer is an accomplice to that. Why did they allow that to happen? Talk to them to establish what services you can provide to make back solicitation a nonstarter for them. Ultimately we as brokers have to provide a value above and beyond what a carrier can provide directly.. if we can't do that then we become fair game for back solicitation. What can you do for your customer that a carrier cannot provide directly? Perhaps it's a diversity of services.. lots of different lanes, TL, LTL, rail.. etc.. Perhaps its volume... 50+ trucks a week.. Talk to your customer to discover what value you provide as a third party..
30
Sorry to hear what you are going through, these situations are never fun and are infuriating. We had a few instances where carriers have back-solicited or have attempted to at least. Couple of things our lawyers have told us to consider before we rushed to file suit based on emotions. The biggest thing is how much of a loss is this going to cause you. if it is substantial enough that the loss outweighs the cost of the lawsuit then sure it's worth it but more times than not as we have found out it's not really worth it. 2nd deciding factor is how solid of a case you have against the said carrier, some customers shop you with multiple brokers and carriers and add more weekly. as you mentioned you have damages stated in your contract with a percentage I'm assuming, has that carrier has done enough work with the client that you will be able to recoup your losses through that and if so how will you find out the amount of traffic being tendered. Have they done it through a backup company? if so do you have an agreement with them?
Just a few things to consider, not legal advice at all, Just some points based on quality conversations with our lawyers that have saved us money in the past.
Just a few things to consider, not legal advice at all, Just some points based on quality conversations with our lawyers that have saved us money in the past.
Start with warning your pals on inside! who was it
