In The News

Tennessee CDL debacle draws second lawsuit

Attorneys in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have filed two separate class action suits, which are related to the estimated 5,000 CDLs the state of Tennessee declared invalid after investigating the Swift Transportation’s Tennessee trucking school in 2008.

In February 2008, the state-certified CDL testing center at a Swift Trucking facility near Memphis was raided by multiple state and federal agencies. Documents were seized, and the investigation reportedly centered on the illegal issuance of CDLs.

Although no charges emerged, in January 2009 the Tennessee Department of Safety commissioner announced that drivers who obtained CDLs through an unnamed third-party tester in Tennessee between May 2005 and January 2008 might be required to do a complete retest.

A Freedom of Information Act request by Land Line later revealed the tester was Swift.

Tennessee’s move to yank the CDLs following the investigation prompted other states to revoke CDLs from drivers who originally obtained their CDLs through Swift’s Tennessee school, and has affected at least 5,000 drivers nationally.

The recently filed class action lawsuits aim to get hearings for the “mass revocation of hundreds of CDLs” in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as other relief for former students of the Millington, TN, driving school.

Attorney Philip Stephen Fuoco of Haddonfield, NJ, called Tennessee’s revocation of the CDLs unconstitutional “and un-American,” and blamed Tennessee and the other states for revoking the licenses.

“For other states to blindly follow this decision by Tennessee is not much better,” Fuoco said in a statement.

“We hope the lawsuits will, at minimum, provide an explanation to these hard-working truckers as to why they have lost their ability to feed their families; while at the same time providing them adequate time to be retested,” Fuoco said. “And there is no doubt that Swift Transportation should be held accountable to the truckers for whatever transgressions caused their certifications to be revoked by the state of Tennessee.”

According to court documents, plaintiffs in a different lawsuit believe total potential class members’ claims exceed $5 million.

For more information on the New Jersey/Pennsylvania suit, call the Law Firm of Philip Stephen Fuoco at 856-354-1100.

[email protected]