Every time a family goes to the store, they’re paying a hidden tax. Whether it’s milk, furniture, or auto parts, excessive trucking litigation costs are buried in everyday goods and services. And these costs are only growing.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform’s new report, Roadblock: The Trucking Litigation Problem and How to Fix It, puts these costs into perspective.

The research outlines how excessive litigation, inflated claims, and abusive legal tactics can explode verdicts, increase settlement pressure, and ultimately contribute to rising insurance premiums. It also identifies commonsense reforms that discourage lawsuit abuse while preserving access to justice.

The trucking industry moves roughly 72% of the nation’s freight. When trucking litigation costs spiral out of control, it translates into higher shipping costs and higher prices at the store. Small trucking companies, already operating on thin margins, are especially vulnerable to being driven out of business by a single outsized or fraudulent verdict. Critically, the impact of these costs is felt across virtually the entire economy.

Roadblock reviewed 334 commercial truck accident verdicts and settlements from June 2023 to July 2026. The study found the average award for settlements and verdicts reached $16.8 million, and that plaintiffs’ verdicts alone averaged nearly $28 million. Even the median award of $3 million for verdicts and settlements shows a significant increase from the past edition of the paper. Troublingly, these numbers come despite data showing that truck safety measurements and public perception of truck safety have substantially improved in recent years.

Every dollar a trucking company loses to an inflated verdict or puts toward settling frivolous claims is a dollar that doesn’t go toward safer equipment, driver training, or good-paying jobs. Instead, it gets absorbed into skyrocketing costs that ripple through the supply chain until they land on the consumer’s receipt.

Excessive awards and verdicts are made worse by organized fraud rings that stage collisions with commercial trucks. These schemes manufacture injury claims that are coordinated by billboard lawyers and unscrupulous healthcare providers to flood the courts with fraudulent lawsuits.

The clearest example surfaced recently in New Orleans, where investigators uncovered a staged crash scheme that had been running for years. The scheme became a sustained business model for some, with honest drivers and consumers ultimately footing the bill.

The consequences of runaway liability extend far beyond the trucking industry. ILR’s new edition of Tort Costs in America found that the total cost of the U.S. tort system reached $655.6 billion in 2025, up from $529 billion in 2022. That equates to over $4,900 per American household. In 2022, that number was $4,200 per household. These increases are further proof that the need for meaningful lawsuit reform has never been more urgent, and that the price of inaction keeps landing on the shoulders of America’s families.

Lawmakers are starting to take notice of the impact of abuse on the trucking industry and consumer costs. At the federal level, Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida introduced the Staged Accident Fraud Prevention Act (S.5058) to combat the rise in illegal staged auto accidents. Her bill, and the House companion H.R. 2662, would give law enforcement and the courts better tools to identify and prosecute staged auto accident fraud.

This kind of attention is encouraging, but it’s only part of the solution. Legislation targeting outright fraud must be paired with broader civil justice reforms that address the systemic incentives driving excessive litigation more generally.

Yes, legitimate claims deserve fair compensation, but our civil justice system was never meant to be a vehicle for manufactured fraud or jackpot-seeking litigation tactics.

Legal reforms, including guardrails around litigation funding, reasonable limits on excessive damages, improved evidentiary rules, and stronger tools to detect staged-accident schemes, can discourage abuse without closing the courthouse doors to anyone with a legitimate claim.

At the Institute for Legal Reform, we will keep shining a light on these abuses and pushing for solutions that protect both access to justice and the economic health of an industry that keeps America moving. We either let lawsuit abuse keep driving up costs for American households, or we commit to reforms that protect legitimate victims while shutting the door on fraud. For the sake of every family paying more at the register, we should choose the latter.