December 22, 2021
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling clarifying the limits of specific personal jurisdiction for automakers, appellate decisions hampering ride-share and ride-hail drivers' efforts to pursue class actions, and shielding California workplace regulations from federal preemption are among the year's biggest court decisions impacting the transportation industry. Here, Law360 looks back at a few notable transportation-related rulings of 2021.
November 05, 2021
The First Circuit reversed a lower court's ruling Friday and held that Massachusetts-based Lyft drivers suing to gain employee status must privately arbitrate their claims because they do not qualify as transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce who would otherwise be exempt from arbitration.
March 02, 2021
Uber and Lyft drivers took their battle for employee status to the First Circuit on Tuesday, asking the court to block the companies from using arbitration as an escape hatch from litigation challenging the classification of drivers as independent contractors.
January 12, 2021
Lyft cannot rely on disputed arbitration agreements to continue flouting Massachusetts law by classifying its drivers as independent contractors, the drivers have told the First Circuit in their bid to reverse a lower court's decision denying them injunctions that would deem them employees.
December 23, 2020
Lyft urged the First Circuit to uphold a federal judge's decision denying injunctions that would have forced the company to classify its drivers as employees, saying the judge didn't have authority to grant the requests due to ongoing arguments over whether the claims belonged in arbitration.
November 16, 2020
The First Circuit should make a lower court reverse its decision not to immediately classify Lyft drivers as employees under Massachusetts law and grant them paid sick leave, a group of nonprofits have said, arguing COVID-19 has made such reclassification urgent.
November 06, 2020
Massachusetts drivers told the First Circuit that Lyft cannot use an arbitration agreement to thwart their bid to gain employee status through a court injunction, insisting that they're bona fide transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce who are exempt from arbitration.
October 07, 2020
Lyft has told the First Circuit that Massachusetts drivers suing to gain employee status must privately arbitrate their claims and that they do not qualify as transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce who would otherwise be exempt from arbitration.