In every case our New Orleans, LA delivery truck driver has where a driver delivering Amazon packages injured one of our clients, Amazon has taken the position that it has no liability for the crash. They do that by pointing the finger at the “Delivery Service Provider” or their “DSP” (which has limited insurance) and advancing the specious claim that Amazon has nothing to do with the delivery of its packages. They make this claim even though drivers they claim have nothing to do with Amazon and are “employed by Delivery Service Providers” respond to Amazon ads, wearing Amazon shirts and Amazon hats, in Amazon branded trucks, delivering Amazon packages in Amazon boxes to Amazon customers from Amazon facilities, on routes dictated by Amazon using Amazon technology to do so. Oh yeah, and if Amazon doesn’t like what the driver is doing, they can fire them.
This is corporate gymnastics at its finest. You can’t call a chicken a duck and ask a jury of reasonable people to accept that it quacks. We are happy to have litigated this issue and have a court agree with us – that this is just a ruse, finding Amazon liable for the acts of their “independent contractor” drivers.
In 2025, Amazon reported gross income of $691.33 billion. And good for them! They revolutionized how we do a lot of stuff. But, to say that this billion dollar company should be shielded from liability when one of these drivers that helps stack their billions of dollars of revenue injures someone while doing their job, is absurd. To say that the claims of an ordinary person should be limited to the insurance policies of the delivery service providers – typically an LLC with little to no assets and only a $1,000,000 policy – is absurd.
How Amazon Argues That They Are Not Liable If One Of Their Amazon Drivers Gets Into A Truck Accident
Look, corporations are smart. You don’t become a billion-dollar company by not attempting to shield your liability or admitting when you are wrong. Amazon has built one of the most sophisticated logistics networks in the world, promising customers rapid, reliable delivery at unprecedented scale. Central to this system is Amazon’s Delivery Service Provider (DSP) program, through which thousands of third-party companies deliver Amazon packages while operating under Amazon’s branding, technology, and operational rules. Amazon has agreements with these companies that delineate that they and their drivers are considered to be “independent contractors”.
Amazon claims that they are not vicariously liable for these drivers because they are not employees, but independent contractors.
The Law Of Vicarious Liability
The law of vicarious liability – in a nutshell – holds that companies or individuals can be held liable when someone injures a third party while they are on a mission for the benefit of the person or company.
Louisiana courts have recognized that the vicarious liability doctrine is based on numerous public policy concerns, including the following considerations:
- Employers have incentive to take steps to reduce accidents if they are liable for the negligence of their employees.
- The doctrine spreads the costs of injury to the community since an employer who has been forced to pay damages occasioned by the torts of his employees can pass on the costs to the community in the form of higher prices or costs.
- The employer has control over the employee’s activities, and should therefore be liable for the employee’s torts committed while he is under the employer’s control.
- The employee’s actions advance the work of the employer; thus, it is sensible and logical for the employer to be liable for the torts of his employees.
- The employer is more likely to be solvent, and thus able to pay damages, than the employee.
In many states, Louisiana included, courts look beyond a contract to make this determination. That is, you cannot have a contract that says a chicken is a duck and then flash that around in court and have that be the end of the inquiry. Courts will look to all of the factual factors surrounding the relationship to see if you have exhibited a certain level of control over the “independent contractor”.
The Louisiana Supreme Court in Orgeron set forth a non-exclusive list of factors to determine whether an employee is in the course and scope of his employment: payment of wages; right of direction and control of the employer; employees duty to perform; the time, place, and purpose of the act in relation to the employer’s service; the relationship between act and the employee’s business; the benefits received by the employer; the employees motivation for doing the act; and the reasonable expectation that the worker would perform the act. Cases are analyzed on a case by case basis.
Courts Have Found That Amazon Is Liable If One Of Their Amazon Drivers Gets Into A Truck Accident
Many juries and courts have already analyzed whether Amazon can be vicariously liable for the negligence or actions of their delivery drivers – and found that they absolutely can.
In Bradfield v. Amazon Logistics, in 2024, a Georgia jury came down with a $16.2 million verdict against Amazon after a child was run over by an Amazon delivery van. Jurors concluded that Amazon exercised sufficient control over the negligent driver to render the delivery giant liable for his share of fault.
In Shannon Shaw v. Amazon.com, Inc, a South Carolina jury awarded $44.6 million in damage including $30 million in punitive damages, after a man was injured in a collision with an Amazon van in September 2021 and suffered a traumatic brain injury and many orthopedic injuries.
We recently took our issue before a Judge on Motions, and the Judge agreed that Amazon was liable when its driver rear ended our client.
We are happy to see all of the cases conclude what is obvious: that these powerful corporations cannot delegate its deliveries to what amounts to shell companies in order to escape liability when those companies seriously injure an innocent victim. If you have been injured in an accident involving an Amazon truck, contact Kiefer & Kiefer today.
