Trial Magazine

Why AAJ? As I travel around the country, I emphasize how important AAJ is to all of our practices. No matter your area of practice, AAJ provides incredible value. Whether it’s protecting access to justice when autonomous vehicles (AVs) dominate America’s roadways, preventing caps on damages, or fighting to end forced arbitration, AAJ supports all of us.

Helping people who have been injured in automobile crashes forms the cornerstone of their practices for so many AAJ members, which is why the association advocates tirelessly in this arena. For decades, AAJ has played a pivotal role in preventing detrimental legislation from gaining traction. In the 1990s, AAJ worked to prevent a national no-fault bill from becoming law. More recently, AAJ has focused on various proposals to regulate AVs and ensure everyone on the roadways retains access to the courts when cars no longer have drivers. Between AV manufacturers’ use of forced arbitration and their desire to substitute the “autonomous driving system” as the driver, there are formidable new challenges to accountability that AAJ continues to work on.

AAJ has fervently advocated that the federal minimum insurance requirement for trucking companies be raised so companies can be held accountable and victims of truck crashes can obtain some measure of justice. This archaic insurance requirement has stagnated since 1980 and fails to keep pace with inflation and rising medical costs. Meanwhile, fatalities and injuries from large truck crashes on America’s roadways have risen at alarming rates in the last 15 years and are currently at levels last seen in the ’80s. The current insurance levels thwart the insurance market from functioning as it should, artificially suppressing premiums for even the most dangerous companies. Stay up to date on trucking litigation issues through AAJ’s Trucking Litigation Group, and consider attending the Trial Advocacy College: Litigating Truck Collision Cases in Houston, June 10–12 (justice.org/resources/events).

In the contemporary landscape, the emergence of rideshare and gig services has introduced novel legal challenges. AAJ and its members, cognizant of the evolving nature of these cases, established the Ride Share and Gig Services Litigation Group. This group aids attorneys in navigating these intricate issues, fostering a cohesive litigation strategy in an area of law that is still developing.

AAJ’s other transportation-related resources are robust and include Litigation Groups and Sections spanning motor vehicle, railroad, aviation, and admiralty—each with continuing legal education programs, business meetings, and secure list servers. The Motor Vehicle Section actively engages its members in investigating and litigating cases involving automobiles, trucks, buses, and motorcycles. And AAJ’s Litigation Packets include a range of transportation topics with sample briefs, depo summaries, and discovery templates (justice.org/litigationpackets).

Not only does AAJ address existing issues, it also works preemptively to prevent potential future challenges. An example is the effort to forestall the risk of every auto case being tried in federal court—a move that could have far-reaching consequences for the legal framework surrounding auto litigation. The foresight demonstrated by AAJ in anticipating and addressing these types of issues underscores the organization’s indispensability to every attorney handling auto cases.

As this issue of Trial hits your desk, we are days away from the 2024 Winter Convention in Austin, Texas. One of our primary goals for a successful convention is to increase the support of AAJ PAC among our members. The PAC is the foundation of AAJ’s political success. I am asking each of you to make sure you are a part of that success. If you are not a current contributor to the PAC, go to justice.org/AAJPAC and contribute today.

AAJ members make decisions every day about how to invest in the future of their practices and strengthen civil justice. One of the most important decisions you can make is being a member of AAJ.

Sean C. Domnick is a founder and shareholder of Domnick Cunningham & Yaffa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and can be reached at sean.domnick@justice.org.