Legal Question in Employment Law in Illinois

My husband signed a contract when he was hired by a trucking company that stated "any damage that is driver error must be paid by the driver." A piece of equipment was damaged on a third party's property and the company fired him. They made a direct deposit on March 03 and forced a withdraw from our checking account without notifying us on March 19. They refused to send him his last pay stub and wouldn't let me see the damaged property. He was unaware that damage had occurred. They are now suing him in small claims court for the damage on the third party's property since the trucking company fixed the damage. Any and all help is much appreciated. It is hard to fight against the trucking company's law team.


Asked on 12/30/11, 4:38 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

This is too complicated and risky to handle this way. Illinois law says that employers normally can not make employees pay for damage to company property, but it sounds like your husband was an independent contractor (truckers usually are) but maybe not. There are potential insurance issues involved as well, which the contract may talk about, or not. So the first thing is that an attorney needs to look at the contract and see whether it is valid in whole or in parts, or at all. If you want to go it alone, you may be being pennywise and poundfoolish too, because the contract may have a provision that requires arbitration and not a lawsuit, and/or a "prevailing party" rule that could require the trucking company to pay your attorney fees if you win in any disputed case with them.

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Answered on 1/12/12, 11:23 am


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