RICO Case Against C.H. Robinson and TQL Won't Reach a Jury Until April 2028

Jury selection in the RICO lawsuit against C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) and TQL is tentatively set for April 3, 2028 — more than two and a half years away, and 17 months from today. Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas would preside, according to a proposed schedule filed last week that has not yet been finalized. A scheduling conference is set for November 23.

The timetable is a sobering marker for anyone in the brokerage industry expecting a quick precedent from Stevens Trucking et al. vs. C.H. Robinson et al. Any broad impact on how the two largest freight brokers in the country conduct business is, at minimum, years out.

What does the schedule look like?

The proposed calendar leaves most of the heavy lifting for late 2027:

• Discovery would run through several dates proposed in late 2027.
• Mediation would be completed by late January 2028.
• Key documents, including proposed jury instructions, are due March 13, 2028.
• A pretrial conference before Judge Gilstrap is proposed for March 20, 2028.

Those dates remain tentative until the November 23 scheduling conference locks them in.

What is the most pressing legal fight?

Before any of that, the court must resolve TQL's request to dismiss the case on the grounds that it was filed in the wrong court. TQL argues that all the carrier plaintiffs except IWX Motor Freight signed carrier-service contracts requiring disputes to be litigated in a state court in Clermont, Ohio, near its Cincinnati-area headquarters. The legal doctrine at issue is Forum Non Conveniens.

The carriers — Stevens Trucking, Western Flyer Express, D&M Carriers (dba Freymiller Trucking), Christenson Transportation, E.O.S. Inc. and IWX Motor Freight — fired back against that request last week. Their brief argues the Clermont forum clause only works if, in their words, the court interprets the clauses "to go far beyond the agreement, and stretch all the way to infinity, encompassing literally 'any dispute' that could ever arise between these parties, including those that have no relationship whatsoever to the contract."

C.H. Robinson has filed no documents in the case. A company spokeswoman said it is not connected to TQL's forum filing.

What do the carriers allege?

The original suit, filed September 23, accuses the two brokers of using their market power as large 3PLs to undercut carrier rates. A summary "omnibus" filing last week recapped those charges, alleging the brokers did so "through the use of Illegal Carriers and forced labor." The suit cites agreements or anticipated agreements the carriers held with specific shippers that they claim were lost to the brokers' practices.

"TQL's pattern of activity has precluded the Plaintiffs from participating meaningfully on bids for the customers and shippers," the omnibus filing says, leveling similar allegations at C.H. Robinson.

The suit's use of "forced labor" — it offers no explicit definition — comes closest when it says the brokers "choose foreign labor due to the ease in exploitation, lack of oversight and understanding, and the ability through various means to keep foreign labor in peonage and forced labor conditions."

How did the ATA get pulled in?

The omnibus document repeats a claim from the original filing: that the two brokers were key drivers of the "truck driver shortage" narrative. "Defendants relied on an age-old marketing campaign to exploit (the) opportunity: create the need, sell to the need," the filing says.

It goes further: "There was no actual driver shortage. Defendants did not want to pay willing drivers a living wage. Defendants promoted the narrative of a 'truck driver shortage' through marketing materials and their trade group, the ATA." The suit also accuses C.H. Robinson of pushing immigration to "alleviate" any shortage and says the ATA "lobbied the Department of Transportation in 2021 to loosen licensing and immigration regulations."

The American Trucking Associations, cited in the suit as an accuser's target rather than a defendant, issued a statement through chief advocacy and public affairs officer Henry Hanscom: "ATA is not a party to this lawsuit, and neither C.H. Robinson nor TQL is a member of ATA. The claims in the lawsuit about our association are false."

With Chris Spear departing as ATA's head, it is unclear whether the association will continue to assert a driver shortage exists. Either way, the outcome of the forum fight — and potentially the dismissal question — will shape whether this case ever reaches that 2028 jury.