Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings has agreed to settle an independent contractor misclassification lawsuit involving roughly 20,000 drivers for up to $100 million, JDSupra reports.

Uber Technologies had previously reached what was then hailed as the first-ever $100 million IC misclassification settlement 2016, but that settlement was rejected by the court, and subsequent court rulings about arbitration enforcement enabled Uber to whittle down the number of drivers involved in the case.

The Knight-Swift case, Van Dusen v. Swift Transportation Co. Inc., dates back to 2009, prior to the merger of Swift Transportation and Knight Transportation in 2017. JD Supra notes that Swift’s arbitration clause was ruled as unenforceable.

Knight-Swift announced it does not “expect that the settlement will have a material impact on its future results of operations,” and that its Dec. 31 balance sheet accounted for the settlement amount.

Knight-Swift told Transport Topics it decided to settle in part because of the length of time the case had been dragging on. “Fading memories and lost documents as well as the difficulties of finding and maintaining contact with class members — some of whom last worked for defendants as long ago as 2002 — already pose serious problems. Years of additional litigation will only add to those difficulties.”

Read more about the Uber and Knight-Swift cases from JDSupra.

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