Class Action Investigation on Swift Transportation About CDL Retesting
Current news as of 4-7-09. I have talked with Frank Watson about the Class Action he has filed in Tennessee. I am suggesting to all to contact him and submit your information for the Class Action that he has filed. I am also suggesting for all to contact John Shniper as well and submit your information to him. Frank Watson has filed a Class Action against Swift Transportation. John Shniper is looking to file other possible suits for other reasons. For these reasons I believe it would be in our best interest to join all cases filed with this CDL debacle that has affected all of us in so many different ways. I have personally submitted all my information to both attorneys since I have heard both their opinions of how they believe we were wronged in all aspects. If anyone has any questions I have posted all the emails I have received from Frank Watson about the case against Swift with his contact information, and the disclaimers from John Shniper which also has his information for all of you to contact in regards to the case and possible case(s). They both have personally asked me to have all contact them for whatever reason. Read further on for all information from both attorneys. Thank you all for keeping up with the news and hang in there everyone and keep the faith. God Bless you all.
Dear Aggrieved Former Swift Drivers,
I saw your Internet posting concerning a potential class action against Swift Transportation Co., Inc. relative to its CDL debacle.
I wanted to let you know that my firm, on behalf of Michael Ham, Jemonia Ham, Dennis Wolf, Francis Wolf and all similarly situated persons, has already filed a class action in the U.S District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Our suit includes all absent class members who went through the training at Swift’s “Driving Academy ” in Millington, Tennessee and successfully received a Tennessee CDL and who subsequently were informed by the DMVs of their respective states that they must re-test in order to maintain their CDLs. We filed this action under the Class Action Fairness Act because we firmly believe that the class members have be damaged in excess of $5million.
My firm has substantial experience handling class actions. We are encouraging all class members to fax to us the following information: (a) name, address, phone #, (b) their Swift certificate of course completion and (if, applicable, their Swift tuition loan agreement); (c) their DMV letters reflecting the requirement to retest, (d) any documentation reflecting the costs to re-test in each applicable state, (e) any documentation reflecting loss of income/job termination and out-of-pocket costs (e.g., re-testing fees, truck rental fees, etc.). We would kindly ask that you pass this information on.
Frank L. Watson, III
Watson Burns, PLLC
11 South Idlewild Street
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
(901) 578-3528
fax (901) 578-2649
Current News As Of 4-7-2009. I just received an email from an attorney who has started a class action suit already in Tennessee. I will contact this attorney today to find out more information as to what is going on. Once I have a chance to talk with this attorney I will then find out exactly where he is in this case, when he started it, and also will ask for him to provide me with a letter to which I will post on this site that will have all the information for us to know what is going on and also will have his information for all to contact him. His name is Frank Watson III. Once I have all this information I will publish it on this site. For all those who have contacted me I will forward your email addresses and names for him to send you information for him to obtain for the case. I have posted this update around 1 a.m. so expect to see the updated information within a day or two. Be sure to keep checking back here for all the current news. Hang in there, we will get justice one way or another.
Current news as of 03-30-2009. I have an attorney who is investigating this situation in depth. He wants all to contact him at jshniper@yahoo.com so that we can be included in this. I have had about 60 individuals who have contacted me and I have submitted your names and email addresses to him. He will be sending documents to you to fill out pertaining to the investigation. Fill out the document(s) completely so that he has a better understanding to what has happened to you personally for him to come to a conclusion as to what direction(s) to take. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL IS TO SEND HIM A COPY OF THE LETTER THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM YOUR LOCAL DMV ABOUT HAVING TO RETEST AND ALSO IF ANYONE HAS A COPY OF A CERTIFICATE FROM SWIFT SHOWING THAT YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY PASSED ALL TEST AND OBTAINED YOUR CDL WOULD BE VERY HELPFULL TO HIM ASWELL. Get the news out to everyone that you can so that noone is left out in this. We all need to take part in this to help not only ourselves but all the others who have been affected by this so PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!!! It's happening now. Thanks for all your cooperation in this matter and for your patience. If anyone else can help in getting this site out on other sites it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the help and for hanging in there. I have added his disclamer to this site for all to read what he has to say on this situation. Here it is.
Dear Aggrieved former Swift Drivers:
I wish to thank you all for contacting me concerning legal action to recover the losses which you have all had as a result of the revocation of your CDL licenses because of improper actions by Swift and apparently improper relationship between the Swift Driving School and the Tennessee Bureau of Driver Licensing. A Homeland Security raid of the Swift Driving School has led to the revocation of as many as 5,000 CDL licenses across the country. I have considerable experience in handling Class Actions and I am the co-author of a six volume treatise on Class Actions, "Newberg on Class Actions, First Edition" published by McGraw Hill which has often been claimed as the "Bible" for Class Action practitioners. In addition, I was part of the Class Action team which resulted in a 180 million dollar settlement in the Agent Orange litigation in 1984. This settlement also completely changed the way the veterans administration handled Agent Orange claims. I have
gone on to handle other Class Actions including a 5.2 million dollar settlement against Glaxo Smith Kline, a 50 billion dollar pharmaceutical company in 2005 because of their violations with regard to temporary workers who were made permanent employees but not granted the employee benefits they were entitled to.
I believe that I can get results for all of you and the other Swift Company victims if I quickly get the information I am asking for in the attached questionnaire so I and associated counsel can quickly develop appropriate Class Complaints and file them in the proper jurisdiction or jurisdictions. Please fill in the attached questionnaire and return it to me as soon as possible, hopefully by Friday this week. Please do not hesitate to call me at 610-935-2880 to discuss this questionnaire and any other information you can provide.
Thank you all very much, I look forward to hearing from you. I am amending the earlier email which I sent to you to include the following disclaimer to make clear that my contact with you is for investigation only and that we will not undertake actual legal representation or give advice until an appropriate retainer agreement is arrived at.
Disclaimer
Please read this carefully. The questionnaire that was sent to you earlier is a tool used to gather information for our investigation of a potential class-action. While the information you provide will be kept confidential, you should be aware that merely a filling out a questionnaire will not commit you to hiring an attorney, nor will you be charged for our review of the questionnaire.
We will use the information you provide to determine: whether we will seek class-action status, the causes of action that we may try to pursue, and the jurisdiction(s) in which we may file suit. Unless we specifically ask you to sign a retainer agreement, we will not represent you on an individual basis; however, if we file a class-action you may be one of the class members, should the court certify one or more classes.
In pursuing a class-action we try to select only a limited number of "named class representatives", which better positions the litigation to succeed, saves on costs and is more efficient, and will prevent the majority of class members from the "hassles" of complex litigation.
We thought you should know this when you submit your information.
Thank You,
John Shniper
Current news as of 03-04-2009. I have an attorney looking into this situation right now. He is reviewing all documents and will be contacting me back as soon as he decides on what can be done with this. I will update new information as soon as I get a response on how we need to go about taking action against Swift. This will be the main site for all to go to to keep up with what is going on. Make sure everyone knows about this site so that everyone will be kept up to date on what is going on. Thanks for all the emails I have received so far and be sure to keep spreading the word.
The only other information that I have is that as far as I know for us to take a class action the amount would have to be no less than 5 million. I believe that we wont have a problem with that since with the cost of the seating fee, tuition, retesting, loss of work for some of us, and other costs or damages due to having to retest with the amount of how many of us have been affected, have heard atleast 10,000, we should be above that amount. I also was told that if we don't reach this amount that we would have to do it per state and have enough individuals, per state, to take action. So with that said, as I said, one way or another some kind of justice will be sought out of all of this. I have written to Howard Stern, Raw Dawg, and Road Dog in hopes to get the word out to those who don't know what is going on and for them to seek out some way to find information as to what is happening and by doing this I hope they are led to this site to keep up with what is going on. KEEP SPREADING THE WORD!!!!! God Bless you all.
I am a licensed CDL driver who has gone through Swift Transportation Academy and have recently received a notice from my DMV about my CDL is not valid. I was told by the DMV that Swifts Instructors who gave out the course test, pretrip test, and the road test were not properly certified through the federal government to give and approve all tests for the issuance of CDL licenses. Therefore because of this I am required, as well as many others, to take the tests all over again and pay between $200-$300 dollars to retain my CDL license. I have taken steps to file a class action suit against Swift Transportation with a very reputible lawyer who is willing to go over the documents and to lead us in a direction as to what the appropriate action is neccesary for us to take in order for us to get justice out of this. I will get as much information that I can and inform all who were affected by this. I ask that all who view this site to let everyone who has been affected by this so that I can keep everyone up to date on what is going on. In numbers we stand. Don't let the big man knock you down. We all are americans with rights and need to stand together for our rights. Lets all be a part of this. Pass the word!!!!! I will be taking action as soon as I can. Please be patient as we all know this could take a while but then again if we all have faith it could be over in no time. Time will tell but don't give up faith because I believe we have a good chance here. Thank all of you for keeping up with the site and information as I will be updating every chance I get with new news.
