Taxicab Accident Attorney

Difficult Victories Achieved by this Fort Lauderdale Taxicab Accident Attorney

This Fort Lauderdale Taxicab Lawyer fights hard for clients who have been injured in taxicabs in all areas of Florida. A taxicab, also known as a taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle in which the driver gives rides to customers for a fee. If you are injured in a taxicab crash, you may have a couple of different options in terms of a lawsuit. For one, you may be able to pursue a case against the taxicab company. In Broward County, there are several major taxi companies. These include Ambassador Taxi Service, American Taxi Cab, Broward Airport Taxi, Dial A Taxi, Friendly Checker Cab, Gold Taxi, Intercity Taxi, Limo Taxi, USA Executive Taxi of South Florida, and Yellow Cab of Broward.

If you are hurt in a taxicab wreck, you may be able to pursue a case against the taxi cab company based on a theory of vicarious liability. Vicarious liability indicates that an employer is responsible for the acts of its employee. In the case of a taxi cab accident, it may be found that the taxi company is responsible for the actions of the taxicab driver. This will only be true if the taxi cab driver was acting “in the scope of his employment” at the time of the accident. In other words, if the taxi driver was fleeing from the police at the time of your accident, the cab company could argue that the cab driver was not operating within the scope of his employment at the time of your accident (i.e., he shouldn’t have been fleeing from police) and thus escape liability.

If you are injured in a taxi accident, you may also be able to pursue a case against the taxicab company based on the “dangerous instrumentality” doctrine. That is, when the owner of a vehicle loans the vehicle to a third party, the owner will typically be liable for any harm or injuries caused by the third party. This is because it is said that a motor vehicle is a “dangerous instrumentality” (i.e., it can cause serious harm). Because a vehicle can be extremely dangerous, the law expects and demands that vehicle owners will be careful who they loan their vehicles to. If they are reckless and loan the vehicle to somebody who shouldn’t be drivnig the vehicle and that person causes an accident and resulting injuries, then the vehicle owner will be held responsible. Note that this is only true if the vehicle owner knew that the vehicle was being used by the third party. If the third party stole the vehicle or took it without permission, for example, then the owner will not be responsible because there was nothign the vehicle owner could have done to prevent the situation.

If this Fort Lauderdale Taxicab Accident Law Firm represents you, it will do so on a contingency basis. This means that there will be no charge to you until you’ve received compensation in your case – so there is no risk to you whatsoever. Contact Mr. Quackenbush at 954-448-7288 for a free, no obligation consultation.

Advice for Injured Clients of this Fort Lauderdale Taxicab Accident Lawyer

According to Florida State Statute 324.031, taxicabs must carry a minimum of $125,000 in bodily injury (BI) coverage per person and $250,000 per accident. Bodily injury coverage is intended to protect the negligent driver of a vehicle. If the driver causes an accident and injures other people, then the driver’s bodily injury coverage will cover the injured people for their harm (rather than the money coming out of the at-fault party’s pocket).

Uninsured or underinsured motorist (UM) coverage, on the other hand, covers you if you are hit by another driver and the other driver either 1) did not have any bodily injury (BI) coverage or 2) did not have enough bodily injury coverage. So, if you are catastrophically injured by a taxicab, you may be able to recover from your own uninsured motorist insurance policy if the value of your injuries is more than $125,000. The first $125,000 would come from the taxi cab company’s insurance policy, and then anything in excess of that would come from your uninsured motorist policy. This South Florida Taxicab Accident Attorney can help you to pursue both of these amounts.

You also may be entitled to $10,000 in PIP (personal injury protection) benefits. In the State of Florida, if you have automobile insurance, you will automatically have PIP coverage. PIP is “no-fault,” which means that you are entitled to $10,000 in coverage whether you were at fault for the accident or not. So, if you are involved in a vehicle accident in the State of Florida, your PIP coverage will make payments up to $10,000 for either your medical bills or your lost wages. Your PIP policy will pay up to 80% of your medical bills or lost wages.

Because taxi cabs are required to carry only $125,000 in bodily injury coverage per person and $250,000 per accident, if the taxi causes an accident and injures an individual, the individual will be able to collect, at most, $125,000 from the cab’s insurance company. If multiple people are injured in the accident, then those people can collect, all together, up to $250,000. So, as an example, if two people are injured by a taxicab, they will each be able to collect up to $125,000 – for a total of $250,000. If three or more people are injured by a cab, they will each be able to collect up to $125,000 individually, but the total amount of money collected cannot be more than $250,000. So, in the situation where a taxi cab accident causes catastrophic injuries to multiple people, the injured victims may be in a situation where they are stuck dividing up the $250,000.

Representation with Compassion Offered by this South Florida Taxicab Accident Law Firm

If the insurance company for the taxicab does not tender the insurance policy limits, then it can be later found to be in “bad faith.” The term “policy limits” indicates the size of the maximum amount recoverable under the insurance policy. So, for example, in the case of a taxi cab, most taxi’s carry policy limits of $125,000 per person or $250,000 per accident – which is the minimum required in the State of Florida.

In any case, if the insurance company for the taxi cab in your case does not tender its policy limits after your crash, it can be found to be in bad faith. That is, the law requires insurance companies to act in good faith – i.e., respond to claimants who have been injured, negotiate in good faith, and pay out their policy limits when the injuries caused by an accident warrant it. If an insurance company doesn’t do this, then a judge or jury could later find that the insurance company is in bad faith. The effect of this is that the insurance company could be on the hook for more than their policy limits. For example, if the taxi cab company had $125,000 of coverage per person at the time of the accident, and the victim of a cab accident was paralyzed in the accident – the insurance company would typically be expected to pay out the $125,000 policy limits to the catastrophically injured person because the value of the injuries clearly exceed the $125,000 policy limits. If the insurance company doesn’t pay out the $125,000 policy limits to the injured person for whatever reason, then a judge and jury could later determine that the insurance company was in bad faith. In that case, the catastrophically injury person could potentially recover more than the $125,000 policy limits. This South Florida Taxicab Accident Lawyer can help to do this.

The way that it would work is that the catastrophically injured person would have to go to trial to determine his or her damages. If the jury awarded an amount greater than the insurance policy limits, then there would have to be a second trial. In that second “bad faith” trial, the sole question for the jury would be whether or not the insurance company had acted in bad faith (e.g., whether they should have paid the policy limits initially). If the jury decided that the insurance company had acted in bad faith, then the catastrophically injured person would recover whatever amount the jury in the first trial had awarded. On the other hand, if the jury decided that the insurance company had not acted in bad faith, then the catastrophically injured person would be stuck with the insurance policy limits.

If you are injured while riding in a taxi cab, you may be able to pursue a personal injury case against the driver of the taxi. On the other hand, if the accident was caused by the driver of another vehicle, your case may be against the other driver.

Finally, if you are driving your own vehicle and you are hit by a cab, then you may have a case against the driver of the cab.

Contact this Broward County Taxicab Accident Attorney

Should Mr. Quackenbush represent you in your case, he will do so on contingency – which means that there is no charge to you until you’ve made a recovery in your case. There is therefore no risk to you.

Contact this Broward County Taxicab Accident Lawyer today at 954-448-7288 for a free, no obligation consultation. Mr. Quackenbush will gladly talk to you about your case for free.