Category: Blog Post

A Manhattan federal judge has certified a class of 20,000 taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers whose licenses were summarily suspended by the City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission and who were later denied fair hearings to contest those suspensions. For years, the TLC summarily suspended taxi drivers who were arrested (not convicted and yet to be...

A Manhattan federal judge has certified a class of 20,000 taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers whose licenses were summarily suspended by the City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission and who were later denied fair hearings to contest those suspensions. For years, the TLC summarily suspended taxi drivers who were arrested (not convicted and yet to be...

In TLC v. Baish, the OATH judge recommended reinstatement of a driver who was suspended on a misdemeanor assault charge. The police report alleged that the driver and the complainant “got into a verbal dispute about where his car was parked,” and the two got into a physical altercation which resulted in a laceration to the left...

In Taxi & Limousine Comm’n v. Anthony, OATH Index No. 715/22 (Nov. 22, 2021), an Uber driver was suspended after being arrested on a charge of criminal mischief, which sounds rather innocent, but is actually a low level felony. The charge arose from a dispute between housemates. One roommate demanded the other move out and,...

An Uber passenger was stuck in snowy highway for a nine hours. After made it home he was charged $200 his trip. But then Uber tacked on an additional $400 charge, bringing his grand total from Dulles International Airport to Richmond to $600. Peters said after multiple attempts, he disputed the additional charge with Uber, who,...

“In late September of 2020, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance had drawn up a plan to cap drivers’ loans and limit their monthly payments. The city ignored it, just as, for years, it had brushed off NYTWA’s protests against medallion debt. This sit-in was an escalation—an attempt to force New York City Mayor Bill...

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission and Senator Charles Schumer announced an agreement between the City, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, and Marblegate Asset Management, the largest medallion lender, to create a City-funded deficiency guarantee to achieve greater principal reduction and lower monthly payments for medallion loans.Under the agreement, Marblegate will restructure outstanding...

Evgeny Freidman, a cabdriver’s son who came to own hundreds of medallions and to manage even more, died the other day at age 50. Freidman was a notorious tax cheat and a disbarred lawyer, who caused his partners millions in losses, but avoided prison by having the good luck of having what has been called...

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week that  the City’s $65 million Medallion Relief Program was “in full swing.” That’s true if “full swing” means minimal swing.  The city say that 57 loan restructuring deals have been approved, “delivering $10.4 million in debt cancellation to financially distressed Owners.”  But there are roughly 13,000 medallions and pretty much...

OATH has issued another positive decision, rejecting the continued suspension of a a driver who was arrested based on a complaint by a longtime friend that he punched her in the arm. The OATH judge rule: “Even presuming the criminal charge is true, as required by petitioner’s rules, there are several problems with this argument....

For years, Uber and Lyft along with other so-called gig-economy companies have been battling in courts to prevent their drivers from being deemed employees. The driver may seem to work for Uber and they may look like taxi drivers, but neither is true, Uber has always said.  Now the battle has moved to legislatures.  This...

An effort backed by the New York State AFL-CIO would create a new bargaining scheme for app-based workers without addressing the question of whether or not these workers are legally “employees.” Workers for apps like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are currently considered independent contractors; most in the labor movement consider them misclassified, a tactic the...