Miami Taxicab Accidents Attorney

Taxicabs are everywhere in the State of Florida. People come from around the world to visit and vacation in Florida year-round. Almost anytime day or night, anybody who travels on Florida streets or freeways will see taxicabs. The high volume of tourists on a regular basis makes it expected that a vast number of taxicabs will be operating in Florida, shuttling the visitors to different destinations. Both the companies that operate these vehicles and their drivers are required to operate in a way that keeps their passengers safe. With many taxi cabs on the roads every day, there is a considerable potential for accidents.

You may possibly be able to bring a case against the taxicab company based on a theory of vicarious liability if you are injured in a taxicab wreck. The word vicarious means through somebody else (rather than yourself). Liability means the state of being responsible for something. So, vicarious liability means that one person is legally responsible for the torts of another. For example, the employer is legally responsible for the torts of his employee. This liability arises only when the employee is acting the course of his or her employment. There are various situations in which a party might be charged with vicarious liability. For instance, an employer might be liable for an accident caused by an employee as the result of the negligent operation of a delivery vehicle.

You might also be able to pursue a case against the taxicab company based on the "dangerous instrumentality" doctrine if you are injured in a taxi accident. When the owner of a vehicle lends the vehicle to another person, the owner will usually be accountable for any injuries or harm caused by the other person. Since a vehicle can be very dangerous, the law expects and demands that vehicle owners will be cautious who they lend their vehicles to. If they are irresponsible and lent the vehicle to someone who shouldn't be driving the vehicle and that person causes an accident and resulting severe injuries, then the owner of the vehicle will be held liable. On the other hand, if any person stole the vehicle or took it without permission, then the owner will not be liable as there was nothing the vehicle owner could have done to stop the situation.

If you or a loved one was seriously injured in a taxicab accident, you must hire Mr. Quackenbush. He is experienced and treats each client with the dedication and respect they deserve in obtaining the benefits they are entitled to.

If you’ve been injured anyplace in the State of Florida (including West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Fort Lauderdale, or Broward County), contact this Miami Taxicab Accident Law Firm at 954-448-7288 to schedule a free, no obligation consultation. Mr. Quackenbush will gladly talk to you about your case. He works on a contingency basis - which means you don’t need to pay any lawyer fees until he wins compensation for you.

As per statute 324.031, in the State of Florida, taxicabs in have to carry a minimum of $125,000 in bodily injury (BI) coverage per person and $250,000 per accident. Bodily Injury (BI) coverage is intended to protect the careless driver of a vehicle and compensate anybody else the driver injures. It covers a driver if he or she causes permanent or serious injuries or death resulting from an automobile crash. It covers such things as lost wages, medical expenses, pain, and suffering of the person injured by the driver.

Also, you might be able to recover compensation from your own uninsured or underinsured motorist (UM) coverage if the at-fault driver did not carry bodily injury coverage or did not carry enough bodily injury coverage. If you are injured due to the negligence of another driver who either doesn’t have any insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance to compensate you for your injuries, then uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage protects you. In that circumstance, your uninsured or uninsured motorist coverage should step in and compensate you for your severe injuries. If the at-fault driver did not have any bodily injury coverage, then uninsured motorist coverage would apply to the situation. 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 taxicab company's insurance policy, and then anything in excess of that would come from your uninsured motorist policy.

You also may be entitled to $10,000 in PIP (personal injury protection) benefits. Your PIP policy will pay up to 80% of your medical bills or lost wages. Florida’s “no-fault” law requires drivers to carry at least minimum insurance coverage for personal injury protection. Therefore, a person who is involved in a car accident may first look to his/her own insurance company for the payment of medical expenses, up to the state minimum of $10,000.

If the taxicab causes an accident and injures an individual, the individual will typically be able to collect, at most, $125,000 from the cab's insurance company because taxicabs are required to carry only $125,000 in bodily injury coverage per person and $250,000 per accident. If several 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 taxicab, they will each separately be able to collect up to $125,000, but the total amount of compensation collected cannot be more than $250,000. So, in the situation where a taxi cab accident causes catastrophic injuries to numerous people, the injured people might be in a situation where they are stuck dividing up the $250,000.

When the insurance company for the taxicab doesn’t tender the insurance policy limits, then it can be afterward found to be in bad faith. According to the law, insurance companies should act in good faith. That is, they should respond to petitioners 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 does not do this, then a judge or jury could later find that the insurance company is in bad faith. The result of this is that the insurance company could be on the hook for more than their insurance policy limits. For instance, at the time of the accident, if the taxicab company had $125,000 of coverage per person and the sufferer of a cab accident was paralyzed in the accident, then the insurance company would usually be expected to pay out the $125,000 policy limits to the catastrophically injured person since the value of the injuries clearly exceed the $125,000 policy limits. A judge and jury could determine that the insurance company was in bad faith if the insurance company does not pay out the $125,000 policy limits to the injured person for whatsoever reason. In that case, the disastrously injury person could potentially recover more than the $125,000 policy limits. Mr. Quackenbush can help to do this.

To determine his or her damages, the catastrophically injured person would have to go to trial. If the jurors awarded an amount greater than the insurance policy limits, then there would be a second trial. In that second “bad faith” trial, the only question for the adjudicators would be whether or not the insurance company had acted in bad faith (for instance whether they should have paid the policy limits initially). If the jurors determined that the insurance company had acted in bad faith, then the catastrophically injured person would recover the total amount that the jurors in the initial trial had awarded. Conversely, the catastrophically injured person would be stuck with the insurance policy limits if the jury decided that the insurance company had not acted in bad faith.

You might have a personal injury case against the driver of the taxi if you are injured as a passenger in a taxi cab. Alternatively, your case might be against the other driver if the accident was caused by the driver of another vehicle.

Finally, you might pursue a case against the driver of a taxicab if you are driving your own vehicle and you are hit by a taxicab.

If you or someone you love has suffered an injury in any kind of taxicab accident anywhere in Miami-Dade County (including Aventura, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Doral, Florida City, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Homestead, Key Biscayne, Miami Beach, Miami Gardens, Miami Lakes, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Opa-Locka, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, South Miami, and Sunny Isles Beach), contact Mr. Quackenbush at 954-448-7288 for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Mr. Quackenbush will work on a contingency basis, which means that you don’t need to pay any attorney’s fees unless he wins compensation for you. Don’t hesitate to contact Mr. Quackenbush to discuss your options and to secure your rightful compensation. Discuss your taxi cab accident case with an experienced attorney like Mr. Anthony Quackenbush and let him take care of the rest.