Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog
If you have been involved in a serious Chicago car accident with a taxi driver, you may encounter problems receiving fair and full compensation for your injuries. Chicago cab companies are structured in such a way so as to allow recovery from only the specific cab and the cab driver involved in the accident. The City of Chicago mandates that taxi cab drivers carry minimum liability policies of $350,000. This minimum policy is well in excess of the standard state minimum of $20,000. However, the cab outfits are structured in such a way that the $350,000 policy minimum on the individual cab is the most that is recoverable for any injury.
The general structure of the cab entities follows this rubric. First there is the cab driver, who typically pays a fee to lease the use of the cab. Then there are the cab owners who must carry a cab owner license called a medallion. These medallions are generally held by management companies which oversee and manage multiple medallions and an affiliation company which supply cab designs and radio dispatch service. Many consumers therefore mistakenly identify individual drivers as employees of companies such as Yellow Cab and Checker. In reality, the cab entities are structured so that these individual drivers are the only party from which an injured individual may seek recovery.
This can have devastating practical effects for individuals that suffer serious or permanent injuries as the result of taxicab driver negligence. For example, if you suffer injuries that will require lifetime care you may be limited to $350,000.00, even if your lifetime medical bills are far in excess of that number.
As such, you should contact an Illinois personal injury attorney as soon as possible if you have been injured in a taxicab accident to investigate your case and potentially find alternative avenues of recovery. The Klest Law Firm has over twenty eight years of experience handling complex injury cases. To contact the Klest Law Firm, please click here.