New York: On Thursday afternoon, taxi and for-hire-vehicle drivers in a massive class action against New York City won the first test case trial for 10 drivers whose licenses were suspended based on arrest and not given a fair opportunity to challenge their suspensions, awarding these drivers $190,000.
There are more than 8,000 individual class members in this case. Friday morning, November 17th, drivers, attorneys and organizational plaintiff New York Taxi Workers Alliance will hold a press conference to discuss this major development.
Triumphant Drivers and Attorneys held Press Conference to brief media on major developments in Taxi and For-Hire-Vehicle Drivers’ Class Action on Friday outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse, United State District Court, 500 Pearl St, New York, NY
Drivers involved in the lawsuit were Bhairavi Desai, New York Taxi Workers Alliance Executive Director Attorneys Shannon Liss-Riordan, Daniel Ackman, David Goldberg, Bradley Manewith
Over the last 20 years, nearly 20,000 NYC taxi and for-hire-vehicle drivers licensed by the TLC were suspended based on arrests alone– before the drivers were convicted or even tried and without any consideration of the driver’s record or the facts underlying the arrest. A group of drivers and NYTWA filed a lawsuit in 2006 challenging the constitutionality of the TLC’s practices. In 2019, a federal appeals court found the TLC violated the drivers’ constitutional rights by not providing them a fair hearing to allow them to get their licenses reinstated if doing so would not threaten public safety.
After that, a federal district court certified this case as a class action including drivers who were suspended based on an arrest between 2003 and 2020.
More than 8,000 class members sought a hearing to recover damages, and the court set the first test case trial that was held this week. Today, a federal jury awarded the 10 plaintiffs in the test case trial a total of $190,000.
Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, said: “This is an incredible affirmation by a jury of their peers that the hard-working taxi drivers of New York City were wrongly denied their constitutional rights and need to be made whole from the financial impact they suffered as a result. It’s now 10 down, and 8,290 to go, and we look forward to obtaining justice for all of these drivers who were unconstitutionally deprived of their right to their livelihoods without a fair chance to show they were able to continue safely working while resolving their criminal charges.”
Attorney David Goldberg, said: “Today’s verdict, rendered unanimously by 8 fair-minded New Yorkers, is an important, but long overdue, step toward justice. The practices at issue in this case are cruel and pointless. That the City’s government has, for decades, maintained and defended them is shameful —and rooted in failure to respect the humanity of tens of thousands of hard-working immigrant New Yorkers who toil daily, under harsh conditions, to provide services that make life easier for the City’s most privileged residents.”
“With great power comes great responsibility. Voltaire said it. Spider-Man said it and I say it, too. I think the TLC is starting to get that message, but slowly, “ said attorney Dan Ackman, who first filed the lawsuit in 2006.
The post Drivers, NYTWA, Attorneys termed the Jury Verdict – ‘a major victory’ in an ongoing class action against the Taxi & Limousine Commission first appeared on VOSA.
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