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NYC settles lawsuit with thousands of cab drivers for $140M, biggest payout of its kind
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Mar 18, 2025
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Ramsey Khalifeh
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Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Mar 18, 2025
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Thousands of New York cab drivers reached a settlement with the city in a federal lawsuit on Monday, giving them up to $140 million in back pay after a court found their licenses were unfairly revoked after they were arrested but never convicted of crimes.
The suit, which was filed in 2006, stated that the Taxi and Limousine Commission declined fair hearings for drivers who lose their licenses to work after arrests. Attorneys representing the drivers argued 90% of the arrests that led to suspensions either lacked merit or were for minor infractions.
The settlement covers an estimated 20,000 taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers whose TLC licenses were revoked or suspended between 2003 and 2020. A federal appeals court in 2019 ruled the TLC suspension practice was unconstitutional, paving the way for the class action settlement.
One of those drivers, Bakhit Garim, said he lost his TLC license in 2016 after he got into an argument with a passenger in his yellow taxi who refused to pay the fare. Garim said he was charged with harassment, but was never convicted of any crime.
“I lost everything,” Garim said, adding he couldn’t make an income since his license was suspended. He currently lives in a homeless shelter and said the settlement money will get him back on course.
“When I get the money, at least I’ll support my family [with] dignity,” said Garim, whose family lives in his native Sudan. “I have to go back to my family. I will greet them and then I will recover my life again and come back [to New York].”
The litigation played out as the city’s yellow taxi industry was hammered by the rise of app-based services like Uber and Lyft. The value of yellow taxi medallions — which give cabs the exclusive right to pick up street hails in the city — fell from more than $1 million in 2012 to less than $200,000 in 2020.
“This historic – and long overdue - settlement is a semblance of justice for so many drivers whose lives were destroyed when they were presumed guilty, stripped of due process and left unable to work and have the time to fully defend their innocence after an unfair arrest,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.
Court documents show the settlement will be paid out based on how long a driver’s license was suspended. The maximum payment per person is $36,000, which is available to drivers whose licenses were unduly suspended for upwards of 391 days.
“These suspensions were found to be unconstitutional because they did not have the chance to present their side of the story in a fair hearing,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, one of the attorneys representing the drivers, said during a news conference on Tuesday. She called the payout the largest class action settlement of its kind with the city.
Drivers who qualify for the settlement can submit a form online to claim their payout.
Tagged
new york city
transportation
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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