Taxi & For-Hire Vehicle Accident Lawyer in Astoria, Queens
Astoria runs on for-hire vehicles. It is one stop from Manhattan, it empties out to the bridges every morning, and its bars and restaurants on 30th Avenue, Broadway and Ditmars Boulevard fill with people who sensibly do not drive home. Yellow cabs returning from Manhattan, green boro taxis, app-dispatched cars and community car services move through this neighborhood constantly. If you were hurt in one of them, the single most useful thing to understand is this: as a passenger, you almost certainly have insurance coverage — and it is not your own.
Whose policy pays when you were the passenger
New York no-fault coverage follows the vehicle, not the person. If you were riding in a taxi or a for-hire vehicle, that vehicle’s no-fault policy pays your medical treatment and a portion of your lost earnings, regardless of who caused the crash. You do not need to own a car. You do not need any insurance of your own. You do not need to have been sober, and you do not need to prove anything about fault to get this part.
What covers you includes emergency treatment, hospitalisation, surgery, physical therapy, prescriptions, and a share of the wages you lose while you cannot work. What ends it is the clock: the application — form NF-2 — generally has to reach the correct insurer within 30 days of the accident. Passengers miss this constantly, because they assume the driver’s company handled it, or that no-fault is something only drivers claim. Thirty days later, covered treatment becomes a bill you owe personally.
There is a real complication specific to taxi cases: identifying which policy. A yellow cab, a green boro taxi, a black car dispatched by a base, and an app-arranged ride are all insured differently, sometimes by a fleet policy and sometimes by the individual owner. The medallion or TLC plate number is what resolves it. If you have a receipt, a trip record in an app, or a photograph of the plate, keep it — that is the thread that leads to the coverage.
No-fault pays the bills. The threshold decides the case.
No-fault covers treatment and nothing else. It pays nothing for pain, for the months you could not lift your child, or for a shoulder that no longer works properly. To recover for that you must cross the serious injury threshold in Insurance Law § 5102(d) — a defined list including fracture, significant disfigurement, permanent consequential limitation of a body organ or member, significant limitation of use of a body function or system, and the 90/180-day category for injuries that keep you from substantially all of your usual activities for at least 90 of the 180 days after the crash.
Passengers have one significant advantage here, and it is worth knowing. A passenger is almost never assigned fault. You were not steering, braking or choosing the lane. That means the argument is not about whether you deserve compensation — it is between the two drivers’ insurers about which of them pays. Under CPLR 1411 New York applies pure comparative negligence, so even where some share is argued against you it reduces the award proportionally and never bars the claim. The suit deadline against a private defendant is the three years under CPLR 214.
Two Astoria-specific wrinkles. If a City vehicle or an MTA bus was the other vehicle, a Notice of Claim under General Municipal Law § 50-e is due within 90 days, not three years. And if the crash happened on the Grand Central Parkway or a bridge approach and the roadway itself contributed, the State may be a defendant, which moves the case to the Court of Claims on a 90-day notice of intention.
More than one party can be responsible
The driver is rarely the only defendant. Under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388, every owner of a vehicle used or operated in New York is liable for injuries resulting from negligent operation by anyone driving with permission. In the for-hire world the registered owner is very often not the driver — it is a medallion owner, a fleet, or a leasing company. That provision is what reaches them, and it usually reaches a much larger policy than the driver holds personally.
Where the trip was arranged through an app, a further layer applies, and the limits depend on what the driver was doing at the moment of impact — app off, logged in and waiting, or actively carrying a passenger. Those periods carry very different coverage, and the difference can be six figures. The trip record settles it, which is why it should be preserved rather than left to be deleted.
Case results
A selection of recoveries our firm has obtained for injured passengers and occupants:
- $1,665,000 — innocent passenger in a four-way stop sign collision; back herniations, shoulder tear and knee tear requiring surgery. Queens County, settled after depositions.
- $385,000 — innocent passenger in a sideswipe collision who was pregnant at the time and could not begin treatment until after giving birth; neck and back herniations requiring surgery. Queens County, settled after depositions.
- $250,000 — passenger riding in a dollar van that was struck from behind; shoulder tear requiring surgery. Kings County, settled pre-suit.
More recoveries are listed on our settlements page. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts.
Frequently Asked Questions
I don’t own a car or have any insurance. Am I really covered?
Yes. No-fault follows the vehicle you were riding in, not you. The taxi or for-hire vehicle’s policy covers your treatment and part of your lost wages. This is the most common reason injured passengers in Astoria never claim — they assume that having no insurance of their own means having no coverage. The opposite is true.
I didn’t get the cab’s details. Is it too late?
Usually not. A police report normally records the vehicle, and app trips leave a record in your account and your payment history even if you deleted the app. Credit card statements, ride receipts and emailed confirmations all help. Where the vehicle genuinely cannot be identified, MVAIC may cover a qualified New York resident — but that route has short deadlines, so do not wait.
Will claiming hurt the driver? He was friendly and it wasn’t his fault.
The claim is made against an insurance policy that exists for exactly this purpose, and it is frequently the other driver’s insurer who ultimately pays. Nothing comes out of your driver’s pocket. Passengers regularly talk themselves out of valid claims out of loyalty to a driver who was not at fault and is not personally exposed.
The insurer called and wants a recorded statement. Should I give one?
Not before you have advice. That call is an attempt to pin down a description of your injuries before you know their extent. You are not obliged to give it, and declining politely does not affect your no-fault benefits.
Courts that hear Astoria taxi cases
- Queens County Supreme Court, Civil Term — for Astoria the closer building is 25-10 Court Square, Long Island City; the other is 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard, Jamaica.
- NYC Civil Court, Queens County — 89-17 Sutphin Boulevard, Jamaica.
Our Office & Directions from Astoria
Yakov Mushiyev & Associates, PC
1 Cross Island Plaza, Suite 325
Rosedale, NY 11422
Phone: 718.775.3110
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Home and hospital visits available.
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This page is general information about New York law, not legal advice about your situation. Every case turns on its own facts, and deadlines vary. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Speak with an attorney before relying on anything here.