When you call a taxi, you expect to be driven to your destination. If you're involved in an accident with a taxi cab or a passenger in the vehicle when an accident occurs, you may be left stranded with unpaid medical bills and other losses. Here are three things that can derail your ability to collect compensation after an accident involving a taxi.

Under-insured or Not Insured at All

Almost all states require taxi drivers to carry insurance that covers them and passengers in the case of vehicle accidents. Unfortunately, states differ on the types and minimum amount of insurance cab drivers are required to carry. For example, in Nevada, drivers are not required to carry uninsured motorist insurance. So if the cab driver gets in an accident with another person who doesn't have vehicle insurance, passengers may not be able to collect any money from the cabbie or the other driver.

Another, and probably more serious, problem is that some cab drivers are opting to forego insurance altogether. This alone is problematic. However, adding insult to injury is the fact that the cab companies these drivers work for typically cannot be held legally liable for any accidents the drivers are involved in. This is because the drivers are considered independent contractors rather than employees. Thus, each driver is responsible for providing his or her own insurance.

If a taxi driver hits you or gets into an accident while you're in the vehicle and the person doesn't have insurance, you would have to hold the driver personally liable for your losses. Since the average cab driver only makes about $26,000 per year, getting that money may be challenging to say the least.

Forced to Settle for Less

It's no secret insurance companies want to settle for the least amount of money possible in car accident cases. Unfortunately, this can result in undesirable outcomes for the injured party, particularly when two or more insurance companies are held liable for paying damages.

If you're a passenger in the cab when an accident occurs and both drivers are found liable for the accident, the insurance companies may spend weeks or months arguing over the percentage of liability that should be assigned to each driver. For instance, one insurance company may say the cab driver was 60 percent liable while the other may claim the driver was only 40 percent liable.

Not only can this extend the amount of time it takes to resolve your case, but one or both companies may offer you less than what you're due in the hopes you'll settle for the lower amount just to get closure. For instance, if you're owed $100,000, the one company claiming the driver was only 40 percent liable may only offer to settle for $40,000 rather than the $60,000 the other insurance company claims it owes, and you may be stuck taking the offer rather than rack up additional costs continuing to litigate the case.

No Money Left Over

All insurance policies have limits to the amount of money it will pay out on claims. If the policy has a $10,000 cap on bodily injuries, then the most the company will pay out is $10,000. With taxis, the risk of hitting this cap is very real when there are multiple people involved in the accident.

For instance, say there are three passengers in the vehicle who each sustain medical expenses of $25,000. If the taxi driver's insurance policy has a coverage limit of $50,000, the company will reject one of the claims because the policy has been exhausted.

Although these scenarios aren't too common, they are something you should be prepared to encounter if you're involved in an accident with a taxi cab. It's essential that you contact an attorney through resources like http://daglawteam.com as soon as possible to explore all of your options for recovering money you're owed.

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