High Court Ruling on GPS Tracking Could Affect NYC Taxi Suit
(New York — Kathleen Horan, WNYC) A local attorney will argue a case using the recent Supreme Court decision banning law enforcement from using GPS to track suspects without a warrant to challenge the use of data gathered from GPS systems in cabs as evidence. He's defending a taxi driver in a lawsuit against the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission.
The driver, Mr. Robert Carniol, is one of thousands of cabbies who were accused of overcharging passengers by pushing the out-of-town rate on their meter in 2010. He was found guilty in an administrative hearing and lost his license. But attorney Dan Ackman is arguing in State Supreme court next month that officials obtained GPS data about his client and others illegally.
"Taxi drivers did not consent to be followed around individually 24 hours a day," Ackman said.
In the realm of a personal injury attorney, the ability to have access to this data can be extremely helpful in litgating cases against these drivers and cab owners. Real time data can be used to attack the drivers credibility, driving history, logs the location where each passenger is picked up, the time of pick up, the location of pick up, the fare, the route taken, etc..
The city is seeking to have the case dismissed.