Even minor domestic disputes can lead to arrests. While such charges rarely result in convictions, the TLC still routinely argues that drivers should remain suspended not just briefly, but for months while criminal charges are pending. Taxi & Limousine Comm'n v. Lei, OATH Index No. 790/22 (Nov. 18, 2021), is a typical case of this kind. The domestic dispute, such as it was, involved a girlfriend throwing pieces of chicken at her boyfriend, a taxi driver. When the boyfriend-husband tried to restrain his girlfriend from escalating the dispute, his wife called the police and accused her husband of slapping her several times.

None of this, even if the charges were true, merited an extended suspension, the OATH judge ruled.  The TLC "failed to prove that [the driver] poses a continuing direct and substantial threat to public health or safety. Instead, the pending criminal charges, the sole alleged infraction in an otherwise spotless record, appear to stem from an isolated dispute with his girlfriend where respondent acted in self-defense. Accordingly, [the] license suspension should be lifted pending the resolution of the criminal charges," the judge concluded.