Could This Finally Be The End of the Road for Lincoln Towing? A Record $2.8 Million Judgment Says Maybe

The infamous Lincoln Park Pirates (aka Lincoln Towing, aka Protective Parking Corporation aka Scum of the Earth) may have finally met an opponent it can't beat: the consequences of its own actions.

If you've been around Uptown more than a minute, you may remember former 47th Ward alderman Amaya Pawar doing his best to get Lincoln Towing's license revoked. 

And for good reason: after a years-long investigation of its business practices, in 2018, the Illinois Commerce Commission declared that the company was unfit to hold a license, citing 462 unauthorized tows performed by the company in an eight-month period, and 362 tows during that same period by drivers without a valid operating permit.

But then, in 2020, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Neil Cohen bought a Hail Mary argument by Lincoln Towing's lawyers and unrevoked its license, claiming Lincoln Towing's rights had been violated. 

The company changed its sign to read "Protective Parking Services" and continued on with its questionable business practices.

Fast forward to October 12, 2022.

A man named Jermall Harvey had parked his car in the CVS lot at Ashland and Division. Legally. He even had a pass given to him by CVS stating that he was permitted to park in the lot while he worked at his nearby office.

He was alerted that a Lincoln Towing truck was about to tow his car, and came down to show his pass to the driver and straighten things out.

But that's not how the Lincoln Park Pirates roll.

This is what happened instead:

• While Mr, Harvey was standing in front of the tow truck, it accelerated, throwing Mr. Harvey on top of the hood.
• The truck took off down Division Street, into moving traffic, with Mr. Harvey clinging to the hood.
• A passenger in the truck, a Lincoln Towing employee, produced a handgun and pointed it at Mr. Harvey through the windshield, screaming at him to "get the f--- off the truck."
• After 90 harrowing seconds, Mr. Harvey was able to roll off the hood into the street.
• Even after the police arrested the passenger with the handgun, Mr. Harvey had to pay Lincoln Towing $218 to get his car back from its tow yard on Clark Street.

In 2024, Mr. Harvey filed a lawsuit. It appears Lincoln Towing refused to settle, and the case went to trial instead. A Cook County jury found them guilty! 

According to the Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter story on the verdict, "The award, with $1,050,000 in compensatory damages and $1,800,000 in punitive damages, is a record for the highest reported punitive award in Cook County municipal districts...the previous high was $467,057 in 1994."

We reached out to lawyer friend CH, a fancy big law firm lady who Knows Things, and this is what she said--

• "It's highly unlikely this was covered by insurance. If it was, the insurer would cover the compensatory up to the limit of insurance. So if they had $500K in insurance, that $500K would be paid and LT would be on the hook for the difference ($550K). I'll explain that in a sec.

• The punitive award is not covered at all. So the $1.8M is all on LT.
  
  The only way they could cast the compensatory verdict off on an insurance company is through a 'bad faith' letter. You have your client send that to the insurance company before trial demanding that the company pay full policy limits to settle. That way if the verdict comes in over limits, you can then sue the insurance company for 'bad faith' in failing to settle and hopefully can collect from them rather than be exposed to the verdict.
  
  Reading about the negotiations in the news (they only offered 10k to settle!), I think it's pretty unlikely they sent a bad faith letter. At best they would get the limits of coverage from the insurance company.

• Because these actions by the driver were deliberate, I don't think it's likely that the insurer was in this at the time of trial.
  
  In my experience, the insurer likely denied coverage. They would say they didn't have an obligation to cover anything because these were deliberate acts by the driver and not related to the job of being a tow truck driver or towing cars. Most policies have bad acts clauses that allow them to deny coverage. And policies universally say they won't cover punitive damages at all.
  
  So, in my opinion UU, Lincoln Towing is likely stuck with the $2.8M, or most of it.
  
  Also, although I'm not an appellate lawyer, LT has problems on appeal. In order to appeal, I think Illinois law says they have to put up the entire judgment plus 50% while the case goes through appeals. So $4.2M."

Could this record-setting jury verdict be the end of the reign of terror of the Lincoln Park Pirates? They've snatched victory from the jaws of defeat before. 

Stay tuned.

P.S. and did we manifest this into existence? Look at the bottom...