San Francisco Rideshare Accident Attorneys

After any rideshare, you should first of all make sure that you do not require immediate medical attention. Once you've determined that you don't need immediate assessments by an ambulance, an EMT or a doctor, make sure that you use your mobile phone to take pictures of the vehicle you are in, including the front and rear license plates, any other vehicle involved, including the front and rear license plates, the location of where all the vehicles came to rest open paren I dot E dot where everything was sitting before anyone moved to the vehicles post impact close paren and vehicles of all surrounding features of the roadway: stop signs, stop lights, crosswalks, lane lines, and as wide angle of view of the general area where the collision occurred. The next thing to do is to pay close attention to the other people involved and dictate, for the benefit of your lawyer, your thoughts, memories, and recollections of what happened in the collision. Things happen rapidly in automobile accidents, and memories often fade quickly. Recording your memories, at the scene, for the benefit of your lawyer, creates an attorney-client privilege document that can be used later to analyze whether or not what witnesses said or what the police recorded in their report is accurate. Finally, ensure cooperation with any investigating police authorities. Provide the police with your best memories of what occurred. Be honest and straightforward. Honesty is always the best policy. When the scene of the accident is cleared, have someone come and pick you up, or summon another ride, and take steps to be seen for any aches, pains, or injuries by your primary care physician, an urgent care center, or emergency room.

As a condition of avoiding having their drivers considered employees, and thereby avoiding direct liability for the negligence of their drivers, a ballot sponsored by Uber and Lyft was passed by California voters. With that vote, Californians gave Uber and Lyft a pass on direct responsibility for injuries caused by their drivers, instead of assuming liability for Uber and Lyft, as is the case with most businesses when their employees harm someone, Uber and Lyft took on the obligation to obtain insurance policies that provide $1 million in liability coverage for the acts or negligence of every Uber or Lyft driver. That same policy also provides $1 million worth of uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage if someone with minimal or no insurance caused your Uber/Lyft accident. If you are injured in a collision where there is shared fault between an Uber /Lyft vehicle and another vehicle, the Uber/Lyft insurance policy will cover your driver, and if the other driverdoes not have adequate insurance to pay for your injuries, the Uber/Lyft policy will pay you benefits up to a maximum amount of $1 million.

Because of the ballot initiative that Uber/Lyft sponsored, paid for, and passed, making all of their drivers “independent contractors,” Uber and Lyft cannot be directly sued unless they did something wrong. Unlike most situations where the employer of a person who hurts someone and is responsible for he employee's actions, Uber and Lyft avoided this direct type of liability with the ballot initiative they paid for. If Uber and Lyft actively did something wrong in vetting or selecting a driver, or keeping a driver on the road who they knew they were a a poor driver or had a history of bad driving, there is the potential for a direct action against them. But in the majority of cases, any action brought by an injured person as the result of an Uber/Lyft crash where the Uber/Lyft driver was at fault, must name the actual driver, not Uber or Lyft, as the defendant.

Your right to recover money damages as a result of injuries caused by a crash while riding in an Uber or Lyft is the same as your right to compensation in any other vehicle accident. You are entitled to recover money damages from the person who caused your injury. Those damages include an award for pain, suffering, disability, inconvenience, disfigurement, emotional harm, anxiety, fear, and loss of services. These damages are called “general damages” or “non- economic” damages. In addition, you are also entitled to recover for economic harms and losses. These damages include lost wages, loss of job opportunities, lost pension benefits, past medical expenses, future medical expenses, future loss of salary or pensions, out-of-pocket costs for medications, special therapies, and other quasi-medical items not covered by health insurance, Medi-Cal, or Medicare.

The statute of limitations for making a personal injury claim in court is two years from the date of injury. This is true in any type of personal injury setting, including a situation where a person is injured in a crash while riding in an Uber or Lyft. This general statute of limitations applies to adults. There is a different statute of limitations for children. Children who have injuries of any kind have until two years after their 18th birthday to bring a claim in court for injuries sustained at any time while they were a minor. The statute of limitations and personal injury cases act to prevent people from bringing a legal case if they do not act within the permitted time. Failing to take action within two years of the date of an injury will act to bar the right to compensation for any adult who lets the statute of limitations run out.

Negligence in any vehicle collision, including Uber and Lyft accidents, is proven through the physical evidence and the testimony of witnesses, including yourself. Physical evidence includes pictures, diagrams, and video charts that show the scene, the vehicles, skid marks, debris on the ground, and other evidence from which reconstruction engineers can determine what happened. Occasionally, video footage is available that shows how a collision occurs – it provides, without any further evidence, precise details of what happened before the collision, who was at fault, who was not, and who bears liability. In addition to physical evidence, witness statements and testimony from individuals who witnessed, heard, or were involved in the car wreck are used to establish who was at fault. The test for determining fault in California is known as “negligence.” Negligence is a fancy word for did someone fail to use reasonable care to avoid injury to themselves or someone else. Every person in California who drives a vehicle, rides a bicycle, or walks on the street has an obligation to act reasonably to avoid injury to themselves or someone else. When someone acts unreasonably and causes injury to themselves or others, they are said to have been negligent, and they are responsible for all the harm and losses that they cause.

As far as proving liability or fault, there is no difference between a collision caused by a negligent Uber or Lyft driver and any other collision involving a passenger, car, truck, bus, or motorcycle. The differences lie in who is responsible and how responsibility is determined. Uber and Lyft have insulated themselves from direct liability, so actions against them typically come through suing their drivers individually, rather than naming Lyft or Uber as the defendants.

Uber and Lyft drivers who cause an accident are never uninsured. Uber and Lyft both have purchased liability insurance policies that cover their drivers up to a maximum liability of $1 million. Occasionally, Uber and Lyft drivers have inadequate insurance to compensate victims whom they have hurt through their negligence. When that happens, the injured person must attempt to seek recovery from the assets of the Uber or Lyft driver, or they may seek payment under the terms of their automobile policy, utilizing their underinsured motorist coverage. In some cases, it may be possible to sue Uber and Lyft directly. This occurs when Uber and Lyft are themselves negligent. Prosecution of cases against Uber and Lyft directly requires A skilled and experienced lawyer who has dealt with Uber/Lyft’s lawyers in the past.

If you are a passenger in a Lyft vehicle, it is highly unlikely you were at fault for the occurrence of any collision. On the other hand, if you are in a collision with an Uber or Lyft vehicle while it is actively carrying a passenger for hire, then California's laws and rules of comparative fault come into play. Under the rules of comparative fault, a judge or jury determines how fault for a given collision is apportioned between two drivers. Not all collisions are the fault of only one person. Oftentimes, there is shared fault. When there is shared fault, which is apportioned to you and to an Uber/ Lyft driver, you may make a claim against the other driver, but your claim will be reduced by that percentage of fault which is attributed to you. For example, if you were in a collision with an Uber/Lyft driver, and you suffered injuries with a value of $100,000, but you are determined to be 50% at fault, then your total recovery from the Uber /Lyft driver’s insurance would be $50,000. The 50% of fault for which you are responsible reduces your recovery by that amount.

In California the time necessary to resolve an automobile claim depends on a host of factors including how long it takes you to recover from your injury, whether you will require treatment in the future, whether you are able to settle the case directly with the other side without filing a lawsuit and whether there is disagreement about who is at fault or responsible. In cases where there is a clear, straightforward injury with no dispute about who was at fault, resolution by way of settlement in a case against Uber/Lyft handled by a skilled lawyer should occur within 12 months. On the other hand, in cases where liability is disputed and it is necessary to file a lawsuit in court against the Uber/Lyft driver or against Uber/Lyft themselves, settlement in that type of case may not happen until the eve of trial, or even trial itself. The vast majority of cases filed in the civil courts in California are settled before trial, but it is impossible to predict when a settlement will occur. Swift resolution of injury claims against Uber and Lyft is almost always achieved through the utilization of a lawyer or law firm with experience litigating against them Uber and Lyft are difficult adversaries, and a person with an Uber/Lyft injury case should be looking for a lawyer with experience against these defendants, experience against their insurance companies and experience successfully negotiating against them.