Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
Quick questions
Who pays after a rideshare crash
We represent anyone hurt in an Uber or Lyft crash in Los Angeles County: passengers, other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, and rideshare drivers themselves. The claim turns on which policy applies in each app state, how that state is proved, whether the company can be sued, and the deadlines. Pay and classification disputes are separate matters, and delivery app crashes run under a different statute.
Rideshare insurance sits in the Public Utilities Code because the Public Utilities Commission licenses the companies. The CPUC's transportation network company page defines a TNC as a business providing prearranged transportation for compensation, using an app to connect drivers using their personal vehicles with passengers. Its licensing branch issues the permits and sets the insurance requirements. Section 5431(c) uses the same words.
The rest follows from one section. Section 5433 sets different numbers for different moments in the same shift, and the dispute over which one applies is decided by the statute's own text.
How the driver's app sets the coverage
The driver's phone is the switch. Section 5433 divides a shift into windows, and the coverage in force is whatever the window says, regardless of how badly you were hurt. Senate Bill 371 amended it, and the current version took effect on January 1, 2026.
| Driver's app status | Coverage required | Uninsured and underinsured motorist | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| App off, personal driving | Personal policy only, minimum 30/60/15 | Whatever the driver bought | Veh. Code 16056 |
| App on, waiting for a request | $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident, $30,000 property damage, primary, plus $200,000 excess | Not required | PUC 5433(c) |
| Request accepted, driving to the pickup | $1,000,000 primary | Not required until the passenger is aboard | PUC 5433(b) |
| Passenger in the car, until the passenger exits | $1,000,000 primary | $60,000 per person, $300,000 per incident, primary | PUC 5433(b)(2) |
Three details in that statute change cases. Section 5433(c)(2) adds at least $200,000 in excess coverage per occurrence above the waiting-period limits, which matters when $50,000 will not cover one surgery. Section 5433(d) says the company's coverage does not wait for a personal policy to deny the claim. Section 5433(e) makes the company cover from the first dollar when a driver's rideshare policy has lapsed.
The other half is proof. The app period is a fact question, and the insurer takes the position that costs it least, usually that no ride had been accepted. Fix the period on day one. If the record has to come from the company, it comes through a preservation request and, when necessary, a subpoena.
- The in-app trip screen, screenshotted before the trip closes, with the driver, vehicle, plate and stage of the ride.
- The trip receipt, which carries the route, the start and end times, and the fare.
- The police report narrative, which often records whether a passenger was in the car.
Our page on rideshare insurance coverage covers each window. If your crash was a Lyft, the same statute governs and the differences are procedural, which we cover on our Lyft accident page.
Can you sue Uber or Lyft?
Usually you do not need to, and the employer route was closed by Proposition 22. In November 2020, Proposition 22 added Business and Professions Code section 7451, which says an app-based driver is an independent contractor and not an employee when four conditions are met. It took effect on December 16, 2020.
- It does not set specific dates, hours, or a minimum number of hours the driver must be available.
- It does not require the driver to accept any specific request to keep access to the app.
- It does not stop the driver from working through other platforms, except during engaged time (from accepting a ride to completing it).
- It does not stop the driver from working in any other lawful occupation.
The ordinary path to the company's own assets is blocked in most rideshare crashes. What replaced it is often more useful. The legislature made the company carry the insurance instead, which turns a passenger claim into a seven-figure policy claim rather than an argument about corporate structure. Section 5433(b)(3) puts the duty to defend and indemnify, meaning to provide the lawyer and pay the claim, on that insurer.
Direct claims against the company still exist and they are narrow. Negligent hiring, supervision or retention (CACI No. 426) reaches a company that kept a driver it knew was unfit. Negligent entrustment (CACI No. 724) reaches one that put a vehicle in the wrong hands. Section 5433(f) preserves liability above the required coverage. The practical target is the policy, not the company.
A TNC is generally not treated as a common carrier in California, the category that holds buses and trains to a higher duty of care, so the heightened duty in CACI No. 902 is not a safe foundation for the claim.
If you were the passenger
A passenger has the cleanest case in this area. A belted passenger in the back seat did nothing to cause the crash. CACI No. 711 tells a jury that a passenger owes ordinary care for their own safety, and it almost never applies to a passenger who was riding normally.
Two policies can respond at once. If your driver caused the crash, the $1,000,000 rideshare policy is primary. If the other driver caused it, that policy is primary and the rideshare uninsured motorist coverage sits behind it. Making a claim is not choosing sides against your driver. It is a claim against a policy the law made your driver carry. The first-hour steps are on our passenger injury claims page.
If the other driver was underinsured
This is where section 5433 does the most work. From the moment a passenger enters the vehicle until the passenger exits, the company must provide uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. Section 5433(b)(2) makes it primary over any other uninsured motorist coverage and solely the company's obligation.
Compare the numbers. A California driver satisfies the law with $30,000 per person. The rideshare requirement is double that per person and ten times it per incident. When a minimum-limits driver runs a red light on Sunset and four people in the Uber are hurt, the at-fault policy is exhausted before the second ambulance arrives, and the $300,000 layer is the only real money in the file.
These claims carry their own rules. Section 11580.2 requires physical contact when the at-fault vehicle fled and was never identified, a police report within 24 hours, and a sworn statement within 30 days. It also gives you two years from the crash to sue, settle in writing, or demand arbitration.
If a rideshare vehicle hit you
Other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists face the same coverage ladder with one extra problem: you cannot see the driver's phone. The period has to be established from outside the car, and the driver has every incentive not to volunteer that the app was on. At the scene, get the name, the plate and the insurance card, and ask whether anyone was riding.
After that, the record comes from the company. A preservation letter tells it to hold the driver's status log, the trip record and the telematics (location and driving data) for that vehicle at that minute. It is the same problem we handle on our pedestrian accident and bicycle accident pages. Ask early, in writing, for the specific record.
On a motorcycle the injuries change and the coverage does not. A commercial vehicle in the same crash adds a second insurance layer, which our truck accident page explains.
If you drive for Uber or Lyft
You are an independent contractor by statute, so this is not workers compensation. Proposition 22 built a substitute. Business and Professions Code section 7455 bars a network company from operating in California more than 90 days unless it carries occupational accident insurance for its drivers, covering medical expenses up to at least $1,000,000 and disability payments equal to 66 percent of average weekly earnings for up to the first 104 weeks after the injury.
Read your own policy before you assume it covers you. Public Utilities Code section 5432 makes every TNC tell drivers in writing that their personal policy will not cover them while they use the app, and will not cover damage to the vehicle from log-on to log-off. That is the state telling you, through the company, that the gap is real. A rideshare endorsement, an add-on to your personal policy, closes it.
When another driver caused the crash you also have an ordinary injury claim, plus your own uninsured motorist coverage. Occupational accident benefits replace neither, and they can create a reimbursement question at the end. That is a lien problem, meaning a claim to be repaid from your recovery, and it belongs in the file in the first week.
How long you have to file
Rideshare crashes attract more deadlines than an ordinary collision, because one crash can involve a private driver, a company insurer, an uninsured motorist claim and a public entity at once. Each deadline runs on its own.
| Deadline | What has to happen | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 24 hours | Written report to police or the California Highway Patrol after an injury | Veh. Code 20008 |
| 24 hours, then 30 days | Police report, then a sworn statement, on a claim against a driver who fled | Ins. Code 11580.2 |
| 10 days | SR-1 accident report to the DMV after injury or damage over $1,000 | Veh. Code 16000 |
| 6 months | Written claim to a public entity, if a city or transit vehicle is involved | Gov. Code 911.2 |
| 45 days | The entity acts, or the claim is deemed rejected | Gov. Code 912.4 |
| 6 months, or 2 years | Suit after a written rejection, or two years if no notice was sent | Gov. Code 945.6 |
| 2 years | Lawsuit for the injury | CCP 335.1 |
| 2 years | Suit, written settlement, or arbitration demand on an uninsured or underinsured motorist claim | Ins. Code 11580.2 |
The sources, in order: Vehicle Code section 20008, section 16000, Government Code section 911.2, 912.4, 945.6, Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, and Insurance Code section 11580.2. Our guide to filing a car accident claim in Los Angeles covers the same deadlines in order.
Where and when rideshare crashes happen
The demand that puts rideshare cars on Los Angeles streets peaks when the streets are worst. UC Berkeley's SafeTREC reports that in 2023, 47.6 percent of California's alcohol-impaired fatal crashes happened between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. Los Angeles County led the state that year with 265 alcohol-impaired deaths and 589 alcohol-involved serious injuries.
- 265Alcohol-impaired deaths, LA County, 2023SafeTREC
- 589Alcohol-involved serious injuries, LA County, 2023SafeTREC
- 47.6%California alcohol-impaired fatal crashes, 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.SafeTREC
Those figures come from the 2025 SafeTREC fact sheet on alcohol-impaired driving. They are not rideshare counts, because no agency publishes one. What they explain is the shape of the caseload: bar close in Hollywood and downtown, the airport runs, and the freeway miles between fares.
Airport work shows the problem in miniature. A driver circling a terminal loop with the app on and no ride accepted sits in the $50,000 window. A driver who accepted a request thirty seconds earlier sits in the $1,000,000 window. Same lane and same speed, with twenty times the coverage, which is why the screenshot matters.
Why rear seat injuries get missed
Rear-seat passengers get hurt differently from the people up front. There is no airbag beside you in most sedans, and you are looking at a phone rather than the road, so you do not brace. Report every symptom at the first visit. The gap between the crash and the first medical record is the first thing an insurance adjuster measures, and in a rideshare case it usually runs longer, because the ride ended, everyone went home, and nobody called an ambulance. Our guide to car accident injuries covers what each diagnosis needs in the record.
What a rideshare claim is worth
No web page can value your case, and any figure quoted before treatment ends is a guess. California splits damages into economic losses, which have receipts, and noneconomic losses, which do not, and each is proved with different evidence.
| Damage | What the file has to show | Instruction |
|---|---|---|
| Past medical expenses | Billing records and the treating charts | CACI 3903A |
| Future medical care | A treating physician's opinion on what is still needed and its cost | CACI 3903E |
| Past lost earnings | Pay records, tax returns, employer confirmation of missed time | CACI 3903C |
| Lost earning capacity | The work you can no longer do and the medical basis for the restriction | CACI 3903D |
| Pain and emotional distress | Treatment history, restrictions, and testimony about what changed | CACI 3905A |
| Wrongful death losses | The relationship, the support lost, the family's testimony | CACI 3921 |
Those numbers are from the 2026 edition of the Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions. Two limits sit above all of it. Policy limits cap what any policy pays, which is why finding every applicable policy comes first. Civil Code section 3333.4, Proposition 213, removes noneconomic damages from an uninsured owner or operator. It can reach a driver who let a policy lapse. It does not reach a passenger.
We have no documented rideshare recovery to describe, so we will not imply one. Our case results page shows how these insurers behave in vehicle cases, and our guide to car accident lawyer fees explains what a contingency fee costs.
What happens after you call us
- 1Get you treated first
Imaging, then the right physician, then a treatment plan, usually with nothing out of pocket.
- 2Establish the app period
Your screenshots and receipt, then a preservation request for the driver's status log and trip record.
- 3Find every policy
The rideshare policy, the driver's personal policy and any endorsement, the other driver's policy, and your own coverage.
- 4Handle the insurer
We take the recorded statement request and the calls. The first offer is a negotiating position.
- 5Build the demand
The demand is our written settlement package: records, bills, wage proof, the opinion on future care, and the app evidence that fixes the policy.
- 6Track every deadline
Two years for the injury, two years on an uninsured motorist claim, and six months if a public entity is involved.
Our attorneys handle these cases from the first call through trial, and the responsible attorney is Josh Kohanim. There is no fee unless we recover. Questions that are not about your case are answered on our frequently asked questions page and across our other practice areas.
Rideshare problems that are not injury claims
Some rideshare problems are not injury claims. A fare dispute, a refund, or a deactivated account is a customer service question, and a crash with no injury and minor damage is usually handled between the two insurers.
A driver's claim about pay, expenses or classification runs under employment law rather than section 5433, and it is outside this firm's practice. A crash while a driver was delivering food with no passenger aboard usually falls outside section 5433 entirely, because that statute governs companies carrying passengers. Those are on our delivery app driver accidents page.
A head injury or a death changes the shape of a case more than the app period does. Our pages on brain injuries and wrongful death explain what those files require. We also handle rideshare cases in Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Santa Ana and across Orange County.
What to do after a rideshare crash
One question decides the rest. If you were riding as a passenger, a $1,000,000 primary policy was in force, plus $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident in uninsured motorist coverage the company alone owes. If the driver was logged in and waiting, the limits were $50,000, $100,000 and $30,000. If the app was off, you are looking at a personal policy with a $30,000 floor.
See a doctor today, screenshot the trip before it leaves your phone, and get the driver's name and plate into writing. Then call us before you give anyone a recorded statement.