In an ordinary crash the first question is who was at fault. In a rideshare crash the first question is what the driver’s phone was doing, because California law ties the available insurance to that and nothing else.
The same driver, in the same car, on the same street, is covered by three different amounts depending on the app. Under Public Utilities Code 5433, once a driver has accepted a ride request and until that trip is completed, the company’s policy provides one million dollars for death, personal injury and property damage. Before they accept anything, while the app is merely on and they are waiting, the same statute drops to $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident, with a further $200,000 in excess cover. With the app off entirely, there is no company policy at all and you are dealing with a private driver’s personal insurance.
Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting for injured people in California. We work on contingency, we advance the costs of the case, and there is no fee unless we win. If there is no recovery, you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour, including tonight.
The Three Phases, and What Each One Is Worth
| What the driver was doing | Company policy available | Source |
|---|---|---|
| App off, driving personally | None. Their own personal auto policy only | Outside PUC 5433 |
| App on, waiting for a request, or after drop-off | $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident, $30,000 property, plus $200,000 excess | PUC 5433 |
| Request accepted, through to the end of the trip | $1,000,000 for death, personal injury and property damage | PUC 5433 |
| You were a passenger, from getting in to getting out | Additionally $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident of uninsured and underinsured motorist cover | PUC 5433 |
The gap between the middle row and the bottom row is $50,000 per person against $1,000,000, and it turns on a timestamp. That is why the single most valuable thing in a rideshare case is not the police report. It is the trip record.
It also means the answer is not “sue Uber”. The statute makes the company’s policy respond according to the phase, whatever the driver’s employment status is. So the argument that has occupied California courts for years about whether rideshare drivers are contractors or employees does not have to be won before your claim can be paid.
Four Things in the Statute That Change What You Should Do
Passengers have their own uninsured motorist cover, and it is separate from everything above. From the moment you enter the vehicle until you leave it, the company must provide uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. That cover is primary over any other uninsured motorist cover you hold, and the statute makes it solely the company’s obligation. It matters most when the car that hit your rideshare was uninsured or drove off.
The required amounts are not a ceiling on liability. Subdivision (f) states that the article does not limit a company’s liability above the required coverage. Seeing $1,000,000 written down does not mean a claim worth more than that stops there.
Your own insurer does not have to refuse the claim first. Subdivision (d) provides that rideshare coverage is not dependent on a personal auto policy first denying a claim, and that a personal policy is not required to deny one. Being told to go through your own insurance before anyone will look at you is not what the statute says.
If the driver let their rideshare policy lapse, the company pays from the first dollar. Subdivision (e) says so directly, so a driver’s insurance failure is not yours to absorb.
Who Can Bring a Rideshare Claim
Not only passengers, and this is where people rule themselves out wrongly.
A passenger in the rideshare vehicle. The most straightforward position. You will almost never be at fault, and the phase is by definition the $1,000,000 one, because a passenger only exists after a request was accepted.
Anyone in the other car. If a rideshare driver hit you, the phase rule decides what is available to you, and you may have no idea the other driver was working at all.
Somebody on foot or on a bicycle. Struck by a rideshare vehicle, the same coverage applies to you. It is not restricted to people who were in a car.
The rideshare driver themselves, injured by another motorist while working, who often assumes being a contractor leaves them with nothing.
A family, where a crash is fatal. California restricts who may bring a wrongful death claim and sets separate rules for the estate’s own claim.
Was the app on, and had they accepted a ride?
That one fact separates a $50,000 policy from a $1,000,000 one. We can establish it.
The Evidence Is on a Server, and It Is Not Yours
Everything that decides the phase sits in the company’s systems: when the driver logged on, when the request was accepted, the route, the timestamps, and often in-vehicle camera footage.
You will not get it by asking nicely, and neither will the driver. Drivers see a fraction of their own trip data. The record that matters is held by the company, and the company is not neutral about a claim against its own policy.
Two practical consequences.
Screenshot everything on your own phone before you do anything else. If you were the passenger, your trip receipt, the driver’s name and plate, the pickup and drop-off times, and the route map are in your app history now and are the fastest proof of phase in existence. Take images of them rather than assuming the app will keep them.
If you were not the passenger, the driver’s phone is the whole case. Photograph the vehicle, including any trade dress in the windscreen, and get the driver to say on the record whether they were on a trip. That admission at the scene is frequently what settles the phase question months later.
What Does Not Change Because It Was a Rideshare
Worth saying plainly, because rideshare cases attract more mystique than they deserve.
Fault is decided the same way. Under Civil Code 1714, everyone is responsible for injury caused by their want of ordinary care. The phase decides what money is available, not who was to blame.
Comparative fault works the same way. California reduces recovery in proportion to your share rather than barring it. A partly-at-fault claimant still recovers, at a lower figure.
Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist cover may still respond, particularly in the app-on-but-waiting phase where the company’s $50,000 runs out quickly against a real injury. This is the most commonly missed source of money in these cases, and using it is not a claim against you.
What Is a Rideshare Claim Worth?
The same categories as any injury claim, and the ones people leave out are the largest.
- Medical costs already incurred, and future care that has not happened yet
- Lost income, and separately lost earning capacity for work you can no longer do
- Pain and suffering, valued against the medical record rather than asserted
- Property damage and out-of-pocket costs
A $1,000,000 policy is a ceiling, not a valuation. It is what is available, not what a claim is worth, and an early offer against it is priced on what the insurer knows rather than on what your injury turns out to cost.
They Are Saying It Was Partly My Fault. Does That End It?
No. California is a pure comparative fault state, settled in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804. A share of responsibility reduces recovery in proportion to that share, it does not bar the claim, and there is no percentage past which the right disappears.
In rideshare cases the argument arrives in a few predictable shapes: that a passenger distracted the driver, that somebody stepped out between parked cars where a driver was stopping, or that a seat belt was not worn in the back. Each is a question of degree rather than a rule that ends a case.
What the Rideshare Company Will Say, and What It Means
Two responses come up so consistently they are worth recognizing in advance.
“The driver is an independent contractor.” This is usually true and usually beside the point. The coverage that matters is not vicarious liability for the driver’s employment status, it is the insurance the company is required by statute to carry on that trip. The phase rule decides that, not the contractor question.
“We have opened a claim, an adjuster will be in touch.” An adjuster acting for the company whose policy you are claiming against is not acting for you, and the record that proves which phase applied sits on that company’s servers. Opening a claim is not the same as preserving evidence, and the two are frequently confused by people who assume somebody neutral is now handling it.
How Long Do I Have to File?
Two years from the date of injury, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months to present a written claim to a public entity, under Government Code 911.2, before any lawsuit against it is possible. This catches rideshare cases more often than people expect: a city bus, a public works vehicle, a transit operator, or a road defect that contributed.
Injured children. Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while an injured person is under 18. The six-month government claim rule is not paused in the same way.
The trip data has its own timetable, separate from all of these, and no statute obliges a company to keep it for your benefit. That is the reason to make one call early rather than at the two-year mark.
Still have the trip in your app history?
Screenshot it today. Your own receipt is the fastest proof of which policy applies.
Where We Handle Rideshare Claims
We take rideshare cases across California. Where a crash happened in a market we have a page for, it is worth reading alongside this one, because the local courts, the reporting practices and the road network differ: Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, San Diego and Long Beach.
A rideshare crash is also frequently more than one kind of claim at once. Being struck by a rideshare vehicle while walking or on a bicycle brings its own rules on right of way before any of the phase question arises, a head injury raises its own questions about a brain injury, and where a crash is fatal the family is making a wrongful death claim.
Why Clients Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. If you are in the hospital, at home and unable to drive, or simply cannot get across a city on a weekday, we will meet you where you are.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean. Explaining your own accident in your own words is not a convenience.
The economics are simple. The firm works on contingency and advances the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Rideshare Accident FAQs
How much insurance is available after an Uber or Lyft crash?
It depends on what the driver was doing at that moment. Under Public Utilities Code 5433, once a ride request has been accepted and until the trip is complete, the company’s policy provides $1,000,000 for death, personal injury and property damage. While the app is on but no request has been accepted, it is $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident, plus $200,000 in excess coverage. With the app off there is no company policy at all.
Do I have to prove the driver was working?
You have to establish the phase, and the proof sits in the company’s systems rather than yours. If you were the passenger, your own trip receipt does most of that work, which is why screenshotting it early matters. If you were not, the driver’s statement at the scene and the vehicle’s trade dress are the starting point.
Can I claim if I was hit by a rideshare car rather than riding in one?
Yes. The coverage under Public Utilities Code 5433 is not limited to passengers. Another driver, somebody on foot and a cyclist are all covered by the same policy, on the same phase rules.
I drive for a rideshare company and I was hurt. Do I have a claim?
Frequently yes, against the motorist who hit you, and possibly under uninsured motorist cover. Being treated as a contractor rather than an employee does not remove your right to bring an ordinary injury claim against whoever caused the crash.
I am undocumented. Can I bring a claim without putting myself at risk?
Yes, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either. It cannot be raised at trial and it cannot be asked about beforehand.
Contact a Culver Legal Rideshare Accident Lawyer
The phase question decides how much is available, and the record that answers it belongs to a company with an interest in the answer. If you were hurt in or by a rideshare vehicle anywhere in California, reach us at (310) 600-7881, at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
