Your Uber driver was rear-ended on Rosedale, or a Lyft pulled out of a parking lot on Ming and did not see the car coming. Nobody was arrested, nobody was cited, and no officer ever arrived. The driver said Uber would sort it out. Three weeks later you have a bill from Kern Medical and nothing in writing that says the crash happened at all.
There is almost certainly a written record, and most people never ask for it. California requires the driver to file one with the DMV within ten days of any crash that injured somebody, and that form has to name every person who said they were hurt. A second written report is due far sooner. Neither one depends on an officer showing up, and neither one is something a rideshare company files for you.
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. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
Say You Are Hurt at the Scene, Even If You Think You Are Fine
This is the most useful thing on the page and it takes one sentence at the roadside.
Under Vehicle Code 16000, a driver involved in a crash that hurt somebody has to report it to the DMV within ten days, and the form requires them to list by name and address anyone who complained of bodily injury. Saying you are in pain is what puts your name on that form. Saying you are fine, which most people do while adrenaline is still working, keeps it off.
The same instinct costs people the other record. Vehicle Code 20008 requires a written report of an injury crash within 24 hours from the driver of a vehicle other than a common carrier. Where that report goes depends on geography, which matters more in Kern County than almost anywhere else in the state.
Before you leave, screenshot the trip. The receipt, the driver’s name and plate, the pickup and drop-off times, the route. It is in your app history now, and it is the fastest existing proof of what the driver was doing when they hit something.
Which Insurance Applies, in One Paragraph
California ties the money to what the driver’s app was doing rather than to who was at fault. From the moment a ride request is accepted until the trip ends, the company’s policy provides $1,000,000. While the app is on but no request has been accepted, it drops to $50,000 per person with a further $200,000 in excess coverage. With the app off there is no company policy at all.
The statutory detail and the exact figures are set out in how rideshare coverage works in California. The short version for Bakersfield is that the middle case carries $50,000 per person and the best case $1,000,000, and it turns on a timestamp that nobody at the scene wrote down.
Did anyone file a report on your crash?
Two are required by law, and neither one needs a police officer to have attended. We can find out today whether they exist.
Where It Happened Decides Who Holds the Record
A rideshare trip in Kern County crosses jurisdictions in a way a trip across a dense city does not, and the boundary is invisible from the back seat.
Inside Bakersfield city limits, the 24-hour report can go to the city police or to the CHP. Once the trip is on the freeway stretches of Highway 99 or Interstate 5, the calculation changes: under Vehicle Code 2400, the CHP has “full responsibility and primary jurisdiction” for investigating traffic collisions on state highways built as freeways. Out past the city line toward Delano, Shafter, Wasco or Tehachapi, you are in unincorporated Kern County and the responding agency changes again.
The practical consequence is simple. People request their report from the wrong agency, are told nothing exists, and conclude there is no record of the crash. A trip that began downtown and ended on the 99 may have generated paperwork at an agency nobody thought to ask.
You Do Not Have to Have Been the Passenger
The coverage is not limited to the person who booked the ride, and this is where people most often rule themselves out.
Another driver hit by a rideshare vehicle, frequently with no idea the other driver was working, has a claim that runs like any other car accident claim on fault and on the phase rule for money. Somebody on foot, struck by a driver stopping or pulling out to collect a passenger, is covered on the same terms, and the rules on yielding to somebody crossing settle fault before any phase question arises. A cyclist doored by a passenger getting out is in the same position, because the duty to look before opening a door sits with the person opening it rather than with the rider alongside, and a motorcycle rider takes a far worse injury from the same impact and a faster attempt to blame them for it.
The rideshare driver has a claim too. Being paid as a contractor does not remove the right to claim against whoever caused the crash, and someone who drives for a living has a work injury question about lost earning capacity that a quick settlement will not touch.
What Else Kern County Adds
A public entity turns up more often than people expect. Golden Empire Transit is an independent district rather than a city department, and it is still a public entity, so a claim involving one of its buses has to be presented in writing within six months under Government Code 911.2 rather than the ordinary two years. A collision between a bus and a rideshare car is two claims running on two different clocks.
The evidence has a shelf life measured in days. Trip data sits on a company server. Footage from a gas station forecourt, a warehouse gate on the edge of town or a doorbell camera on a residential street is usually overwritten within a week or two. Where no officer attended, that footage is often the only independent account of what happened, and nobody preserves it unless somebody asks in writing.
Head injuries go unrecorded for the same reason the reports do not get written. Nobody was assessed at the scene. Kern Medical on Mount Vernon Avenue is a verified Level II trauma center, but a passenger who declined an ambulance and went home has no record at all. Somebody who has not been themselves since a crash has a brain injury question, and a clear scan taken days later answers the emergency question rather than that one. Where a crash is fatal, California limits who may bring a wrongful death claim and sets separate rules for the estate.
They Are Saying It Was Partly My Fault. Does That End It?
No, and this is the most common reason people talk themselves out of a claim they have.
California is a pure comparative fault state, settled in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804. Being partly responsible reduces what you recover by your share. It does not bar the claim, and there is no cut-off percentage past which you lose the right to bring it. An adjuster telling you that you were “also at fault” has not told you that you have no case, and the percentage they have privately assigned you is an opening position rather than a finding.
In rideshare cases the argument usually arrives in one of three shapes: that a passenger distracted the driver, that somebody crossed where they should not have, or that a seat belt was not worn. Each is a question of degree, and each is answered by the same records the rest of the case turns on.
What a Rideshare Claim Can Cover
A claim is not limited to the bills that have already arrived, which is the other thing people routinely undercount.
Medical treatment already received and the care still ahead of you, including surgery, physical therapy and rehabilitation. Wages lost while you were unable to work, and reduced earning capacity where an injury changes what you are able to do for a living. Pain, suffering and emotional distress. Damage to your property. Where injuries need long-term care, the future cost of that care rather than its cost this year.
The last two are where quick settlements do the most damage. An offer made before anyone knows whether an injury is permanent is an offer priced on the assumption that it is not.
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 that entity becomes possible.
Ten days for the driver’s DMV report, and 24 hours for the written report under 20008. Those are the driver’s duties rather than yours, but they are the two records worth chasing early, because they are the ones that exist whether or not anyone investigated.
Injured children. Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while an injured person is under 18. The six-month government claim deadline is not paused in the same way.
A case worth bringing is an unlimited civil case, which in Kern County is filed at the Metro Justice Building at 1215 Truxtun Avenue rather than at the Metropolitan Division that handles limited civil and small claims.
Is the trip still sitting in your app history?
Screenshot it before you do anything else. Your own receipt is the fastest proof of which policy applies.
Why Bakersfield Clients Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. If you are in the hospital, at home and unable to drive, or working hours that make an office visit impossible, we will meet you where you are. That includes the outlying Kern County communities, and it is the reason not having a storefront on Truxtun has never stopped us running these cases.
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, and somebody answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Bakersfield Rideshare Accident FAQs
No police officer came to my crash. Do I still have a claim?
Yes, and it is a common situation rather than a sign of a weak case. Two written reports are required by statute after an injury crash regardless of whether an officer attended: a DMV report from the driver within ten days, and a written report within 24 hours under Vehicle Code 20008. In a rideshare claim the trip record does much of the work a collision report would have done, and it can be obtained.
The crash happened out on Highway 99, not in town. Does that change anything?
It changes who holds the paperwork. The CHP has primary jurisdiction for investigating collisions on state highways built as freeways, so a crash on the 99 or Interstate 5 is usually theirs rather than Bakersfield PD’s. People routinely ask the wrong agency, get told there is no record, and give up on a case that has one.
I was hit by an Uber driver, I was not riding in one. Does that matter?
Not to your eligibility. The rideshare policy is not restricted to passengers, so another driver, somebody on foot and a cyclist are all covered on the same phase rules.
How much insurance is available after an Uber or Lyft crash in Kern County?
It depends on what the driver’s app was doing. Once a ride request has been accepted and until the trip ends, the company’s policy provides $1,000,000. App on with nothing accepted is $50,000 per person plus excess coverage. App off means no company policy at all.
The driver told me their company would take care of it. Should I wait?
No. A rideshare company’s insurer is not acting for you, and the record that decides which policy applies is held by that company. Waiting is the one thing that reliably makes these cases harder, because trip data, camera footage and witnesses all thin out over weeks.
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.
Contact a Culver Legal Bakersfield Rideshare Accident Lawyer
If no officer attended, the case rests on records held by other people: a trip log on a company server, a form filed with the DMV, footage on a business’s recorder, a witness nobody has asked yet. All of them have a shelf life, and the shortest one is measured in days. If you were hurt in or by a rideshare vehicle anywhere in Bakersfield or Kern County, 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.
