these days we all know there’s Uber Lyft

other ride share companies and you might

think that you’re in a private car and

so being driven by uh just another

private person and therefore there’s no

difference you between being involved in

a crash with an Uber and a Lyft driver

versus being involved in just a crash

involving private passengers private

passenger vehicles to private drivers

but there is a big difference so one of

the things to know is that

um Uber and Lyft provide mandatory

insurance that is much greater than an

individual private passenger vehicle for

instance in Colorado you can be street

legal on the road if you have twenty

five thousand dollars worth of liability

coverage that means if you hurt somebody

you have up to twenty five thousand

dollars to pay for what you cost to them

Uber and Lyft if the uh if the

application is engaged and they have a

passenger in the vehicle and you might

be that passenger or you might be struck

by an Uber who has a passenger they have

a million dollars minimum in coverage

that’s a substantial difference in terms

of your ability to recover that also

means they have a lot more at risk and

that means they’re going to defend the

case more aggressively to try to save

themselves uh that money and so you’re

going to be up in a situation where

you’re much closer to a defense that you

might see in a commercial uh truck case

than in just a private passenger case

one of the things that has to be

determined with Uber drivers is

um they may let’s say there’s an Uber

sticker in the window or a Lyft little

sign in the in the front that doesn’t

tell us the story about what sort of

insurance is available for that

particular vehicle because there’s kind

of three different stages if you drive

for Lyft but you don’t have the

application turned on they don’t provide

any additional coverage beyond what that

private passenger and that is really

just a private passenger on private

passenger uh crash if they have the

application on but no passenger in the

vehicle let’s say they’re going to pick

up a passenger then there’s a different

level of insurance and then the highest

level of insurance that they mandate and

provide is if they have a passenger in

the vehicle at the time and so it’s

important for us to learn through the

investigation what was the status of

that driver actually so that we know

what sort of insurance we’re dealing

with in addition to that Ubers are any

any four hire vehicle is considered a

common carrier they have a higher duty

of care that’s owed to their passengers

than if you and I are just riding in a

car together and so we want to make sure

that that we’re holding them to that

higher standard and the other thing

about Uber and Lyft is that you know

every time they update that application

and you update it on your phone and you

agree to their terms

one of the terms that they are trying to

get you to agree to is arbitration to

take your case out of the court system

if they if you’re a passenger and you’re

involved in a crash with an Uber driver

if you’re a passenger they can’t do that

if you’re driving down the road and

you’re not in their car but what they

try to do is they say if you’re a

passenger that you’re waiving your right

to go to court against them and we’ve

been very successful in demonstrating

that those sorts of mandatory

arbitration agreements may not be

binding and it’s important to uh have

lawyers who have a a track record of

success in uh cases against these ride

shares because there’s a sophisticated

contract actually that also has to be

addressed in terms of what their

liabilities are where you can go to

recover for them whether you just have

to sue the driver or whether you could

bring a claim in court against Uber so

there’s a it becomes quite a complex set

of circumstances and I would say again

that being involved in a vehicle crash

where there’s an Uber or a lift is much

more similar to a commercial vehicle

crash than a private passenger crash and

sometimes you might see the Uber sticker

and you don’t even know right if you see

the Uber sticker you need to make sure

that you’ve told your lawyer hey I got

to tell you I saw an Uber sticker uh on

in that car or a list sticker because

that’s going to Warrant This Love This

different level of examination to to try

to find out what the status of the Uber

is we all know that if you are on those

ride shares you can look on your phone

and you can see the trips the drivers

all have that too and so we can actually

subpoena that information and see what

their status was at the time of your

crash which may impact dramatically the

amount of insurance available