Oregon Uber Crash Lawyer

What happens if your Uber gets in an accident?

In the past few years rideshare companies such as Uber and Lyft have created an entirely new type of business, which can create incredible complexity for both drivers and passengers when they are injured in a ride-hailing vehicle. Hiring a lawyer who understands Uber's business model matters if you have to make a personal injury claim against Uber.

Uber and Lyft use is now common in the United States. It is a particularly common issue for those who travel for business. According to Forbes magazine, while rideshare services only provided a mere 8% of all business traveler ground transportation in 2014, that number jumped to 70.5% of all business traveler ground transportation by early 2018, largely replacing both car rentals and taxis. It has continued to grow since then. In 2017-2018, Uber claimed providing 3.1 million rides per day or approximately 1.1 billion rides per year. In 2019-2020, despite the pandemic with a significant reduction in rides in 2020, the overall total increased to 2.1 billion Uber rides.

For those who are attempting to responsibly avoid drinking and driving the use of Uber and Lyft is very common. As both Uber and Lyft has become available in more locations, and more people join the gig economy as drivers, there is an increased chance that the auto accident you are involved with will involve Uber or Lyft.

Thousands of people are injured, and approximately 50 are killed every year as Uber drivers, Uber passengers or as third parties due to auto accidents.

Despite the benefits of these services, there are a number of complexities associated with injury cases involving Uber and Lyft that are not present in a motor vehicle accident between two private vehicles.

Our law firm have handled several catastrophic injury cases involving rideshare vehicles. Some have been obvious rideshare cases, while others have involved drivers who turned off their app without our client's knowledge. Catastrophic injury cases while riding in an Uber vehicle can be very complex in terms of the insurance available to seriously injured people. In serious Uber crash cases, it can involve a complex array of insurance policies that require an experienced Uber crash lawyer.

Oregon Uber cases can involve stacking liability insurance, Personal Injury Protection, and Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist insurance coverage even in cases where the other driver is at fault. If the Uber driver is at fault for the crash, it could also involve Uber's self-insurance combined with insurance policies. While Uber offers several different types of vehicles for rideshare purposes including UberX, UberXL, Uber Black, Uber Black SUV, and Uber Comfort depending upon the market, the insurance issues and claims are the same for each type of ride.

Your case may also require your Oregon Uber attorney to address issues regarding Oregon employment law pertaining to rideshare drivers - an issue we have already handled in litigation.

Even more confusing, Uber keeps changing insurers, and have multiple insurers operating in different parts of the United States. Uber's insurance agent, Aon Risk Insurance Services West, Inc., has obtained insurance to cover Uber drivers and Uber passengers. Depending upon where you are in the United States, in 2022 Uber may be insured by: Allstate Insurance, Farmers Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance or Progressive Insurance. In Oregon Uber passengers are insured by Allstate with a $1,000,000 liability policy, a $1,000,000 Uninsured Motorist insurance policy, and a $1,000,000 Underinsured Motorist insurance policy. In the State of Washington, Uber passengers are also insured by Allstate with a $1,000,000 liability policy, a $1,000,000 Uninsured Motorist insurance policy, and a $1,000,000 Underinsured Motorist insurance policy.

The amount of insurance coverage provided by Uber for their drivers and passengers depends upon the "Phase" in which the crash occurs. The amount of insurance also depends upon the state where the crash occurs.

In some cases Uber uses "Third Party Administrators" - companies that handle the claims for one of Uber's multiple insurance companies.

The Uber driver themselves may have additional personal insurance that could provide additional insurance coverage. The insurers providing rideshare insurance for Uber drivers in 2022 include: Allstate Insurance, American Family Insurance, CSAA, Erie Insurance, Farmers Insurance, Kemper, Liberty Mutual, Mercury Insurance, Progressive Insurance, State Farm Insurance, Travelers Insurance or USAA.

In one of our rideshare cases we identified six different insurance policies total, for a woman with severe injuries requiring multiple surgeries including neurosurgery. In another we found multiple insurance policies for a client injured in a rideshare crash who sustained multiple fractures (including serious fractures of the C1 and C2 vertebra), had temporary quadriplegia and had medical bills in excess of $500,000. We have also handled claims in which an injured person was misled by a rideshare driver and turned the app off, resulting in the rideshare company's insurer denying the claim even though the client was told before she got into the vehicle that she was riding via the rideshare app.

Well, this is a bit complicated and an important point of hiring a lawyer because you may have multiple insurance policies available in Oregon or Washington to pay your medical bills if you are involved in a crash with Uber. Oregon has mandatory Personal Injury Protection ("PIP")insurance coverage in all auto insurance policies. Personal Injury Protection (often called "PIP" in Oregon which is similar to"Medpay" in other states)includes some important rights for someone injured in a car crash including:

1. No-deductible health care insurance coverage for your injuries with any provider of your choice [meaning they do not need to be "in-network" for your health insurance plan(with a minimum amount of $15,000. Oregon has PIP policies raning from $15,000 to $100,000 depending upon your auto insurance.)
2. Wage loss for up to 70% of your monthly wage if off full time up to a maximum of $3,000, for up to 12 months
3. Lost services (such as help to replace the services ofa stay at home parent who cannot perform their normal domestic work); and
4. Funeral cost benefits.

But, this is muchmore complicatedin Uber cases, particularly for Uber passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians. In these cases you could have PIP coverage that stacks in any of the following ways:

1. Your own auto insurance policy;
2. With some auto insurers (most notably State Farm) you might have multiple auto insurance policies for which all of these have stacking PIP insurance policies;
3. Uber's auto insurance;
4. The Uber driver's auto insurance; and
5. If you are a pedestrian or bicyclist you may also have access to the at-fault third party driver's PIP insurance as well as that of Uber.

If you are seriously injured, finding Personal Injury Protection coverage for your medical bills is an important part of helping you increase your chances of recovery or your ability to minimize your permanent symptoms. Without a lawyer who knows how to find every available insurance policy it could leave you with massive personal debt after a crash that is not your fault. To give you some idea about the complexity of rideshare case insurance coverage, in one of our cases we found all of the following insurance policies for our seriously and permanently injured client who was a passenger in a rideshare vehicle:

1. At fault driver's liabiltiy coverage ($25,000 policy)
2. At fault driver's company vehicle liability coverage($100,000 global policy)
3. Rideshare driver's Personal Injury Protection Insurance ($15,000)
4. Rideshare driver's Underinsured MotoristInsurance Policy ($50,000)
5. Rideshare company's Personal Injury Protection ($15,000 - denied until litigation)
6. Rideshare company's Underinsured Motorist Insurance Policy ($1,000,000 - denied)
7. Client's State Farm personal Auto Policy 1, Personal Injury Protection ($15,000)
8. Client's State Farm personal Auto Policy 2, Personal Injury Protection ($15,000)
9. Client's State Farm personal Auto Policy 3, Personal Injury Protection ($15,000)
10. Client's State Farm Auto Policy 1, Underinsured Motorist Insurance ($250,000)
11. Client's State Farm Auto Policy 2, Underinsured Motorist Insurance ($250,000 - denied until litigation)
12. Client's State Farm Auto Policy 3, Underinsured Motorist Insurance ($250,000 - denied until litigation)

What is the difference between the obvious insurance coverage and what we obtained?

The obvious insurance coverage in this rideshare case was $15,000 in PIP, $125,000 in liability insurance and $50,000 in Underinsured Motorist coverage.

The ultimate coverage obtained in this case was $75,000 in PIP, $125,000 in liability insurance, and $1,800,000 in Underinsured Motorist insurance coverage. Since the insurer for the rideshare company also improperly denied the claim they could be subject to additional payments.

Our efforts resulted in $60,000 more for her medical treatment (still not enough), and an additional $1,750,000 in Underinsured Motorist insurance to cover her permanent economic and non-economic damages for her permanent personal injuries.

Yes. But the amount of insurance depends upon whether the Uber driver has the Uber app on or not. If they are not on the Uber app at the time, the driver's personal insurance is available for your loss. If the Uber driver has the Uber app on, the amount of insurance coverage will depend upon what "Phase" of driving the Uber driver is in at the time of the collision. For more on this see below.

Oregon Uber Wrongful Death Lawyer

Uber's US Safety Reports suggest that a number of people die every year in an Uber auto accident. According to Uber's reports, approximately 21% of those who die in these crashes are Uber Passengers, 21% that die are Uber Drivers, and 58% are third parties (outside the Uber vehicle). Some of these people killed by Uber drivers are motorcyclists. According to Uber's Safety reports, approximately 30% of the people who died in an Uber crash were pedestrians. Some of these are Uber customers waiting for their ride from the Uber driver who hits them. A much smaller percentage of deaths are to bicyclists hit by an Uber driver.

In Uber's 2019-2020 US Safety Report, the company noted that a high percentage of fatalities involved drunk driving, speeding or driving the wrong way by the other (non-Uber) driver. In cases like this, the lawyer representing the deceased person's family must make a claim against the at fault driver for liability insurance as well as Uber's insurance for Underinsured Motorist insurance. Failing to do so would leave $1,000,000 in insurance coverage untapped for the loss and if the liability claim is settled without the permission of Uber's insurer you may waive your claim to that $1,000,000 in insurance coverage.

If you have a wrongful death claim against Uber, our office has experience handling wrongful death claims. Since our firm handles serious injury cases, there are times where more than 10% of our cases involve the death of a client. We even have trial experience handling contested wrongful death cases (where the insurer offered $0 for a person's death, requring us to go to trial for the family.) While many lawyers advertise for wrongful death claims, these are not normal personal injury claims and often require different types of expert witnesses and legal procedures best handled by a lawyer with real experience handling these cases. So, if you have a wrongful death claim against Uber, please call our office at (503) 227-1233 for a free consultation.

How do claims against Uber change based upon the Driver being in Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 or "off app"

Uber's Phase 1 is when the Uber driver is sitting with the Uber app on, waiting for a ride assignment. In Oregon Uber's insurance provides the driver $50,000 per person (and $100,000 total for all occupants) of liability, Uninsured Motorist, and Underinsured Motorist insurance.

Uber's Phase 2 is when the Uber driver has accepted the ride on the Uber app, and is driving to pick up the Uber customer who requested a ride. In Oregon Uber's insurance provides the driver $1,000,000 of liability, Uninsured Motorist, and Underinsured Motorist insurance. To the extent the Uber driver is at fault, and you are in the Uber vehicle or in another vehicle, Uber may be self-insured or re-insured for the full amount of your loss.

Uber's Phase 3is when the Uber driver has accepted the ride on the Uber app, and is picking up or transporting an Uber customer. In Oregon Uber's insurance for Phase 3 provides the Uber driver,Uber customer and their passengers a combined total of $1,000,000 of liability, Uninsured Motorist, and Underinsured Motorist insurance. To the extent the Uber driver is at fault, and you are in the Uber vehicle or in another vehicle, Uber may be self-insured or re-insured for the full amount of your loss.

Uber driver, driving while "Off App": In the event an Uber driver is driving while the Uber app is not activated, the driver's own insurance covers the loss and not the insurance of Uber. But there may be exceptions if the Uber driver misrepresented to an Uber customer that they were picked up in response to a ride initiated through the Uber app. We have handled one claim against Lyft involving a driver misrepresentation, and obtained coverage for the client.

There is a lot of bad information on the internet about average Uber accident settlement amounts. Some firm in California or Florida (where verdicts and settlement amounts are much higher than Oregon) suggest unreasonable amounts. Uber doesn't appear to disclose this information anywhere. We do know a few things though;

1. What is the average verdict in Portland Oregon for an auto accident case?

Over the course of 1988 to present the courts have kept the auto accident verdicts, separating out rear end, side impact and head on collisions. The average verdict is approximately $11,000 and is increasing with time. Approximately 33% are defense verdicts.

2. How does Oregon rank when compared to other states?

According to the Insurance Research Council, which compiles claim payments in approximately 90% of all auto insurance claims nationally, Oregon has the seventh lowest outcomes for auto cases in the United States. While the state is considered politically liberal, Oregon juries are not liberal with compensation for injured Oregonians. Claim values are approximately 1/10 to 1/20 that of California even in Multnomah Counties, and California case outcomes are as much as100x the values in rural Oregon. Compensation for injuries is also a fraction of that provided to injured people in conservative states.

3. What do we know about Uber case settlement values?

Very little. This is because Uber requires a confidentiality agreement with nearly all of its settlements. As a result, people outside Uber will not be able to determine average settlement ranges.

4. Does it matter to our clients?

No. Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame inductee Paul Luveraonce said he never looks at other lawyer's verdicts for cases with similar injuries because no case has truly comparable facts. Every person is different and their injuries impact them differently. As importantly, the lawyer handling those cases are not him, and insurance companies know that the quality of lawyer, and their willingness to get the correct evidence to substantiate a claim, is a significant factor in case outcome. We provide the best legal services to every client we accept, with the goal of getting our client fully compensated for their financial and personal losses.

Our case selection criteria (only accepting a small number of seriously injured clients that we like as people) ensures that when we accept a client's case the insurer and defense lawyers know that we intend to go to trial for our clients no matter how long that takes, so that if a reasonable settlement offer is never made, we are ready to present the case to a jury.

It depends on a few factors;if you were in the Uber car or not, what state you are in; and whether the Uber driver was at fault or not. In Oregon these cases would have to be filed within two years of the date of your crash, and in Washington you would need to file this claim within three years of the date of your crash. These dates are called the Statutes of Limitations. Please discuss this with a licensed lawyer in your state to ensure you don't miss an important legal deadline.

Here are some FAQs about what happens to your Uber legal case depending upon whether certain parts of your claim settle or not:

1. What if I was in an Uber but got hit by another driver?

If you were in an Uber car and you were hit by someone else, you have to settle or try the case against the at-fault driver first.

2. What if I was hit in an Uber but already settled with the at-fault driver?

First of all, do not settle the case against the at-fault driver or you will waive your right to make a claim under Uber's Underinsured Motorist insurance.

If you were hit by another person while you are in an Uber vehicle but the case against the at-fault driver settles, then you can bring an Underinsured Motorist claim against Uber. If that doesn't settle, and you are in Oregon, you can opt for binding arbitration, which would be decided by three experienced lawyers (or retired judges) instead of a judge and jury. Often this is a less expensive way to try your case against Uber's insurance company.

3. What if I was in an Uber and the crash is the Uber driver's fault?

If you were in an Uber vehicle and in Oregon, and you were hurt due to the fault of Uber you either have to settle your case against Uber or file a lawsuit if they refuse to settle.

4. Does my own car insurance work if I was hit in an Uber?

Probably. Again, do not settle the case against the at-fault driver, or Uber's insurer or you will waive your right to make a claim under Uber's Underinsured Motorist insurance. You must first get permission from every other insurer to settle that claim before you can access your own auto insurance Underinsured Motorist policy. In Oregon the Underinsured Motorist policy amount "stacks" on top of the at fault party's insurance, Uber's insurance, and Uber's drivers insurance. But, as discussed above, if your injury is that significant, it is not in your best financial interest to be handling your claim without a lawyer.

Uber Crash Trial Lawyer

If Uber and its insurer deny your claim you probably have to file a lawsuit. And you should always count on that by hiring a trial lawyer (with regular trial experience) instead of a settlement lawyer. Lawyers who go to trial regularly better understand the claim value in front of a jury. And, as noted in the last section, if you have a reputation for settling every case, Uber and Uber's insurance company will have no incentive to make you a reasonable offer.

Who is Rasier LLC?

If you are in a crash, is Uber even the insured party? No. Probably not.

Experienced Uber crash lawyers with litigation experience against Uber, know that Uber separates itself from the legal entity that employs and insures its drivers - a legal entity called Rasier LLC. Uber considers itself a technology company with several subsidiaries. Rasier LLC, a California Limited Liability, is the entity that purchases the insurance for "Uber" drivers.

Uber Often Removes Lawsuits to Federal Court to Make Uber Personal Injury Claims More Difficult

In the event your case does not settle, if your crash occurs in a different state to the one where you live, or the Uber driver lives in a different state from the one in which you live, you may be required to file a lawsuit in federal court instead of state court, which changes your likelihood of winning at trial and in turn can impact the settlement value of your case. Many personal injury lawyers will reject federal court cases due to the unique challenges posed to injured people.

Even if your lawyer files a lawsuit in state court, Uber's attorneys regularly remove state court lawsuits to Federal court to make an injured person's claim as difficult as possible. The main differences are that in federal court your lawyer will get little or no time for jury selection to find out if jurors are biased against you, and because Federal Court requires a unanimous jury decision (12 out of 12 jurors) as opposed to Oregon State Court's requirement of 9 out of 12 jurors. Federal litigation cases are more expensive and substantially more time-consuming, providing an advantage to billion-dollar corporations like Uber, which has teams of lawyers. For this reason, you need an experienced Uber crash lawyer who is willing to accept a case that could end up being removed to federal court.

Do Not Assume Uber will Accept your Personal Injury Claim, or Settle Your Case for What You Believe is Full Value

In some cases, insurance disputes will arise between Uber, Rasier, the insurer, and the injured person. This can occur in the denial of insurance coverage in Uber personal injury cases even when there should be insurance coverage. For this reason, your case may require a lawyer with extensive background in insurance coverage and Oregon insurance bad faith claims.

In terms of Uber's denial of insurance claims, Oregon law requires that an insurer respond to a "Proof of Loss" within 30 days and then to investigate further, providing updates to the injured party as the insurer learns more about the claim. But, we've handled rideshare cases where the insurer continues denying insurance coverage to the injured party for years, even after litigation is filed. When the client is correct that there should be coverag we litigate these issues to get the client the insurance coverage they need for our seriously injured clients involved in rideshare cases such as Uber and Lyft (as well as in all other types of insurance cases we accept.)

Depending upon the insurer involved, the claims will then go through that insurers unique method of handling personal injury claims. With Allstate, this includes the use of bodily injury claim software, called Colossus on both "third party" liability claims against Uber and its driver, as well as "first party" Uninsured Motorist and Underinsured Motorist claims.

Our lawyer, Aaron DeShaw, is the author of the only text on the Colossus claim software, writing two books on the program, lecturing nationally and being quoted by insurance industry A.M. Best on the problems of the Colossus program. In non-protected court documents, the owners of the Colossus program acknowledge that the program as used at Allstate was set to intentionally underpay claims. Allstate is the only insurer who, as a result of a settlement with the New York Insurance Division, must inform customers of its use of Colossus (despite many other insurers using Colossus, or similar bodily injury evaluation software.)As a result of our extensive knowlege of Colossus, in our settlement offer letters we provide Allstate and other insurers with a Good Faith opportunity to settle your claim in language that their adjustors and the Colossus program understands before filing litigation. In most cases it does not matter. With the software set to intentionally and consistently undervalue claims, you will almost never be provided a full and fair settlement offer for your loss. Which is why it is critical that you hire a trial lawyer with a reputation for going to trial in any serious injury case, not a lawyer who settles every case regardless of how little is offered.

The time that it takes to settle an Uber accident case will depend upon the facts of the case and the laws of your state.

If an Uber driver is engaged in a ride then Uber's insurance policy is $1,000,000. Unless you have a very serious injury case, Uber's insurer will not be under any pressure to settle. In fact, the longer they hold the claim money, the longer they can invest it and make money on investments or interest. Is this against Oregon law? Yes. But, insurers were long protected by the Oregon legislature's refusal to pass meaningful insurance bad faith legislation, leaving Oregon citizens subject to abusive insurance claims practices like invalid insurance claim denials, settlement denials, and defenses that had no merit. Until Moody v. Federal Insurance Co., 317 Or App 233 (2022) decided by the Oregon Court of Appeals in2022, people covered under an insurance policy had no legal recourse to file a claim against the insurer for the negligent, reckless or intentional refusal to make a good faith offer to settle.

However, if the Uber driver is either "off app" or is in Phase 1, the insurance coverage may be much smaller and may result in a quicker and easier settlement.

But, in most cases with Uber, if you are seriously injured and will rely upon the settlement or verdict to offset the medical bills, wage loss, and personal losses for the rest of your life, you should expect for the case to drag on for years. This is where hiring a lawyer who will go the distance with you, all the way through trial, and who has a reputation for sticking with complex cases for years, becomes so important. Lawyer reputation is very important in helping you resolve your claim fairly and fully, instead of just quickly. If you want a quick settlement that is much less than you deserve, you can probably do that yourself. Which raises the question about whether you need a lawyer at all for your Uber crash claim.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer for a serious injury case against Uber?

Well, that is a great question. It is interesting that Allstate is the insurer for Uber in Oregon and Washington because our law firm has an extensive history researching, writing about, and litigating against Allstate for their insurance claim practices. All of Dr. DeShaw's books on insurance claim practices involve Allstate's method of evaluating and settling personal injury claims. He is so well known on this topic that he is referenced on Allstate's Wikipedia page. This background gives us some important information about this question.

In the early1990s Allstate hired the world's leading business consultant McKinsey & Co. to "radically change" its claim handling system. For several years, McKinsey studied Allstate's claims and revised the way Allstate handled claims resulting in billions of dollars in improper profits from its claim department (keeping money it knew it should have been paying.) The name of this system is Claim Core Process Redesign or "CCPR." McKinsey'sconsulting records for Allstate became infamously in legal circles, and known as "The McKinsey Documents."

One of the things that Allstate and McKinsey studied was the effect of lawyers. Initially, what became clear is that injured people who hired a lawyer achieved outcomes three times higher than non-represented people. The company started working on ways to prevent injured people from hiring lawyers through early phone calls and letters instructing claimants not to hire a lawyer. This ended once states started prosecuting the company for its improper legal advice. Then it engaged in other tactics to disincentivize injured people from hiring lawyers a term called disintermediation. After a few more years of studying the issue, Allstate admitted to its insurance claim adjustors that hiring a lawyer increased the injured person's outcome by 500%. So, if you are wondering whether paying 33% is worth it, Uber's insurer already knows you will get an average of 500% more on your claim.

Why is this the case? For most people they will only have one personal injury claim in their life if they are unlucky enough. Lawyers handle hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of personal injury cases over their career. With the better lawyers, they also understand that with serious and permanent injuries you will have future medical bills, disability, permanent impairment, and diminished earning capacity over the course of your life as a result of the injury. If you have never handled a personal injury claim before you don't know how to correctly document these things for the insurer or a jury. Insurers also look for specifity types of reports to support those claims, or to support specific types of injuries. Without those reports in your file, the insurance company will not provide you a full and fair settlement offer for your losses.

But, hiring a lawyer isn't enough. The insurers, particularly Allstate, keep detailed statistics about lawyers (based on federal tax ID number), and this data is increasingly available through third party insurance apps and available to share between insurers. As a result insures know what lawyer will go to trial on any case where a fair offer isn't provided, and they also keep track of lawyers who settle every case no matter how small the offer in order to avoid trial. While it is an informal Dr. DeShaw has a ranking system for lawyers (first published in the early 2000s) ranging from "settlement mill" lawyers to elite trial lawyers. Research from Stanford Law Professor Nora Engstrom states the type of client most seriously damaged by picking a settlement lawyer (particularly ata high volume "settlement mill" law firm) are people with serious and permanent injuries. So, choose your Oregon Uber Lawyer carefully.

Will Uber’s First Settlement Offer Be Close to Their Final Offer for Your Injury Claim?

No. This is highly unlikely. Unfortunately, Oregon's historically poor insurance bad faith law has allowed widespread abuses particularly in auto insurance claims. There have been no legal or financial consequences for insurers who make unreasonable settlement offers. This allowed insurers like Allstate to make$0 offers, $3,000 offers and $5,000 offers when those amounts were completely unrealistic for the injuries sustained by our clients. Dr. DeShaw's legal career demonstrates many offers of $0-5,000 where the end outcome was in the mid-six figures and in some cases over $1,000,000. In other rideshare cases, the insurer will simply deny insurance coverage completely until we file litigation. Often it is after that as we approach trial that the first low but meaningful settlement offer is made by the insurer. In some cases the insurer will continue to continue to make offers until the case settles, but often they never made a reasonable offer and frivolously defend the case until a jury forces them to pay the claim.

That said, Allstate's CCPR claim handling method has historically used a single offer titled "Settle for X or Less" (abbreviated "SFXOL") - suggesting that the attorney (often desperate for a quick settlement) only got one offer and if they didn't accept it Allstate would push the case to trial. So, that is exactly what we expect. Given this history many trial lawyers will not even offer settlement to Allstate because it is a waste of time. In our cases we almost always make an offer to settle the case before we file litigation and then allow Allstate to make a minimal offer before we file a lawsuit. We expect an unreasonable offer or no offer, but still try to make a reasonable effort to settle a claim before filing a lawsuit.

If Uber's insurer won't make a good faith offer the first time, we push toward trial. We screen cases carefully during the first call and during our client intake meeting, as well as in reviewing records, to make sure our clients and their cases are trial worthy before we accept them. So, Allstate can play games, but unreasonable offers to our clients just result in us going to trial to get the full and fair value of the loss for our clients. If you want to read more about Dr. DeShaw's battles against Allstate, see the books From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves by David Berardinelli and Delay Deny Defend by Professor Jay Feinberg.

What if my Uber Crash Claim Doesn't Settle?

It depends on a few factors; if you were in the Uber car or not, what state you are in; and whether the Uber driver was at fault or not. In Oregon these cases would have to be filed within two years of the date of your crash, and in Washington you would need to file this claim within three years of the date of your crash. These dates are called the Statutes of Limitations. Please discuss this with a licensed lawyer in your state to ensure you don't miss an important legal deadline.

Here are some FAQs about what happens to your Uber legal case depending upon whether certain parts of your claim settle or not:

1. What if I was in an Uber but got hit by another driver?

If you were in an Uber car and you were hit by someone else, you have to settle or try the case against the at-fault driver first.

2. What if I was hit in an Uber but already settled with the at-fault driver?

First of all, do not settle the case against the at-fault driver or you will waive your right to make a claim under Uber's Underinsured Motorist insurance.

If you were hit by another person while you are in an Uber vehicle but the case against the at-fault driver settles, then you can bring an Underinsured Motorist claim against Uber. If that doesn't settle, and you are in Oregon, you can opt for binding arbitration, which would be decided by three experienced lawyers (or retired judges) instead of a judge and jury. Often this is a less expensive way to try your case against Uber's insurance company.

3. What if I was in an Uber and the crash is the Uber driver's fault?

If you were in an Uber vehicle and in Oregon, and you were hurt due to the fault of Uber you either have to settle your case against Uber or file a lawsuit if they refuse to settle.

4. Does my own car insurance work if I was hit in an Uber?

Probably. Again, do not settle the case against the at-fault driver, or Uber's insurer or you will waive your right to make a claim under Uber's Underinsured Motorist insurance. You must first get permission from every other insurer to settle that claim before you can access your own auto insurance Underinsured Motorist policy. In Oregon the Underinsured Motorist policy amount "stacks" on top of the at fault party's insurance, Uber's insurance, and Uber's drivers insurance. But, as discussed above, if your injury is that significant, it is not in your best financial interest to be handling your claim without a lawyer.

Uber Crash Trial Lawyer

If Uber and its insurer deny your claim you probably have to file a lawsuit. And you should always count on that by hiring a trial lawyer (with regular trial experience) instead of a settlement lawyer. Lawyers who go to trial regularly better understand the claim value in front of a jury. And, as noted in the last section, if you have a reputation for settling every case, Uber and Uber's insurance company will have no incentive to make you a reasonable offer.

Who is Rasier LLC?

If you are in a crash, is Uber even the insured party? No. Probably not.

Experienced Uber crash lawyers with litigation experience against Uber, know that Uber separates itself from the legal entity that employs and insures its drivers - a legal entity called Rasier LLC. Uber considers itself a technology company with several subsidiaries. Rasier LLC, a California Limited Liability, is the entity that purchases the insurance for "Uber" drivers.

Uber Often Removes Lawsuits to Federal Court to Make Uber Personal Injury Claims More Difficult

In the event your case does not settle, if your crash occurs in a different state to the one where you live, or the Uber driver lives in a different state from the one in which you live, you may be required to file a lawsuit in federal court instead of state court, which changes your likelihood of winning at trial and in turn can impact the settlement value of your case. Many personal injury lawyers will reject federal court cases due to the unique challenges posed to injured people.

Even if your lawyer files a lawsuit in state court, Uber's attorneys regularly remove state court lawsuits to Federal court to make an injured person's claim as difficult as possible. The main differences are that in federal court your lawyer will get little or no time for jury selection to find out if jurors are biased against you, and because Federal Court requires a unanimous jury decision (12 out of 12 jurors) as opposed to Oregon State Court's requirement of 9 out of 12 jurors. Federal litigation cases are more expensive and substantially more time-consuming, providing an advantage to billion-dollar corporations like Uber, which has teams of lawyers. For this reason you need an experienced Uber crash lawyer who is willing to accept a case that could end up being removed to federal court.

Do Not Assume Uber will Accept your Personal Injury Claim, or Settle Your Case for What You Believe is Full Value

In some cases, insurance disputes will arise between Uber, Rasier, the insurer, and the injured person. This can occur in the denial of insurance coverage in Uber personal injury cases even when there should be insurance coverage. For this reason, your case may require a lawyer with extensive background in insurance coverage and Oregon insurance bad faith claims.

In terms of Uber's denial of insurance claims, Oregon law requires that an insurer respond to a "Proof of Loss" within 30 days and then to investigate further, providing updates to the injured party as the insurer learns more about the claim. But, we've handled rideshare cases where the insurer continues denying insurance coverage to the injured party for years, even after litigation is filed. When the client is correct that there should be coverage we litigate these issues to get the client the insurance coverage they need for our seriously injured clients involved in rideshare cases such as Uber and Lyft (as well as in all other types of insurance cases we accept.)

Depending upon the insurer involved, the claims will then go through that insurer's unique method of handling personal injury claims. With Allstate, this includes the use of bodily injury claim software, called Colossus on both "third party" liability claims against Uber and its driver, as well as "first party" Uninsured Motorist and Underinsured Motorist claims.

Our lawyer, Aaron DeShaw, is the author of the only text on the Colossus claim software, writing two books on the program, lecturing nationally and being quoted by insurance industry A.M. Best on the problems of the Colossus program. In non-protected court documents, the owners of the Colossus program acknowledge that the program as used at Allstate was set to intentionally underpay claims. Allstate is the only insurer who, as a result of a settlement with the New York Insurance Division, must inform customers of its use of Colossus (despite many other insurers using Colossus, or similar bodily injury evaluation software.)As a result of our extensive knowlege of Colossus, in our settlement offer letters we provide Allstate and other insurers with a Good Faith opportunity to settle your claim in language that their adjustors and the Colossus program understands before filing litigation. In most cases it does not matter. With the software set to intentionally and consistently undervalue claims, you will almost never be provided a full and fair settlement offer for your loss. Which is why it is critical that you hire a trial lawyer with a reputation for going to trial in any serious injury case, not a lawyer who settles every case regardless of how little is offered.

If Uber and their insurer refuse to settle your personal injury claim, or deny the claim all together, you will be forced to file litigation to get any compensation for your losses. This is where having an experienced Uber personal injury lawyer, who has already litigated cases against Uber and Lyft becomes more important.

We have handled some unusual rideshare cases involving issues like driver misrepresentation. In these cases we've had to check the rideshare company's internal records and request documents pertaining to every step of the offer for rideshare services by the customer, the rideshare driver's acceptance, use of the app to locate the customer, data on the driver demonstrated to the person requesting the ride and every little detail to demonstrate why the rideshare company's insurer should insured the loss because our client was misled about the driver driving "on app" or "off app" at the time of a crash.

Uber has standards in place in terms of hiring, annual background checks, driving suspension and termination of Uber drivers. The question in litigation is whether they used these to prevent dangerous drivers from picking up Uber customers. Once the person becomes a driver,Uber's technology (empowered by Uber's driving contract) allows Uber to track every Uber driver's location, the driver's speed, notifications for that driver's ride, the driver's social media, and nearly every aspect of data that an Uber driver's cell phone tracks regardless of whether the Uber app is on or off (which Uber calls running in the foreground or background). If you have an experienced Uber personal injury attorney, they know how to request all of this data to best support your claim. The data available in rideshare cases is very different to those available in a normal auto accident case and a lawyer who is inexperienced in what to look for may miss critical data to prove your case.

Moreover, by tracking this data, Uber has all the necessary data to terminate a driver for a history of unsafe driving, or proof of bad conduct. As an example, in one rideshare case we have handled,the driver repeatedly accepts rides and finds the rideshare customer using the rideshare app, but then cancels the ride and picks the customer up anyway leaving them unaware that they are being transported outside the app and without the rideshare company's insurance. The driver's angle, repeated multiple times per shift without suspension of driving privileges, is to get cash and leave riders vulnerable without their knowledge.

In the first Uber US Safety Report Uber admitted that 3,045 people had been sexually assaulted by Uber drivers, and nine murdered by Uber drivers in the United States alone during a two year period from 2017-2018. In Uber'ssecond US safety report for 2019-2020, Uber reported 2,826 sexual assaults and9murders from assault in 2019, and 998 sexual assaults and 11 murders from assault in 2020in Uber vehicles (despite a significant decrease of more than 55% in Uber rides in 2020 due to COVID-19). This represented an 18% increase in fatal assaults in Uber vehicles.

In the event you or a loved one has been sexually assaulted or murdered in an Uber vehicle, you may be able to bring a claim against Uber and Rasier for negligent hiring, negligent retention or vicarious liability. We would need to investigate the details of the driver's background to determine whether Uber and Rasier knew or should have known that allowing that person to drive for Uber was negligent or reckless. Given that our firm regularly works on serious injury and death cases, sometimes involving criminal actions such as drunk driving, we work with police and the District Attorney's office to obtain criminal investigation files. We have additional resources both outside litigation and within litigation to get background information on drivers from Uber and Rasier or their insurer. These intensive background searches (used in all of our cases), can provide some shocking criminal and driving backgrounds on drivers who are improperly entrusted with rideshare vehicles, taxis, commercial delivery vehicles (such as FedEx, UPS, Amazon) or trucking companies. (While not an Uber case, in one recent case involving a client who was hit as a pedestrian, we found a commercial driver's background demonstrating over 30 criminal convictions.)Investigating a drivers background is fundamental to obtaining the best settlement or jury verdict in a rideshare case.

According to the New York Times “many ride-hailing companies initially thrived by flouting regulations and allowing almost anyone with a car to become a driver without the screening and licenses required in the taxi industry. Reports of sexual assault and murders have since become a regular occurrence as ride-hailing has become a mainstay of urban transportation. Many of the companies face a growing number of lawsuits over safety incidents.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal has sought increased safety such as fingerprint-based background checks of drivers, but this has not yet occurred. “All of those steps are starters because these ride-hailing companies have been abjectly failing in their duty to protect against predators or criminals,” he said.

Uber Eats is a different division of Uber that is a food delivery service similar to Door Dash, Postmates and Grubhub. If you were seriously injured by an Uber Eats driver, or you are an Uber Eats driver who was seriously injured by another driver while delivering for Uber Eats, you will likely also have a claim against Uber's insurance.

Finding the Best Oregon Uber Personal Injury Attorney

Which law firm has the best Uber accident settlements online?

You have many options when trying to find the best Oregon Uber Personal Injury Attorney. Before doing so, you should consider the lawyer's experience handling life-changing injury cases, and Uber cases. Trying to find the law firm with the best Uber accident settlements online may be difficult because of the confidentiality agreements required by both Uber and Lyft.

What we can say is that despite this being a relatively new area of law because of the increasing popularity of rideshare services,our law firm has handled multiple large catastrophic rideshare cases, worth more than the companies' $1,000,000 policy limit. We are so well respected for handling Uber and Lyft cases that we are hired by out of state law firms to handle their serious rideshare cases in Oregon. Here are a few of the cases we have handled involving a rideshare company without stating the company or the specific amount of the settlement:

• Representation of a passenger who sustained multiple fractures including multiple fractures of the pelvis, fracture of the femur, and multiple ribs along with a laceration of the diaphragm with the stomach herniating it up into the left lung causing hemothorax and pneumothorax;
• Representation of a passenger who sustained a five-part Jeffersonfracture of the C1 vertebra, hairline fracture of the odontoid of C2 and damage to the spinal cord at C2 with temporary partial paralysis of three extremities, massive laceration of the face, multiple fractures, and multiple disc herniations;
• Representation of a passenger who sustained a moderate traumatic brain injury with a subdural hematoma, extended loss of consciousness, ongoing cognitive problems, and multiple other injuries;
• Representation of a passenger who sustained a traumatic brain injury with associated cognitive, behavioral and neurological changes, a canal dehiscence of the inner ear requiring neurosurgery, spinal injury resulting in a C1 instability, fracture of the clavicle resulting in a surgery that improperly drilled from the clavicle plate down into the coracoid process of the scapula, severe spinal pain and headaches, as well as other injuries;
• Others

Dr. DeShaw is a retired Doctor of Chiropractic and Oregon licensed trial lawyer (one of very few D.C./J.D.sin the world). He has authored books and lectured for tens of thousands of lawyers in multiple states on complex medical injuries and the insurance settlement process. He is one of less than 100 lawyers and judges in Oregon who are nominated and selected for the American Board of Trial Advocates. Heis one of few practicing Oregon lawyers to receive the prestigious Oregon Trial Lawyers Association Presidential Award.

If you were seriously injured in an Uber or Lyft vehicle, we have extensive experience in settlement and litigation with these companies. Please call our office at (503) 227-1233 for a free consultation about your Uber case.

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