Uber Accident Attorney Los Angeles
You ordered a ride, or you were just crossing the street, and now you are hurt. As a Los Angeles Uber accident attorney, Ravan Law represents passengers, drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists hurt in a rideshare accident. Uber and Lyft claims look like ordinary car accident claims. They are not. The insurance that pays depends on what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact, the coverage changed on January 1, 2026, and the company behind the app has its own insurer, its own adjusters, and its own rider agreement.
A rideshare crash raises three questions most injured people cannot answer on their own. Who was at fault? Which policy applies? And is there a deadline shorter than two years? As your Uber accident lawyer in Los Angeles, we answer all three in our first conversation with you, then we secure the trip data before it becomes harder to get.
Call (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. Information is available in Spanish. No fee unless we win.
Los Angeles Uber Accident Lawyer for Passengers, Drivers, Pedestrians, and Cyclists
Your role in the crash decides which insurance applies and who you claim against. The general negligence rule in Civil Code 1714 makes every person responsible for injuries caused by a failure to use ordinary care, and that includes rideshare drivers, other motorists, and the companies whose conduct contributes to a crash. Here is how we look at each situation.
Uber and Lyft passengers
If you were a passenger, you are almost never at fault for a rideshare accident, which makes the passenger claim the clearest of the four. If your Uber or Lyft driver caused the crash, the rideshare company’s $1 million liability policy applies. If another driver caused it, your claim runs first against that driver’s insurance, and the rideshare company’s uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may apply when that driver has no insurance or too little. That second scenario is where the 2026 change hits hardest, as we explain below. In some crashes both drivers share fault, and in those cases we can bring your claim against both at once.
Drivers and occupants of other vehicles
If an Uber or Lyft driver hit your car, the coverage available to you depends on the driver’s app status. With a ride accepted or a passenger aboard, the $1 million liability policy applies. With the app on and no ride accepted, lower limits apply. With the app off, only the driver’s personal auto policy is in play. Your own collision and uninsured motorist coverage may fill gaps, and we check those too.
Pedestrians and cyclists hit by a rideshare vehicle
If you were walking or riding a bike, you have the same right to compensation as anyone inside a vehicle, and the Vehicle Code gives you specific protections. Drivers must yield to pedestrians in marked and unmarked crosswalks under Vehicle Code 21950. Drivers passing a cyclist must leave at least three feet under Vehicle Code 21760. Vehicle Code 22517 bars anyone from opening a car door into traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so, which matters in “dooring” crashes, where a rideshare passenger swings a door open into a bike lane at drop-off. In those cases the passenger who opened the door, the driver who stopped in the lane, or both may be responsible. We cover this scenario in more depth in what to do if you were hit by an Uber or Lyft driver as a pedestrian or cyclist in California. Read more about Los Angeles pedestrian accident claims and Los Angeles bicycle accident claims.
Rideshare drivers hurt by another driver
Uber and Lyft drivers are often hurt by someone else’s negligence. Under Proposition 22, approved by voters in 2020 and upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2024, app-based drivers are classified as independent contractors rather than employees. Whatever coverage the company provides for its drivers, the central claim for an injured driver is usually the third-party claim, and it is the claim we build first as your rideshare accident attorney: a negligence claim against the motorist who caused the crash and that motorist’s insurer. When that motorist is uninsured or underinsured, your own policy and the rideshare UM/UIM coverage described below may come into play, depending on their terms and on whether a passenger was aboard.
Los Angeles Uber Accident Attorney: Rideshare Insurance in 2026
California requires transportation network companies (the legal term for Uber, Lyft, and similar apps) to carry insurance that changes with the driver’s status in the app under Public Utilities Code 5433. Senate Bill 371, signed in October 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, cut passenger UM/UIM coverage to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. These are the current California requirements:
Driver’s status at the moment of the crash | Coverage available |
App off | The driver’s personal auto insurance only |
App on, waiting for a ride request, no ride accepted | $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident for bodily injury, $30,000 for property damage, plus a $200,000 excess liability policy |
Ride accepted, through the end of the trip | $1,000,000 in third-party liability coverage when the rideshare driver is at fault |
Passenger in the vehicle, crash caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver | Uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage of $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident |
Uber and Lyft often call the “app on, waiting” stage Period 1 and the accepted-ride stages Periods 2 and 3. The labels matter less than the facts: what the app showed at the second of impact.
The UM/UIM gap for passengers hit by uninsured drivers
Before 2026, rideshare UM/UIM coverage was $1 million. SB 371 cut it to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. In practice: an uninsured driver runs a red light on Sunset Boulevard and broadsides the Uber you are riding in. The rideshare driver did nothing wrong, so the $1 million liability policy does not pay. The uninsured driver has nothing. The coverage left for you through the rideshare policy is $60,000, and if four people were hurt, the $300,000 per-incident cap is divided among all of them.
If you have a spinal fracture or a brain injury, $60,000 may not cover the first hospital stay. That is the gap, and we work to close it. Other sources may help: if you own a car, the uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy may apply depending on its terms, and when the at-fault driver is underinsured, California UIM is difference coverage under Insurance Code 11580.2(p)(4), so it pays up to its limit minus what the at-fault driver’s insurer paid. California also raised its minimum auto liability limits under SB 1107, effective January 1, 2025, but minimum policies are still small against a serious injury. We explain how the layers fit in what uninsured and underinsured motorist coverages are and how compensation still works when an uninsured driver hits you in Los Angeles. If the at-fault driver fled, see the phantom driver rule for Los Angeles hit-and-runs.
Proving the app status
The insurer’s first move in many rideshare accident claims is to dispute the driver’s status: the app was off, or no ride had been accepted yet. The answer is in the data. As your Los Angeles Uber accident attorney, we request the trip records, app logs, GPS data, and in-app communications in writing, early, and we pair them with your receipts and screenshots. Your own screenshots are often the cleanest evidence of when the ride began.
Lyft Accident Lawyer Los Angeles: Is a Lyft Claim Different?
The legal rules are the same: Public Utilities Code 5433, SB 371, and the table above apply to every transportation network company in California. The differences are practical, since each company has its own insurer, claims process, and rider terms. Our comparison of Lyft accident vs Uber accident claims in Los Angeles walks you through them.
Who Is Liable for an Uber or Lyft Accident?
Liability follows fault, and in a rideshare accident more than one party is often at fault. We look at every one of them.
- The rideshare driver. Distraction is a common pattern. Vehicle Code 23123.5 prohibits holding and operating a phone while driving; a mounted phone may be used only with a single tap or swipe. A driver accepting a ride request, reading a pickup note, or rerouting while moving may be violating that rule, and as your rideshare accident attorney we can request the phone and app records that show it.
- Another motorist. Red-light runners, unsafe lane changes, and drivers who rear-end a rideshare car stopped for a pickup.
- Uber or Lyft as a company. Because drivers are independent contractors under Prop 22, the companies generally argue they are not responsible for a driver’s negligence. Their insurance still responds as the law requires, and a direct claim against the company may be possible where its own conduct contributed. The rider terms of both companies contain arbitration provisions, which can move a direct claim against the company out of court and before an arbitrator. See our analysis of the 2026 Uber ballot initiative.
- A public entity. A city bus, a broken traffic signal, or a dangerous roadway. This changes the deadline, covered in its own section below.
- Other third parties. A vehicle defect, a negligent repair shop, or a construction crew that left debris in the lane.
California follows pure comparative fault. If you share some blame, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault, not eliminated.
Uber and Lyft Accident Hotspots: Where Rideshare Crashes Happen in Los Angeles
Los Angeles has heavy rideshare traffic, and rideshare accidents cluster. The same patterns repeat in the same places.
The LAX airport zone
The approaches to LAX on Century Boulevard and Sepulveda Boulevard concentrate thousands of rideshare trips a day. Drivers cutting across lanes toward the pickup area, sudden stops, and luggage loading beside moving traffic produce rear-end and sideswipe crashes. LAX is operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a department of the City of Los Angeles, so a crash involving an airport shuttle or an airport roadway condition can raise a government claim.
The DTLA entertainment district
Event nights around L.A. Live and the arena on Figueroa Street, and the bars of the Arts District and the Historic Core, generate surges of pickups. Drivers double-park in travel lanes, stop in bike lanes, and make illegal U-turns toward a waiting rider on one-way streets. Metro buses share many of these streets.
West Hollywood and the Sunset Strip
Late-night pickups on Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard put rideshare cars, impaired drivers, and heavy foot traffic in the same lanes. West Hollywood is its own city, so a road-design or signal claim there runs against the City of West Hollywood, not Los Angeles.
Hollywood
Hollywood Boulevard, Highland Avenue, and the streets around the Hollywood Bowl see crowds leaving concerts and tourists stepping into the street to meet a car.
Silver Lake
Narrow hillside streets, blind curves, and parked cars on both sides leave little room for drivers following GPS. Sunset Boulevard and Glendale Boulevard add cyclists and stop-and-go traffic near Sunset Junction.
The 405, the 10, and the 101
App distraction, fatigue, and the commercial trucks that share these corridors make freeway rideshare accidents some of the most serious. If your crash involved a big rig, see our Los Angeles truck accident lawyer page.
When a City Vehicle, Metro Bus, or Public Road Is Part of the Uber Crash
Some of the most serious rideshare accident cases in Los Angeles involve a public entity. An LA Metro bus pulls out and strikes the Lyft you are riding in. A city-owned truck runs a light in Downtown Los Angeles. A signal on a city street has been dark for days. A pothole on a state highway sends the rideshare car into the next lane. A crash on a roadway at LAX involves an airport vehicle.
These cases follow a separate legal track under the Government Claims Act, the California law that governs claims against public entities. Before any lawsuit can be filed, a formal written claim must be presented to the public entity within six months of the injury under Government Code 911.2. This deadline is separate from the two-year personal injury statute of limitations, and the longer deadline does not extend the shorter one. Missing the six-month window can permanently bar an otherwise strong claim against the government, no matter how clear the fault.
Each agency has its own claim process. A claim involving a city street or a city vehicle goes to the City of Los Angeles; a Metro bus claim goes to LA Metro; a freeway condition claim is a claim against the State of California (Caltrans takes claims of $12,500 or less at its district claims office, and claims over $12,500 go to the Government Claims Program at the Department of General Services); a crash in West Hollywood may involve that city. As your Los Angeles Uber accident attorney, we identify the right entity first, because each responsible agency must receive its own claim within the six months. If your child was hurt, the rule that pauses the two-year statute for minors (Code of Civil Procedure 352) does not pause the six-month government claim deadline. A late-claim application may be available for a child under Government Code 911.4 and 911.6, but it has its own one-year limit. Read more about Los Angeles government claims and Los Angeles bus accident claims.
Government claims are a core focus of our firm. These claims have strict rules and a six-month deadline, and we take them on. Our largest motor vehicle result, $3,500,000 in an accident with a county vehicle, involved a public entity. As your Los Angeles rideshare accident attorney, we prepare these claims and know what each agency’s form requires. These guides cover each agency:
- Filing a claim against the City of Los Angeles
- How to file a claim against LA Metro after an injury
- Claims against Caltrans and the State of California after a highway crash
- What to do if you’ve been injured due to a government entity
Catastrophic Injuries in Uber and Lyft Crashes
Not every rideshare crash is the same. A side impact at an intersection or a high-speed freeway collision can cause injuries that change a life:
- Traumatic brain injury, including injuries that do not show on a first CT scan
- Spinal cord injury, paralysis, and spinal fractures
- Multiple or complex fractures requiring surgery and hardware
- Internal injuries and internal bleeding
- Severe burns, amputations, and disfigurement
- Long-term or permanent disability
These cases need more than a demand letter. We build them with medical projections, a life-care plan prepared with your treating physicians, and an analysis of lost earning capacity, so that your claim reflects what the injury will cost across a lifetime rather than what has been billed so far. In a rideshare accident case this also means we map every available policy early: the $1 million liability policy, the driver’s personal policy, another driver’s policy, your own UM/UIM coverage, and any public entity. When several passengers are badly hurt in the same crash, they may all be drawing on the same limits.
Where a death results, California allows surviving family members to bring a wrongful death claim, generally within two years under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1. If a public entity is involved, the six-month government claim deadline still applies. If you have lost someone, we can explain where your family stands.
Compensation in an Uber Accident Claim: What a California Uber Accident Lawyer Looks At
Compensation in a rideshare accident claim falls into two categories of compensatory damages. We build your case to account for both.
Economic damages
Measurable financial loss: emergency care, surgery, hospital stays, rehabilitation, future medical care, in-home care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and property damage.
Non-economic damages
Harm with no invoice: physical pain, emotional distress, anxiety and post-traumatic stress, disfigurement, and the loss of the activities and relationships that made up your normal life. We explain both categories in what economic and non-economic damages are.
Punitive damages are separate
Punitive damages are not compensation. Under Civil Code 3294 they require clear and convincing evidence of malice, oppression, or fraud, such as a driver who chose to drive impaired. They are uncommon in ordinary negligence cases.
What moves the value of a rideshare accident claim
The severity and permanence of your injury, the cost of future care, the driver’s app status, which policies apply and how many people share them, and any share of fault. The full value of a case is often underestimated in the first weeks after a serious crash, before the long-term medical picture is clear. That is why we review any early settlement offer with you carefully before anyone signs.
Settlements and verdicts
These are settlements and verdicts Ravan Law has obtained for injured clients in vehicle cases.
Recovery | Case type |
$3,500,000 | Motor vehicle accident with a county vehicle |
$500,000 | Motor vehicle accident |
$275,000 | Bus accident |
$200,000 | Motor vehicle accident |
Each settlement or verdict depended on its own injuries, evidence, and available insurance.
Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.
California Deadlines for Uber and Lyft Accident Claims
Two different deadlines can apply to the same rideshare accident. They are separate, and the shorter one controls when a public entity is involved.
Claim | Deadline | Authority |
Personal injury | Generally 2 years from the date of injury | Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 |
Wrongful death | Generally 2 years from the date of death | Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 |
Claim against a public entity | 6 months from the date of injury, before any lawsuit | Government Code 911.2 |
Injured minor | Generally tolled until age 18 (does not pause the six-month government claim deadline) | Code of Civil Procedure 352 |
An insurance claim is not a lawsuit, and negotiating with Uber’s or Lyft’s insurer does not stop either clock. As your Uber accident lawyer in Los Angeles, we track both dates from the first day.
What to Do After an Uber or Lyft Accident in Los Angeles
- Call 911 and get checked. Ask for a police report and get medical care the same day; concussions and spinal injuries often surface hours later.
- Screenshot the trip before the app moves on. Capture the ride screen, the driver’s name and photo, the vehicle and plate, the route, and the time. Save the receipt email.
- File the in-app incident report. It creates a record with Uber or Lyft. Keep it factual and brief.
- Collect information from everyone. The other driver’s insurance, witnesses’ names and numbers, and photos of the vehicles, the intersection, and any signal or road defect.
- Note any public vehicle or public road. A Metro bus, a city truck, a dark signal, or a broken roadway starts the six-month clock.
- Be careful with recorded statements. You are not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer or to the rideshare company’s insurer, and it is reasonable to decline until you have spoken with a lawyer. Those statements are taken early, and they are used later.
- Talk to an Uber accident attorney in Los Angeles before signing anything. A release signed for a quick payment ends the claim.
For the steps that apply to any collision, see our guide on what to do after a car accident in Los Angeles, and for a broader look at rideshare accidents, our article on what Uber accident victims in Los Angeles must know about rideshare crashes.
Why Clients Choose Ravan Law When They Need a Los Angeles Uber Accident Attorney
- You work with us directly. We answer your questions, we keep you updated at every stage, and you always know where your case stands.
- Current law, applied correctly. We build the 2026 rideshare accident insurance rules, the reduced UM/UIM limits, and the layering of every available policy into your claim from the start.
- Government claims are a core focus. Ted H. Ravan went into injury law after his grandfather was in a near-fatal incident involving a city-operated bus. That is why our firm prepares claims against the City of Los Angeles, LA Metro, Caltrans, and other agencies inside the six-month window.
- Serious injuries valued for the long term. We use life-care planning and lost earning capacity analysis, not a quick demand.
- Clients rate the firm 4.9 on Google across 65 reviews.
- No fee unless we win. The free consultation carries no obligation.
Ted H. Ravan, a Los Angeles personal injury attorney, studied political science at UC San Diego and earned his law degree at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he gave more than 100 volunteer hours to the campus free legal clinic. Read more about attorney Ted H. Ravan.
We also handle Los Angeles car accident claims and personal injury claims of every kind, including delivery-driver crashes covered in our article on gig economy liability for Amazon, DoorDash, and Uber Eats delivery accidents.
Serving Rideshare Accident Victims Across Los Angeles County
From our office on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles, we represent people hurt in Uber and Lyft crashes throughout Los Angeles County: LAX and Westchester, Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Santa Monica, Culver City, Inglewood, Koreatown, Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, and Long Beach. In the San Fernando Valley, we represent people hurt in rideshare crashes in Panorama City, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, and Encino. We also represent clients in Orange County and San Diego County.
Get Your Free Case Review From a Los Angeles Uber Accident Attorney Today
If you or a member of your family was seriously hurt in an Uber or Lyft crash, the clock started on the day of the crash. If a Metro bus, a city vehicle, or a public road played any part, the six-month deadline under Government Code 911.2 is already running, and the two-year statute under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 does not extend it. Trip data, surveillance footage at the pickup point, and witness memories fade on a shorter schedule still.
You did not ask for this. Call Ravan Law at (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. We will listen, tell you where you stand, and get to work. No fee unless we win.
6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Attorney Advertising. Ted H. Ravan, Esq., Ravan Law, Los Angeles, CA. This content is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its specific facts.
Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.
