In an Uber or Lyft crash, the app decides which insurance applies.
When a rideshare trip ends in a collision on Los Angeles streets, the first legal question is what the driver's app showed at the moment of impact, before anyone argues about who ran the light. That single fact can swing available coverage from a minimum limits policy to one million dollars.
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California built a tiered insurance system for transportation network companies, and every rideshare injury case starts by placing the crash inside it. The tiers are simple to state and endlessly fought over in practice.
The three insurance periods.
App off. The driver is just a driver. Only their personal auto policy applies, and since January 1, 2025, California's minimum liability limits are $30,000 per person and $60,000 per crash for injuries. A serious injury can exhaust that in a single hospital admission.
App on, waiting for a request. The driver is logged in but has no passenger and no assignment. The rideshare company must provide contingent coverage, commonly $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury, with $30,000 for property damage. It applies when the driver's personal policy does not, and personal policies routinely exclude commercial driving.
En route or carrying a passenger. From the moment the driver accepts a ride until the passenger exits, California requires $1,000,000 in liability coverage. This is the coverage that makes rideshare cases worth handling correctly. It is also why the companies' insurers sometimes contest which period applied, because a few seconds of app status can be the difference between a five figure policy and a seven figure one.
Where you sat changes your claim.
As a passenger, you are the rare claimant with almost no fault exposure. You were a paying rider; you did not cause anything. Your claim runs against whichever driver was negligent, and during your trip the million dollar policy stands behind your driver's side of the ledger. Passenger cases still require real proof of damages, but liability fights are usually short.
As another driver, cyclist, or pedestrian hit by a rideshare vehicle, your recovery depends heavily on the period question above. We move fast to pin down the driver's app status with preservation demands, because the difference matters more in these cases than in any ordinary crash claim. Our car accident and pedestrian injury pages cover the underlying liability rules, which apply here unchanged.
As the rideshare driver, you occupy the most complicated seat. Your personal insurer may deny coverage under a livery exclusion, the rideshare coverage varies by period, and your income stops while you recover. These cases reward early legal help more than any other rideshare claim.
The evidence lives inside the app.
Rideshare litigation has a peculiar advantage: the defendant's business model creates a record of everything. Trip logs show when the ride was accepted, the route driven, the speed data, and the exact timestamps that settle the period question. Receipts identify the driver, the vehicle, and the trip. None of that data belongs to you by default, and none of it will simply be handed over. We send preservation and production demands early, and we tell clients to screenshot everything in their own app the same day: the trip record, the driver profile, the receipt, any in-app crash report. Accounts get deactivated. Screens change. Your screenshots do not.
Expect procedural pressure too. Rideshare terms of service push disputes toward arbitration, and company-side representatives sometimes lean on that to discourage claims. Arbitration clauses bind the people who agreed to the terms, and their reach over injury claims, especially those of third parties who never used the app, is limited and contested. Do not let a phrase in a click-through agreement talk you out of a valid claim before a lawyer reads it.
Delivery apps, uninsured drivers, and the layers in between.
The delivery economy runs on similar rails with weaker guardrails. DoorDash, Uber Eats, Instacart, and their competitors each maintain their own coverage structures, which differ from rideshare requirements and from one another. A crash with a delivery driver deserves the same first step as a rideshare crash: establish app status at impact, then map every policy in the stack.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage adds the final layer. During an active trip, rideshare programs have historically included substantial UM and UIM protection, which matters enormously in a county where a meaningful share of drivers carry no insurance at all. Your own auto policy's UM coverage may apply too, even when you were a passenger in someone else's car. Sequencing these layers correctly, primary policy, rideshare coverage, UM tiers, is quiet technical work that can determine how much coverage is actually available in a serious case. It is exactly the kind of coverage mapping we take on across our Los Angeles injury practice. The filing deadline for these claims is generally two years, and shorter contractual deadlines can apply to some UM claims, so start sooner rather than later.
How rideshare coverage really works.
Uber says its drivers are independent contractors. Does that block my claim?
It changes the theory, not the outcome you need. California requires rideshare companies to carry substantial insurance that covers crashes during app activity regardless of the driver's employment classification. Your claim is presented against that coverage. Whether the company itself can also be held directly liable is a separate, evolving question we evaluate case by case.
I was driving for a rideshare app when I was hit. Am I covered?
It depends on your app status at the moment of impact and on who caused the crash. If the other driver was at fault, their policy is the starting point, with the rideshare uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage potentially layered above it during an active trip. If you were between rides, the picture gets more complicated, and your personal policy's livery exclusion may become an issue. Bring us your trip log before you talk to any insurer.
An adjuster for the rideshare company's insurer already called me. What do I say?
As little as possible. Decline the recorded statement politely and take down their contact information. These policies are administered by commercial carriers whose adjusters work injury claims all day, every day. Nothing you say to them can raise your claim's value, and plenty can lower it. Let us make the next call.
Do I sue Uber or Lyft itself, or the driver?
Most claims resolve against the insurance coverage without naming the company, because the required policies are the practical source of payment. When a lawsuit is necessary, it typically names the driver and any other at-fault parties, and in some circumstances the company. We choose defendants based on coverage and facts, not on which name makes headlines.
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