What You Should Know Before Hiring an Uber and Lyft Auto Accident Lawyer

1. Recover your maximum losses.
   • When you are seriously injured, you can have substantial medical bills, ongoing medical treatments, and potentially lost wages from the inability to work, not to mention non-economic hardships like limited mobility, difficulty leading a normal life, or pain and suffering.
   • An Uber or Lyft auto accident lawyer acts on your behalf to recover the maximum losses you may be eligible for so you don’t have to worry about how you will pay for your medical expenses, lost wages, and so forth.
   • You are unlikely to know what your case is worth. An Uber and Lyft accident attorney will have a much better sense of what that is based on their experience, knowledge of the law, and experience with similar cases.
2. Most personal injury lawyers work on contingency so you don’t pay up-front costs for their service and only pay if you win.
   • A contingency fee structure means that you don’t pay anything unless your attorney wins. Their fee is then taken out of the compensation amount.
   • When you speak to a car accident lawyer during your consultation, be sure to ask about their fee structure, if they work on contingency, and if so, what their fee is and when they would get paid.
3. Laws for rideshare accidents are complex and vary by state. Get a local attorney experienced in Uber and Lyft accident cases.
   • Get connected to a local personal injury lawyer in our network. An experienced rideshare accident attorney is knowledgeable about the law and the maximums they can recover for your injuries and losses.
4. Experienced Uber and Lyft accident lawyers know how to build strong legal cases to win maximum recovery compensation.
   • Experience means having past case wins where they have gained an increasing ability to know how to create a winning legal case. Ask the attorneys you are matched with about their winning track record with rideshare accident cases.
5. Rideshare accident attorneys are skilled negotiators on behalf of their clients.
   • It’s not uncommon for insurance companies to not negotiate an offer unless an attorney represents the accident victim.
   • It is to your advantage to have a personal injury lawyer who is a practiced and skilled negotiator to get the maximum compensation you may be eligible for your losses.
   • The insurance companies that represent Uber and Lyft will seek to minimize their liability and financial responsibility as much as possible.
   • The Research Insurance Council found that people who were represented by an attorney achieved 3.5x the reward of those that represented themselves.
6. Uber and Lyft’s insurance companies are likely to offer minimal settlements.
   • Personal injury lawyers advise accident victims not to accept any initial settlement offers from an insurance company without talking to a personal injury lawyer first. If you accept an offer, you waive your right to seek anything further in the future. You may be leaving tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table should it be determined that your case is worth much more.
   • In many case settlement examples, insurance companies have initially offered settlement amounts multitudes lower than what a plaintiff was eventually able to win with a personal injury lawyer on their side. See public case settlements below.

If you were a seriously injured rideshare victim, you have a limited time to file a personal injury claim. Waiting to work with a personal injury lawyer may hurt your case. 

Due to the nature and complexities of proving an accident on someone else’s property was due to negligence, and the statute of limitations, taking action as soon as you can is important:

• Evidence becomes harder to gather as time progresses. 
• Witnesses may become unresponsive after a few months.
• You want to know your rights as soon as possible and get legal guidance on communicating with insurance companies in a way that does not jeopardize your case. 
• An accident attorney will take care of the challenging work of preparing a case that has the best chance of winning for you so you can focus on your own recovery.
• Although the statute of limitations may seem like a lot of time, it’s very easy for time to pass quickly when you are dealing with medical injuries, recovery, doctor appointments, limited mobility, lost work, and life alterations. 

There is a statute of limitations that varies by state. In many states, you have 2 years to file a personal injury lawsuit, whereas, in Tennessee, Louisiana, and in some cases, Kentucky, it is only 1 year. Generally, if you do not file your claim within the statute of limitations within the time limit, you will lose rights to any financial compensation claims. The statute of limitations requires some understanding of basic legal frameworks and varies from state to state and may have some exceptions. Speaking with a personal injury attorney within your state and location will help ensure you have the right understanding of your time limit to file a claim and they can help ensure you file one on time. 

If you were seriously injured, it’s in your best interest to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible so they can help you determine if you have a case during your free consultation. 

Working with an Uber and Lyft accident attorney right away will help you:

• Determine the full value of your rideshare accident claim.
• Setup your case for the best chance of winning.
• Educate you on what to do and what NOT to do (for example not to speak to the defendant’s insurance company directly instead of through your attorney). 
• Protect your rights through the claim process.
• Potentially expedite your compensation. 

Most rideshare accident attorneys work on a contingency fee basis. This means that they don’t get paid unless they win for you. This arrangement is very beneficial for the plaintiff in many ways:

1. You don’t pay, unless you win. Attorneys that work on contingency are financing all upfront costs. It’s in their interest to win a maximum recovery for you and to do so efficiently.
2. You don’t have to pay upfront fees for their services. Legal representation is expensive and many people are afraid of hiring a lawyer. On contingency, a lawyer either wins or their client doesn’t have to pay. Contingency payments are only made after the reward is secured as a percentage of the reward amount. Typically this is between 30% – 44%. This arrangement represents very little risk to plaintiffs. There may be some costs that you need to cover like court fees, etc.
3. If a law firm decides to take you on, they are likely confident in their ability to secure a win. In some cases, a rideshare accident attorney may not decide to take you on for instance if the injuries are small it may not be cost-effective for them to manage the claim for you or you can find another accident attorney who will help you. Speak to several accident attorneys to discuss your case. Having more than one option is very helpful for you to understand what’s available and choose between them. We’ll connect you to several accident lawyers in our network.

Find a rideshare accident attorney within our nationwide network today.

Personal injury lawyers help their clients build a personal injury claim and seek compensation for injuries sustained due to another person’s negligence or intent to harm. Their work can involve:

• Determining liability
• Gathering evidence and investigating
• Helping their client understand the law
• Negotiating for a fair settlement from insurance companies of those at fault or of the client’s insurance company.
• Filing a lawsuit if an insurance company will not negotiate
• Representing you in court if a lawsuit goes to trial

Injuries on properties can involve a wide range of possible scenarios. Here are common causes of Uber and Lyft accidents:

• The rideshare driver hit another car causing the accident. 
• Another car hit your car causing the accident.
• The driver is rear-ended. 
• The driver is driving recklessly and causes an accident. 
• The driver is weaving through traffic and causes an accident.
• The driver is not paying attention to the road and causes an accident. 
• The rideshare driver is stopped at a light or in traffic and another driver is not paying attention and rear-ends them. 
• The rideshare driver hits a pedestrian, bicyclist or motorcyclist.

If you are ever involved in a rideshare accident, some tips from personal injury lawyers will include taking the following steps:

• Call 911
  • If you are seriously injured, get help.
  • Make sure you call from a safe place following an accident.

• Collect information about your accident.
  • After medical treatment from emergency technicians has been given at the scene, exchange contact information with others in the accident.
  • Get the names and phone numbers of witnesses.
  • Get the names and contact info of all drivers involved.
  • Gather details about the time of the accident
  • Gather details about the location of the accident.
  • Get the license and registration information for all the drivers involved.
  • Get the motor vehicle insurance information for all the drivers involved.

• Take pictures and videos of the scene, the vehicles involved, and get a police report.
  • Use your cell phone to take photos and videos of the entire accident scene.
  • Photos will have better resolution and videos can show more information about the accident scene.
  • Get a copy of the police report and the responding officer’s full name.

• Make sure you receive medical care even if no injuries are visible.
  • You may have sustained injuries you are not aware of.
  • Take good care of your health and follow your doctor’s orders. Not doing so may hurt your case.
  • If you don’t immediately seek medical treatment, an insurance company may say that your medical treatment was not done as a result of your accident.

• Be careful of what you say to anyone
  • Car accident attorneys warn their clients not to say any statements that take responsibility for the accident.
• Talk to an Uber and Lyft accident attorney. If you were seriously injured and not at fault, it’s important to speak to a rideshare accident attorney as soon as possible.
  • Uber and Lyft accidents are complicated and may involve laws and rules uniquely applicable to rideshare companies.
• • Many people who try to go it alone without an attorney will not be able to recoup the maximum compensation that an experienced attorney can recover for them.

• Do not post to social media.
  • Although it may be tempting to post scenes from your accident to social media, many victims have made this mistake and their posts were used against them by the insurance companies.

Uber’s insurance policy is split into three Periods plus Offline.

Offline:

If the driver was offline from the Uber app when the accident happened, then their personal auto insurance must cover the accident.

Period 1 is when an Uber driver has the app on but isn’t on their way to pick up an Uber passenger and doesn’t have a passenger in their car. Under Period 1, there is:

• $50,000 of bodily injury liability coverage per person injured in an accident.
• $100,000 of bodily injury liability coverage per accident
• $30,000 of property damage liability coverage per accident.

Uber provides an additional $200,000 in liability coverage in Period 1.

Period 2 is when an Uber driver has accepted a trip on the app. Period 3 is when they pick up a passenger. For both periods 2 and 3 Lyft provides drivers the following:

• $1,000,000 in commercial car insurance
• $1,000,000 in uninsured motorist or underinsured motorist coverage.