In its first safety report released in December 2019, Uber acknowledged 3,045 sexual assaults were reported in U.S. rides in 2018 alone. These assaults involved unwanted kissing, touching of sexual body parts, attempted rape, and rape. Lyft has not released any of the same safety data that Uber has and while Uber was making headlines for reported sexual assaults, Lyft had not been implicated. Thanks to hundreds of lawsuits that have recently been filed, mostly by women, Lyft is now under the same pressure.
Uber’s and Lyft’s negligent hiring practices and insufficient background checks on drivers have resulted in thousands of sexual and physical assaults, particularly against women. In 2019, Uber announced they would drop terms of service restricting victims of sexual assault from filing lawsuits. Previously the firms used terms of service in their app to force injured women to settle cases in mandatory arbitration. Their past treatment of victims illustrates the need for an experienced Uber law firm or Lyft law firm to protect victims’ rights. Both companies now face hundreds of active sexual assault lawsuits filed by Uber and Lyft lawyers on behalf of victims.
Legally, a survivor of sexual assault perpetrated by an Uber, Lyft, or other ridesharing service driver may recover financial compensation from the driver and, more commonly, from the ride sharing company for its failure to protect the customer from the assault, as well as potential failures or deficiencies in its process of reviewing and responding to the survivor’s report of the assault. If you are a survivor of sexual assault and would like to confidentially discuss your situation and your legal options, we are prepared to talk with you.
If you prefer to speak with us directly regarding your incident, please call the Meneo Law Group at 1-888-276-3030 1-888-276-3030 or send us a confidential email.