Today’s rideshare services make it easier than ever for you to get around Salt Lake City. The nature of rideshare drivers’ relationship with their companies can make it difficult to assign liability after an accident, though.
After a rideshare accident, you can be left with a swath of damages and no one to assign fault to. This aftermath gets easier to handle, though, when you call an Uber and Lyft rideshare accident attorney in Salt Lake City at 1Law. Our team can elaborate on the relationship between an at-fault driver and their parent company before helping you take your case to civil court.
The sooner you can get in touch with an attorney after a car accident, the better. Personal injury lawyers do more than help you build a viable civil case for accident compensation. We also help you manage the statements you give to your insurance provider and local law enforcement representatives.
If you’re not careful with the information you give out at the scene of an accident, there’s a chance that you may accidentally damage a later court case. With an attorney present, you can more effectively frame an accident in terms of fault.
Our team can also help you:
There are only certain circumstances under which a rideshare company can take on liability for your accident losses. If you want to hold a rideshare company responsible for your accident, you need to prove that:
Alternatively, you need to indicate that a rideshare’s passengers caused your accident. Passengers are always protected by a rideshare company’s insurance due to the nature of their relationship with the company.
Both Uber and Lyft are specific when defining the type of driver they consider to be on duty. According to these companies, their drivers are only on duty when transporting passengers or going to pick up passengers.
These rideshare companies can consider a driver who is using their app to wait for a ride to be on duty. However, both rideshare companies lessen their relationship with a driver who is not actively engaging with customers. Drivers who are using their app to wait for a ride benefit from less insurance coverage, for example, than a rider with passengers.
Finally, neither Lyft nor Uber consider a driver who is not using their app while waiting for passengers to be an on-duty driver. If you get into an accident with one such driver, our Uber and Lyft rideshare accident lawyers in Salt Lake City must take up a civil complaint against that individual instead of their parent company.
If you want to file a rideshare complaint, you need to gather the following information:
Once you have this information organized in a single document, you need to present it to a county clerk. According to Utah Code §78B-2-307, Utah’s statute of limitations, you have four years to submit this paperwork. This deadline can change if your accident results in a wrongful death, so be prepared to discuss your submission timeline with one of our attorneys.
The compensation you request after a rideshare accident can mirror the compensation you’d request in a standard car accident. This means that you can use your complaint to detail your economic and non-economic damages.
You need to provide evidence for your requested economic damages in the form of tangible bills. Any paperwork you receive from a doctor, a mechanic, or a repair person can be integrated into your complaint for the sake of completeness. You can also bring in professional witnesses to provide statements regarding the nature of your losses.
We can then refer to state precedent to calculate the value of non-economic losses like pain and suffering. Our team applies a multiplier to your economic losses based on the role these losses play in your recovery.
Because Uber and Lyft are international companies, you can expect their legal teams to try and get ahead of any suits that might land them in civil court. As such, a representative of the applicable company may reach out to you with a settlement offer before you’ve contacted our team.
While a rideshare company may offer you a settlement in good faith, these initial settlements often undervalue the extent of your losses. If you choose to accept an early settlement, you may also sign away your right to pursue a civil case.
Should you receive a settlement offer after an Uber or Lyft accident, ask for days to consider it. Then, bring that settlement offer to our team. Salt Lake City Uber and Lyft rideshare accident lawyers can compare it against an estimate of your rideshare accident losses and help you negotiate for more comprehensive support, if necessary.
The logistics of a rideshare suit can be complicated. You don’t have to take on Uber or Lyft’s legal department alone, though. Instead, you can call on 1Law. We can prevent the teams at Lyft and Uber from taking advantage of you or intimidating you out of legal action.
It’s time for you to meet with a Salt Lake City Uber and Lyft rideshare accident lawyer. Contact us over the phone or online to schedule your case consultation today.