I can remember the first time I heard the word Uber in the context of the transportation. It was only two years ago and I remember being perplexed once I received an explanation as to what an Uber was. My initial thoughts: “why would anyone want to get into a stranger’s personal car?”; “why would anyone want strangers to ride in their car?”; and “who the hell is going to insure this?” Regardless, at least to me, at the time, it seemed like a fringe service. Fast forward to today, I use Uber, or one of its competitors, almost weekly, and I rarely rent a vehicle when I am traveling for work, instead opting to Uber.

With the rise in use of Uber, and its competitors like Lyft, litigators are going to start seeing more and more cases involving riders and drivers using ride-share apps. Before we begin, let me put this out there, this article is geared toward accident cases involving ride-sharing participants. This is not an article on employment law litigation or even insurance coverage litigation, although it will touch on that. Unfortunately, those topics need their own dedicated articles to truly begin to flesh out the plethora of issues that will and has arisen in those areas of the law. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time or space to discuss them at length here. Now with that out of the way:

Insurance and the Ride-Share App