How Do You Prove Liability in a Rideshare Collision With Uber or Lyft?

Rideshare accidents can be tricky. Figuring out who has to pay for damages depends not only on the circumstances of the accident but also on the status of the rideshare driver at the time. Talk to a Baltimore, MD rideshare accident lawyer if you’ve been in an accident to discover what your options are and to get help sorting through all the confusion.

How Do You Prove Liability in a Rideshare Collision With Uber or Lyft?

Identify Responsible Parties

The first step is to identify who’s responsible. It could be the rideshare driver, it could be another driver, and in some cases the rideshare company could share some blame if they didn’t properly vet a driver or ignored safety complaints. In even rarer cases, an entirely different entity could be to blame. If, for example, an improperly loaded truck dropped debris on the road before the accident or a government entity failed to keep the roads in good condition, they could be liable (or at least share some liability).

Gather Evidence

You’ll want a police report, pictures and video of the accident scene and all the involved vehicles, all the information from everybody involved in the accident, and the contact information for any witnesses who saw it. Then you’ll have your medical records and information from data collection. Most cars today have something like a “black box” on an airplane, which records information about what the car was doing at the moment of the accident. Rideshare apps like those for Uber and Lyft also track your trip with GPS and timestamps and have driver logs, which will tell you whether the driver was logged in, picking up a passenger, or actively on a ride at the time of the crash.

Talk to a Baltimore, MD Rideshare Accident Lawyer

Talk to a lawyer as soon as you can after the accident so your lawyer can help you start sorting out who’s responsible and how to prove it. Your lawyer will look through the evidence you have, help you get a hold of any other evidence you may need, and can even subpoena evidence that you might not be able to get on your own, such as security cam footage from a nearby building or more information from the rideshare companies

Proving Negligence

Your lawyer will use the evidence to piece it all together and may give the evidence to an expert, such as an accident reconstruction specialist, to get a better understanding of how things played out in the crash. If the rideshare driver is at fault, your lawyer will also take a look at whether the rideshare company bears any blame. Since the drivers are independent contractors, Uber and Lyft are usually able to avoid direct liability, but if they allow a driver to continue working for them when they have a poor record, you might be able to argue negligence in hiring.If you’ve been in a rideshare accident, contact the Law Offices of Elan B Rafael in Baltimore now to request a consultation. When you contact our law firm, you speak to Elan B. Rafael, not a secretary, and we’re here to fight for you.

Tags: personal injury, rideshare accidents
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