Texas Rideshare Accident Attorney

As in any car accident, rideshare accident victims can sustain a range of injuries, from minor bumps to severe, life-changing conditions. These injuries include:

• Spinal cord injuries and other back and neck injuries, such as whiplash
• Crushed limbs
• Broken bones
• Burns
• Facial injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Wrongful death
• Cuts and lacerations
• Internal damage.

Rideshare accidents aren’t always clear-cut. While accidents happen that are undeniably the fault of one party — for example, you’re a passenger on your way to work in the back of an Uber when a speeding driver crashes into you — some crashes are far more nuanced.

Take this example: You’re driving to work behind a rideshare driver. You’re not right up the car’s rear, but you’re following closely enough for it to be unsafe. The rideshare driver suddenly brakes hard, and you don’t have time to react. You rear-end the car and sustain whiplash and a minor head injury.

In this scenario, you’re partly liable — you shouldn’t have been following too closely. However, the rideshare driver is also responsible — you would not have rear-ended the car if they did not suddenly brake.

When multiple parties contribute to an accident, you can still recover compensation by filing a lawsuit. When the case goes to trial, the jury will determine the percentage of fault of each party involved. If a jury finds you less than 51% at fault (called modified comparative negligence), you can recover a proportionate amount.

For example, if you are 20% responsible, you will receive 80% of the total compensation awarded. You cannot recover compensation if you are found majorly liable (51% or higher).

When you’re entitled to compensation after an Uber or Lyft accident, the steps you take immediately after can have a massive impact on your case.

After an accident, you should do the following:

Call the Police

If you or anyone involved in the accident is injured or killed, you must report it to the police immediately. You have up to 10 days to report an accident that results in property damage of $1,000 or more. If law enforcement attends the scene, you should wait for them to arrive, at which point they will assess the accident and speak to those involved. Their findings will form an accident report, which can be vital evidence in your case. This report documents your injuries and the contributory factors to the accident, which can help prove who caused the crash.

For example, if you want to recover compensation because a drunk driver crashed into your Uber driver, a copy of your crash report showing “driving while intoxicated” as a primary contributing factor alongside a positive blood alcohol content result can prevent the driver from denying liability.

Take Pictures and Gather Evidence

You can recover some of the best evidence for your rideshare accident claim immediately after the crash — before the scene is cleared and vital evidence degrades or is removed.

If it’s safe to do so and you’re not severely injured and need immediate medical attention, consider taking photographs of the scene, including the vehicles involved and property damage, your injuries, and the road conditions (such as any road hazards, the weather, and skid marks or debris on the road).

You should also note the details of any witnesses, as your rideshare accident lawyer can contact them to collect statements.

Seek Medical Attention

Your health is the priority. Whether or not you are entitled to compensation — and even if you are not injured or you feel fine — you should seek medical treatment after your Texas rideshare accident. Not all injuries manifest symptoms immediately and some get worse over the hours and days after your accident. Seeing a doctor can identify any injuries or complications that might develop and allow you to begin treatment or understand what signs to look out for and what you should do to minimize pain, discomfort, and aggravating your injury.

If you’re entitled to compensation, seeking medical attention as soon as possible becomes even more vital, as it documents when your injuries occurred.

Take the following situation: You’re sitting in the rear of a Lyft vehicle when a tailgating driver rear-ends the car, causing you to bang your head against the driver seat. You later develop dysarthria, affecting your ability to communicate with your friends, family, and colleagues. You must have regular speech and language therapy appointments, and the cost is racking up. It impacts your emotional well-being, too — you’re embarrassed when people cannot understand you, which affects your self-esteem, and you’re frustrated when well-meaning family members try to speak for you, causing you to lash out. Over time, you become increasingly withdrawn.

This may be an example, but it’s a reality for countless individuals with dysarthria after a brain injury, and compensation can be a lifeline.

But getting compensation relies on tying your injuries to the accident. If you sought medical attention after your rideshare crash and were diagnosed with a head injury, a medical expert can testify it led to you developing dysarthria. Without these medical records and testimony, though, the liable party might claim there is no evidence of when you sustained your head injury and that it could have happened months later, absolving them of liability.

We advise against speaking to insurance companies before consulting a rideshare accident lawyer. An insurance adjuster is responsible for assessing whether their client is liable and determining how much a claim is worth. If their client is responsible for an accident, they will likely contact you to discuss settling your case out of court in exchange for a sum.

You might be tempted to accept their offer, especially if they tell you horror stories about claims dragging out and leaving accident victims unable to move on, pay their bills, and provide for their families. However, these are scare tactics companies use to encourage you to settle early — and often for much less than you’re entitled to.

The danger of settling early is that you may not know the long-term implications of your injuries and how much additional treatment you will need. If your condition worsens or your recovery is slower than expected, you risk your settlement not covering your bills and losses.

Your Texas Uber and Lyft accident attorney can assess your claim’s value and negotiate a fair settlement to ensure you don’t end up with less than you deserve.

The additional benefit of hiring a lawyer is that they can handle all communications with insurance companies. The aftermath of a rideshare accident can be stressful and upsetting, and insurance companies may take advantage. An adjuster might bombard you with questions about the nature and severity of your injuries or even try to trick you into apologizing or accepting responsibility for the accident — even if it wasn’t your fault. They can then use these statements against you to dispute liability, affecting how much compensation you receive — or if you can claim at all.

If you’re a passenger in a rideshare vehicle (in other words, the driver is in Phase 3 of a fare), Uber and Lyft’s maximum insurance coverage applies. These policies kick in when another driver is uninsured or underinsured and is liable for bodily injury to a rideshare driver or their passengers.

If the driver does not have insurance, the policy will cover all losses up to the maximum coverage limit. If a driver is insured but your losses exceed their coverage, Uber or Lyft will step in to “top up” your payout.

If you’re in an accident caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver and a rideshare company will not provide coverage, your options are a little more limited. For example, if you are a rideshare driver in Phase 0, having completed your final fare and logged out of the app, when you’re hit by an uninsured driver, you should check your insurance policies to see what coverage may apply. You may have:

• Person injury protection (PIP) insurance, which covers your medical bills and a portion of your lost wages
• Underinsured motorist (UIM) or uninsured motorist (UM) insurance
• Collision coverage, which covers property damage and can help you repair or replace your vehicle.

You should also check any health insurance policies you hold, as they may be able to help cover your treatment costs.

Of course, if you have a strong case against the liable driver, you can sue them. However, there are drawbacks to this. The primary reason drivers lack insurance is they cannot afford it. If they can’t afford insurance, it’s worth asking if they could afford the tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars of damages you’re entitled to.

If an uninsured or underinsured driver is responsible for your rideshare accident, our Texas rideshare accident attorney can explain your options for recovering compensation, including whether you might be able to hold a third party or another driver accountable.

Related: What Happens If the Driver Is Not Listed on the Insurance Policy: Can You Claim?

Every Texas rideshare accident is different, so it’s tough to predict the value of a claim. A claim’s worth depends on several factors, including how badly you were hurt and the treatment you need, how long you’re out of work, whether you can return to work in the same capacity, and whether you were partly responsible.

Then, there’s an additional consideration. How much your claim is worth doesn’t necessarily equate to how much you will receive.

Insurance adjusters will aim to pay out as little as possible, so your compensation will also depend on the success of negotiations, the strength of your evidence proving the other party’s liability, and the insurance company’s willingness to accept fault.

As a general rule, damages fall into three categories:

1. Tangible costs like medical bills, repair costs, and lost wages (economic damages).
2. Intangible losses you can’t put a number on, such as pain and emotional distress (non-economic damages).
3. An additional figure awarded by a jury if a case goes to trial, designed to punish gross conduct (exemplary or punitive damages).

You can use our Texas settlement calculator to get a rough idea of how much your rideshare accident claim might be worth based on your economic damages and the severity of your injuries (under the presumption that long-term or more severe injuries will have a more significant impact on your life).

However, for the most accurate estimate of how much you could receive, we advise talking to a Lyft and Uber accident lawyer in Texas for the most accurate estimate of how much you could receive.

When you book a case review with Patino Law Firm, we’ll explore how much you might be entitled to based on the unique facts of your accident. This appointment is free and without obligation, and we will never pressure you to decide whether you want to move forward.