Rideshare crashes are ordinary car crashes with one unusual feature: the insurance that applies can change by a factor of twenty depending on what the driver’s phone said at the moment of impact. A passenger on a booked trip is protected by a $1 million policy. A pedestrian struck by the same car ten minutes earlier, while the driver was waiting for a request, may be looking at a $50,000 policy and a personal insurer that has excluded the loss. Knowing which period applied, and proving it, is the first job in every rideshare case.
The Injury Advocates is a Plantation-based personal injury law firm serving Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and South Florida. Rideshare passengers, drivers, and the people hit by rideshare vehicles come through our car accident practice regularly, on I-95, I-595, Las Olas, Broward Boulevard, and around the airport and Port Everglades, where Uber and Lyft traffic is heaviest. Attorney Kweku Darfoor is personally involved in every case from the first meeting through settlement or trial. The consultation is free, and you owe no fees or costs unless we win.
Since July 1, 2017, Florida has required transportation network companies and their drivers to carry insurance that depends on the driver’s status in the app:
| What the driver was doing | Insurance Florida requires |
|---|---|
| App off | The driver’s personal auto policy only. The rideshare company’s insurance does not apply. |
| Logged in, waiting for a request | Liability coverage of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per crash for injury or death, and $25,000 for property damage, plus PIP. The statute refers to UM coverage “as required by” Florida’s UM law, which allows an insurer to decline it, and the Uber and Lyft policies in Florida do not include UM/UIM coverage. |
| Trip accepted, en route to the pickup, or carrying a passenger | Liability coverage of at least $1,000,000 for injury, death, and property damage, plus PIP. No UM/UIM coverage: the Uber and Lyft policies in Florida do not include it, so if another driver with little or no insurance hits the rideshare, the passenger’s own or household UM coverage is what fills the gap. |
Source: section 627.748(7), Florida Statutes, in effect since July 1, 2017. The coverage may be carried by the driver, the company, or both; if the driver’s policy lapses or excludes the loss, the company’s policy must respond from the first dollar and defend the claim.
Three other provisions matter in almost every case. First, a driver’s personal auto insurer may exclude everything that happens while the driver is logged in or on a trip, and most do, so the driver’s own policy is often no help once the app is on. Second, when a crash is being investigated, the company must disclose the exact times the driver logged on and off in the 12 hours before and the 12 hours after the crash, and the insurers must disclose their coverages, exclusions, and limits. Third, if the driver’s coverage has lapsed or does not meet the requirements, the company’s policy must step in from the first dollar. We request the log-on data and the policies in writing at the start of every case; they decide which tier applies, and they cannot be argued around.
Passengers. You are almost never at fault, and your claim is the most straightforward. If your driver caused the crash, the $1 million liability policy in effect during the trip is the primary source. If another driver caused it, your claim is against that driver’s bodily injury coverage, which in Florida is often small or nonexistent. The rideshare policy will not fill that gap, because the Uber and Lyft policies in Florida do not include uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage; your own or a household UM policy is what does, and it follows you into the rideshare as a Class I insured. If both drivers share fault, both sets of coverage are in play and the shares are sorted out under Florida’s comparative-fault rule.
Drivers and passengers of other vehicles. If a rideshare car hit you, the coverage available depends on the rideshare driver’s app status: $1 million on a trip, $50,000/$100,000 while waiting, and only a personal policy with the app off. Your own PIP pays first, and your own UM/UIM coverage fills the gap when the applicable tier is too small for your injuries.
Pedestrians and cyclists. The same tiers apply. Because people on foot and on bicycles suffer the most serious injuries in these crashes, the difference between the waiting-period limits and the trip limits can be the difference between a full recovery and a fraction of one, which is why we never accept the company’s first account of the driver’s status. Pedestrian and bicycle accidents →
Rideshare drivers. If another driver hit you while you were logged in or on a trip, your claim is against that driver’s bodily injury coverage. The rideshare policy does not include UM/UIM coverage in Florida, so if that driver was uninsured or underinsured, the UM coverage on your own policy is the fallback, and some personal policies exclude rideshare driving. PIP must be in place through your policy or the company’s. Because Florida treats rideshare drivers as independent contractors, workers’ compensation usually does not apply, and your personal policy may have excluded the loss, so the rideshare policy’s terms matter more to you than to anyone. Some drivers carry optional occupational accident coverage; we review it with every driver client.
When an employee driver causes a crash, the employer is liable for it. Rideshare companies are structured to avoid that result, and Florida law largely lets them: a driver is an independent contractor if the company does not prescribe the hours the driver must be logged in, does not prohibit driving for competing apps, does not restrict the driver from other occupations, and has a written agreement saying so. In exchange, the statute requires the insurance described above, and that insurance, not a lawsuit against the company’s corporate assets, is where most rideshare recoveries come from.
Direct claims against the company remain possible in narrower circumstances, such as a failure to perform the background checks the statute requires, or a known dangerous driver kept on the platform. We evaluate them in every serious case, but we build the case first on the coverage that is certain to exist.
The value of a rideshare claim depends on the injury, the evidence on fault, and, more than in most crashes, on which insurance tier applied and what the policies actually say. See our case results →
Rideshare cases turn on the driver’s app status and the policies behind it, both of which the company must disclose on request. The Injury Advocates handles these claims from the first call through settlement or trial, with attorney Kweku Darfoor personally involved in every case. The consultation is free, and there is no fee unless we win.
Why Rideshare Crash Clients Choose The Injury Advocates
No. The $1 million liability coverage applies only from the moment the driver accepts a trip until the passenger is dropped off. A driver who was logged in and waiting for a request is covered by much smaller limits, $50,000 per person and $100,000 per crash, and a driver whose app was off has only a personal policy. Which period applied at the moment of impact is the first fact we establish in every rideshare case.
If you were a passenger, the driver had a trip, by definition, so the $1 million tier applies to your claim. The waiting-period limits matter for the other people involved: a driver, pedestrian, or cyclist struck by a rideshare car that was logged in but had no passenger looks to the $50,000/$100,000 coverage, the driver’s personal policy if it has not excluded rideshare driving, and their own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage for the rest.
Rarely in the way people expect. Florida law treats rideshare drivers as independent contractors when the company meets four statutory conditions, so the company is not automatically liable for its driver’s negligence the way an employer is. The statute replaces that with the insurance it requires the company or driver to carry, and that policy is where most rideshare recoveries come from. Direct claims against the company remain possible in specific situations, for example where the company failed to meet its screening duties, and we evaluate them case by case.
Yes, in two ways. Your own PIP, or a household relative’s, is the first payer for your medical bills and lost wages. And if the driver who caused the crash had little or no bodily injury coverage, your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage follows you into the rideshare as a Class I insured, and it matters more than most people expect, because the Uber and Lyft policies in Florida do not include UM/UIM coverage. Using a family member’s coverage →
Your PIP first. Then the UM coverage on your own or a household policy, because the Uber and Lyft policies in Florida do not include uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, so the rideshare policy will not fill that gap. The limits depend on your policy and whether it is stacked, which is why we read every policy in the household rather than taking an adjuster’s word for what exists. The driver who hit me has no insurance →
No. Uber and Lyft route claims through third-party administrators that call quickly, ask for a recorded statement, and sometimes offer a fast settlement before the injury has declared itself. You are not required to give a statement, and you should not sign anything until the full picture of coverage and injury is known. Report the crash in the app, keep your trip receipt, and let us handle the adjusters.
For most negligence claims arising after March 24, 2023, two years from the date of the crash. You must also be treated within 14 days to keep PIP benefits. App data and dashcam footage are kept for far shorter periods than any legal deadline, so the preservation letter should go out in the first days.
