If you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft crash in Orange County, one fact decides more about your claim than anything else: what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact. California sets three different insurance tiers depending on whether the app was off, on and waiting for a request, or carrying an accepted ride. The gap between the bottom tier and the top tier is $950,000. This guide explains which policy pays, what changed on January 1, 2026, and why the answer is often worse than riders expect.
Until this year, a passenger hurt by an uninsured or underinsured driver while riding in an Uber or Lyft had $1,000,000 in uninsured motorist coverage. Senate Bill 371 cut that to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, effective January 1, 2026. Most articles you will find on this still quote the old number.
Why Does the App Status Decide the Value of a Rideshare Claim?
Because California wrote the insurance rules that way. Public Utilities Code section 5433 does not set one limit for rideshare crashes. It sets a low tier for a driver who is logged in and waiting, and a high tier that switches on the instant a ride request is accepted. The statute is precise about the boundary: the higher coverage applies “from the moment a participating driver accepts a ride request on the transportation network company’s online-enabled application or platform until the driver completes the transaction on the online-enabled application or platform or until the ride is complete, whichever is later.”
That single sentence is where rideshare cases are won and lost. A driver pulling into your pickup spot with the ride accepted is in the $1,000,000 tier. The same driver, same street, same second, with the app on but no ride accepted yet, is in the $50,000 tier. Nothing about the crash changes. Only the timestamp does.
How Much Insurance Applies to an Uber or Lyft Crash in California?
It depends entirely on which of three periods the driver was in. These are the minimums California requires under Public Utilities Code section 5433:
| App status at impact | Required coverage | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| App off. Driving personally. | The driver’s personal auto policy only. No rideshare coverage applies. | Outside § 5433 |
| App on, no ride accepted. Waiting for a request. | $50,000 per person / $100,000 per incident / $30,000 property, primary, plus at least $200,000 excess | Pub. Util. Code § 5433(c) |
| Ride accepted, driving to the rider. | $1,000,000 primary for death, personal injury and property damage | Pub. Util. Code § 5433(b) |
| Passenger in the car. | $1,000,000 primary, plus $60,000 / $300,000 uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage | Pub. Util. Code § 5433(b) |
Two provisions of the same statute are worth knowing because insurers rarely volunteer them. Section 5433(d) says rideshare coverage “shall not be dependent on a personal automobile insurance policy first denying a claim,” so an adjuster who tells you to exhaust the driver’s own insurance before the rideshare policy will look at your file is describing a preference, not the law. And section 5433(e) says that if the driver’s rideshare policy has lapsed, the company itself covers the claim “beginning with the first dollar.”
What Changed on January 1, 2026?
The protection available to injured passengers dropped sharply. Senate Bill 371 amended section 5433 effective January 1, 2026. Before that date, a rideshare company had to carry $1,000,000 in uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage for a passenger in the vehicle. That figure is now $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.
“Existing law… requir[ed] that the insurance coverage provide for uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage in the amount of $1,000,000… This bill would lower that amount to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.”
Legislative Counsel’s Digest, SB 371 (2025)
The change cuts both ways. It also made the rideshare company, rather than the driver, responsible for maintaining that uninsured motorist coverage, and it is now primary over any other uninsured motorist policy. But for a passenger with a spinal injury caused by a hit-and-run driver, the practical effect is that the ceiling on that part of the claim fell by 94 percent. The Legislature ordered a study of whether the new figures are appropriate, with findings due by the end of 2030.
Can I Sue Uber or Lyft Directly?
Usually not for the driver’s own negligence. Under Proposition 22, codified at Business and Professions Code section 7451, an app-based driver “is an independent contractor and not an employee or agent” of the company when the listed conditions are met. That classification is what blocks the ordinary employer liability theory, and it is why rideshare claims are built against the insurance policy rather than against the corporation.
The company is not your defendant. The policy is. Rideshare cases are won by proving which policy was switched on.
How These Claims Actually Work
There is an important limit on that rule. Section 5433(f) states that the article “does not limit the liability of a transportation network company arising out of an automobile accident involving a participating driver in any action for damages against a transportation network company for an amount above the required insurance coverage.” Claims aimed at the company’s own conduct, rather than the driver’s, survive. So do claims against any other at-fault party: another motorist, a commercial vehicle, a public entity that let a road deteriorate.
What If the Driver Who Hit Us Was Uninsured?
This is now the hardest problem in rideshare law, and it is the direct result of the 2026 change. If you were a passenger and a third driver caused the crash, you first pursue that driver’s liability insurance. California’s minimum is low, and a meaningful share of drivers carry nothing at all. When their coverage runs out, the rideshare company’s uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is what remains, and that is now capped at $60,000 per person.
A single surgery can exceed that. Which is why, in these cases, the first week matters: your own auto policy’s uninsured motorist coverage, any resident relative’s policy, and any umbrella policy all have to be identified and put on notice early. A claim that only looks at the rideshare policy leaves money on the table.
What If I Was the Rideshare Driver?
You have a claim like any other injured motorist, and you also have a coverage question most drivers get wrong. If another driver caused the crash, you pursue that driver first. Beyond that, the applicable tier still turns on your app status, and your personal policy may exclude the loss entirely if you were logged in. Section 5433(c)(2) also requires at least $200,000 in excess coverage insuring both the company and the driver during the waiting period, a layer that is easy to overlook.
If you were partly at fault, that reduces your recovery without ending it. California follows pure comparative negligence under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804, so a driver found 25 percent responsible still recovers 75 percent of proven damages.
How Long Do I Have to File a Rideshare Claim?
Two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If a public entity contributed, for example through a dangerous road condition or a collision with a city or transit vehicle, Government Code section 911.2 requires a written claim to be presented to that agency within six months of the crash, long before any lawsuit exists. Missing the six month date can end an otherwise strong case.
What Should You Do After an Uber or Lyft Crash in Orange County?
- Screenshot the ride in the app before you do anything else. The trip receipt, the driver’s name, the vehicle, and the timestamps are the single most important evidence in the case, because they establish which insurance tier applies. Riders who delete the trip or change phones lose it.
- Get medical care immediately, even if you feel able to walk away. Treatment gaps are the first thing an adjuster uses to argue you were not really hurt.
- Report the crash in the app and call police so an independent report exists. Note the agency, since a crash on the 5, the 405 or the 241 is CHP and a surface street crash belongs to the city department.
- Photograph everything: both vehicles, the roadway, the position of the cars, and any rideshare decal in the windshield.
- Decline a recorded statement to any insurer until you have spoken with an attorney. Early answers about app status and seating position get quoted back for years.
- Identify every policy early. The rideshare policy, the at-fault driver’s policy, your own uninsured motorist coverage, and any umbrella policy. With the uninsured motorist limit now at $60,000, stacking these is often the whole case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it matter that I was just a passenger?
It helps. A passenger is almost never at fault for a collision, which makes liability straightforward and puts the fight where it belongs, on damages and coverage. You were also in the highest insurance tier, with $1,000,000 primary coverage available for the crash itself.
The driver had the app on but had not accepted my ride yet. What then?
Then the lower tier applies: $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident, and $30,000 property damage, plus at least $200,000 in excess coverage. This is the most contested fact in rideshare cases, and it is decided by app data, not by what anyone remembers. Preserve your trip record.
Is the $1,000,000 really available to me?
It is the required limit, not a settlement value. Rideshare insurers negotiate the same way every other carrier does, and a first offer is almost never near the limit. The limit matters because it tells you the ceiling is not the problem. The evidence is.
What if I was hurt in a food delivery crash instead?
The same statute reaches companies operating under the transportation network company framework, but delivery-only arrangements and the applicable policies vary. The analysis still starts the same way: establish what the app was doing, then identify every policy in reach.
Do you handle Uber and Lyft cases in Garden Grove?
Yes. We represent injured riders and drivers from both our Lake Forest office and our Garden Grove office, covering Irvine, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Westminster, Mission Viejo and the freeway corridors in between. Our team includes Vietnamese and Spanish speaking staff.
What does it cost to hire a rideshare accident lawyer?
Nothing up front. The Le Firm handles these cases on contingency, so the consultation is free and there is no fee unless we recover for you. You can read what past clients have said on our testimonials page.
Talk to an Orange County Rideshare Accident Lawyer for Free
The Le Firm APC represents Uber and Lyft passengers, drivers and the people they collide with throughout Orange County, from offices in Lake Forest and Garden Grove. We pull the app data, establish the tier, and identify every policy in reach rather than settling against the first one an adjuster offers. Consultations are free and confidential. Call (949) 867-8040 or contact us online, and see our related work in Uber and Lyft accidents, car accidents and motorcycle accidents. Riders hurt on two wheels can also read our guide to motorcycle accident claims in Orange County.
Hurt in an Uber or Lyft? Save the Trip Receipt.
Free consultation, no fee unless we win. Offices in Lake Forest and Garden Grove, serving all of Orange County.
Legal sources cited: California Public Utilities Code § 5433 (amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 314, SB 371, effective January 1, 2026); Legislative Counsel’s Digest, SB 371 (2025–2026 Reg. Sess.); California Business and Professions Code § 7451 (Proposition 22); California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1; California Government Code § 911.2; Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804. This article is for informational purposes and is not legal advice. Reviewed by Harrison Le, Founder & Lead Attorney, The Le Firm APC.
