You were in the back seat, or you were the one the Uber hit. Either way, the first question anyone can answer for you is not who was at fault. It is which insurance policy was live at the moment of impact.
A rideshare accident lawyer in San Diego spends the opening weeks of these cases establishing that one fact, because California law ties the available coverage to what the driver's app was doing. Bonnici Law Group handles claims involving Uber, Lyft and other transportation network companies across San Diego County.
Call +1 (619) 259-5199 for a free case review.
Table of Contents
- Which Insurance Applies After an Uber or Lyft Crash?
- Do I Have to Fight My Own Insurance First?
- Are Uber and Lyft Policy Limits a Ceiling on What I Can Recover?
- Does Proposition 22 Mean Uber Cannot Be Held Responsible?
- What Is Changing for Rideshare Claims in 2027?
- What About Driverless Rideshare in San Diego?
- What If the Driver Says He Was Not Working?
- How Long Do I Have to File a Rideshare Claim?
- What Does It Cost to Hire Us?
- Rideshare Accident Questions San Diego Clients Ask
- The Ride Was Supposed to Be the Safe Choice
Which Insurance Applies After an Uber or Lyft Crash?
It depends on which of three periods the driver was in. California sets this out in Public Utilities Code section 5433, and the difference between periods is the difference between a personal auto policy and a commercial policy with a seven-figure limit.
| Period | What the driver was doing | Required liability coverage | Required UM/UIM |
|---|---|---|---|
| App off | Personal driving | Driver's own policy only | Driver's own policy |
| Period 1 | App on, no ride accepted | $50,000 per person / $100,000 per incident, $30,000 property, plus excess of at least $200,000 | Not required |
| Period 2 | Ride accepted, driving to the passenger | $1,000,000 | Not required |
| Period 3 | Passenger in the vehicle | $1,000,000 | $60,000 per person / $300,000 per incident |
If you were a passenger, you were in Period 3 and a one million dollar policy applies. If you were hit by a driver who was between rides with the app on, you are looking at the much smaller Period 1 figures, which is why establishing app status is not a technicality.
The number almost every California website still gets wrong
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage for rideshare companies used to be one million dollars. It is not anymore.
Senate Bill 371 amended section 5433 effective January 1, 2026, cutting the required UM and UIM coverage to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. The same amendment made the transportation network company solely responsible for providing it, and made that coverage primary.
Nearly every Uber and Lyft page in California still advertises a million dollars in uninsured motorist coverage. The CPUC's own insurance page has not been updated either. If you were a passenger struck by an uninsured driver, that change is the single most consequential thing about your claim, and you should hear it from someone who knows it happened.
Do I Have to Fight My Own Insurance First?
No, and this is written into the statute. Section 5433(d) provides that the rideshare company's coverage does not depend on a personal auto policy first denying a claim.
Section 5433(e) goes further. If the driver's own coverage lapsed or never covered rideshare use, the company must provide the required coverage beginning with the first dollar of the claim.
Adjusters still route people back to their own insurer first. That delay is a tactic, not a requirement.
Are Uber and Lyft Policy Limits a Ceiling on What I Can Recover?
No. Section 5433(f) states plainly that the statute does not limit the company's liability beyond the required coverage amounts. Those figures are a floor set by regulators, not a cap on exposure.
That distinction matters in a serious injury case where the medical picture exceeds the policy. It also matters in claims where the company's own conduct is at issue rather than only the driver's.
Not sure which policy applies to your crash? Call +1 (619) 259-5199 and we will find out.
Does Proposition 22 Mean Uber Cannot Be Held Responsible?
Not the way it is usually described. Proposition 22 governs whether app-based drivers are employees or independent contractors for purposes of wages and benefits. The California Supreme Court upheld it in 2024.
What it does not contain is any express provision immunizing a rideshare company from tort liability to an injured passenger or a third party. No published California appellate decision has resolved whether driver classification changes vicarious liability exposure, and content that states the answer confidently in either direction is overstating.
The practical point is simpler. Your recovery route runs through the coverage section 5433 requires, regardless of how the driver is classified. Theories that do not depend on employment status, including negligent hiring and retention, negligent entrustment and the company's own direct negligence, also remain on the table.
What Is Changing for Rideshare Claims in 2027?
California enacted Senate Bill 623 in June 2026, and it takes effect January 1, 2027. It applies only to claims against a rideshare company or an app-based driver arising from a vehicle crash, not to California auto cases generally.
The core change is to medical damages. For treatment provided on a medical lien, the new Civil Code section 3333.9 caps recoverable past medical expenses at the 70th percentile of a recognized billed-charges database for the same service in the same geographic area. Amounts above that benchmark become unenforceable, and evidence exceeding it cannot be shown to a jury. A plaintiff can exceed the cap only by pre-trial motion, on clear and convincing evidence, for exceptionally rare treatment where no reasonably comparable provider or service was available.
It also requires itemized billing using standard procedure codes, requires disclosure of lien financing arrangements, and caps recovery at the amount actually paid where a lien was sold or assigned.
Why this should change what you do now
The statute does not apply to medical services rendered, or liens created, before January 1, 2027. Treatment decisions made in the next few months therefore sit on one side or the other of a real line.
If you are being treated on a lien after a rideshare crash, that is a reason to get advice sooner rather than later. Most firms in California have not adjusted for this yet.
The same session also produced Assembly Bill 2155, effective January 1, 2027, which reshapes how California treats arbitration agreements. Rideshare apps are built on arbitration clauses, so that one matters here too.
What About Driverless Rideshare in San Diego?
It is here. The California Public Utilities Commission approved Waymo's expansion of driverless commercial passenger service into 18 California counties, San Diego among them, in August 2026.
Liability in an autonomous vehicle collision is not settled by any California statute. A claim runs through ordinary negligence, potentially through product liability against the manufacturer, and through the insurance and reporting obligations the CPUC and DMV impose on permitted operators.
What is genuinely different is the evidence. Permitted operators must report collisions, system failures and vehicle immobilizations, and that data does not exist for a conventional crash. If you were hit by a driverless vehicle in San Diego, preserving access to it is an early priority rather than a later one.
What If the Driver Says He Was Not Working?
Then the app data becomes the case. Drivers sometimes state at the scene that they were off the clock, occasionally by mistake and occasionally because a crash during a shift can lead to deactivation.
That statement is not the final answer. The company holds trip records, GPS data and app status logs that show precisely what was happening at the timestamp of the crash, and those records are obtainable through the claim.
What helps is anything independent captured at the scene: a photograph of the rideshare placard on the windshield, a passenger in the back seat, a dashcam, or a note in the police report about what the driver said. Passengers who were in the car are the most useful witnesses available, and their name usually appears nowhere in the report.
If you were the other driver, a cyclist or a pedestrian, assume app status will be contested and preserve accordingly.
How Long Do I Have to File a Rideshare Claim?
Two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1.
Six months if a public entity contributed through a roadway condition or a malfunctioning signal, under Government Code section 911.2.
The practical deadline is shorter than either. Trip records, app data and in-app incident reports are held by a company with no obligation to preserve them for you, and the vehicle itself gets repaired.
What Does It Cost to Hire Us?
Nothing upfront. Rideshare cases are handled on contingency, with no fee unless there is a recovery, and the consultation is free regardless.
You work with the attorney on your case. Josh Bonnici is the managing attorney and he stays on the file.
Rideshare Accident Questions San Diego Clients Ask
I was a passenger. Will filing a claim hurt my driver?
The claim runs against the commercial policy the rideshare company is required to carry during a trip, not against the driver personally. Passengers frequently hesitate here, especially when the driver was not at fault, and the coverage exists precisely so that the person in the back seat is protected regardless of which driver caused the crash.
I was on a bike when a rideshare driver hit me. Is that different?
The same coverage framework applies, and cyclists face an additional fight over lane position and fault.
The app says I agreed to arbitration. Does that end it?
Not necessarily, and the answer is changing. Arbitration clauses are enforceable in many situations and are not absolute, and California's rules on them shift in January 2027. Whether a clause reaches a particular claim, and whether the person injured even agreed to it, are questions worth having reviewed rather than assumed.
Uber's insurer offered me a settlement already. Should I take it?
Not before you know the full medical picture and which policy period applies. Early offers on rideshare claims are common because the claims volume is high and quick closures are cheap. Once you sign, the claim is over regardless of what treatment follows.
The Ride Was Supposed to Be the Safe Choice
Most people in these cases did the responsible thing. They left the car, they used the app, and they ended up hurt in someone else's vehicle with no idea whose insurance was supposed to respond.
The answer exists, it is written in a statute, and it changed this year in a way most of the internet has not caught up to. Getting it right at the start is what determines whether a claim is worth what it should be.
Bonnici Law Group handles rideshare claims throughout San Diego County. The consultation is free, there is no fee unless we recover, and you keep direct access to your attorney from the first call to the last. Don't hire a lawyer. Hire a team.
Call +1 (619) 259-5199. Our office is at 1620 5th Avenue, Suite 625, San Diego, CA 92101.