Uber not liable for California woman sexual – Business News
Uber is not liable for the sexual assault of a woman who stated she was attacked by her driver on a experience she ordered from the ridesharing app, a California jury stated on Tuesday, in keeping with an lawyer for the plaintiff.
At the top of a three-week civil trial in San Francisco Superior Court, the jury discovered that Uber was negligent in phrases of the measures it put in place to guard the nameless woman’s security, however discovered that the negligence was not a substantial consider inflicting the woman’s hurt, in keeping with Celine Cutter, one of her attorneys.
The case was the primary to go to trial out of more than 500 lawsuits consolidated in California state court docket.
An Uber consumer holds up a cellphone with the company’s emblem close to a busy road in Bucharest, Romania on Dec, 22, 2017. agcreativelab – stock.adobe.com
There are additionally more than 2,500 lawsuits making related claims which have been centralized in a federal court docket in California.
The woman, who glided by Jessica C. at trial, sued in 2021, claiming she was assaulted by an Uber driver in 2016.
During the experience, her driver pulled off on a facet road, restraining, groping and kissing her, in keeping with her attorneys.
William Levin and Laurel Simes, two of the attorneys who represented her at trial, did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
“Uber has worked for years to raise the bar on safety, and will continue to do so in the years ahead,” an Uber spokesperson stated in a assertion.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi speaks during the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York Times Square on Sept. 23, 2025. Getty Images for Concordia Annual Summit
The case was the primary to go to trial out of more than 500 lawsuits consolidated in California state court docket towards Uber. Christopher Sadowski
The woman’s lawsuit was chosen to function the primary “bellwether” for the state court docket litigation. In litigation with many plaintiffs asserting related claims, bellwether trials are used to check the claims and set up what they might be value.
Judges might use the result of the trial to handle the remaining circumstances, or attorneys can use them to tell settlement negotiations.
The woman’s attorneys had requested the jury for between $175,000 and $1.2 million in compensatory damages for annually of her life, suggesting bigger figures for the years closest to the assault.
They did not counsel a quantity for punitive damages.
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SAFETY PRACTICES IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The lawsuits allege Uber was conscious it had a drawback with drivers assaulting riders, however stored knowledge on how many assaults befell from the public and did not take motion to deal with the difficulty.
The plaintiffs have argued that Uber knew that issues like assigning feminine riders to feminine drivers or requiring sprint cams to document driver and passenger interactions would cut back assaults, however didn’t broadly implement such packages.
Uber has maintained it ought to not be liable for prison conduct by the drivers it connects with passengers, and that its background checks and disclosures about assaults had been enough.
The Superior Court of California in San Francisco, Calif. on July 9, 2018. AFP through Getty Images
The lawsuits threaten to reopen wounds from Uber’s early years, when the company was dogged by security controversies, allegations of lax driver vetting, and a tradition critics stated prioritized growth over defending passengers.
The company has made security a central speaking level in recent times, publishing US Safety Reports that element reported sexual assaults, rolling out options resembling in-app experience verification, video and audio recording of rides, anomaly detection, and partnering with survivor advocacy teams to reform driver coaching.
Uber has additionally touted the formation of a Safety Advisory Board chaired by former US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and pledged $10 million by its “Driving Change” initiative to assist organizations working to finish gender-based violence.
Despite these measures, Uber’s security repute has remained fragile. In its newest security report printed final 12 months, protecting the 2021–2022 period, Uber stated stories of critical sexual assault on its platform have fallen by 44% since its first report in 2017–2018.
But with hundreds of circumstances nonetheless documented, critics say systemic dangers stay.
Prompted by an August New York Times report on the difficulty, a US House of Representatives subcommittee despatched a letter final week to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi looking for data on the company’s protocols for responding to and stopping sexual assaults on its rides.
