When you live in California you rarely sit for long. You’re always heading somewhere, it’s just a matter of how you’ll get there. Lyft is the answer to that question thousands of times a day in the Golden State. Punch in your location and your destination and let that Lyft driver do the rest.
It’s nice to let someone else fight California traffic, but it’s not always easy to sit back and relax if that Lyft employee is driving distracted, checking a cellphone, or driving a bit too aggressively. They get into and cause more accidents than you’d think.
Whether you’re in your own vehicle or in the Lyft vehicle when the accident occurs, seeking compensation to help with your medical bills will purposely be made difficult. In fact, you may be filing more than one insurance claim to find support.
Earning Help After a California Accident Involving Lyft
Being a victim in a Lyft accident can be a very scary experience. You may be driving your car or crossing the street on foot or on a bike when a Lyft driver hits you. You could be a passenger in a Lyft vehicle when a collision with another vehicle occurs. It’s easy to get hurt in any of these scenarios and be left reliant on Lyft for help with enormous hospital bills.
Lyft claims to be a modern and forward-thinking company, but in fact, they are like any other corporation when it comes to accepting blame for the accidents their business model creates. They fight hard to avoid responsibility. If you’re trapped in a world of slow insurance response as more and more or your monthly bills go unpaid give our rideshare accident attorneys a call.
Contact us for a free and confidential case evaluation. Tell us what happened so we can figure out the fastest and most effective way to force that rideshare company to do the right thing and support you through recovery.
Do California Lyft Driver’s Carry Car Insurance?
After suffering an injury in an accident caused by a Lyft driver your health is your first concern. Your second concern will be to get that medical care now and the care you’ll need in the future paid for. But who do you file an accident claim with?
Lyft doesn’t give you a choice. Your first stop will be with the Lyft driver’s personal insurance representative. You’ll file a claim with the driver’s car insurance provider asking for help with doctor’s bills and reimbursement for the time you’ve been away from work so you can pay things like car payments and a mortgage.
This claim can quickly be turned down though. Drivers aren’t always covered in accidents that happen while they are behind the wheel for Lyft.
For Lyft passengers in collisions, it’s also possible your driver wasn’t to blame. Another driver could be found at fault for hitting the Lyft car. In that case, you’d have to file a claim with that driver’s auto insurance for help.
Does Lyft Provide Coverage in California Accidents?
If the at-fault driver’s insurance fails to step up, or only provides a limited amount, you can then try to persuade Lyft to help.
Lyft carries up to one million dollars in auto accident coverage, but it can only be drawn upon if the accident meets certain conditions. If a driver has accepted a ride request or has picked up the passenger, Lyft’s one million dollars in liability insurance and one million dollars in uninsured /under-insured motorist coverage is in play until the passenger is dropped off. If a driver is logged into the Lyft App but doesn’t have a customer lined up, Lyft provides $100,000 total injury liability per accident, and $25,000 property damage liability.
There are ways to hold Lyft’s feet to the fire to help the victims of their drivers’ carelessness. If they show reluctance to help you, your rideshare accident attorney can investigate their employee’s driving and work history. Perhaps this driver shouldn’t have been on the road at all. Perhaps Lyft missed something in their background checks. An attorney can also show negligence in Lyft’s driver training programs.
Can I File a Claim Against My Own Insurance after a Lyft accident?
If all other roads have come to a dead-end, you can file a claim with your own insurance company to draw from your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. This won’t be a cut-and-dry process though. Even though you’re depending on your own insurance agent, customer service can get tossed out the window. They will still treat you like a stranger and fight you on how much you need to pay for your medical care. It may be far from what you’ll need.
Do I Need a Rideshare Lawyer After a Lyft Accident in California?
In these complex cases, you can end up begging for compensation from three or more insurance companies, all over an accident you didn’t cause. Lyft will also have their corporate lawyers working to discredit your case by investigating your driving and medical records.
An experienced attorney can level the playing field when big insurance companies try their tricks to limit your compensation. You could even need a lawyer to protect you from your own insurance company.
It’s standard procedure for these insurance agencies to offer you much less than what you need to recover, all to save more money for their shareholders. An attorney watching over your communication with Lyft representatives and the offers they try to sneak by you can keep you from unknowingly losing thousands of dollars in compensation.
Contact a California Lyft Rideshare Accident Lawyer
Before you attempt to file an insurance claim or speak with a Lyft insurance representative talk to an experienced rideshare accident lawyer. Find out what your injury is really worth? And learn how you can still earn the compensation you need even if Lyft claims they aren’t liable for everything you’ve been through.
If you or a loved one sustained a serious injury and the accident involved a Lyft vehicle, contact us for a free and confidential consultation. Whether you were hit by a Lyft driver, injured as a passenger, or injured as a Lyft driver and abandoned by your employer, let us determine your best path to securing the support you’ll need in recovery.
