Stand Up for Your Rights with Our Ocala Ridesharing Accident Lawyer
Uber and Lyft are rideshare apps that serve as a sort of taxi, allowing you to get a ride from one place to another. These apps have grown in popularity in recent years because they offer a more personalized experience than a taxi. Many use them for rides to and from airports and for rides home after drinking alcohol.
Many people use these rideshare vehicles all the time and don’t worry about what will happen in the event of an accident. Dealing with rideshare crashes can be tricky due to special rules involving insurance policies. However, you don’t need to handle this alone.
Contact an Ocala rideshare accidents attorney from Meldon Law today if you were involved in an Uber or Lyft accident.
Types of Rideshare Accidents We Handle
There are several types of crashes involving rideshare vehicles:
- The passenger was injured while in a ridesharing vehicle.
- The rideshare driver was injured while driving, picking up, or dropping off passengers.
- The occupants of another vehicle were injured in an accident with a rideshare vehicle.
These are some of the types of rideshare accidents our Ocala car accident lawyers represent:
- Distracted driving accidents
- Drunk driving accidents
- Head-on collisions
- Hit-and-run accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Rear-end collisions
- Rollover crashes
- T-bone accidents
- Truck accidents
- Fatal accidents
If you have been in any type of accident that was caused by negligence and involves a ridesharing vehicle, we can help.
Liability in a Rideshare Accident
In any car accident, in order to receive compensation, you need to determine who was at fault. If an Uber or Lyft driver caused an accident and you suffered injuries as a result, they could be held liable for your damages.
However, there are some complexities involved. Uber and Lyft employees drive for money. Their personal auto insurance policy typically will not cover an accident caused while working for a rideshare company. The only exceptions would be if the driver has a commercial policy or a ridesharing endorsement.
Luckily, Uber and Lyft do provide insurance coverage to protect drivers who cause an accident while acting as a rideshare driver. However, determining the coverage can be complicated because it depends on what the driver is doing at the time of the crash. The coverage could vary from no coverage to $1 million. Here’s how this works:
- There is no coverage through the rideshare company when the driver is not logged into the app.
- When the driver is logged into the app but has not yet accepted a ride request, they have the following coverage: $25,000 property damage liability, $50,000 per person injured in an accident, and $100,000 total injury liability per accident. This only applies if the rideshare driver’s personal insurance does not apply.
- Liability coverage increases to $1 million when the driver has accepted a trip and is on the way to pick up the customer.
- While the customer is in the rideshare vehicle, the driver has liability coverage of up to $1 million, uninsured motorists’ coverage, and limited coverage for damage to the rideshare vehicle.
Damages You Can Recover in a Rideshare Crash Claim
The compensation you can recover depends on the specifics of your accident; however, you are likely entitled to both economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages include:
- Medical expenses, such as hospitalization, emergency transportation, surgery, and prescription medications
- Lost wages
- Lost earning capacity
- Miscellaneous accident-related expenses, such as transportation to and from doctor’s appointments, hiring someone to care for your child or to help around the house, or renovating your home to accommodate a disability
Non-economic damages include:
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Lost quality of life
If you lost a loved one in a fatal rideshare accident, please accept our condolences. We can seek justice through a wrongful death claim while you and your family focus on grieving your loss.
The Time Limit to File a Rideshare Accident Lawsuit in Ocala, Florida
The statute of limitations to file a lawsuit for injuries from a rideshare accident in Florida is generally two years from the day of the accident. This two-year time limit would apply to lawsuits against the rideshare drivers and companies unless another liable party can be identified.
There are some exceptions to this time limit, so you may want to talk to an Ocala rideshare accident attorney to learn whether any of these apply to your case. The sooner you reach out to an Ocala personal injury lawyer, the sooner we can begin protecting your rights.
Who Can You Sue in a Rideshare Accident in Ocala?
There are a few parties you may be able to sue after a rideshare accident in Ocala, Florida, including:
The Rideshare Driver
As the driver operating the vehicle, the rideshare driver owes passengers a duty of care. If they violate this through negligent driving, you can sue the driver.
The Rideshare Company
You may be able to hold the rideshare company (Uber/Lyft) liable if the accident happened while a passenger was being transported. Their insurance policies and coverage for accidents involving passengers would come into play.
Another Driver
If another driver besides the rideshare operator caused the accident, you can file suit against them as well to recover injury damages. This could be the at-fault driver in a multi-vehicle accident. Even if the other driver does not have sufficient insurance coverage, underinsured motorist coverage from the rideshare policy may help pay for injuries.
Vehicle Manufacturers
In cases when a defective auto part causes or worsens an accident, the vehicle manufacturers may share liability. For example, if faulty brakes or the acceleration system in the rideshare vehicle malfunctions, leading to the crash, you may have a product liability lawsuit against the auto manufacturer.
Government Agencies
If poor road conditions, a government employee, or other government oversight issues contributed to the crash, a case against a municipality could be warranted. However, special notice requirements and shorter statutes of limitation may apply to claims against government entities.
An Ocala personal injury lawyer can help you investigate fault, establish viable defendants, and fight for every dollar you deserve.
How an Ocala Rideshare Accident Attorney Can Help
Hiring a rideshare accident attorney can greatly help when negotiating an insurance settlement after injuries from an Uber or Lyft crash. Some key ways an attorney assists include:
- Evaluating liability: An attorney investigates fault and identifies all potentially liable parties to pursue. This can increase insurance sources to demand compensation from.
- Communicating with insurers: The legal knowledge and experience of a lawyer carries more weight and can lead to larger offers from insurance adjusters.
- Protecting from insurance adjusters: The insurance company wants to pay you as little as possible. To do so, it may have an insurance adjuster call you and trick you into accepting a lowball settlement or saying something that might jeopardize your case. Our team will protect you from insurer adjusters.
- Calculating loss damages: Attorneys account for current and future medical bills, lost wages, pain/suffering, and other accident costs to demonstrate complete losses. Without the help of an attorney, you might leave thousands or more on the table.
- Negotiating a fair settlement: People often accept much less than they deserve because they don’t know they can negotiate or simply don’t want to. Our team handles this on your behalf, fighting for every dollar you deserve.
- Legal leverage in court: Our lawyers have decades of experience fighting insurance companies in and out of court. We won’t back down from even the biggest insurance firms.
Having a rideshare injury lawyer who is familiar with transportation cases and insurance laws can benefit your case. We can tell you what to do if you are injured in an Uber accident to help you avoid mistakes that can hurt the value of your claim. Meldon Law truly CARES about you and your case; we strive to represent you Compassionately, remain Accountable and Reliable, and accept nothing less than Excellence and a Successful case.
How Much Does it Cost to Get a Lawyer for a Rideshare Accident in Ocala, FL?
Our Ocala car accident lawyers work on a contingency-fee basis, which means there are generally no upfront fees or costs for our legal services. Instead, the attorney receives an agreed-upon percentage of the injury settlement as their fee for representation if the case successfully wins damages.
If no money is recovered for you, we recover no fees or costs compensation for our work.
Contact an Ocala Rideshare Accidents Attorney Today
If you are hit by a rideshare driver or involved in an accident while inside an Uber or Lyft vehicle, it can be confusing to determine your next steps. Who is at fault? Who will pay for your damages?
The personal injury attorneys at Meldon Law can guide you through a rideshare accident claim and help you obtain compensation for damages. To schedule a consultation with an Ocala rideshare accidents attorney, call us today.
