Rideshare Sexual Assault and Harassment Lawyer

If you were sexually assaulted or harassed during an Uber or Lyft ride in California, you have the right to sue — not just the driver, but the company that put that driver in your path. You are not at fault. What happened to you was not a random accident.

At J&Y Law, we handle rideshare sexual assault and harassment claims throughout California. We offer free, confidential consultations and charge no fees unless we recover money for you.

What Happened to You Is Part of a Documented Pattern

Between 2017 and 2022, Uber received approximately 400,181 reports of sexual assault and sexual misconduct in the United States — averaging one report every eight minutes, according to sealed court records reviewed by The New York Times. Uber had publicly disclosed only 12,522 “serious” sexual assault incidents for that same period, roughly 3% of the actual total.

Uber’s own 2021–2022 U.S. Safety Report documented 2,717 individual reports of sexual assault in just those two years. In the 2019–2020 report, drivers were identified as the accused party in 56% of all five categories of sexual assault, and riders were the survivors in 91% of rape reports.

Lyft has faced thousands of similar allegations, including a wave of lawsuits that Forbes covered in 2022.

Internal documents and reporting by The New York Times revealed that Uber evaluated safety programs — including in-vehicle cameras and women-driver matching — and shelved them over cost concerns. An internal 2021 Uber document stated that the company’s goal regarding safety “is not to be the police,” and that its bar was to “protect the company and set the tolerable risk level for our operations.”

When the legal system forced that document into the open, survivors used it to argue that Uber’s safety failures were deliberate choices, not oversights.

How J&Y Law Handles These Cases

Rideshare sexual assault and harassment cases are not standard insurance claims — they involve trauma, privacy, and corporate accountability that extends far beyond one driver’s conduct.

When you contact us, we will:

• Listen to what happened without judgment
• Explain your legal options in plain terms, including the timeline, the process, and which evidence carries the most weight
• Preserve your right to sue before deadlines pass
• Investigate what the rideshare company knew about the driver before the assault
• Pursue every available avenue of compensation — against the driver and the company

We handle these cases on contingency. You pay nothing unless we recover money for you.

Founding partner Yosi Yahoudai is admitted to practice in all California state courts and the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. His practice includes third-party criminal conduct and intentional tort claims — the legal categories that rideshare sexual assault cases fall under. Senior Trial Attorney Parham Nikfarjam has stated publicly that rideshare companies “spend millions branding themselves as part of the community, but when something goes wrong, they hide behind contracts and lawyers.” Our job is to get past those contracts and lawyers on your behalf.

We have offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Sacramento, and we represent clients throughout California.

What Compensation Is Available

California civil law allows survivors of rideshare sexual assault and harassment to seek both economic and non-economic damages. These include:

• Medical expenses: Emergency care, sexual assault forensic exams, ongoing treatment for physical injuries
• Mental health treatment: Therapy, psychiatric care, medication costs related to PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other trauma-related conditions
• Lost income: Wages lost while recovering, reduced earning capacity if the trauma affected your ability to work
• Pain and suffering: Physical pain and emotional distress caused by the assault itself and its aftermath
• Loss of enjoyment of life: Documented changes to your relationships, daily routines, and quality of life
• Punitive damages: In cases where the company’s conduct was malicious, oppressive, or fraudulent — such as ignoring prior warnings about a driver — California courts can award punitive damages designed to punish and deter

No formula exists for what a rideshare sexual assault case is worth. The first federal bellwether verdict in the Uber MDL resulted in an $8.5 million award — a figure that reflects the specific facts, evidence, and conduct in that case, not a settlement average. The value of your case depends on what happened, how it affected your life, and what evidence exists about what the company knew.

Understand the Difference: Assault vs. Harassment

Rideshare sexual assault and rideshare sexual harassment are both legally actionable in California, but they involve different conduct and different legal theories, which can affect the damages available and how a case is built.

Sexual assault includes unwanted physical contact of a sexual nature: non-consensual touching, groping, kissing, restraint, rape, or attempted rape. Under California Penal Code § 243.4, sexual battery is defined as touching an intimate part of another person against their will for sexual gratification, arousal, or abuse. More serious offenses, including rape and sexual penetration by force, are defined under Penal Code §§ 261 and 289. You do not need a criminal conviction — or even a criminal filing — to bring a civil case.

Sexual harassment includes non-physical conduct that creates a hostile or threatening environment. In a rideshare context, this means verbal comments about your body or appearance, unwanted sexual propositions, lewd gestures, explicit texts sent through the app, or a driver deliberately prolonging a ride. California courts have recognized sexual harassment as actionable in civil law even without physical contact.

Depending on what the company knew or failed to do, both categories can give rise to civil claims against the driver, against Uber or Lyft, or against both.

How Rideshare Companies Can Be Held Liable

Uber and Lyft classify their drivers as independent contractors — a classification the companies use to argue they bear no responsibility for a driver’s conduct. California courts have allowed negligence claims to proceed against rideshare companies despite that argument, and the legal landscape is shifting further in survivors’ favor.

Negligent Hiring

Uber and Lyft use third-party vendors for criminal background checks, but those checks have known limitations: they do not require fingerprinting, do not cross-reference sex offender registries in all cases, and can miss out-of-state convictions or expunged records. California Penal Code § 291 requires sex offender registration, but critics of rideshare background check practices argue that companies do not consistently cross-check those databases. When a driver with a history of violent or sexual misconduct was hired without adequate screening, the company faces direct liability.

Negligent Retention

Even when a driver passes initial screening, the company can face liability for keeping a driver active after receiving complaints. If Uber or Lyft received prior reports about a driver — harassment complaints, low safety ratings tied to misconduct, in-app safety flags — and left that driver active without investigation, that failure is independent grounds for a civil claim against the company.

Negligent Supervision and the App as a Control Mechanism

Rideshare companies argue that because drivers set their own hours and own their vehicles, they qualify as independent contractors. The company nevertheless controls driver onboarding and deactivation, passenger-to-driver matching, and which safety features appear in the app. Courts examining similar “gig economy” negligence claims have looked to that operational control — not just the employment label — in evaluating whether the company can be held liable. In California, the independent contractor classification does not automatically shield Uber or Lyft from negligence claims related to their own failures.

The First Bellwether Trial — and What It Means

In September 2025, the first bellwether trial in the California state court consolidation of rideshare sexual assault cases concluded in San Francisco Superior Court. The jury found that Uber was negligent but did not find that Uber’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing that specific plaintiff’s harm — a 2016 assault that was among more than 500 state court cases, with roughly 2,500 more pending federally under MDL 3084 in the Northern District of California.

Juries will hear these cases. Uber’s negligence is now a question litigated in open court, and how each case is built and argued determines the outcome. Survivors with strong evidence of what the company knew and failed to do are in a better legal position than ever.

What to Do Immediately After a Rideshare Sexual Assault or Harassment Incident

The hours and days after an assault are overwhelming. From a legal standpoint, these steps protect your ability to pursue a case:

1. Get to a safe location first. Do not worry about preserving evidence while you are still in danger.
2. Get medical attention. Even if you do not feel physically injured, a medical examination can document injuries that may not yet be visible and can preserve forensic evidence if you choose to pursue that path. You are not obligated to report to police to receive a sexual assault forensic exam (SAFE) — California law protects your right to get one without triggering a mandatory police report.
3. Do not delete the app. Your Uber or Lyft account contains a timestamped record of your trip: the driver’s name, route, pickup and drop-off points, and a record of any in-app messages. That data can be subpoenaed.
4. Screenshot what you can. If the driver sent you messages through the app, screenshot them before the company has any opportunity to archive or restrict your account access.
5. Write down everything you remember. Note the driver’s physical description, what was said or done, the exact route taken, the time of day, and whether any witnesses were nearby. Your memory will be sharpest now.
6. Report to the rideshare company through the app. This creates a paper trail the company will have to answer for in litigation. Do not rely on this as a substitute for legal counsel.
7. Contact a lawyer before speaking further with Uber or Lyft representatives. Their follow-up calls and emails are not on your side. You have no obligation to cooperate with their internal investigation, and anything you say may be used to minimize your claim.

California Law Gives Survivors More Time Than Most People Realize

Under California Code of Civil Procedure § 340.16, adult survivors of sexual assault generally have 10 years from the date of the last act to file a civil lawsuit — or 3 years from the date they discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that a psychological or physical injury resulted from the assault, whichever period is later.

PTSD, anxiety disorders, chronic depression, and other psychological injuries are frequently not diagnosed until years after an assault. When a therapist connects your current symptoms to a past assault, that moment may restart the 3-year window.

Assembly Bill 2777, which took effect January 1, 2023, further expanded the law by reviving previously time-barred civil claims for sexual assaults that occurred on or after January 1, 2009. Survivors with expired claims involving an institutional cover-up could file until December 31, 2026 under that revival window. In October 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 250, which created an additional two-year revival window — from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2027 — for claims against entities, including companies, that engaged in a cover-up of sexual assault allegations.

For rideshare claims, whether Uber or Lyft “covered up” prior reports — by suppressing complaint data, using arbitration clauses to hide patterns of assault, or misrepresenting their safety records — is a live legal question that could open additional filing windows even for older incidents.

If you are unsure whether your claim is still within the statute of limitations, a lawyer at J&Y Law can review your specific timeline at no cost.

How the Civil Case Differs From a Criminal Case

A criminal prosecution is the government’s decision to file charges against the perpetrator. You do not control whether that happens, and a DA’s decision not to prosecute — or an acquittal — has no direct bearing on your civil case.

In a civil lawsuit, you control whether and when to file. Rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the legal standard requires proof by a “preponderance of the evidence” — meaning the jury only needs to find it more likely than not that the defendant’s conduct caused your harm.

You can pursue a civil case at the same time as a criminal prosecution, or without one ever being filed. California Code of Civil Procedure § 340.16(b)(2) explicitly provides that it is not necessary for criminal charges to have been brought or for any criminal proceeding to have resulted in a conviction.

Your civil case can also name defendants that a criminal case would not. You can name the driver, Uber or Lyft as a company, or both — your lawyer’s job is to identify every party whose negligence or misconduct contributed to what happened.

Why “Independent Contractor” Is Not the End of the Argument

Every rideshare company leads with the same defense: the driver is not our employee, so we are not responsible for their conduct. California courts have not accepted that argument as a complete shield from liability.

Negligent hiring, negligent retention, and direct negligence are all theories that allow claims to proceed against rideshare companies without requiring the driver to be classified as an employee. A California ballot initiative filed with the Attorney General in January 2026 (Initiative 25-0029A1) goes further, seeking to classify rideshare companies as “common carriers” under California law — the same category as buses, taxis, and trains — which would impose a heightened duty of care and direct liability for sexual misconduct regardless of driver classification. That initiative is still in the qualifying process as of May 2026, but its filing reflects sustained legislative and legal pressure on the industry.

Whether the independent contractor defense succeeds in any given case depends on the specific theory of liability, the evidence of what the company knew, and how effectively that evidence is presented.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue Uber or Lyft if I was assaulted by a driver? Yes. California courts have allowed negligence claims against rideshare companies to proceed even when the driver is classified as an independent contractor. The legal theories include negligent hiring, negligent retention, and the company’s failure to implement available safety measures.

Do I have to file a police report to have a civil case? No. California law explicitly provides that a civil lawsuit does not require a prior criminal filing or conviction.

What if I was intoxicated at the time of the assault? Intoxication does not remove your right to sue or reduce a defendant’s liability. California law prohibits sexual assault regardless of whether the victim was drinking. Courts have also recognized that intoxicated rideshare passengers may be in a more vulnerable position, which is relevant to the company’s duty of care.

What if it happened years ago? Depending on when the assault occurred, you may still have time. California’s 10-year statute of limitations under CCP § 340.16, the discovery rule, and the AB 250 revival window (through December 31, 2027) may give you more options than you expect. A lawyer should review your specific dates.

Will my name be public? California courts regularly permit sexual assault plaintiffs to file under a pseudonym such as “Jane Doe.” Your attorney can request that protection at the outset of the case.