Injured in an Uber or Lyft crash?

We take rideshare cases on a contingency fee, so there is no upfront fee or cost to you and no charge for the initial consultation. We are paid a percentage of the recovery, and if we do not recover money for you, you owe us no attorney fee. The specific percentage and how case costs are handled are set out in a written fee agreement that you read and sign before we represent you.

Most passengers assume Uber or Lyft's corporate insurance steps in automatically. It usually does not. Michigan is a No-Fault state, so your medical coverage follows a strict order of priority.

First your own personal auto policy, if you are the named insured. Then your spouse's policy. Then the policy of a resident relative who lives in your household. Only then the corporate policy provided by the rideshare company.

The rideshare company's PIP insurance is only responsible for your medical bills and lost wages if you have no other auto insurance available anywhere in your household.

MCL 500.3114; MCL 500.3114(2)(g)

It depends entirely on what the driver's app was doing at the second of the crash, and this is where these cases turn.

Driver logged in and waiting for a ride. $50,000 for each injured person and $100,000 total for the incident.

Driver en route to a pickup, or carrying a passenger. $1,000,000 for each injured person and $1,000,000 total for the accident.

Driver using the car personally, app off. Only the minimum coverage Michigan requires of any driver.

MCL 257.2123 (Michigan Transportation Network Company Act)

They classify their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, and they do it deliberately, to escape vicarious liability and keep accident victims from suing the companies directly.

Michigan law works around that defence by forcing rideshare corporations to carry a mandatory $1,000,000 commercial liability policy that applies while a driver is en route to or carrying a passenger. Reaching that policy is usually the goal rather than suing the corporation itself.

MCL 257.2123

Often not, and this is the trap. Most personal auto policies carry a commercial-use exclusion that switches off coverage the moment you are driving for money.

Which policy answers depends on your app phase at the time of the crash. Tell us whether the app was off, on and waiting, or on with a ride accepted, because that one fact changes which insurer is on the hook.

Only if two things are true. Another driver has to be at fault for causing the crash, whether that was your rideshare driver or another motorist who struck your vehicle.

Your injuries then have to cross Michigan's legal threshold: a serious impairment of an important body function, or permanent serious disfigurement.

MCL 500.3135

Michigan runs two separate deadlines on two different clocks. Missing either one can end that part of your claim for good.

One year for No-Fault benefits. To collect PIP benefits, which cover medical bills, rehabilitation and 85% of lost wages, you must file a formal application with the correct auto insurance company within one year of the date of the crash.

Three years to sue the at-fault driver. If you are suing for pain and suffering, emotional distress and excess economic losses, you have three years from the date of the crash to file.

Call sooner than that. The app data that proves which phase the driver was in sits with a company that has no reason to hand it over quickly.

MCL 500.3145 (No-Fault benefits); MCL 600.5805 (third-party lawsuit).

Talk to a lawyer first. An early offer often arrives before anyone knows whether your injury is permanent, and accepting it typically requires signing a release that ends your claim for good, including for treatment you have not had yet. There is no cost to having us look at the offer before you sign anything.

Yes. People look for an Uber accident lawyer, a Lyft crash attorney and a rideshare accident lawyer, and they all mean the same thing. Whatever you call it, if you were hurt as a passenger, another driver or a pedestrian in Michigan, we handle it.

The firm has thirteen offices across Michigan: Southfield, two in Detroit, Sterling Heights, Flint, Ypsilanti, Wayne, Lake Orion, Waterford, Monroe, Grand Rapids, Marquette and Mount Clemens. Every address is listed on this page. You do not have to come to an office to start, because the first conversation is free and happens by phone, but there is almost certainly one within reach when you want to sit down with someone.