Rideshare Arbitration Clauses: Navigating Passenger Rights and Compensation in Personal Injury Cases

Binding arbitration clauses and class waivers have increased significantly in corporate user agreements, including in the rideshare space, such as Uber and Lyft. These agreements have been upheld in courts where they are intended to and actually do create challenges for passengers seeking adequate compensation or insurance coverage for personal injuries sustained in accidents or from driver assaults. 

Another hidden aspect of these arbitration clauses is that they may not have been agreed to when requesting the services causing injury, but in requesting totally unrelated services provided by a related company. In one case, the defendant argued that the plaintiff had agreed to arbitrate a wrongful death case when, four years earlier, the plaintiff signed up for a streaming video account offered by the defendant's related business. 

Intertwined in these disputes is the ongoing battle over whether drivers are contractors or employees. While they are contractors in California under Prop. 22, the issue remains unresolved in other jurisdictions. 

Listen as the experienced panel of rideshare litigators discusses the impact on passenger rights in personal injury cases of arbitration clauses and class waivers in rideshare agreements.

I. Terms of arbitration clauses

II. Opt-out provisions

III. Arbitration clauses in related platforms

IV. Impact of arbitration clauses on personal injury claims

V. Challenging arbitrability

VI. Maximizing recovery in arbitration

The panel will review these and other important issues:

• What is the impact of choice of law provisions on challenges to enforceability of arbitration clauses?
• Who decides arbitrability?
• Do arbitrators award lower compensation than juries?