Rideshare Sexual Assault

Most people who call us are describing one night, and usually a night they have told almost no one about. The app said the car was two minutes away. The route on the screen stopped matching the road outside the window. What happened after that is the part they have never said out loud. Whether that night adds up to a claim turns on the trip record, the documentation and the dates — and finding that out is our work, not yours.

Sexual assault and rideshare services

A rideshare trip is an unusual arrangement, and it is worth saying plainly what it is: a stranger, a private car, a locked door, a route only one of you is watching, and a company that put the two of you together. Most trips end the way they are supposed to. Some do not.

Both Uber and Lyft have publicly acknowledged receiving reports of sexual assault and sexual misconduct from passengers, and both have published safety reports of their own describing those reports. That is the starting point for this case type, and it is not in dispute: the companies know that passengers report being assaulted by drivers. What is in dispute is what they did about it.

The conduct passengers describe covers a wide range. It includes:

• Unwanted touching, over or under clothing
• Sexual exposure by the driver
• Masturbation by the driver during the ride
• Forced sexual acts or penetration
• Being held, blocked or otherwise prevented from leaving the vehicle
• Being driven off the requested route, or to somewhere the passenger did not choose

Some of those trips ended with a police report and an arrest. Many did not. A passenger who said nothing that night, deleted the app the next morning and told one friend a year later has not done anything wrong and has not necessarily lost anything — that is a documentation question, and documentation is our half of it.

The people who call us have usually spent longer deciding whether to make the call than the ride itself lasted.

The Uber passenger sexual assault litigation

In October 2023 the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation created In re: Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation, MDL No. 3084, and sent the federal cases to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California1. They are before Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco2.

The panel did not decide that anyone was assaulted or that Uber is responsible for anything. It decided that the cases share enough questions of fact to be worked up together. The transfer order identified those shared questions as Uber’s knowledge of the prevalence of sexual assault, its representations regarding safety, and its policies and practices for handling complaints about drivers1.

What the litigation is

Where it sits

In re: Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation, MDL No. 3084, Case No. 3:23-md-03084-CRB, Northern District of California, San Francisco, before Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer, with Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros handling discovery2.

How large it is

The parties reported to the court that as of September 3, 2026 there were 4,182 active cases in the MDL, with more than 245 new cases filed since the previous case management conference3. When the panel created the MDL in 2023 there were 79 actions pending in 13 districts1.

What is alleged

That Uber knew how frequently passengers reported sexual assault by drivers, that its driver screening, onboarding, background checks, monitoring of complained-of drivers and deactivation practices were inadequate, and that its public safety representations did not match what it knew15.

The parallel state cases

A separate coordinated proceeding for California state court cases, In re Uber Rideshare Litigation, JCCP No. 5188, runs alongside the federal MDL1. The parties reported roughly 697 cases pending there as of the September 2026 statement3.

Case counts move every month. These are the numbers the parties themselves gave the court in the September 9, 2026 joint statement, not an estimate of our own.

Lyft passenger cases are not part of MDL 3084, which is an Uber proceeding1. That does not mean a Lyft claim has nowhere to go — it means it follows a different path, in state or federal court, and the review is the same review. Tell us which app was on the phone and we will tell you what that changes.

Rideshare sexual assault litigation: how we got here

What may be relevant to a rideshare assault review

The screening we use focuses on physical sexual contact, or sexual exposure or masturbation by the driver, rather than on verbal conduct alone. The list below is an example of the kinds of conduct that are reviewed. It is not a definition of sexual assault under any state’s criminal or civil law, and it is not a checklist you have to satisfy before calling.

• Unwanted touching of the breasts, buttocks, genitals or inner thighs
• Unwanted touching over or under clothing
• Kissing or attempted kissing without consent
• Sexual exposure by the driver
• Masturbation by the driver during the ride
• Forced oral, anal or vaginal penetration
• Sexual contact while the passenger was asleep, unconscious or otherwise unable to consent
• Being held or restrained so that the vehicle could not be left
• Being driven off the requested route, or to a location the passenger did not choose
• An assault that began inside the vehicle and continued outside it

Where did the incident happen?

Where the assault took place matters to the review, and the answer is broader than people assume. Three answers are all within this case type:

• Inside the vehicle during the trip
• Immediately outside the vehicle — at the pickup, at the drop-off, or at a door the driver followed the passenger to
• As a continuing incident that began in or around the vehicle and ended somewhere else

What matters is the connection to the ride, not the number of feet from the car. If the driver is the reason you were where you were, that is the situation this page is about.

The ride receipt is important

A rideshare claim needs documentation that the trip happened. That is the one piece of paperwork that is hard to reconstruct from memory, and it is usually the first thing we ask about.

A trip record or receipt normally establishes the date and the time, the account the ride was booked on, the pickup and drop-off locations, the route the car actually took, the driver’s first name as the app displayed it, the vehicle, and the fare. Together those facts anchor everything else: the medical records, the police report if there is one, and the company’s own internal record of the same trip.

Finding a Lyft ride receipt

1. Open the app, signed in to the right account

   Use the account the ride was booked on. If the trip was booked on someone else’s account — a friend’s, a parent’s, an employer’s — the record lives there, and that is worth mentioning early.

2. Go to the ride history

   Open the menu and choose the ride history. Past trips are listed by date, with the fare and the route for each one.

3. Open the ride in question

   Select the trip by its date and time. The detail view usually shows the map of the route, the driver’s first name and the vehicle.

4. Send the receipt to yourself

   Use the option to email or download the receipt so there is a copy outside the app. Screenshots of the trip detail screen are worth keeping as well.

Reporting the incident

Most people who call us told someone at the time, even if they never told the police. Any of these is a form of reporting, and the review looks for all of them:

• A report to Uber or Lyft, in the app, by email or by phone
• A report to the police or another law enforcement agency
• A visit to an emergency department, an urgent care clinic or a physician
• A therapist, counselor, social worker or clergy member who was told
• A friend, a roommate or a family member who was told at the time

A police report is not the only form of documentation that is considered, and the absence of one is not treated as a reason the account is untrue. A text message sent at 3 a.m., a calendar entry, a ride rating left in the app or a message to the company’s support team can each fix a date and an account of what happened.

Information that can help with a rideshare assault review

Nobody is expected to have all of this. Bring what exists; the rest is what a records request is for. What helps most, in rough order of how hard it is to reconstruct later:

• The email address and phone number on the rideshare account, and whose account it was
• The approximate date, the time and the city where the ride took place
• The pickup location and the intended drop-off location
• The ride receipt, the trip record, or a screenshot of either
• The driver’s first name and any description of the driver or the vehicle
• Whether the trip was reported to Uber or Lyft, and any reference or case number they gave
• Any messages, in-app chats, emails or screenshots from around that night
• Whether the app was later deleted, or the account closed or changed

And on the documentation side:

• Any police report — the agency, the date and the report number if you have it
• Whether criminal charges were brought against the driver, and where the case stands
• The name of any hospital, emergency department or clinic that provided care
• Whether a sexual assault forensic examination was performed, and where
• The names of any therapists, counselors or physicians seen afterwards
• The names of people who were told at the time
• Whether anyone else was in the vehicle
• Photographs, damaged clothing or anything else kept from that night

Time can matter

Deadlines to bring a claim vary by state, by the conduct alleged and by how old the person was at the time. Some states have statutes written specifically for sexual assault and sexual abuse claims, with periods that are longer than the ordinary personal injury deadline, and some have opened windows for older claims that a general deadline would have closed.

What happens after you contact CBW Law

Six steps, in this order

1. You tell us what happened

   In your own words, in as much or as little detail as you want to give on a first call. You will not be asked to justify why you did or did not report it.

2. The ride

   We work out which service it was, roughly when, and where — and whether a trip record still exists, or has to be requested.

3. Documentation

   We go through what already exists: the receipt, any report to the company, any police report, any medical or counseling care, and the people you told.

4. Records

   The records get requested and read. This is the stage the case waits on, and the stage we do rather than you.

5. Case review

   The account, the documentation, the dates and the law of the state where it happened are reviewed together, and we tell you plainly what we find. Meeting the general description on this page does not guarantee that a claim can be filed or that compensation will be recovered.

6. Your decision

   If there is a claim, you decide whether to bring it. If there is not, you will be told that, and you will not be charged for having asked.

Plain English

Medical, Health & Insurance

A rideshare assault review often turns on care that was given years ago and described in language nobody explained at the time — a chart note, an exam kit, a diagnosis code on a bill. Here is what the words mean, so the paperwork is readable before it becomes decisive.

Care after an assault, in plain English

Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE)

A medical examination after a sexual assault that both treats the patient and collects evidence. Often called a “rape kit,” though the exam is much more than the kit. It generates its own records, which are usually held separately from the rest of the hospital chart.

SANE

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner — a nurse with specific training in performing that examination and documenting findings. A SANE note is often the most detailed contemporaneous record that exists.

Trauma

In a chart, a clinical term rather than a figure of speech: the psychological injury that follows a frightening or harmful event, and the symptoms that come with it.

PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder. A diagnosis describing a specific pattern of symptoms — intrusive memories, avoidance, changes in mood and thinking, and heightened alertness — that persists after a traumatic event.

Therapy or counseling records

Notes from a therapist, counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist. They often contain the earliest written account of what happened, which is why they matter even when the first appointment came long afterwards.

The records that document care

Emergency department records

The visit note from a hospital emergency department: what was reported, what was examined and what was done that night.

SAFE or SANE examination records

The forensic examination file, which may sit with the hospital, with a separate examination program, or with a law enforcement agency.

Hospital and urgent care records

Admission, treatment and discharge records from any facility that provided care afterwards.

Primary care records

The family doctor’s chart, which is often where an account first appears in writing weeks or months later.

Diagnostic testing

Testing done after an assault, including sexually transmitted infection testing and pregnancy testing, and the results.

Prescription records

Medications prescribed afterwards, including preventive treatment, sleep medication and psychiatric medication. Pharmacy histories often fix dates the chart does not.

Mental health records

Therapy, counseling and psychiatric records, including intake forms and treatment plans.

Billing records and explanations of benefits

Not bills. The health plan’s account of what was billed, allowed and paid — which together map where care happened and when, even when a chart has gone missing.

Insurance, in plain English

Whether you had health insurance

Not determinative. Having no coverage at the time does not end a review, and having good coverage does not decide anything either. Uninsured care leaves a different paper trail, not a worse one.

Authorization for release of records

The signed form that lets a provider send records to someone else. Expect to sign more than one, because hospitals, examination programs and therapists usually hold separate files.

Crime victim compensation

State programs that may reimburse counseling, medical care and lost wages for victims of crime, separately from any civil claim. Eligibility rules differ by state, and an application usually has its own deadline.

Educational only. These are plain-language summaries of words that turn up in charts, letters and bills — not clinical definitions, not medical advice, not a diagnosis of anyone, and not a description of what any particular policy covers. For what a diagnosis means, ask the clinician who made it. For what a plan covers, read the plan, and bring it to us if it is not clear.

Questions

Frequently asked rideshare assault questions

The questions callers actually open with, answered the way we would answer them on the phone.

Do I need a police report?

No. A police report helps, and where one exists it is part of the file. But a police report is not the only form of documentation that is considered, and not having made one is not treated as a reason your account is untrue. Most people who call us never went to the police.

What if the driver was never arrested or charged?

That does not end a review. A criminal case and a civil claim are different things, brought by different people, for different purposes, under a different standard of proof. A prosecutor may decline a case for reasons that have nothing to do with whether it happened.

What if I reported it to Uber or Lyft but never heard anything back?

That is common, and it is worth telling us. A report made in the app or by email creates a record with a date on it, and what the company did after receiving it is one of the questions the litigation is about1.

What if I did not report it to anyone at all?

Then the review starts with the trip record and works outward — the receipt, the card statement, the messages from that week, the people you told later. Delay is the norm in this case type, not the exception.

I deleted the app. Is the trip gone?

No. The trip exists in the company’s own records regardless of what is on your phone, and usually in an email receipt and on the card or bank statement that paid the fare. Deleting an app does not delete a ride.

The ride was booked on someone else’s account. Does that matter?

It matters to where the record lives, not to whether there can be a claim. Tell us whose account it was — a friend’s, a parent’s, an employer’s — and we will account for it.

What if I had been drinking?

It does not disqualify anything. A passenger who cannot consent has not consented, and being unable to consent is part of what this screening covers rather than an obstacle to it.

What if it happened years ago?

Tell us anyway. Deadlines vary by state, by the conduct alleged and by how old you were at the time, and some states have specific sexual assault statutes or have opened windows for older claims. Please do not decide from a search result that you are too late.

Is this a class action?

No. The federal Uber cases are coordinated as a multidistrict litigation, which is not the same thing. Each case stays its own case with its own facts and its own outcome; only the pretrial work is done together1.

What does MDL mean?

Multidistrict litigation. When many federal cases across the country share common questions of fact, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation can send them to one judge for pretrial proceedings so the discovery and the motions are not done several thousand times over1. Cases can be returned to their home courts for trial.

Has anything actually been decided in the Uber litigation?

The court is trying individual bellwether cases and ruling on pretrial motions. The next bellwether trial in the MDL, Jane Doe QLF 0001, is set for jury selection on September 30, 2026 and trial on October 5, 20264, and the parties have proposed the order of the trials that follow5. Those are individual cases. A verdict in one does not decide another.

Are cases settling?

Some are. In their joint statement for the September 11, 2026 case management conference the parties reported 834 active MDL cases subject to settlement that remain on the docket, and 311 such cases in the California state court proceeding3. Those resolutions are private and negotiated case by case; because this is not a class action, no court approves the terms as fair and no court has found Uber liable.

Was I assaulted if the driver did not touch me?

The screening used here covers sexual exposure and masturbation by the driver, not only physical contact. Verbal conduct on its own generally does not meet the criteria — but if a driver frightened you and you are unsure which side of that line it falls on, that is a conversation rather than a form.

Will my name be public?

Cases in this litigation are commonly filed under initials or a pseudonym, and the court has handled the bellwether cases that way4. What protection is available depends on the court and the case, and it is something to settle before anything is filed, not after.

Do I have to sue the driver?

Not necessarily. These claims are generally brought against the company whose platform matched you with the driver, on theories about screening, monitoring and response15. Whether an individual driver is also named is a decision made case by case.

What if the driver has left the country or cannot be found?

It does not end a claim against the company. It has happened in cases the court itself is handling: one of the proposed bellwether cases involves a driver reportedly arrested and deported5.

Will I have to testify?

Possibly, if a case is filed and goes far enough. Most cases do not reach a courtroom, and no one is asked to make that decision at the start. Nothing about a first call commits you to a deposition or a trial.

What does it cost to ask?

Nothing. There is no charge for a case review, and no attorney’s fee unless we recover. If we cannot help, we will say so and tell you why.

This page is general information about how rideshare sexual assault claims work. It is not legal advice, it does not create an attorney-client relationship, and it is not medical or mental health advice. Descriptions of what is alleged in the Uber litigation are allegations, not findings. If something here sounds like your experience, the useful next step is a conversation about the facts.