When it comes to ride-sharing services, in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of assault cases happening. From some high-profile cases to some minor misconduct, the assault cases have been increasing at a really fast pace.
But what matters here is the way these cases are legally analyzed. Now, the outcomes of these cases do play a very important role in portraying to the users whether steps are being taken or not.
There are some landmark cases that are remembered till date. These are the ones that have brought about some positive changes in the operational side of ride-sharing companies.
An uber sexual assault lawyer in Texas can help a lot in explaining the legal matters of the assault cases in the court.
Understanding The Legal Landscape
The legal framework that surrounds the ridesharing companies is very complex. It comes with its own challenges of the modern day.
It is very important to understand the complexities of the legal side of the cases before we jump onto the litigation side of things.
- Whenever we see new customers sign up for the rideshare services, they are observed to be agreeing to the terms and conditions of the company. Now, all of these terms and conditions can look really difficult to read and understand, but these do have some clauses that simply explain how assaults should be addressed and how they are tackled later.
These clauses also include attribution agreements that can help install disputes between parties.
- One of the major things to focus on when it comes to litigation against ridesharing companies is determining liability. A lot of times it has been observed that the ridesharing companies call their drivers independent contractors rather than employees.
Now, this does help the company in not taking all the bame to themselves but the driver. On the other hand, this step also makes things complicated when the driver is said to be an independent party.
- Now the ridesharing facilities are present in all of the states, this means that issues related to the jurisdiction can be observed. There are a number of factors that can impact the jurist=diction.
Landmark Cases
Let’s have a look at the landmark cases of rideshare assault.
Jane Doe vs U-Ride Case
One of the most known cases that occurred in 2019 was the Jane Doe vs U-Ride case. Now, Jane here was one of the regular users of U-ride. Jane did report a case of severe assault that occurred to her in Paris.
After the incident, Jane did take legal action against the company. It was mentioned that the company did not keep a check on the background of the drivers which later caused the case of assault to happen.
Jane also mentioned that the app was lacking in some of the many common features, like the safety one. She couldn’t do anything to take control of the actions of the driver and had to suffer severe consequences.
The company did come up with its own justifications, but the verdict here was made. Let’s have a look.
The court, after listening to both the parties, gave their verdict, and Jane ended up winning the case. It was said by the court that although the driver was an independent contractor, it was still the responsibility of the company to train the drivers.
John Smith vs City Ride
A case occurred in 2020 where a passenger had an incident where they were physically assaulted. The name of the passenger was John Smith.
John Smith did take the case to the court and presented several arguments. It was said that the company failed pretty badly in choosing its drivers and vetting them before hiring them. It was also mentioned that the response that CityRide gave to the passenger after the reporting of the incident was not very serious and sufficient.
And the defenders, on the other side came up with arguments where they said that the drivers were not the employees but independent contractors. It was said that the company must not be blamed here.
CityRide also mentioned that they had everything compiled from the background to the prior safe experience of the passengers with riders.
But when it came to the verdict, the cases did go in favor of John Smith. It was acknowledged that the drivers were independent contractors, but it was also mentioned that it was the duty of the company to ensure the safety of the passengers.
Conclusion
Some of the significant landmark cases in the past did have an impact and still contain that. After looking at these cases, the users of ridesharing apps have this clarity of getting justice when it comes to assault cases. Also, this can go both ways; this can be said about the drivers if they get assaulted by the passengers.
