Lyft is dealing with a contemporary batch of lawsuits from drivers and passengers who say they have been sexually and bodily assaulted throughout rides and accused the ride-hailing firm of failing to guard its customers.
Seventeen lawsuits have been filed in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, in keeping with Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Smart, the regulation agency representing most of the victims. These are separate lawsuits and never a category motion. The lawsuits are requesting a jury trial and don’t specify a particular monetary award besides that they’re in search of compensatory damages, together with all bills and wages owed, damages for future lack of earnings, affordable attorneys’ charges, prices and bills and punitive damages.
The lawsuits, 13 of which have been from drivers and passengers who have been sexually assaulted, allege that Lyft didn’t have correct security measures to forestall such assaults and didn’t adequately reply as soon as the assaults have been reported.
Tracey Cowan, companion at Peiffer Wolf, stated throughout a press convention that they need “Lyft to take the steps it is aware of it must take to make everybody protected.” These steps, Cowan stated, contains complete background screening on its drivers, making certain info that candidates present in addition to background checks are correct via biometric fingerprint monitoring and offering dashcams to drivers.
“The absolute best consequence could be for Lyft to really make these adjustments that individuals — each passengers and drivers alike — have been asking for for years and we hope that’s what Lyft does,” Cowan stated.
Lyft responded by emphasizing its dedication to security and disputed a number of the claims that have been made throughout a digital press convention held Wednesday that includes a number of drivers and passengers who’ve filed lawsuits.
“We’re dedicated to serving to maintain drivers and riders protected. Whereas security incidents on our platform are extremely uncommon, we understand that even one is simply too many,” a spokesperson stated in an emailed assertion. “Our objective is to make each Lyft experience as protected as attainable, and we are going to proceed to take motion and spend money on expertise, insurance policies and partnerships to take action.”
Lyft stated that each driver goes via “rigorous screening,” together with a background verify. As soon as accepted, there may be “steady legal monitoring.” Any driver who doesn’t go the preliminary, annual and steady screenings is barred from the platform, the corporate stated. Each driver is required to take a group security schooling course created in partnership with anti-sexual violence group RAINN, in keeping with Lyft.
The corporate additionally disputed plaintiffs’ attorneys assertion that it doesn’t cooperate with regulation enforcement. Among the victims who spoke in the course of the Wednesday press convention detailed their struggles to get Lyft to reply or share info with police.
Lyft informed DailyTech that it requires a subpoena or different legitimate authorized course of earlier than disclosing private info to regulation enforcement. The corporate stated it’s not commonplace course of to proactively report security incidents to regulation enforcement as a result of the choice to report and when to take action is left as much as the person.
Lyft’s most up-to-date group security report, which was launched in October 2021, discovered greater than 4,000 incidents of sexual assault occurred to customers of the ride-hailing platform between 2017 and the top of 2019. Whereas the variety of situations grew, Lyft cited that the speed decreased as a result of the variety of rides grew.
In October 2018, Lyft ended its pressured arbitration coverage for particular person claims of sexual assault or harassment by drivers, riders or staff. Nevertheless, the arbitration requirement continues to be in locations for bodily assault complaints.