Recent Recoveries
- $2,000,000Car crash — litigation settlement
- $1,750,000Slip & fall — litigation settlement
- $1,000,00018-wheeler — litigation settlement
- $850,000Tractor-trailer — litigation settlement
- $650,000Commercial collision — litigation settlement
- $650,000Trucking accident — litigation settlement
- $550,000On-the-job injury — litigation settlement
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Every case is decided on its own facts.
Half of Dallas gets home from Deep Ellum in the back of somebody else’s car. It is how people get to Love Field at six in the morning, how they get out of Uptown at two, and how a good many people in this city get anywhere at all.
Then a car turns across the junction, or the driver looks down to accept the next ping, and the person with no control over any of it is the one in the back with a neck injury and no idea whose insurance is supposed to answer.
The first week decides most of what follows. A claims representative rings while you are still sore and asks for a recorded statement; an offer arrives before anybody knows what the treatment costs; the dashcam that saw the whole thing records over itself that night. None of that has to be handled by you, and almost none of it should be.
Free case review
You talk to the lawyer who would try it, not to an intake screener.
No fee unless we win
Nothing up front. The fee comes out of the recovery, or there is none.
We work out the layers
Which app, which period, which policy — settled before anybody gives a statement.
Why It Matters
Why a rideshare claim is fought differently
In most collisions the argument is about the driving. In this one the driving is often not in dispute at all — the argument is about which insurance policy was switched on, and that was decided by a phone.
You did not choose the car, the route or the driver. You tapped a button, sat in the back, and somebody else’s driving put you in an ambulance. On any ordinary reading you are the least responsible person in the whole event.
What nobody explains is that the value of your claim was fixed before the crash. Uber and Lyft do not carry one policy, they carry a schedule of them, and which one answers depends on whether the driver’s app was off, on and waiting, or running a trip. Same crash, same injuries, and a ceiling of nothing, fifty thousand dollars, or a million.
The record that settles it is not in the crash report. It is a set of timestamps on a company’s servers, and it is produced in answer to a letter from a lawyer rather than to a phone call from you. That is the difference you are hiring.
Nobody disputes that the passenger in the back caused none of it. What gets disputed is which policy has to pay for it — and that is answered with records, not with sympathy.
Aaron Genthe · Founder
- 01
The app decides the ceiling
Same crash, same injuries, same driver — and a limit of nothing, $50,000 or $1,000,000, depending on what the screen on the dashboard was showing at the moment of impact.
- 02
The proof of it is theirs
Nothing in the crash report settles which period the driver was in. The record that does is a timestamp on a company’s server, and it is asked for in writing rather than over the phone.
- 03
Nobody in the car is your side
Two drivers, two insurers and a passenger who caused none of it. Everyone has a reason to point at the other car, and nobody has a reason to hurry.
The Coverage
Four numbers, and one of them is yours
This is the part no rideshare claim can be understood without. A driver is in exactly one of four states at any moment, Texas law sets what must be carried in each, and the one they were in when they hit you sets the ceiling on everything that follows.
- $0from Uber or Lyft when the app was closed. It is an ordinary car claim on the driver’s own policy — and a personal policy can exclude driving for hire.
- $50Kper injured person once the app is on and the driver is waiting for a request. $100,000 for the whole crash, $25,000 for property, and not a cent more.
- $1Mfrom the second the driver accepts the trip. The commercial policy is on while they are driving to the pickup, before anybody is in the back.
- $1Mwhile the passenger is in the car, until the driver ends the trip in the app. The same cover, and the only one most people have heard of.
Limits: Texas Transportation Code §2402.111, which requires a transportation network company to carry at least $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident and $25,000 for property while a driver is logged on and available, and at least $1,000,000 from the moment a ride is accepted until the passenger is out of the car. What was actually in force on the day of your crash is a question for the policy, and it is one of the first documents we ask for.
Case Value
What your claim can actually include
“What is my case worth?” is the first question on nearly every call, and no honest answer comes before the treatment is understood.
Economic losses
The half of the claim proved with paper. Keep the bills, the receipts and the pay stubs — and the trip receipt.
Medical treatment
Ambulance, ER, imaging, injections, surgery and the physiotherapy still ahead of you, not only the bills already printed.
Lost income
The days you could not work, and the shifts that will go to appointments and to a procedure months from now.
Lost earning capacity
Where a neck, a shoulder or a back means you cannot go back to the work you had, or cannot do it for as many years as you had left.
Getting about without driving
The irony of a rideshare claim. If you cannot drive or cannot face a car, the fares to every appointment are a cost of the crash and they belong in the claim.
What was in the car with you
A phone, a laptop, a case, an instrument. A passenger is usually on the way somewhere with something, and property damage is not only the vehicle.
Non-economic losses
The half no invoice arrives for, which is why a first offer ignores it. It is argued rather than added up, and on a serious claim it is usually the larger half.
Pain and suffering
The physical toll of the injury and of the treatment it took to put right, over the months it actually took.
Physical impairment
What you can no longer do — lift, kneel, turn your head, sit through a working day.
Mental anguish
The flinch at a lane change, and the passengers who never get in the back of a stranger’s car again.
Disfigurement
Scarring from glass, from an airbag or from the surgery that repaired the damage, valued in its own right.
Loss of consortium
A claim belonging to a spouse or a parent, for what a catastrophic injury took out of the relationship.
Who Pays
The policies that actually pay a rideshare claim
There are usually four or five in play and the famous one is not always the one that pays.
The rideshare company’s commercial policy
The policy everybody has heard of, and the one whose limit depends entirely on the period.
The driver’s own auto policy
It answers when the app was off, and it can answer alongside the commercial policy in the waiting period.
The other driver’s liability cover
On a great many rideshare claims this is the policy that actually pays, because a great many rideshare crashes are caused by the other car.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover
There are usually two places to look. The rideshare policy carries UM/UIM cover while a trip is under way, for the case where the driver who caused it has nothing.
Personal injury protection and MedPay
PIP pays medical bills and some lost income regardless of who was at fault. Texas insurers must offer it and it is on your policy unless you rejected it in writing, so a good many passengers have it without knowing.
An employer, a vehicle owner, or a bar
If the driver who caused it was working for somebody at the time, their employer answers for them.
Texas Law
The five rules that decide a rideshare claim
Rideshare has a chapter of the Transportation Code to itself, and most of what people believe about suing Uber comes from not having read it. These five decide the rest.
Rideshare has its own chapter, and it is state law
Transportation Code Chapter 2402 governs transportation network companies across Texas, and it is where the insurance requirements come from. It also preempts city rules, so the answer does not change between Dallas, Garland and Fort Worth.
The driver is a contractor by statute — and the policy still pays
§2402.114 treats a rideshare driver as an independent contractor rather than an employee where the company does not set their hours, their territory or their other work. That is why suing Uber itself for the driver’s driving usually goes nowhere.
Blame is divided, and a passenger almost never carries any
Texas is a modified comparative fault state: you recover as long as you are found less than 51% responsible, and your share comes off the award.
What you agreed to in the app
Uber’s and Lyft’s terms of use contain arbitration agreements, and both companies have sought to enforce them against injured riders.
Two years, and a good deal less in practice
Most Texas injury claims must be filed within two years of the crash. Claims involving a government defendant, an injured child or a death run to different clocks, several of them shorter.
The Process
What happens when you call us
If you have never worked with a lawyer before you may feel overwhelmed, or a little suspicious.
- 01
Free case review
You call or message. We ask what happened, which app, where you were sitting and what you still have.
- 02
We freeze the record
Preservation letters to Uber or Lyft and to every insurer in the picture, the same week — before the app data and the dashcam loop are gone.
- 03
We take the calls
Every adjuster on the file comes to us from that point. You give a recorded statement to nobody.
- 04
We build and negotiate
The right period, the right policy, and future care and impairment valued properly. Then we push, and file suit if the number will not move.
- 05
You get paid
We go through the settlement line by line. Nobody leaves here wondering what just happened to their case.
Client Reviews
What our clients say about us
None of these was left by a rideshare passenger — they are people represented by this firm after somebody else’s driving hurt them, published as they wrote it.
Rated five out of five stars
“They got me and my daughter a really great settlement for our injuries. Always kept in touch updating us on our case. Definitely recommend.”
Ally M
Rated five out of five stars
“I had a complicated case that went on for years and they handled everything. They were always quick to respond, reduced my medical bills significantly, and handled all aspects…”
Elyse Ramirez
Rated five out of five stars
“From the very beginning, they were professional, knowledgeable, and genuinely committed to getting the best possible outcome for my case… always available to answer questions, no matter how small.”
Kolbi Mouton
Your Attorney
The lawyer who works your case
This page has promised you a real attorney rather than a call centre several times over. It is only fair to say who that is.
Founder · Trial Attorney
Aaron Genthe
A Texas A&M graduate who went into personal injury straight out of law school, Aaron spent years as a litigator at one of the larger firms in Dallas — long enough to build a reputation as an aggressive and effective attorney, and long enough to watch how easily a client becomes a file number at a firm that size.
He started Genthe Law Firm so that the person you speak to about your crash is the person who tries it. He has litigated collision cases across Dallas County and North Texas since, including the ones where the answer was buried in a company’s records rather than in the crash report.
- Practising since
- 2015
- Cases handled
- Hundreds, in Dallas and across Texas
- Education
- Texas A&M graduate
- Fee
- Contingency — nothing unless you recover
Questions
Rideshare accident FAQs
The questions passengers and drivers ask on the first call, answered the way we answer them on the phone.
Can I sue Uber?
Usually you do not need to. Transportation Code §2402.114 treats rideshare drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, so a claim against the company for the driver’s driving generally does not stand up.
I was the passenger. Am I covered?
Yes. A passenger in a trip that is under way sits inside the $1,000,000 period, and a passenger is almost never assigned any share of the blame for a crash they had no part in.
The driver had the app on but no passenger. What then?
Then the limited tier applies: $50,000 per injured person, $100,000 for the crash and $25,000 for property. It covers a damaged car and a minor injury and it does not cover a surgery.
What if the driver was offline?
Then Uber and Lyft are out of it and you are on the driver’s personal auto policy, exactly as in any other collision.
Should I report the crash in the app before I ring a lawyer?
Reporting the crash is fine and usually sensible. Giving a recorded statement is not, and it is what the call that follows is for.
They have already offered me money. Should I take it?
Not before you know what your treatment is going to cost. A release is final: signing one in month two cannot be undone when the surgery is booked in month nine.
The driver was logged into Uber and Lyft at the same time.
Only the active app answers. If the driver was waiting on Uber and carrying a Lyft passenger, it is Lyft’s commercial policy that is on, and the reverse is equally true.
I was hit by an Uber Eats or DoorDash driver.
Different rules. Chapter 2402 is about prearranged rides, so a delivery-only trip is not covered by the statutory limits above.
What does a Dallas rideshare accident lawyer cost?
Nothing up front. We work on contingency: the fee comes out of the settlement or the verdict, and if there is no recovery there is no fee.
Also Handled Here
If your crash was something else
The neighbouring claims this firm litigates most often, including the ones a rideshare crash most often turns out to be once the app record comes back.
- 01Car AccidentsThe other driver, and the policy behind them
- 02Truck AccidentsBox trucks, tankers and 18-wheelers
- 03Motorcycle AccidentsRiders hurt by somebody else’s driving
- 04Bicycle AccidentsDoored at a kerbside pickup
- 05Pedestrian AccidentsStruck in a crosswalk or a pickup lane
- 06Traumatic Brain InjuryHead injury with nothing to brace against
- 07Wrongful DeathClaims brought by a surviving family
- 08Construction AccidentsWork zones and lane closures in the roadway
Read more on rideshare and insurance claims
- Injured in a Rideshare Crash? What Uber and Lyft Don’t Tell YouThis firm’s own guide to the layered policy
- Uninsured & Underinsured Motorist Claims in TexasThe cover that pays when the other driver has nothing
- Why You Should Refuse a Recorded StatementThe call that comes in the first 48 hours
- Texas Basic Auto Insurance, ExplainedWhat a minimum policy actually buys
- Modified Comparative Fault in TexasHow a share of the blame comes off an award
- Low Insurance Settlement OffersWhy the first number arrives so quickly
