How Companies like Uber Use Legal Pressure to Avoid Accountability
How Companies like Uber Use Legal Pressure to Avoid Accountability
Large corporations like Uber will always try to avoid being held accountable. When accidents happen, Uber doesn’t just defend itself. The company goes on the offensive. Uber has developed aggressive legal strategies to intimidate victims, deter personal injury law firms, and essentially delay justice.
Below, we will review four ways that Uber uses legal pressure.
Weaponizing Arbitration
Uber requires all their users, including drivers and passengers, to agree to terms of service before they can use their app. These terms of service include binding arbitration clauses. Arbitration method of dispute resolution in which a neutral third party, the arbitrator, helps resolve a dispute between the parties.
Uber’s arbitration clauses do the following:
- Waive claimant’s right to sue Uber in court
- Force private arbitration instead of a court proceeding
- Generally limit damages
- Suppress public accountability
For large corporations, arbitration is preferred over traditional litigation for many reasons, some of which include the ability to choose the arbitrator, limited appeal options, and confidentiality.
Uber often resorts to tactics designed to overwhelm and intimidate claimants, in hopes that claimants will simply withdraw their claims or accept the first settlement offer that they make. Some examples of the tactics that Uber may use include the following:
- Making direct contact with victims before they have representation
- Demanding excessive documentation (requesting documents that they have already received)
- Constantly shifting claim reviewers
- Offering low settlement amounts in exchange for releasing liability
- And more
In most settlements, Uber includes non-disclosure agreements or NDAs that legally prevent victims from discussing the accident, the terms of the settlement, and even Uber’s responsibility. This prevents those with settled claims from sharing their experience and prevents any potential future victims from being able to access any information that could help them learn how to fight back against Uber. The general lack of information due to these NDAs also create the illusion that Uber is rarely at fault for these incidents. The truth is that their responsibility is hidden behind these confidentiality clauses.
Suing Personal Injury FirmsOf course, after accidents, victims reach out to personal injury law firms for representation and help with their claims. Uber accident lawsuits fight to obtain a recovery from the rideshare companies a large insurance policy. After all, if the incident is covered under the insurance policy, injured individuals should be able to access a recovery. Even then, Uber has resorted to taking action against the law firms handling these cases.
In 2021, Uber filed a federal lawsuit against major law firms accusing them of “fraudulent arbitration demands” simply for initiating claims on behalf of injured drivers and passengers. The company argued that the law firms were trying to overwhelm its arbitration process, even though arbitration is mandated by Uber themselves.
In 2025 so far, Uber has filed three separate lawsuits against law firms, with the third lawsuit involving our firm. They claim that the named law firms have fraudulently sought “larger-than-warranted” insurance settlements under their insurance coverage in California. We firmly believe that these allegations are baseless and are simply an attempt to suppress legitimate claims. We intend to defend ourselves in court – standing up against this corporation is the only way to truly fight for past and future victims of Uber crashes.
Other Pages on Our Website Related to This Topic
The Ultimate Guide to Uber Accidents
Sudden Stop Rideshare Accident
Rideshare Injury Accident when Leaving Vehicle
