In the last days of the legislative session, Uber leveraged its political power for a change in the uninsured motorist coverage it must buy under state law.
Now, if you are hit by an uninsured motorist while in an Uber, Uber no longer has to have coverage for $1 million in damages, but $60,000 per person and $300,000 per accident. For seriously injured consumers that’s a big problem.
Uber argued that the change would cut the cost of its rides significantly, but nothing in the legislation said it would have to pass on any savings to its riders.
To get the change done in record time, Uber offered the carrot of allowing its drivers to unionize as a way of bribing union-backed Democrats into rushing through SB 371 within the last weeks of session. The companion bill, AB 1340, allowing ride share employees to unionize, moved through the legislature, as soon as the deal on SB 371 was done. SEIU, the union behind AB 1340, dumped millions into the Democrats’ Prop 50 effort to redraw legislative districts.
As if that deal wasn’t dirty enough, Uber upped the ante.
Before Governor Newsom’s signature on SB 371 was barely dry, Uber filed a ballot measure Friday that would pragmatically take away automobile accident victims’ rights to get attorneys to take their cases. The initiative puts a hard 25% limit on how much an attorney who takes an accident victim’s case can make. Continency fee attorneys front the costs for experts and trial preparation and, if they lose, they get nothing. Under the Uber initiative, all those upfront costs would have to come out of the 25% fee, leaving the attorney with 8% to 10% in most cases – not enough of an incentive to take the case on.
Uber’s initiative would apply to all auto accidents, not just those involving Ubers.
Uber has thrown its weight around in the initiative process before, spending $60 million to stop its drivers from being classified as employees. Now Uber is moving out of its lane and trying to impact the rights of every driver, passenger and pedestrian in the state who is unfortunate enough to get into a car accident. It’s a shameful abuse of the money it has collected from its customers.
Will Uber pay a price? Stay tuned. Every action comes with a reaction.
