Lawyers Reach Deal With Uber Ending Bid To Limit Their Payouts

Uber and California’s personal injury lawyers have struck a deal to head off a costly election battle over competing ballot initiatives that could have had serious economic consequences for either or both.The competing proposals qualified this week to appear on the state’s November ballot: One would have capped the amount that attorneys can take from settlements, and another would have increased legal liability for rideshare companies. The backers of both proposals had been expected to spend millions of dollars supporting their initiatives. It took less than 24 hours after the initiatives were approved for the parties to work out a compromise and announce plans to withdraw their proposals. “Both sides agree,” said a statement from Uber and the backers of the competing initiative, Consumer Attorneys of California. “Californians deserve a system that’s safe, fair, and accountable.”The statement said the agreement “protects patients from unnecessary treatment or getting overcharged, ensures access to medical care and legal representation, and strengthens safety measures.”Uber’s ballot proposal would have capped attorneys’ fees at 25 percent of court settlements in what it cast as an effort to protect drivers from “billboard lawyers” who extract enormous sums from plaintiffs’ awards, leaving them “broke and broken.” Critics argued that the rideshare giant was trying to make it harder for people to file lawsuits against rideshare companies.Consumer Attorneys of California launched a competing ballot initiative that would have held rideshare companies accountable when a driver sexually assaulted a passenger and required that the company perform background checks for drivers.There have been thousands of lawsuits filed against rideshare companies seeking to hold them liable for sexual assaults, arguing that the companies did not screen their drivers well enough to protect passengers.Under the agreement reached, Uber will take steps to increase safety measures, and attorneys will agree to limit how much they can claim for medical liens for car accident cases. However, the ballot initiatives may not be off the table yet. Uber and Consumer Attorneys for California said their deal to withdraw the proposals is dependent on the development of a bill, which would enshrine those changes in law, being passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom by next week.The two sides have a June 25 deadline to decide whether or not to actually withdraw their initiatives.

Lawyers Reach Deal With Uber Ending Bid To Limit Their Payouts

More from the New York Sun

A Week After Court-Ordered Name Removal, Tarps Still Hide Kennedy Center Facade

Trump-Meloni Feud Deepens With Fresh Exchange of Social Media Gibes

Washington, Tehran Confirm Plans To Open Peace Talks in Switzerland on Sunday

More from the New York Sun

A Week After Court-Ordered Name Removal, Tarps Still Hide Kennedy Center Facade

Trump-Meloni Feud Deepens With Fresh Exchange of Social Media Gibes

Washington, Tehran Confirm Plans To Open Peace Talks in Switzerland on Sunday

Judge Rules Biden Must Release Ghostwriter Recordings to Conservative Group

Trump Accuses Vandals of Sabotaging Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool After $14M Renovation

Cuba, Introducing Free-Market Reforms, Begins Tearing Down Castro’s ‘Irrevocable’ Communist State

The California Headphone Startup Taking on Apple and Bose

Major Supreme Court Decisions Anticipated in Final Days of Term