Uber & Lyft accident lawyers in Montana
Rideshare crashes come with a question ordinary crashes don’t have: whose insurance actually applies? The answer depends on what the app was doing at the moment of impact — and getting it wrong can cost you most of your recovery. We get it right.
Available 24/7 · Free consultation · No fee unless we recover for you
Whoever you are in the crash, coverage exists — finding it is the fight
You were the passenger
You’re the easiest liability case on the page — you didn’t cause anything. The fight is about which of several policies pays, and how much.
A rideshare driver hit you
While you were driving, riding, walking, or biking. Now the coverage question is everything: the driver’s personal policy, the rideshare company’s coverage, or a gap between them.
You drive for Uber or Lyft
And another driver hit you. You may have claims against the at-fault driver plus rideshare-provided UM/UIM coverage, depending on your app status at the time.
The coverage periods, in plain language
Rideshare insurance works in tiers based on the driver’s app status at the moment of the crash. The exact coverage and limits depend on the company’s current terms and Montana’s rules for transportation network companies — we confirm both in every case.
App off
The driver is just a private driver. This is where injured people get burned — many personal policies exclude coverage while driving for hire. We check for the exclusion and for every other applicable coverage, including your own UM/UIM.
App on, waiting for a ride request
The rideshare company provides limited contingent liability coverage during this window, and it is typically much lower than the coverage that applies once a ride is accepted. Personal policies often will not respond at all here.
Ride accepted or passenger on board
The company's large commercial liability policy applies — historically up to $1 million, often with UM/UIM for passengers. This is the coverage tier serious passenger cases are built on.
Here's the practical problem
After a crash, nobody volunteers which period applied. The driver may shade the truth to protect their personal policy. The rideshare company’s insurer may dispute app status to push the claim down a tier. The proof lives in the app data — trip logs, GPS, timestamps — and that data belongs to the company until someone makes them preserve and produce it. That’s us, immediately.
“Our drivers are independent contractors” — and other things they'll say
Uber and Lyft built their legal position deliberately: drivers are classified as independent contractors, not employees, which the companies use to deny responsibility for driver negligence. Claims get routed to third-party administrators. Adjusters representing layered policies point at each other while your bills stack up.
None of that changes the fundamentals of a serious injury case — it just raises the price of doing it right. The coverage exists by statute and by the companies’ own policies. Our job is to establish the facts (app status, trip data, driver history), put every applicable policy on notice at once, and refuse to let a coverage dispute between insurers become your problem.
Lock down the digital record first
Your trip data
Screenshot everything now: the trip screen, receipt, driver identity, route, timestamps. Report the crash in the app, briefly and factually.
The company's records
App status logs, GPS breadcrumbs, driver activity history. We send preservation demands to the rideshare company immediately; this data is the whole coverage-tier fight.
Driver history
Prior complaints, safety reports, background check records, deactivations. Relevant to negligent-retention theories where the law allows
Dashcams
Many rideshare drivers run them. That footage is preserved by demand, not by hope.
Everything standard
Police report, vehicle data, scene photos, witnesses, camera canvass — same as every serious crash case we handle.
Start with a free Crash Response Plan
Rideshare cases reward speed: app data, dashcam footage, and coverage-tier evidence are all perishable. One free call with a lawyer gets you a written, personalized plan — including exactly what to screenshot, save, and say (and not say) to the three different insurance companies about to call you.
Rideshare crash questions, answered straight
While a passenger is on board, the rideshare company’s commercial liability coverage generally applies — historically up to $1 million — along with the at-fault driver’s coverage if another vehicle caused the crash, and potentially UM/UIM coverage. Passengers almost never bear fault, so the case is about documenting your injuries fully and pursuing every layer, in the right order.
It depends entirely on the driver’s app status at impact: app off means their personal policy; app on and waiting means the company’s limited contingent coverage; ride accepted or passenger aboard means the company’s full commercial policy. Don’t take anyone’s word for the app status — it’s provable from company data, and we demand that data preserved immediately.
The companies classify drivers as independent contractors and resist direct liability, so most cases proceed against the applicable insurance coverage rather than the company itself — though direct theories can exist in some circumstances. Practically, what matters is that substantial coverage applies by statute and policy; we pursue whichever path reaches it.
No — it’s often the beginning. Personal policies routinely deny claims that arose during commercial driving because of livery exclusions. The denial usually means the claim belongs with the rideshare company’s coverage instead. A denial is a routing signal, not a verdict.
Get medical care, call 911 so there’s a police report, and screenshot everything in the app — the trip, the driver, the route, the time. Report the crash in the app factually and briefly. Then talk to a lawyer before giving any insurer a recorded statement; in rideshare cases there may be three insurers calling, and each one is protecting a different pocket.
Generally the same limitations period as other injury claims , but the evidence that decides the coverage tier — app data and dashcam footage — has a lifespan measured in days and weeks. Move on the evidence now; decide on the claim on your own timeline.
Three insurers. One injured person. Even the odds.
One call. No cost. No pressure. We’ll walk you through exactly what to do in the next 72 hours — before the insurance company gets to you.
Or tell us what happened
We’ll call you within minutes.
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