Judge Urged To Consolidate Multiple Uber Sexual Assault Lawsuits for First Bellwether Trial

Rideshare company has opposed consolidating multiple sexual assault lawsuits involving different Uber drivers into a single trial, indicating that hundreds of claims should go before juries individually.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over more than 1,900 Uber sexual assault lawsuits brought by passengers who indicate they were abused or attacked by drivers while using the rideshare app, has been asked to consolidate multiple plaintiffs for the first bellwether trial.

Each of the claims being pursued against the rideshare giant present similar facts, indicating that passengers were sexually assaulted, harassed, or raped by drivers, claiming that Uber has failed to take adequate measures to screen drivers or protect riders from potential sexual predators.

Plaintiffs requested the combined trials, to help the parties gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation. However, Uber has opposed potential multi-plaintiff trials, indicating that each claim should go before a jury separately.

Although Uber implemented “Safe Ride Fees” in 2014, plaintiffs maintain that the company never used that money to actually make its passengers safer, providing only cursory background checks for drivers. The company also failed to provide surveillance cameras inside of cars, did not allow passengers to make requests regarding the gender of drivers, and failed to train drivers on issues of sexual assault and harassment, according to the lawsuits.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in lawsuits brought throughout the federal court system, an Uber driver sexual assault MDL (Multidistrict Litigation) was established in October 2023, centralizing all claims before U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in the Northern District of California, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

To help drive resolution of Uber sexual assault settlement agreements, Judge Breyer has established a “bellwether” process, where the parties were directed to identify a small group of representative claims, which are being prepared for early test trials.

In December 2024, Judge Breyer called on lawyers to identify a group of 20 Uber sex abuse lawsuits, with each side selecting 10 cases that are now going through case-specific discovery, expert work-up and pretrial motions, before a smaller number of claims are ultimately scheduled to go before a jury in the future.

The first Uber sex abuse lawsuit bellwether trial is expected to begin on December 8, 2025, but the individual case or cases that will be included has not yet been determined by the Court.

Request Made for Multi-Plaintiff Trials

On April 1, plaintiffs’ attorneys sent Judge Breyer a letter (PDF), asking that the first trial involve multiple plaintiffs, to help promote efficiency in the bellwether process.

“Each trial will feature overlapping testimony and documents regarding those issues. There will also be overlap in damages evidence, with the same experts opining on the nature of sexual assault and its short and long-term effects,” the letter states. “For many bellwethers, the legal and factual overlap is even more acute. Each of the alleged assaults occurred between 2019 and 2024, and 15 of the 19 occurred in 2021-2023. In addition, there are multiple bellwethers from five states (Arizona, California, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas).”

The letter notes that most of the selected bellwether pool cases involve claims that Uber was negligent for not mandating cameras in drivers’ vehicles.

Uber provided a response letter (PDF) on the same day, strongly opposing a multi-plaintiff trial, indicating that such a trial would bias juries against the rideshare service, and that it brings no efficiency benefits.

The plaintiffs’ letter also calls for Judge Breyer to set deadlines for selecting the final bellwether trial candidates and case-specific discovery to ensure the cases are prepared by the December 8 deadline.

While the outcome of the early trials in the MDL will not be binding on other claims, average lawsuit payouts awarded by juries may affect any Uber sexual assault settlement agreements. If no such agreement is reached after the bellwether trials have concluded, hundreds of individual cases may be remanded back to U.S. District Courts nationwide for future trial dates.