MDL Judge Confirms Next Uber Assault Lawsuit Will Go Before Jury in April 2026

One federal and one state trial have already taken place, but the results were inconclusive and offered little insight into how juries may evaluate similar evidence and testimony in future cases.

Following an $8.5 million verdict in the first federal Uber driver sexual assault trial earlier this month, and a split verdict in a claim that went to trial last year in California state court, the MDL judge overseeing the litigation indicates that the next federal bellwether trial will get underway in April 2026, to help further assess how juries may evaluate the evidence and testimony likely to shape the course of the proceedings.

Over the last several years, more than 3,000 Uber sexual assault lawsuits have been brought by former passengers who say they were groped, assaulted, harassed, and even raped and kidnapped by their drivers. 

Each claim raises similar allegations, indicating that Uber should be held liable for the attacks, since it has failed to provide adequate safety protections for passengers.

Plaintiffs accuse the company of failing to implement more than bare minimum background checks on its drivers. Specifically, many claims say the rideshare company did not train drivers in sexual harassment and assault awareness, place surveillance cameras in vehicles, give customers the option of choosing the gender of their drivers, or put in place other measures that could have protected passengers.

While the outcome of these early bellwether trials have no binding impact on other claims, they are expected to have a major impact on the average Uber sexual assault settlement payouts the company may need to make to avoid thousands of individual claims going before juries nationwide in the coming years.

At the federal level, the litigation is consolidated into an Uber driver sexual assault lawsuit MDL, or multidistrict litigation, with claims filed by former passengers nationwide currently centralized in the Northern District of California under U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings. Hundreds of additional claims are also pending in state court in California, where Uber’s U.S. headquarters are located.

Early in the litigation, Judge Breyer directed the parties to prepare six lawsuits for Uber passenger assault lawsuit bellwether trials. The first of of those cases went to trial last month, resulting in an $8.5 million verdict for Jaylynn Dean of Arizona, who indicates she was raped by an Uber driver in November 2023. 

The jury in that case ruled that while Uber was not liable for failing to provide adequate safety features, it was responsible for the driver’s actions because he was acting as an agent of the company.

The federal bellwether trial was preceded by another trial held in California state court in September 2025, where a jury concluded Uber was negligent in failing to protect passengers, but determined that negligence did not substantially contribute to the attack, and thus the company was not liable for damages.

The two trials, which produced sharply different outcomes, have not established a clear pattern in how juries are applying the law to the claims. 

Second Federal Uber Sexual Assault Trial

In a February 9 pretrial order (PDF), Judge Breyer announced that the next MDL Uber driver sexual assault trial will involve a lawsuit brought by a plaintiff only identified as “WHB 823,” to protect their anonymity. That claim is now set to begin with jury selection on April 13, 2026.

According to their original lawsuit, filed in August 2024, the plaintiff was sexually assaulted by an Uber driver in North Carolina in March 2019 after ordering a ride through the company’s app.

The parties filed a joint proposed pretrial schedule (PDF) for the lead-up to the trial on February 13. Plaintiffs and defendants agreed that Daubert motions and motions for summary judgment would be due by March 10, with motions in limine due by March 13, and a joint proposed pretrial order expected by March 27, among other key dates. They called for the last pre-trial conference to be held on April 2 or 3. Judge Breyer must still sign off on the proposed schedule.

If no global settlement for the Uber sexual assault lawsuits is reached after the bellwether trials conclude, Judge Breyer is likely to start remanding individual claims back to their originating districts for early trial dates.

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