MDL Sought for Lyft Lawsuits Over Sexual Assaults by Drivers

Passengers abused by rideshare drivers indicate Lyft receives more than 18,000 sexual assault reports every year, which are far more than its competitor, Uber.

A rapidly growing number of Lyft passengers who were sexually assaulted by drivers are now filing lawsuits against the rideshare company, resulting in a request to consolidate and centralize the litigation before one federal judge for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

For the past several years, Lyft and its competitor, Uber, have faced an alarming number of sexual assault lawsuits, each raising similar allegations that passengers were harassed, groped, or even abducted and raped by drivers. However, most of the public attention has centered on the much larger Uber litigation.

More than 2,500 Uber passenger sexual assault lawsuits have already been consolidated in the federal court system, as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of California. In addition to those federal cases, a number of individual Uber assault lawsuits have also been filed in California state courts, where the first trial concluded last month. That jury found Uber failed to adequately protect passengers but stopped short of holding the company legally liable for the plaintiff’s injuries.

The first federal Uber sexual assault trial is scheduled to begin on January 7, involving claims brought by Jaylynn Dean, who alleges she was raped by an Uber driver in Arizona in November 2023.

The Lyft lawsuits, meanwhile, continue to move forward as individual claims spread throughout various different U.S. District Courts, accusing the company of implementing only minimal safety measures to protect passengers from known risks of sexual assault.

Lyft Sexual Assault Safety Problems

Much like in the Uber sexual assault cases, former passengers indicate that Lyft failed to equip vehicles with surveillance cameras, neglected to provide sexual assault or harassment awareness training for drivers, and failed to give passengers the option of selecting the gender of their driver.

Following a complaint by investors that the company’s bottom lines were being hurt by the safety problems, Lyft reached a settlement agreement in July 2024 that included a promise of company-wide reforms and improvements to passenger safety. 

These include efforts to make passengers more aware of the safety features already built into the Lyft app, such as a tool that allows users to silently alert 911 or contact a Lyft representative. The company also agreed to appoint a member focused on driver and passenger safety to its existing Culture of Ethics and Compliance Committee.

Lyft MDL Petition

Given the rising number of Lyft claims being filed nationwide, plaintiffs filed a motion for transfer (PDF) with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) on October 6, asking that these claims also be consolidated in the Northern District of California, or, alternately, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of California.

The plaintiffs argue that establishing coordinated pretrial proceedings for the Lyft sexual assault lawsuits will serve the convenience of all parties and prevent contradicting rulings between different judges and prevent duplication of discovery efforts.

According to the motion, there are currently at least 17 Lyft lawsuits over driver sexual assaults filed in 10 different U.S. District Courts, which are pending before at least 13 different judges. Lyft lawsuit attorneys expect that number could grow significantly in the coming weeks and months.

The motion notes that between 2017 and 2022, Lyft publicly disclosed it had received more than 10,500 sexual assault reports involving use of the Lyft app. Plaintiffs indicate the real number, according to the California Public Utilities Commission data is more than 18,000 incidents every year, which they note is “notably more than its competitor, Uber.”

“Given the nationwide use of Defendant’s product and related transportation services, and the hundreds of sexual assaults publicly reported involving Defendant’s mobile application each year, it is likely that hundreds or thousands of additional actions will continue to be filed in federal courts throughout the United States.”

– Memorandum in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Transfer

If the JPML chooses to heed the motion, all federal Lyft lawsuits would be consolidated before one U.S. District Court judge for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings. However, each case would remain an independent claim.

It is likely that the judge would call for Lyft sexual assault lawsuit bellwether trials, where the parties could see how juries would respond to evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.

If, after those trials and the pretrial proceedings, no Lyft lawsuit settlement or other resolution is reached, those cases would be transferred back to their originating court for individual trial dates.

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