Uber Sexual Assault Settlement Reached Before Bellwether Trial Begins

Settlement comes days before jurors were expected to hear arguments over whether Uber could be held responsible for the actions of its driver.

Uber Technologies has settled a Texas woman’s sexual assault lawsuit just days before it was set to go before a jury, which would have marked the third bellwether trial in the federal litigation.

The lawsuit was brought by a woman identified as Jane Doe, who alleged she was sexually assaulted by an Uber driver during a June 2020 ride in Tarrant County, Texas.

A jury had already been selected, and opening statements were scheduled to begin Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. However, Uber reached a settlement before the trial could begin, avoiding another potential jury verdict over allegations that the company failed to take adequate steps to protect passengers from sexual assaults by its drivers.

Uber Sexual Assault Lawsuits

The rideshare giant currently faces thousands of Uber sexual assault lawsuits filed by passengers who allege the company knew for years that some drivers were sexually assaulting riders, yet failed to take adequate steps to protect passengers.

The claims similarly allege Uber placed growth and expansion of its driver network ahead of passenger safety, while failing to implement protections that could have reduced the risk of sexual assaults, including more extensive background checks, in-vehicle cameras and other measures designed to identify potentially dangerous drivers or deter attacks.

As similar claims began mounting in federal courts nationwide, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation established MDL No. 3084 in October 2023, consolidating Uber passenger sexual assault lawsuits before U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in the Northern District of California for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

As of October 1, 2026, nearly 5,000 lawsuits are pending in the federal MDL. Additional claims are also moving forward in state courts, including a coordinated proceeding involving Uber sexual assault lawsuits in California state court.

Similar allegations have also been raised in a series of Lyft sexual assault lawsuits, where more than 2,000 claims have been filed in both California state court and a separate federal MDL.

Uber Sexual Assault Settlement Before Texas Trial

Doe originally filed her complaint (PDF) in the 415th District Court of Parker County, Texas, before later bringing the claim into the federal multidistrict litigation before Judge Breyer on December 5, 2024.

Her claims stem from an Uber ride on June 9, 2020, which began in Arlington and was headed to Cresson, Texas. According to the complaint, Doe alleges she was sexually assaulted, harassed, battered or otherwise attacked by the Uber driver during the trip.

One of the focal points of Doe’s case was that she was not the account holder who requested the ride. Uber relied on that fact in arguing that she could not show she personally relied on representations about passenger safety, or that additional warnings would have changed her decision to take the trip.

Those defenses were expected to be tested before a jury after the case was selected as the third federal bellwether trial. Bellwether trials are early test cases used to give both sides a clearer sense of how juries may respond to recurring allegations, evidence and defenses in the broader litigation.

As the trial neared, the scope of the dispute began to narrow after Uber agreed it would not contest that the sexual assault occurred, leaving jurors to focus more directly on the company’s potential responsibility for what happened.

A jury was then selected in the Western District of Texas on September 30, with opening statements scheduled to begin on Monday, October 5. However, before either side could present its case, Uber reached a confidential settlement with Doe on October 2, just three days before the trial was set to start.

Previous Uber Sexual Assault Bellwether Verdicts

The settlement means the third federal bellwether will not produce another jury verdict, leaving the parties with two earlier federal trial results that reached very different conclusions about Uber’s responsibility and the damages owed to individual passengers.

The first federal bellwether ended in February, when an Arizona jury returned an $8.5 million Uber sexual assault verdict for a woman who alleged she was raped by an Uber driver. Jurors rejected claims that Uber was negligent in the design or implementation of its safety measures and declined to award punitive damages, but still found the company legally responsible after determining that the driver was acting as Uber’s agent.

A second federal bellwether produced a much smaller award in April. In that case, a North Carolina jury ordered Uber to pay $5,000 in damages after finding a driver committed battery against a passenger who alleged that he grabbed her leg during a 2019 ride. The plaintiff did not ask jurors for a specific dollar amount and testified that she was seeking accountability and an apology more than financial compensation.

Those federal cases followed an earlier trial in the parallel California state court litigation, where jurors found that Uber was negligent in failing to protect a passenger, but concluded that the company’s negligence was not a substantial factor in causing the assault. As a result, no damages were awarded against Uber in that case.

Collectively, the verdicts have produced mixed results, with juries reaching different conclusions about Uber’s negligence, responsibility for driver conduct and the damages warranted in individual cases.

While bellwether verdicts are not binding on other plaintiffs, they can help both sides evaluate recurring claims and defenses as settlement discussions continue.

Sign up for more legal news that could affect you or your family.