Long Beach Uber and Lyft Accident Lawyer

The app decides

Three periods, three levels of coverage

California separates liability insurance from uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM). With the app off, coverage depends on the driver’s own policies. While waiting online, required primary liability limits are $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident for injuries, and $30,000 for property damage, plus $200,000 in required excess liability coverage. After acceptance, the liability requirement is $1,000,000 until the ride or app transaction ends, whichever is later.

UM/UIM has a different clock: the statutory requirement runs from passenger entry to exit. Since January 1, 2026, its limits are $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. These are not the $1,000,000 liability limits. The policy in effect on the crash date determines the available benefits.

Those periods are recorded. The trip log shows when the driver went online, when the ride was accepted, and when it ended, to the second. Obtaining that record from the company is the first step in any rideshare case, because the company’s insurer will otherwise place the crash in whichever period costs least.

Sources: Public Utilities Code 5433(b)–(c). Checked September 11, 2026.

The evidence

What a rideshare crash leaves behind

• The trip record: online status, acceptance time, route, and GPS speed
• The trip receipt on the passenger’s phone, which proves the ride existed and when
• In-app incident reports filed by the driver or passenger
• Dashcam footage, which many rideshare drivers record
• The police report, which should note that the vehicle was operating for a rideshare company
• The driver’s status with the company, including deactivations and prior complaints

Report the crash inside the app as well as to the police. The in-app report creates a record with the company that the insurer cannot later claim did not exist.

Deadlines

Two years, six months, and the app’s own clock

A lawsuit must be filed within two years under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1. If a public entity is part of the fault, a Long Beach Transit bus, a city vehicle, a road condition, a written government claim is due within six months under Government Code 911.2. Trip records and dashcam footage are kept according to the company’s and the driver’s own schedules, so the request for them goes out in the first days, not the first months.

The office

How the Law Offices of Patrick S. Aguirre handles rideshare cases

The office establishes the period first, with the trip record and a preservation demand to the company and its insurer, and then works the case as any collision: fault from the police report, physical evidence and video; injury through treating doctors; every policy that responds, including the injured person’s own underinsured coverage. Where the offer does not reflect the case, the lawsuit is filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The office has represented injured people in Long Beach and across Los Angeles County for nearly three decades. The firm now has offices in Long Beach and Downey, and speaks Spanish.