Almost everything written online about Uber and Lyft accidents describes a set of rules that does not apply in New York City. You will read about a million-dollar policy covering your ride. In Staten Island and Brooklyn, that policy does not exist.

It is worth understanding why, because it changes what your case is worth and it changes what has to be done in the first week.

The city line is worth more than a million dollars

New York passed a law in 2017 setting insurance requirements for rideshare companies. It requires $1.25 million in liability coverage while a passenger is in the car, and another $1.25 million to cover you if the driver who hit you had no insurance of their own.

That law does not apply in New York City. It carves out cities of a million people or more. Inside the five boroughs, Uber and Lyft cars are regulated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission instead, as for-hire vehicles, and the TLC requires far less.

The difference is stark. For the same crash, in the same car, with the same injuries:

  • In Staten Island or Brooklyn: $100,000 of liability coverage per person, $300,000 for everyone in the car combined. No required coverage for an uninsured driver beyond the state minimum. The policy belongs to the vehicle’s owner, not to Uber or Lyft.
  • In Yonkers, twenty minutes away: $1,250,000, plus $1,250,000 more if the at-fault driver is uninsured.

A passenger with a spinal injury, months out of work and a surgery ahead, can hit the ceiling of the available coverage in a city case almost immediately. That is not a reason to accept less. It is a reason the search for other sources of money has to start on day one rather than after the primary policy is exhausted.

One practical consequence worth knowing: both Uber and Lyft say plainly that drivers who are commercially licensed in New York City have to carry their own commercial policies, and that the companies do not provide the coverage they provide elsewhere. So the first policy in a city case is the one on the car, bought by whoever owns it.

Your medical bills are covered regardless of fault

Separate from any lawsuit, a passenger in a TLC-licensed vehicle gets no-fault benefits from the policy on that vehicle — treatment and part of your lost earnings, without proving anybody did anything wrong.

The amount required of a city for-hire vehicle is $100,000 per person, which is double what an ordinary private car carries. The application has to be in within thirty days of the crash. That deadline is unforgiving and it is the one most often missed.

If your crash was before March 2026, the requirement then was higher, and the difference is worth checking rather than assuming.

To sue for pain and suffering on top of the medical benefits, your injury has to clear the serious injury threshold, the same bar that applies in any car accident case.

The thing to do before you do anything else

This is the part other pages do not tell you, and it matters more than anything else on this page.

When you made an Uber or Lyft account, you agreed to terms that send disputes to private arbitration instead of a courtroom. Those terms say in so many words that they cover accidents causing personal injury, and that they apply whether the accident happened before or after you agreed.

In November 2024 New York’s highest court enforced exactly that, five to two. A woman had already filed her lawsuit when Uber emailed users about updated terms. The next time she opened the app, a box appeared, she tapped to confirm, and the Court of Appeals held that the tap pulled her existing case out of court and into arbitration.

So if you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft and you have an account: do not open the app, and do not accept any updated terms. Not to check your trip, not to get a receipt. If you need trip records, a lawyer can request them another way.

Being in arbitration does not mean you have no claim, and it does not mean you should not bring one. It means the forum is different, the rules are different, and it is the company’s home field. Anyone who tells you they will take Uber to court for you, without first asking whether you have an account and who ordered the ride, is not being straight with you.

Who ordered the ride is the first question we ask

There is an important gap here. If you were riding along and somebody else booked the car — a friend, a coworker, a relative — and you have no account of your own, you may never have agreed to anything. A Brooklyn court reached that conclusion for two passengers in exactly that position.

In a city where three people split a car home, that is not a technicality. It is often the difference between a courtroom and a conference room. It is the first thing worth telling us.

Who is actually responsible

Rarely one party, and the obvious one is often the smallest.

The driver

Always a defendant if the crash was their fault. Their policy is the one described above.

Whoever owns the car — often overlooked

A great many TLC vehicles are not owned by the person driving them. They belong to fleet companies, leasing outfits and financing entities, usually set up as limited liability companies. New York makes the owner of a vehicle responsible for injuries caused by someone driving it with permission. That can bring in a company with more coverage and more assets than the driver has, and it takes no proof that anyone was an employee of anything.

Finding out who actually owns the car is early work, and it is skipped more often than it should be.

Uber or Lyft itself

Here we will be honest rather than encouraging. The companies say their drivers are independent contractors, not employees, and that they are technology platforms rather than car services. Whether that holds up is unsettled in New York, and the trial courts are split.

Judges in Brooklyn and Queens have recently refused to dismiss Uber from injury cases, finding that its background checks, vehicle standards, ratings and branding raise a real question about how much control it exercises. A judge in Staten Island went the other way and dismissed Uber on the same argument. No appellate court in New York has settled it.

What that means in practice: naming the company is usually worth doing, it is a fight rather than a formality, and no one can promise you how it will come out.

The other driver

If another vehicle caused the crash, their policy is in play too, and their coverage may be larger than the rideshare car’s. Where that driver is uninsured or carries very little, your own auto policy can matter even though you were a passenger in somebody else’s car. If you or a member of your household owns a car, bring the policy. It is regularly the largest source of money in these cases and it gets missed.

If you drive for Uber or Lyft

You are covered for workers’ compensation benefits through the Black Car Fund — medical treatment and wage replacement, no fault required, funded by a surcharge on passenger fares rather than out of your pocket. The Fund treats covered for-hire drivers as its employees for this purpose. Coverage depends on the base you drive for being a registered member, which is worth confirming rather than assuming.

Our page on the Black Car Fund for rideshare and black car drivers explains who is covered, when coverage applies in and outside New York City, and how to start a claim.

That claim does not stop you suing a third driver who caused the crash. The two run together, and the compensation side will have a lien on anything you recover from the lawsuit, which has to be handled deliberately. Settling a third-party case without dealing with that lien properly can cost you your future benefits.

One wrinkle worth raising: a driver hurt while making an Uber Eats delivery rather than carrying a passenger may face an argument about whether the Fund covers that moment at all. If you were injured between rides or on a delivery, say so early.

See workers’ compensation for how those claims work, and the delivery worker page if you ride rather than drive.

If an Uber hit you

If you were walking, riding a bicycle, or in your own car when a rideshare vehicle hit you, one part of this gets simpler: you never downloaded anything and never agreed to any terms, so the arbitration problem above is generally not yours.

The rest applies. The vehicle’s TLC policy is the one that responds, with the same limits, and the question of whether the company can be brought in is the same open question. See pedestrian accidents or bicycle accidents for what else applies.

The first week

  • Do not open the app and do not accept updated terms. Above all else.
  • Screenshot the trip before you stop using the phone — driver name, plate, times, route — or tell us and we will request the records.
  • Get the no-fault application in. Thirty days.
  • Find out who ordered the ride, if it was not you.
  • Bring your own auto policy, or a household member’s, even though you were a passenger.
  • Get evaluated, and keep going. Gaps in treatment get used against you.

Frequently asked questions

Doesn’t Uber carry a million dollars of insurance?

Outside New York City, yes. Inside it, no. The state law requiring that coverage excludes cities of a million or more, so a ride in Staten Island or Brooklyn is governed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s requirements instead — $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident, carried by the vehicle’s owner. This is the single most common misunderstanding about these cases.

I already tapped “accept” on the app after my accident. Have I lost the case?

No — you have likely changed where it gets decided, not whether you have one. Tell us exactly when you tapped it and what it said. It also matters whether you were the one who ordered that ride. Do not tap anything further.

My friend ordered the ride. Does that help me or hurt me?

It may help considerably. A passenger with no account of their own, who did not summon the car, may never have agreed to arbitration at all. A Brooklyn court has so held for passengers in that position. Say so at the first conversation.

The driver says it was the other car’s fault. Does that leave me with nothing?

Not at all. As a passenger you are essentially never at fault, and you can pursue both drivers and let them sort out the percentages between them. Your no-fault benefits come from the car you were in either way.

I drive for Uber and I was hurt. Am I covered?

Through the Black Car Fund, generally yes, for medical treatment and lost wages without proving fault, provided your base is a registered member. You can also sue a third driver who caused it. Those two claims interact and should be handled together from the start.

My ride started in Brooklyn and ended in New Jersey. Which rules apply?

Worth asking early, because where the trip began and where the crash happened can both matter, and the answer can be worth a great deal. Do not assume — bring the trip details.

How long do I have?

Three years from the crash to sue a driver or a vehicle owner, two years from the date of death in a fatal case, and thirty days for the no-fault application. Arbitration has its own filing rules, which is another reason not to wait.

Drivers are told they are independent contractors more often than almost anyone else. What the Board actually looks at is on our page about being handed a 1099 instead of a W-2.

Talk to us

If you were hurt in or by an Uber or Lyft in Staten Island or Brooklyn, the two things to do today are to leave the app alone and to get the no-fault application moving.

Call 718.701.2776 (toll-free: 800.310.5520) or contact us. Consultations are free. If we don’t recover money for you, we don’t get paid.

More on these claims

Attorney Advertising. This page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this page or submitting an inquiry. This page states New York law as of September 2026.