Dallas woman among several nationwide suing Uber over alleged sexual assault
DALLAS - A Dallas woman is one of nearly two dozen nationwide alleging sexual assault by Uber drivers.
Houston attorney Bret Stanley is leading a national committee of lawyers to bring what's called a multi-district litigation sex assault lawsuit against Uber.
"Multi-district litigation is everybody maintains their own individual case, and they are shepherded to one federal judge somewhere in America," said Stanley. "First and foremost we want change to occur on the system."
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 4: Detail of a man holding up an Honor 20 Pro smartphone with the Uber transport app visible on screen, while taxis queue in the background, on June 4, 2019. (Photo by Olly Curtis/Future via Getty Images)
22 cases in 11 states are being funneled through one federal judge in San Francisco.
"One benefit to the plaintiffs of having it all come together in a multi-district case like this one has is that is sometimes a first step down the road to a mass settlement of a lot of claims," Stanley said.
One of the plaintiffs is a Dallas woman who in 2021 fell asleep in the back of an Uber and allegedly awoke to being fondled by the driver.
"Obviously this was a very traumatic event for her. She's still dealing with these issues, she's working through the problems and the fear that she has entering other vehicles, being around public people, going through some of the shame she feels even though she shouldn't of gone to sleep in the back of the vehicle," said Stanley. "One of the things we're trying to do is to make sure that these rideshare companies, especially Uber, remove drivers once they know that this person is a problem in the vehicle."
Legal analyst David Coale expects Uber to point to the accused drivers and claim that they are not Uber employees.
Uber drivers are freelance contract workers.
"One of its arguments is going to be whatever we did as a company, there's another issue here entirely which is the driver made the decision to violate the law and commit these terrible acts and they bear varying degrees of responsibility depending on the facts and what the state law may be in some cases all of the blame can fairly be assigned to them," said Coale. "As it pertains to ride share litigation, this is the first multi-district litigation that's been created against rideshare companies in the gig economy."
The litigation that could draw new legal guidelines for the growing economy.
"This kind of case is really going to put that under the microscope and force people to come up with some pretty clear standards," said Coale.
The plaintiff's attorneys expect more people will come forward now that this multi-district litigation is moving forward.