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Lyft Sexual Assault Class Action

By George Khoury, Esq. on January 14, 2019 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

One Lyft rider has filed a class action lawsuit against the ride-hailing service, one driver, and several employees, alleging that she was sexually assaulted because of Lyft's many failures.

The rider's story is absolutely horrific. After making the smart decision to go home after getting drunk, she entered a Lyft car, then blacked out. And while she only remembers waking up the next morning in her bed, the surveillance cameras insider her home told a much scarier tale.

Lyft Driver Caught on Camera

Initially, the driver carried his passenger from the car into her home and put her in bed. And while that may not be too creepy, and could even maybe be seen as a nice gesture, what happened next certainly eliminates any of those sentiments.

The driver then searched around the home, and finding no one else there, proceeded to disrobe the blacked out rider and sexually assault her, several times. The driver even took selfies with his victim. Naturally, the driver had no clue that there were security cameras, and he is now in custody on a $500,000 bond, awaiting his criminal trial.

Lyft's Failure to Background Check

While Lyft does conduct background checks on drivers, the lawsuit alleges that they are woefully inadequate. First off, the checks only go back seven years, and are only looking for sex offenses, violent felonies, misdemeanor assault, battery, or domestic violence, or DUIs.

Additionally, Lyft doesn't have any method of ensuring that the driver actually driving the vehicle is the same person that they have approved. The lawsuit asserts this is due to the fact that it does not require fingerprinting, which has long since been industry standard in the taxi-cab and limo industries.

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