Uber Says Drivers Are Staging Fake Car Accidents to Steal Its Money

Uber Against the World

Uber has filed a lawsuit claiming that it's the victim of an elaborate fake car accident racket to scam it out of its money, Bloomberg reports — and a shadowy cabal of law firms, doctors, and medical clinics are all in on it.

According to the suit, filed Thursday in Brooklyn, New York, the ring of conspirators take advantage of the state's unique insurance laws to force Uber to pay for "fictitious" or "exaggerated" medical conditions of passengers that were involved in "purported or actual minor vehicle collisions."

Allegedly, the syndicate dragoons these passengers into getting "medically unnecessary" surgeries, including ones as invasive as full-blown spinal fusions — dramatic stuff, needless to say.

Fault Line

New York is one of a dozen no-fault insurance states, where medical expenses are covered regardless of who's at fault for an accident or collision. 

Uber claims that the conspirators are abusing this aspect of insurance law — with lucrative results. That's because New York City regulations require cabbies and rideshare drivers to carry personal injury coverage as high as $200,000, which is four times the $50,000 minimum for individual drivers, according to Bloomberg.

Last December, a similar suit was brought against doctors and clinics by the American Transit Insurance Company (ATIC), the largest insurer of commercial drivers in NYC, which also alleged no-fault fraud. 

But the web of hearsay thickens. As Bloomberg notes, the ATIC itself was sued by Uber last year for questionably dumping dozens of accident lawsuits on the rideshare company's plate, forcing it to blow money in legal fees.

Lawfare

We definitely wouldn't put it past the medical industry to drive up costs through whatever shady means necessary.

But there's also plenty of reason to believe that Uber's motives are suspect (beyond its notoriously poor treatment of its drivers). In Nevada, the multibillion-dollar tech giant aggressively pursued legislation to cap the fee lawyers could earn through civil suits, which critics argued would make it harder for people to hire legal representation to bring suits against the company.

And that's not to mention that Uber is embroiled in multiple lawsuits, including one alleging that it failed to screen drivers who went on to sexually assault passengers.

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