Uber’s Attack on Your Right to a Personal Injury Lawyer in California

If you have been injured in a car accident in Ventura or anywhere in California, a new corporate-backed initiative could make it significantly harder for you to get the legal help you need. Uber Technologies has launched an aggressive campaign to limit the rights of accident victims, and every California driver, passenger, and pedestrian should understand what is at stake.

What Is Uber’s Ballot Initiative?

In October 2025, Uber filed a proposed California ballot initiative called the “Protecting Automobile Accident Victims from Attorney Self-Dealing Act” (Initiative 25-0022). Despite the consumer-friendly name, the measure was drafted by Nielsen Merksamer, the same political law firm that represented Uber during the Proposition 22 battle over gig worker classification.

If enough signatures are gathered, this initiative could appear on the November 2026 ballot. And if it passes, it would fundamentally change how car accident cases work in California, not just for rideshare passengers, but for every single person injured in a motor vehicle collision.

How This Initiative Would Hurt Accident Victims

The initiative would impose three major changes to California personal injury law.

First, it would cap attorney fees so that victims receive at least 75 percent of any settlement or court award. While that sounds reasonable on the surface, it would effectively reduce contingency fees from the current standard of 33 to 40 percent down to roughly 25 percent. That reduction makes it financially impossible for many attorneys to take on complex injury cases that require significant time, resources, and upfront costs to fight against well-funded insurance companies.

Second, the measure would tie medical expense recovery to Medicare and Medi-Cal reimbursement rates rather than what healthcare providers actually charge. This means the documented value of your medical treatment would be artificially reduced, which directly lowers the value of your entire claim.

Third, it would ban referral arrangements between personal injury law firms and medical providers. Many accident victims, especially those without health insurance, rely on lien-based treatment where a doctor agrees to provide care now and get paid from the settlement later. Eliminating these arrangements would leave uninsured and underinsured victims with no way to get the medical treatment they need while their case is pending.

Uber Is Also Filing Racketeering Lawsuits Against Law Firms

The ballot initiative is only one part of Uber’s strategy. Throughout 2025, the company filed at least four federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuits against personal injury law firms and medical providers in California, New York, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

In the California case filed in July 2025, Uber targeted multiple law firms and a spinal surgeon, alleging they conspired to inflate medical bills, exaggerate injuries, and steer clients to pre-selected providers who performed unnecessary procedures. The named firms have denied the allegations and called the lawsuits an attempt to suppress legitimate injury claims.

Regardless of whether fraud exists in some cases, the broader effect of these lawsuits is clear. They send a message to every personal injury attorney in the state that taking on Uber cases comes with the risk of being sued by a trillion-dollar corporation.

SB 371 Already Reduced Rideshare Insurance Coverage

Making matters worse, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 371 on October 3, 2025, which took effect on January 1, 2026. This law slashed required rideshare uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage from one million dollars per incident down to 300,000 dollars total and just 60,000 dollars per person.

For anyone seriously injured in a rideshare accident where the at-fault driver is uninsured or underinsured, that reduction in coverage can mean the difference between having your medical bills fully covered and being left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Why This Matters for Ventura Car Accident Victims

Uber is framing this fight as protecting consumers from greedy lawyers. But ask yourself this: why would a corporation that has spent years fighting to reduce its own financial obligations suddenly spend millions of dollars to help injured people?

The answer is that they would not. Every element of this initiative is designed to reduce the amount Uber and its insurance carriers pay out on claims. Lower attorney fees mean fewer lawyers willing to take these cases. Lower medical valuations mean smaller settlements. Eliminating lien-based treatment means some victims cannot even access the care they need to build a case in the first place.

If you have been injured in a car accident in Ventura, whether it involved a rideshare vehicle or not, your right to hire a qualified attorney and pursue fair compensation is something worth protecting. At Zavala Law, PC, we believe that accident victims deserve experienced legal representation regardless of what any corporation thinks about attorney fees.

Contact Zavala Law for a Free Consultation

If you or a loved one has been hurt in a car accident in Ventura County, do not let corporate interests dictate your access to justice. Contact Zavala Law, PC at 805-429-4292 or visit our website to schedule a free consultation. We work on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay nothing unless we recover compensation on your behalf.