SAN FRANCISCO - A San Francisco jury has handed Uber a potentially significant legal victory in its bid to defend itself against thousands of lawsuits brought by women who claim the rideshare company didn't do enough to protect them against alleged sexual assaults committed by Uber drivers.
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On Sept. 30, a jury in San Francisco County Superior Court found Uber cannot be held liable and made to pay potentially millions of dollars in damages to a woman who asserted her Uber driver kissed and groped her without her consent while she was riding in the front passenger seat of his car while on an Uber trip in 2016 near San Jose.
According to court documents, the woman, who filed her complaint as Jane Doe, but was identified during later proceedings as Jessica C., sought as much as $22 million from Uber for the company's alleged negligence in not screening out the driver or taking other steps to protect her and other women from suffering such alleged assaults.
The trial marked the first time Uber has faced a jury over such accusations.
Uber has consistently pushed back against the claims leveled in this case and the many others like it. Even though thousands of women have come forward in court with similar or worse sexual assault claims, Uber has asserted it has put the most stringent safeguards in place in its industry, including driver background checks and in-app features designed to protect passengers against such assaults, including an emergency button to help summon police.
Uber has asserted the driver in this case, identified as Farrukh Kazim, passed multiple criminal background checks and had racked up numerous positive reviews from customers.
Uber said Kazim only continued to drive for Uber after the alleged incident because the company never learned of the incident until the woman filed suit.
The lawsuit is one of thousands pending in courts in various parts of the country. Most, however, have been consolidated in two proceedings - one in California state court in San Francisco and the other in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
All of the claims mirror the others in their allegations, accusing Uber of putting forward a marketing message touting passenger security, while allegedly still not doing enought to prevent assaults by drivers upon passengers, and particularly female passengers.
In such consolidated proceedings involving such large numbers of cases, judges consult with attorneys for both sides to select certain cases to serve as "bellwethers" - meaning, they would be selected as representative cases to go to trial to allow judges and juries the chance to evaluate claims and evidence common to most of the remaining cases.
In such bellwether trials, verdicts one way or another could then influence an ultimate settlement or lead to further trials, depending on strengths and weaknesses in the claims identified at the earlier trials.
The verdict in this case marks the first such bellwether case to proceed to trial in the San Francisco County Superior Court consolidated action.
The verdict was delivered at the end of a three-week trial.
The federal court is expected to begin bellwether trials in those consolidated proceedings in early 2026, according to court documents.
According to published reports, the plaintiffs' attorneys from the firm of Taylor & Ring said they were "disappointed" in the outcome and blamed the judge overseeing the case for allowing Uber to present evidence they said pinned some of the blame for the incident on the woman.
It is not known at this point if the plaintiffs plan to appeal.
However, the verdict gives Uber a significant victory as it seeks to either defeat or wind down the thousands of similar claims pending against the company, and particularly the more than 2,000 lawsuits still remaining in San Francisco state court.
An Uber spokesperson declined to comment on the verdict or its significance to Uber's remaining legal defenses.
Rather, the company spokesperson released a statement by email, saying: “Our work to improve safety on our platform is never done. From building innovative technologies and in-app features, to developing rigorous safety policies and publishing an industry-first Safety Report, Uber has worked for years to raise the bar on safety, and will continue to do so in the years ahead.”
