Congress Wants to Give Uber and Lyft Immunity for Sexual Assault. Here’s Why That Should Alarm Every Family in Georgia.

Congress Wants to Give Uber and Lyft Immunity for Sexual Assault. Here’s Why That Should Alarm Every Family in Georgia.

Our Statement

In the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning, the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed a sweeping surface transportation bill stuffed with giveaways to the corporations that lobby it hardest. The headline provision: a federal shield protecting Uber and Lyft from sexual assault and wrongful death claims when their drivers harm riders.

Let’s be honest about what this is. It is not a safety reform. It is not a clarification of an ambiguous law. It is a federal liability shield bought and paid for by two of the most profitable platform companies in the world — companies that have spent years fighting tooth and nail against the basic American principle that if you put a product or service into the marketplace, you are answerable for the harm it causes.

The civil justice system is the only consequence that consistently moves the needle on corporate behavior. Background-check policies, driver-vetting standards, safety features inside the app — every one of those exists because juries have held rideshare companies accountable when their failures cost a passenger her life or her safety. Take away that accountability and the incentive to do the hard, expensive work of protecting riders disappears with it.

The same bill also hands immunity to peer-to-peer rental companies like Turo and — most stunningly — would make it optional for manufacturers to actually repair or recall defective commercial vehicles. Optional recalls. On the trucks that share the interstate with your family.

The Senate has not introduced its version yet. This fight is far from over. At Haug Barron Law Group, we represent Georgia families on the worst day of their lives — the families left behind after a wrongful death, the women assaulted by drivers who should never have been behind the wheel, the children orphaned by trucking companies that knew about the defect and did nothing. We will keep speaking out, and when the moment comes, we will ask you to call your senators.

Corporate immunity is not safety. It is the opposite of safety.

Families in Atlanta — and across this country — deserve better.

If you or a loved one has been sexually assaulted, seriously injured, or killed by a rideshare driver in Georgia, the window to hold Uber, Lyft, and their insurers fully accountable may be narrowing — and acting now with a plaintiff-only firm that fights corporate immunity at every level is the most important step you can take to protect your rights and secure the justice you deserve. Contact Haug Barron Law Group today for a free, completely confidential consultation — no fee unless we win.