Lyft Drivers’ Third Party Claims

Chicago Lawyers for Lyft Drivers’ Third-party Lawsuits

When you signed on to drive for Lyft, you may have signed an agreement that specifies your status as an independent contractor. Often, companies ask workers to sign such agreements to avoid paying for workers’ compensation insurance and various benefits. However, Lyft doesn’t get to control whether or not you are considered an employee for purposes of workers’ compensation benefits. You should call the seasoned Chicago worker’s compensation lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca if you were injured on the job with Lyft. It’s important to be aware that you may have not only a workers’ compensation claim, but also grounds to bring a personal injury lawsuit, and a seasoned attorney will explore all avenues for compensation. Our firm has more than 60 years of experience and work hard to obtain the best available compensation for clients.

Lyft Drivers’ Third-party Claims

Workers’ compensation claims are no-fault claims, which means you don’t need to demonstrate that Lyft was at fault for your injuries. However, you should be aware that workers compensation’ benefits don’t fully compensate a worker for his or her losses. Through a personal injury lawsuit filed in court, Lyft drivers may be able to recover compensatory tremendous damages arising out of catastrophic injuries such as amputation, paralysis, complicated fractures, or burns. In certain cases that involve egregious misconduct by a defendant, such as drunk driving, punitive damages may be available. It is important to call a Chicago lawyer who understands how to pursue both workers’ compensation benefits and damages in a personal injury lawsuit.

What Do I Need to Prove in a Third Party Lawsuit?

Workers’ compensation benefits are an exclusive remedy. In contrast to workers’ compensation claims, personal injury lawsuits require us to establish a third party’s fault for the accident. In order to recover damages in a third-party lawsuit, our seasoned Chicago trial lawyers will need to prove fault in a personal injury lawsuit. In most cases, personal injury lawsuits are pursued under a theory of negligence.

Most personal injury lawsuits are brought on the basis of negligence. To prove negligence, we will need to show that the defendant owed you a duty of care and breached that duty and thus caused your injuries and losses. The context of the accident will determine what the standard of care was and how it was breached. A defendant driver may be negligent by failing to obey traffic signs and signals, failing to yield, speeding, weaving, tailgating, drunk driving or driving while distracted.

Since workers’ compensation is no-fault, an employer like Lyft cannot get your benefits reduced by showing you were partially to blame for your work-related injuries. However, defendants in personal injury lawsuits often defend themselves by showing how plaintiffs were to blame for their own injuries. Under the doctrine of comparative negligence, your damages will be reduced by an amount equal to your proportionate degree of fault. For example, if a jury determines you were 50% responsible for failing to yield to another driver who was speeding, and your total damages were $200,000, you may be limited to recovering 50% of $200,000 from the speeding driver or $100,000.

Lyft’s workers’ compensation insurer will likely have a subrogation interest in your personal injury damages award. This means it can step into your shoes to pursue legal action against a third party for reimbursement of its insurance losses. There may complicated subrogation issues in your claim, which makes it especially important to retain lawyers who understand both personal injury and workers’ compensation claims.

Consult a Seasoned Chicago Workers’ Compensation Firm

If you are a Lyft driver injured in a work-related accident, you should give us a call. We have more than 60 years of experience fighting injured workers in both personal injury and workers’ compensation claims, along with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) claims. We represent clients in Rockford, Champaign, Quincy, and Aurora, as well as Sangamon, Winnebago, Kane, Cook, and Adams Counties. Call us at 312-724-5846 or complete our online form.