Uber ordered to pay $8.5 million in key trial over driver sex assault claims
By Diana Novak Jones
Thu, February 5, 2026 at 5:20 PM EST
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By Diana Novak Jones
Feb 5(Reuters) - A federal jury in Phoenix ordered Uber on Thursday to pay $8.5 million after finding it liable in a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by a driver, a verdict that could influence thousands of similar cases against the ride-hailing company.
The case, brought by plaintiff Jaylynn Dean, was the first trial – known as a "bellwether" – of more than 3,000 similar lawsuits against Uber that have been consolidated in U.S. federal court. Bellwether trials are used to test legal theories and help gauge the value of claims for possible settlements.
Dean, an Oklahoma resident, sued Uber in 2023, one month after her alleged assault in Arizona. She said Uber was aware of a wave of sexual assaults committed by its drivers, but had failed to take basic actions to improve the safety of its riders. Such assertions have long dogged the company, drawing headlines and congressional scrutiny.
Alexandra Walsh, an attorney for Dean, said during the closing arguments in the trial that Uber had marketed itself as a safe option for women traveling at night, particularly if they had been drinking.
“Women know it's a dangerous world. We know about the risk of sexual assault," Walsh said. "They made us believe that this was a place that was safe from that.”
Uber has argued that it should not be held liable for criminal conduct by drivers who use its platform, saying that its background checks and disclosures about assaults are sufficient. The company maintains that its drivers are independent contractors rather than employees, and that regardless of their classification it cannot be responsible for actions that fall outside the scope of what could reasonably be considered their duties.
"He had no criminal history. None," Kim Bueno, an attorney for Uber, said of the driver during closing arguments, noting that he had 10,000 trips on the app and a nearly perfect rating from riders. "Was this foreseeable to Uber? And the answer to that has to be no."
In a statement before the trial, a spokesperson for Uber said the company takes every report of sexual assault very seriously and that it is continuing to invest in new technology to help prevent harm.
Dean's lawsuit said she was intoxicated when she hired an Uber driver to take her from her boyfriend's home to her hotel.
The driver asked her harassing questions on the ride before stopping the car and raping her, Dean alleges in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who normally sits on the bench in San Francisco, oversaw Dean's case in Phoenix. Breyer is managing all of the similar federal cases against Uber, which have been centralized in his court in San Francisco.
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The company is also facing more than 500 cases in California state court. In the only one of those cases to go to trial so far, a jury in September sided with Uber. The jury found that while the company had been negligent with its safety measures, that negligence was not a substantial factor in causing the woman's harm.
Uber rival Lyft (LYFT.O) is facing similar lawsuits in both state and federal court, although there is no coordinated federal litigation for those claims.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Ethan Smith)
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