Lyft, Inc. Passenger Sexual Assault

This docket consolidates claims by rideshare passengers alleging they were sexually assaulted by drivers of a competing rideshare platform and that the company failed to implement adequate safety measures, driver screening, or incident-response protocols to prevent foreseeable harm, closely paralleling the larger, more procedurally advanced MDL against a competing rideshare operator. Centralized in the Northern District of California in February 2026, the docket has grown to 106 pending actions, and a substantially larger population of related cases, roughly 2,000, is proceeding separately in a California state-court coordinated proceeding that has been active since 2020.

For a funder, this docket sits at an earlier procedural stage than its companion federal MDL against the other major rideshare platform: no case in either the federal or parallel state track has yet reached a jury verdict, no class has been certified, and no settlement fund exists. That means underwriting here should rely more heavily on the bellwether and common-carrier liability developments unfolding in the companion federal docket against the other rideshare operator as a directional signal, while recognizing this specific docket has not yet independently generated its own tested outcomes.

Given that earlier-stage posture, Criterica Capital's mass tort finance product applies to individual passenger claimants here, with pricing that should track the parallel, more advanced companion litigation closely while appropriately discounting for the fact that this docket's own liability and damages framework remains untested. A structure and litigation brief comparing this docket's posture to its companion federal matter is available.

Pre-settlement funding is a non-recourse purchase of a portion of the proceeds of a pending legal claim — not a loan. If the case does not result in a recovery, nothing is owed. Rates, fees, and repayment terms are disclosed in full in the funding agreement, which the applicant’s attorney reviews before signing. Availability and terms vary by state.