After a three-week trial, it took a San Francisco jury less than 50 minutes to return a defense verdict in favor of a rideshare driver represented by MPBF attorneys Mark Perelman and Laura Grealish.
The case arose out of an April 2019 two-car collision on I-405 in Long Beach. The rideshare driver was transporting passengers in the number one lane, when an out-of-control driver drove perpendicularly across four lanes of traffic directly into the path of the rideshare driver. The Plaintiffs, a passenger in the rideshare and his wife, claimed the rideshare driver was negligent because he was distracted by his cell phone and was driving 73 miles per hour, rather than the 65 mile per hour speed limit, providing him insufficient time to avoid the collision. Plaintiffs sought $36 million in past and future general and economic damages. Counsel for Defendants, which included counsel for the rideshare company, were able to argue that the driver’s speed was reasonable because traffic was light at the accident time of 11:00pm, and he was going within the flow of traffic. Importantly, MPBF defense was able to argue that because the driver’s reaction time to the danger was so quick, he could not possibly have been distracted by the cellphone or anything else. Fault rested on the out-of-control driver who caused the collision. The jury agreed.