If you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft crash in Florida, the insurance available may depend heavily on what the driver was doing in the app. A driver waiting for a request must carry at least $50,000 in bodily injury coverage per person, while a driver who has accepted a ride must have at least $1 million in liability coverage. If the app was off, the special rideshare insurance requirements generally do not apply.

Learning that your medical bills may hinge on a phone app is frustrating, especially when you are hurt, missing work, and getting different answers from everyone you talk to. The first step is to identify whether the driver was offline, waiting for a request, or already engaged in an accepted ride.

For the wider picture of fault and liability, see our guide to how liability works in a Miami rideshare crash.

How the Driver’s App Status Affects Which Insurance Applies

Florida’s rideshare insurance law, Section 627.748 of the Florida Statutes, sets different insurance requirements depending on what an Uber or Lyft driver was doing when the crash happened. People often describe four app-status situations, although Florida law groups them into three main coverage periods.

When the Driver Was Not Logged In to the App

A driver who is not logged in is simply a person driving their own car, so the special rideshare requirements do not apply. Your claim generally proceeds against the driver’s personal auto policy and any other coverage that may be available, the same way it would after any other Florida car accident.

When the Driver Was Logged In and Waiting for a Ride Request

Once a driver logs in and begins waiting for requests, Section 627.748 requires primary liability coverage of at least $50,000 per person for death and bodily injury, $100,000 per incident, and $25,000 for property damage, together with personal injury protection and uninsured motorist coverage as required by Florida law.

When the Driver Had Already Accepted a Ride Request

As soon as a driver accepts a request, the required coverage rises sharply. Section 627.748 calls for primary liability coverage of at least $1 million for death, bodily injury, and property damage, plus personal injury protection at the level required for limousines and uninsured motorist coverage as required by Florida law. The same requirement covers the drive to the pickup and the ride itself, because the statute treats both as one continuous period.

Uber and Lyft Insurance Requirements by App Status

*These are the minimum amounts Florida requires, not the value of any claim.

One detail matters a great deal and is easy to miss: The required coverage may be maintained by the driver, the vehicle owner, the rideshare company, or a combination of them, so the policy that responds is not automatically an Uber or Lyft policy. If the driver’s coverage has lapsed or does not meet the minimums in Section 627.748, the rideshare company’s policy must provide the required coverage from the first dollar of the claim and defend it.

Why the Drive to Pick You Up Counts as an Active Ride

The higher coverage begins the moment the driver accepts the request, not the moment you get in the car. Section 627.748 defines a prearranged ride as starting when the driver accepts the request through the app, continuing while the driver transports the rider, and ending when the last rider has exited and is no longer occupying the vehicle.

A driver who accepted your ride and is four minutes away is therefore in the same coverage period as one carrying a passenger. The end of that period is defined just as precisely, so if the injury happened while a passenger was still getting out, the timing may decide whether the prearranged ride was still in progress.

How to Prove Which App Status Applied

Because app status can change the available liability coverage, insurers may dispute when the driver logged in or accepted the ride. An adjuster may describe the driver as still waiting while you remember watching the car drive toward you.

The Log-On Records Uber and Lyft Have to Provide

Florida law gives you a way to get the underlying data. During an insurance coverage investigation, Section 627.748 requires a rideshare company to immediately provide the precise times the driver logged on and off the app, covering the 12 hours before and the 12 hours after the accident.

Any party directly involved in the crash may request that information, which can include a passenger, another driver, a pedestrian, or a cyclist. You generally do not have to file a lawsuit first, as long as the request is part of a coverage investigation. Section 627.748 also requires rideshare companies to keep individual ride records for at least one year.

Trip Records and Photos You Should Save After a Rideshare Crash

If you were injured as a passenger in an Uber or Lyft, your trip receipt and in-app history can help establish when the ride was accepted, when it began, and when it ended. Save screenshots, receipts, messages, and trip details while they remain easy to access in your account. If you were hit by an Uber or Lyft driver and were never in the vehicle, the company’s log-on records matter far more. Our guide to what to do in the first 24 hours covers the rest.

Insurance Problems That Come Up After Rideshare Crashes

A few insurance situations come up often enough after Uber and Lyft crashes to be worth recognizing in advance.

Being Told to File With the Driver’s Personal Insurance First

You may be told that no rideshare-related policy will respond until the driver’s personal insurer issues a formal denial. Section 627.748 does not allow a policy maintained by the rideshare company to make coverage depend on that denial, and no personal policy is required to deny a claim first.

The coverage required during the rideshare periods is primary, though it may be maintained by the driver, the vehicle owner, the rideshare company, or a combination. Where the driver’s coverage has lapsed or falls short, Section 627.748 requires the rideshare company’s policy to step in from the first dollar and defend the claim.

When the Driver’s Personal Policy Excludes Rideshare Driving

Personal auto policies are written for personal driving, and Section 627.748 allows insurers to exclude coverage entirely while a driver is logged in to a rideshare app or providing a ride. Insurers are permitted to write that exclusion, though they are not required to, so the answer comes down to the specific policy.

The exclusion does not require using the word “rideshare,” naming Uber or Lyft, or citing the statute. The declarations page may not show the exclusion at all, so the full policy and its endorsements have to be reviewed.

When Several People Are Hurt in the Same Crash

Florida sets two different insurance minimums for rideshare drivers, and the way they are written matters when more than one person is injured. The $50,000 level sets an amount per person plus a separate cap for the whole crash, while the $1 million level is a single combined figure with no per-person amount inside it.

A statutory minimum is the least coverage the policy must provide. The actual policy may carry higher limits, but any applicable policy limit may have to be divided among several injured people. When several people suffer serious injuries, the available policy limits may not be enough to cover every claim in full.

Other Coverage and Deadlines in a Florida Rideshare Claim

The liability coverage required during the rideshare periods is rarely the only thing that affects what you recover. Several other pieces come up in nearly every Florida rideshare claim.

Personal Injury Protection Benefits

Florida is a no-fault state, so the personal injury protection coverage required by Section 627.736 generally pays certain medical expenses and lost income regardless of who caused the crash. Which policy provides those benefits depends on the injured person’s circumstances, including whether they own an insured vehicle, live with an insured relative, occupied the rideshare vehicle, or were struck as a pedestrian or cyclist. Initial medical care generally must begin within 14 days after the accident.

Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Florida’s rideshare statute also requires uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under Section 627.727, but the amount available is not automatically $50,000 or $1 million. That section permits the coverage to be written at lower limits, and a named insured may reject it in writing, so the actual policy documents have to be reviewed.

Timing matters here too. If you plan to settle with an at-fault driver’s liability insurer while preserving an underinsured motorist claim, Section 627.727 generally requires written notice by certified or registered mail to the applicable underinsured motorist insurers. They then have 30 days to authorize the settlement or protect their subrogation rights, and signing a release before that process is complete may affect the claim.

How Shared Fault Affects Your Claim

Under Section 768.81, Florida’s comparative fault statute, your share of the fault reduces what you recover. The exact line trips people up: being found exactly 50 percent responsible does not close the door on your claim, while being found more than 50 percent responsible generally does.

How Long You Have to File a Lawsuit

Section 95.11, Florida’s statute of limitations, generally gives you two years to file a negligence lawsuit. Other claim types and certain exceptions can change that deadline, so it is worth having yours confirmed rather than assumed.

Frequently Asked Questions About Uber and Lyft Insurance in Florida

These are the questions we hear most often from people hurt in rideshare crashes in Florida.

Do I have to file with the driver’s personal insurer first?

In most cases, you do not have to. Section 627.748 does not allow a policy maintained by the rideshare company to condition coverage on a personal auto insurer denying your claim first. If someone tells you a denial has to come before anyone will look at your claim, that does not match the statute.

Does a $1 million policy mean my claim is worth $1 million?

The $1 million figure is a coverage requirement, not a valuation of anyone’s case. What you actually recover depends on fault, the nature and extent of your injuries, your losses, the insurance available, and any competing claims against the same policy.

Do several injured people each receive the full policy limit?

Each injured person does not automatically receive the full amount. Florida’s required minimum sets the lowest amount of coverage that must be available, while the policy limit sets the ceiling on what that policy will pay, and the $1 million level in particular is one combined figure that may have to be shared.

What if another driver caused the Uber or Lyft crash?

The at-fault driver’s liability policy is often the main source of recovery in that situation. Personal injury protection benefits may still help with early medical bills, and if the at-fault driver’s coverage is missing or too small, uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage may become important.

Talk to Stabinski Law About Your Uber or Lyft Accident

If you were hurt in a rideshare crash in Miami or anywhere in Florida, you should not have to sort out the insurance on your own while you are trying to recover. Our rideshare accident lawyer team can look at what happened and explain where your claim stands. If the app was off, our Miami car accident lawyers handle those as well.

Stabinski Law has represented injured people in Florida since 1970, through two generations of the same family. Our managing partner reviews every new inquiry personally, so your case gets real attention from the start. We are not a case factory.

Consultations are free, there are no fees unless we recover for you, and you speak with an attorney rather than a call center. Hablamos español. Contact Stabinski Law or call 305-643-3100 to talk through what happened.