April 25, 2021
Emily Wu accepted Uber’s new Terms of Service in January without thinking too much.
Little did the Brooklyn woman know that the seemingly routine click on her phone would be used by the carpooling service to torpedo her ongoing lawsuit against the company.
In November, the 23-year-old student filed a lawsuit against the tech giant, arguing that she was hit by another car and seriously injured because her driver did not let her out of a safe place near the sidewalk.
“I was trying to look both ways when I got out,” she recalled the incident at her Bensonhurst apartment on July 25, 2020.
The driver of the SUV who met them stayed at the scene. It does not appear that, according to the police report, he received a ticket stating that Wu “possibly” got out between two double-parked cars before being hit on West 6th Street.
The next thing she remembers was waking up on the street surrounded by people and an ambulance at the spot on West 6th Street near Avenue O.
“All I saw was blood from my mouth, it was all over my hands,” she recalled, noting that the majority of her front teeth were knocked out. She said she also had “street rash” all over large parts of her body.
Wu, who is studying to become a nurse, has since undergone surgery to repair a torn meniscus in her right knee and two surgeries to reconstruct her gums to install dental implants.
“I just clicked my way through”
Four months after the accident, she filed a lawsuit against Uber in the Bronx Supreme Court. She alleged that her Uber driver, who lives in the district, left her unsafe in the middle of the street, where she “had no curb access”.
She avoided using the ridesharing app immediately after the accident and mostly got rides from friends and family to multiple doctor visits, Wu told THE CITY.
She also used Lyft, but eventually logged back into Uber.
On January 15, about two months after the lawsuit was filed, the Uber app updated its terms and conditions. Like most people, Wu accepted them without reading the fine print.
The new rules claimed, among other things, that users must retrospectively waive their rights to legal proceedings and instead bring all disputes to an arbitrator, according to Uber’s lawyers.
“I think they emailed me, but I haven’t really read it,” she said. “Nobody does that. I just clicked my way through.”
She was “shocked” to find out later that Uber was trying to prevent her case from appearing on a jury.
Uber did not respond to an email request for comment.
“It’s predatory”
On Wednesday, Wu’s attorney Josh Kelner filed court files arguing it was unfair to suddenly move the case from the Bronx Court to arbitration.
“Uber should be punished for attempting to prosecute this remarkable end of represented party’s attorneys in a pending lawsuit,” read the legal filing reported by the Daily News.
Arbitration sometimes results in lower payouts and can only be challenged if there is a grave error that can be brought to court.
“Overall, arbitrators give less money and are seen as cheaper to serve the corporate interests that are their regular customers,” said Kelner. “And that doesn’t apply to each individual arbitrator, of course, but by and large. The reason they want to be in arbitration is that juries are fairer to individuals than arbitrators.”
Arbitration proceedings are also handled behind closed doors.
“The public has an interest in knowing when people are harmed or injured as a result of a company’s alleged conduct, and it only serves the communities to have those complaints publicly,” said Bryant Greening, attorney and co-founder of LegalRideShare, one personal injury law firm representing drivers and passengers in incidents related to appearances.
Kelner urges city officials overseeing the tech giant to implement better customer protection.
“It’s predatory,” he said. “It’s a company trying to harass its users by taking advantage of the imbalance in legal knowledge between the lawyer-armed company and Emily Wu, who is just trying to click through a button to get a cab.”
The city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission, which governs rental vehicles, needs to “balance out” oversight and regulation for companies like Uber, said Jonathan Peters, professor of finance and data analysis at CUNY College of Staten Island.
Uber’s updated Terms of Service “seem pretty questionable in my book,” he added. “They don’t want to turn this into the Wild West. They want adequate protection for the public.”
But there is no point in making rules that have no useful purpose, Peters said, noting that owners of yellow taxi medallions have backed stricter rules for Uber to block its expansion.
“Some people want regulation to protect their interests – that can create a barrier to entry for these new transportation options,” Peters said.
I’m looking for a “safe place”
The number of rented trips per day in the city has skyrocketed in recent years, from roughly 500,000 trips per day in 2015 to roughly 950,000 trips per day after the COVID hit in the spring, according to the TLC. There are currently around 470,000 journeys per day.
It’s unclear whether Uber’s new rules will stay in court.
In January, the Massachusetts Supreme Court overturned Uber’s attempt to arbitrate a blind man’s discrimination case. The Massachusetts Supreme Court concluded that part of the conditions did not apply because few people read and understand them. Christopher Kauders sued after he was denied service three times in 2015 and 2016 because he wanted to take his guide dog on a crossing.
The ridesharing app has also tried forcing its drivers to arbitrate with mixed results and opposed their being granted class-action status.
Wu hopes her suit will help other drivers.
“Drivers should always drop you off in a safe place,” she said, “not where they could be injured. And they should be held liable if something happens.”
This story was originally published by THE CITY on April 23rd, 2021. Sign up here to receive the latest stories from THE CITY every morning.
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