Every week someone calls my office after a rideshare wreck and asks the same question: “Whose insurance covers this?” The honest answer is that it depends on one fact most people never think about: what the app was doing at the moment of the crash.
Louisiana law divides a rideshare driver’s time into phases, and the insurance changes with each one. If you were a passenger, a driver, or the person in the other car, the phase decides which policy pays and how much is available.
Phase one: app off. The driver is just a driver. Their personal auto policy applies, and most personal policies exclude commercial use. A crash in this phase is an ordinary car accident, and the rideshare company is nowhere in the picture.
Phase two: app on, waiting for a ride. The driver is logged in but hasn’t accepted a trip. Louisiana’s Transportation Network Company law (La. R.S. 45:201.6) requires coverage here of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage. Those are the minimums. For a serious injury, they go fast.
Phase three: en route or passenger aboard. From the moment the driver accepts a ride until the passenger is dropped off, the law requires at least $1,000,000 in coverage for death, bodily injury, and property damage. This is the policy the rideshare companies advertise, and it’s the one that matters most in a bad wreck.
Three details in the statute that adjusters don’t volunteer. The rideshare company’s coverage has to be primary. It can’t make you chase the driver’s personal insurer first and wait for a denial. If the driver’s personal policy has lapsed or excludes rideshare driving, the company’s policy has to step in from the first dollar. And uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is required in phases two and three, which matters more than you’d think in a city where plenty of drivers carry nothing at all.
Why the phase is where the fight happens. A $50,000 claim and a $1,000,000 claim can be separated by a few seconds: whether the driver had tapped “accept” yet. The companies know this. It’s why the first thing their adjuster wants to establish is which phase the driver was in, and it’s why I tell every rideshare client the same thing: screenshot the trip before the app buries it. The trip screen, the pickup time, the route, the driver’s name. That record is often the whole case.
If you were the passenger, you’re almost never without a path to recovery. Between the driver’s policy, the company’s commercial coverage, and the other vehicle’s insurer, somebody is responsible. The question is which layer pays, and it’s rarely the one that calls you first.
If you were the driver, you’re the person the big firms forget. Almost nobody fights for the driver, even though the same $1,000,000 policy can apply to your injuries when you’re on a trip. Don’t let an adjuster from your own personal carrier tell you the claim is excluded and leave it there.
If you were in the other car, you may be dealing with a rideshare company’s insurer without ever having used the app. The phase rules still apply to your claim.
What to do in the first hour: get checked by a doctor even if you feel fine, screenshot everything in the app, report the crash through the app so the company’s own records reflect it, and call a lawyer before you give a recorded statement to anyone. Louisiana gives you a short window to bring an injury claim, and these cases take longer to build than people expect.
If you’ve been hurt in or around a rideshare vehicle anywhere in Louisiana, call (504) 684-4444. The consultation is free, you’ll talk to the attorney, and there’s no fee unless we win.
Attorney advertising. This post is legal information and commentary, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Coverage amounts reflect Louisiana statutory minimums as of the date of publication; actual policies and facts vary. “No fee unless we win” refers to attorney’s fees; clients may remain responsible for case costs and expenses.
