Plaintiffs Say $100M Uber Driver Settlement Sells Them Short

One named plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Uber has spoken out against the company’s proposed $100 million settlement, hired his own lawyers, and taken issue with the performance of the Uber driver class’ lead counsel.

Plaintiff Douglas O. says class lead counsel Shannon Liss-Riordan pressured him into accepting the proposed Uber class action lawsuit settlement without explaining its terms or that he had the right to reject it, he claims.

Douglas now says he would have strongly objected to the terms of the Uber driver settlement and its computation of damages had he fully understood what they were.

Douglas says he initiated the Uber class action lawsuit to get rules put in place that would protect employees of Uber and of similar companies. He says the multimillion dollar settlement offered by Uber would not serve that end at all.

The Uber class action lawsuit alleges the ride hailing company failed to compensate its drivers for their costs involved in driving for Uber.

Uber Driver Class Split Over Settlement

In April 2016, Uber announced it had reached a settlement in Douglas’s claim and another Uber class action lawsuit in Massachusetts. The settlement would be worth at least $84 million and possibly as much as $100 million if the company meets certain performance standards after the initial payout.

The settlement would also require Uber to provide each Uber driver with more information about their ratings. Each Uber driver would also benefit from the formation of a drivers’ association that would meet to discuss Uber driver issues.

Uber would also have to establish a policy explaining under what circumstances drivers could be deactivated from the service.

Representing Donald and a number of other plaintiffs in their objection to the settlement are attorneys Mark Geragos and Brian Kabateck. Both attorneys have filed a motion to have Liss-Riordan kicked off the Uber class action lawsuit.

Geragos calls the settlement a “collusive and disastrous” agreement between Uber and Liss-Riordan, one that he says would compensate Liss-Riordan handsomely but that would also sell the Uber driver class short to the tune of about $1 billion.

They claim that evidence relevant to what the drivers could expect to be paid suggested that Liss-Rirodan colluded with Uber in the settlement to her own benefit.

Liss-Riordan’s declaration supporting the settlement measures the potential damages in the case at $852 million worth of state laws regarding gratuities.

Liss-Riordan counters that the settlement is one of the largest of its kind and is adequate in both monetary and non-monetary relief to improve the working conditions of Uber drivers.

Under the circumstances surrounding the negotiations, she claims, the case was at risk of being sunk by an appeals court, so she made decisions that she argues were in the bests interests of her clients.

She says it’s “a little outrageous” for Geragos and Kabatek to suggest the potential damages in the case are as high as $1 billion.

The Uber Driver Class Action Lawsuits are O’Connor et al. v. Uber Technologies Inc. et al., Case No. 3:13-cv-03826, and Hakan Yucesoy v. Uber Technologies Inc. et al., Case No. 4:15-cv-00262, both in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Aug. 18, 2016, a California federal judge rejected Uber’s proposed $100 million wage & hour class action settlement finding that an arbitration provision included in the agreement may unfairly benefit Uber and deserves further consideration before determining if the deal is worthy of approval.

UPDATE 2: May 2019, the Calif., Mass., Uber driver misclassification class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

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