California SB 371: Rideshare UM/UIM Coverage Cut by More Than 70 Percent
California Senate Bill 371, effective January 1, 2026, reduced the mandatory uninsured/underinsured motorist minimum for Transportation Network Companies from $1 million per incident to $300,000 per incident, with a $60,000 per-individual sublimit. Authored by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon as part of the AB 1340 gig-worker framework, the bill was a legislative trade, not a safety reform. Liability coverage when the TNC driver is at fault remains at $1 million; the statutory cut applies only to cases involving a third-party uninsured or underinsured driver while a rideshare occupant is aboard.
Southern California PI firms in San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties have restructured intake accordingly. The new standard protocol: audit the client's personal auto policy at the first appointment, confirm whether that policy's UM/UIM coverage extends to rideshare occupancy, and document every potential defendant before the statute runs. Cases that previously settled within the $1M TNC UM/UIM tower now require analysis of coverage stacking across TNC primary, personal auto, and any umbrella layer before the matter can be properly valued.
Any Uber or Lyft matter filed after January 1, 2026 requires threshold personal-auto UM/UIM stacking analysis at intake; the single-tower assumption no longer reflects the statutory framework.
Ballot Initiative 25-0022: Modeling the Fee-Cap Scenario Before November 2026
Ballot Initiative 25-0022, backed by approximately $12 million in Uber-associated funding, targets all California motor-vehicle accident cases, not just TNC matters. The measure would cap contingency fees at 25% of recovery and limit medical-cost reimbursement to government-rate benchmarks. It is expected on the November 2026 ballot but has not yet qualified. Firms carrying rideshare-heavy dockets should model the economics now: a 25% fee ceiling against the new $300,000 UM/UIM cap on a serious-injury rideshare case produces a materially different firm return than the pre-SB 371 baseline, and that compression is compounded if both provisions take effect simultaneously.
The initiative will face qualification scrutiny and probable constitutional challenge under California's access-to-justice provisions. Meaningful uncertainty attaches to each stage of that process. The appropriate firm response is scenario planning, not immediate restructuring of intake criteria around a measure that may not reach voters.
Firms evaluating California motor-vehicle intake criteria for 2027 should build both current fee-structure and 25%-cap projections into litigation cost modeling before committing staffing or overhead to TNC-heavy dockets.
NHTSA Recalls: Product Liability Exposure from May 2026 Activity
Four recalls issued during the weeks of May 4 and May 11, 2026 carry direct PI exposure. The highest-profile is the Hyundai Palisade recall covering 68,500 units of the 2026 Calligraphy and Limited trims. A power-seat software defect allows second- and third-row seats to fold without detecting an occupant. NHTSA records document the March 7, 2026 death of Lucia Ayala, age 2, in Akron, Ohio, along with four reported U.S. injuries. A stop-sale order is in effect, and the software-only interim fix leaves the adequacy question open for any product-liability claim arising from this defect.
Chrysler's recall of 12,736 Ram 2500 trucks addresses a software error allowing vehicle speed to exceed the tire speed rating, a specific exposure in high-speed commercial and consumer crashes. Mack Trucks and Volvo Trucks separately recalled 2025-2027 commercial tractor units for an identical defect: rear brake modulators with unprotected electrical connectors that can short-circuit and disable both ABS and electronic stability control simultaneously. The combined Mack and Volvo recall covers 2,337 commercial units, each carrying NHTSA crash and injury risk designations. In any collision involving these platforms, recall status and repair completion date should be documented at investigation outset.
Medical providers treating patients injured in collisions involving 2026 Hyundai Palisade vehicles or 2025-2027 Mack or Volvo commercial units should communicate recall status to treating counsel at the first opportunity to preserve a parallel product-liability track before evidence is lost or the vehicle is repaired.
NHTSA recall records establish manufacturer knowledge; pulling VIN-level recall status and repair completion history in the first week of any applicable case is a threshold investigation step, not optional discovery.
Utah $81 Million Verdict: Employer Retention Theory Validated at Scale
On April 3, 2026, a Utah jury returned an $81 million verdict in a pedestrian crosswalk death case handled by Claggett Law, believed to be the largest personal-injury verdict in Utah history. The employer liability theory centered on retaining a driver with a documented history of unsafe driving conduct, including speeding and recklessness, with surveillance footage serving as trial-critical evidence. The award allocated $7.5 million each to two eyewitnesses to the collision.
For PI practices handling I-15 and I-10 corridor trucking cases in Southern California, the Claggett result is a useful calibration point for carrier settlement posture and demand valuations. Pre-litigation discovery in employer-retention matters should target MVR pull history, internal safety audits, disciplinary records, and documentation showing supervisory notice of a driver's prior conduct. Litigation hold letters to the carrier and early FMCSA safety management system subpoenas must issue before responsive records are altered or destroyed.
The $81M Utah award confirms that documented employer knowledge of a driver's risk history, supported by surveillance or company records, is the most effective damages-multiplier theory available in commercial trucking PI.
EDR and ELD Evidence: Preservation Is the Controlling Issue
California and federal courts issued EDR and telematics subpoenas in Q1 2026 at a frequency exceeding any prior comparable period. Event Data Recorders capture pre-crash speed, brake application, throttle position, seatbelt status, and airbag deployment data. On FMCSA-regulated commercial vehicles, Electronic Logging Devices layer GPS location and hours-of-service data on top of OEM EDR outputs. Admissibility under Daubert is established when an authenticated extraction is paired with qualified expert testimony, though some courts continue to admit raw EDR logs without that foundation, a jurisdictional inconsistency that favors whichever side controls the better-prepared expert.
EDR memory in most current passenger vehicles overwrites within seconds of continued post-collision operation. Counsel must issue preservation letters immediately and seek agreed orders before vehicle repair or disposal. Medical providers treating patients with active auto PI claims have a direct operational role here: when a patient describes a collision involving a commercial vehicle, alerting treating counsel that FMCSA ELD data has limited retention windows ensures the subpoena issues before the carrier's retention schedule expires, preserving a data stream that no reconstruction expert can replicate.
As of Q1 2026, no uniform federal standard governs EDR data production format in civil litigation, and whether NHTSA will address that gap in the current rulemaking cycle remains unresolved.
In any auto PI matter where speed, braking, or hours-of-service is contested, a preservation demand within 24 hours of retention is the highest-leverage intake act available; EDR overwrite windows on most current vehicle platforms are measured in seconds of post-crash operation.