Uber's Lump Of Coal: Asking Californians To Sign A Ballot Petition Taking Away Their Right To Medical Recovery and Attorney Representation For Car Accidents, Says Consumer Watchdog

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The non-profit Consumer Watchdog group today condemned Uber for starting, during the holiday season, to circulate a ballot measure petition that will restrict the right of consumers injured in a car accident to full medical recovery and to have a contingency fee attorney.

"Voters need to read what they're signing because what they are being asked to sign away is their right to full medical recovery in accidents and the right to contract with an attorney of their choice on a contingency fee basis," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "Uber should be ashamed of itself for circulating a ballot measure that takes away injured consumers' right to recovery and representation in all auto accident cases during the giving season. Scrooge at least felt shame. Uber's holiday gift is a lump of coal in the form of a ballot petition that strips injured people of their rights. Uber's coal-black capitalism is using its vast money and power to trick people out of their rights to representation and medical expenses when they get into an accident."

Uber is collecting signatures in order to qualify its pending ballot measure, for which the California Attorney General's Official Title and Summary reads:

LIMITS AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT VICTIMS' RECOVERY OF MEDICAL EXPENSES AND FEES THEIR ATTORNEYS MAY RECEIVE. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Automobile accident victims often hire an attorney on a contingency basis, meaning the attorney receives an agreed-upon percentage of the victim's monetary recovery if the victim wins. This measure would:

• limit the fees such attorneys may receive so victims retain at least 75% of their monetary recovery, but does not restrict fee arrangements for defendants' attorneys;
• for certain medical expenses, increase victims' burden of proof and limit the amounts they may recover; and
• prohibit certain financial arrangements between attorneys and medical providers.

Consumer Watchdog wrote Attorney General Bonta about the impact of the measure:

"While this measure is framed as a cost-saving reform, it in fact imposes severe new barriers for injured individuals to obtain justice:

• By capping attorney contingency fees so that clients must retain 75% of the judgment after costs are deducted, the measure makes it financially impossible for attorneys to take on many cases—especially those with modest damages or complex liability.
• The initiative limits medical compensation not based on what treatment was needed, but based on narrow Medicare/Medi-Cal reimbursement formulas or the actual amount paid by insurers—even though the injured party may still owe more under a lien or receive no insurance support at all.
• It raises the burden of proof on medical liens to a "clear and convincing"standard—dramatically higher than the typical civil standard—further denying recovery to those who cannot afford to pre-pay for care or who lack insurance.

These provisions work in concert to chill legitimate claims and make it virtually impossible for many accident victims to obtain counsel. The real effect of the measure is not reform—it is suppression of valid lawsuits and the transfer of financial burdens onto Medi-Cal and taxpayer-funded systems, as the Legislative Analyst's Office fiscal impact summary makes clear.

An excellent summary of the deleterious impact of the initiative on access to justice was recently published in the Sacramento Bee. (Nora Freeman Engstrom and Brianne Holland-Stergar, "Uber's fight to lock poor plaintiffs out of the courthouse," Sacramento Bee Opinion, November 18, 2025. Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article312954687.html#storylink=cpy )"

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SOURCE Consumer Watchdog