Gig driver hit by another car — now the other driver is claiming Uber was 'involved'??

I was also a rideshare driver when I got rear-ended and the other party tried to drag the platform into it. The key thing everyone kept coming back to was whether the app was actively running — like, actually in a trip or waiting for a ping. Being 'off the clock' is a totally different legal situation than being between orders or mid-ride. If she can show the app was fully closed, that matters a lot.

The other driver's insurance is fishing. Plain and simple. If they can get the platform's commercial coverage involved, suddenly there's a much bigger pot of money in play and their own liability gets complicated. Don't let your cousin talk to anyone from either insurance company without her attorney present. Seriously. Even a casual 'oh yeah I do deliveries sometimes' comment can get twisted.

Used to work claims and I've seen this play out before. What the other side is doing is called a coverage dispute trigger — they're trying to establish that the app was active so they can argue the platform's commercial policy should be primary instead of her personal auto. The platform calling her is probably their risk team doing their own investigation. She should absolutely loop in her attorney before saying a single word to them. Those calls are not casual wellness checks.

Her attorney can request the app's activity logs — most platforms will produce them with a proper legal request, and they're timestamped pretty precisely. If the app shows it was closed before the accident and didn't open until after, that's going to be a really strong piece of evidence. The 'I saw a bag' claim from the other driver is pretty thin on its own without corroborating data. Not legal advice, just process stuff I've seen.

Tell her to stop taking calls she isn't prepared for. If the platform's safety team calls again, it's completely fine to say 'I have an attorney handling everything related to this incident, please contact them.' That's not rude, that's just smart. She should also write down everything she remembers about that call she already had with them — what was asked, what she said — and send it to her lawyer today.

This sounds so stressful, I'm sorry she's dealing with this on top of being actually injured. The fact that she had the green light AND there are witnesses should count for a lot, right? It just seems so unfair that the person who caused the accident gets to just... throw out accusations and complicate everything.

Not legal advice, but generally speaking — in most states, whether a gig platform's insurance applies depends heavily on the driver's status at the time of the accident. 'App off' is typically the clearest zone where the platform has no involvement. The other party claiming they noticed a bag doesn't establish app activity. Her attorney should be pushing for a records subpoena to the platform and documenting the timeline carefully. The silence from her lawyer is worth a follow-up call — she has every right to ask for a status update.

Does she have anything that shows the app was closed — like a screenshot of her phone activity from that day, or even just the app's own ride history showing no active session? I believe her, just wondering what kind of proof exists beyond her word against his. Because 'he saw a bag' is a weak claim but it's easier to knock down if there's actual data on her side.