If you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft crash in Washington, D.C., the first question is usually the same: what is a case like this actually worth? There's no fixed number. In the District, the size of a settlement depends on a handful of local rules more than on any formula: which insurance policy was on the hook at the moment of impact, whether you carried any share of the fault, and whether you file the right paperwork before some short deadlines run out. Here's how those rules work, with the statutes they come from.
Which policy pays, and how much is available
District law ties the available insurance to what the rideshare driver was doing when the crash happened, and the numbers change sharply between stages. Once a driver accepts your ride, and until you step out of the car, the transportation network company (Uber, Lyft, and similar services) must carry a primary liability policy of at least $1 million per occurrence.1 That is the pool most passengers are looking at. If you were riding in the car, you were by definition on a prearranged ride, so the $1 million layer applies to your injuries.
The picture is smaller when the driver is logged into the app but hasn't yet accepted a ride. During that window the required coverage drops to $50,000 per person and $100,000 per crash for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage.1 So if a waiting rideshare driver runs a light and hits your car, you are dealing with those lower limits, not the $1 million policy. When the app is off entirely, only the driver's personal auto policy applies, and DC's floor for that is just 25/50/10: $25,000 per person, $50,000 per crash, and $10,000 for property damage.2
Because the driver's screen at the moment of impact can move your claim between a $1 million policy and a $25,000 one, the app data is worth fighting for. The same statute requires the company to cooperate in a claims investigation and to disclose the precise dates and times that fix the driver's status.1
DC's contributory-negligence rule can zero out a claim
This is the rule that surprises people most, and it shapes settlement value here more than any dollar limit. The District is one of the last places in the country to follow pure contributory negligence. If a jury finds you even one percent at fault for the crash, you recover nothing at all.3
For passengers, that's usually good news. A rider in the back of an Uber almost never shares blame for the wreck, so the insurer has little room to chip away at the claim. The rule bites hardest when you were driving your own vehicle and the rideshare company's insurer argues you contributed something, because a sliver of fault is all it takes to defeat the case. It's also why the defense in a DC crash claim spends so much energy trying to pin a small piece of the blame on you.
The District carved out an exception for people who were outside a vehicle. If you were a pedestrian, a cyclist, or another non-motorized user, a comparative rule applies instead: your own fault reduces or bars recovery only when it is greater than the combined fault of everyone you're suing.4 So a pedestrian who is 40 percent to blame still recovers a reduced amount, while a driver who is 40 percent to blame walks away with nothing.
What you can actually recover
The District puts no cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary car-accident case. You can pursue the full measure of your economic losses (medical bills, lost wages, and future care) and your non-economic losses (pain, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life) without a statutory ceiling. Punitive damages are possible but hard to win: DC requires clear and convincing evidence of actual malice or conduct showing willful disregard for the safety of others, the standard the DC Court of Appeals set in Jonathan Woodner Co. v. Breeden.5 Ordinary careless driving doesn't clear that bar; a drunk or genuinely reckless driver sometimes does.
If a drunk driver caused the crash, there may be a second defendant with its own insurance. DC recognizes dram-shop liability: a bar or restaurant that served alcohol to a patron who was already intoxicated, or who was underage, and who then causes injury can be held liable under the District's sale-to-intoxicated-persons statute, a rule the court applied in Jarrett v. Woodward Bros.6
PIP, no-fault, and a 60-day deadline
DC is a choice jurisdiction. Fault-based liability coverage is the baseline, but insurers must offer optional personal injury protection (PIP), and a driver can reject it in writing.7 Where PIP is in play, the minimum benefits are $50,000 for medical and rehabilitation costs, $12,000 for lost wages, and $4,000 for funeral expenses, all paid regardless of who caused the crash.7
There is a catch that quietly ends claims. To draw PIP benefits you must elect them in writing within 60 days of the crash (a period the parties can extend only by mutual written agreement), and choosing PIP then limits your right to sue unless your injury clears a serious-injury or medical-cost threshold.8 Miss the election window and that no-fault money is simply gone. This is one of the first deadlines a DC crash victim needs to know about, because 60 days passes quickly while you're recovering.
Uninsured and underinsured drivers
Not every at-fault driver carries insurance, and DC's minimums are low, so the other driver's policy may not cover what you lost. Every DC auto policy must include uninsured-motorist coverage that matches the liability floor: $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for injuries, plus $5,000 in uninsured-motorist property damage subject to a $200 deductible.2 For a serious rideshare injury, the $1 million company policy generally carries an uninsured/underinsured layer as well, which is another reason the coverage-period question in the first section matters so much.
Those personal-policy minimums haven't moved since 1986. The DC Council passed the Motor Vehicle Insurance Modernization Act of 2025 (B26-0057), which would raise the bodily-injury minimums to $50,000 per person and $100,000 per crash, and transmitted it to the Mayor in June 2026. As of August 2026 it had not yet taken effect, so 25/50/10 still governs a driver's personal policy today.9
Deadlines that can end a claim before it starts
DC gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a personal-injury lawsuit,10 and the same three years for vehicle-damage and other property claims.11 A separate trap catches anyone who was hit by a District-owned vehicle or who plans to sue the DC government: you must give written notice to the Mayor within six months of the injury, long before that three-year clock runs out.12
Fault evidence can raise the value of a claim, and distracted driving is a common source of it. DC bars a driver from holding or using a phone without a hands-free accessory, with no carve-out for texting, and enforces it as a primary moving violation carrying a $100 fine.13 If the rideshare driver was on the phone when the crash happened, that record helps prove negligence.
Putting it together
A rideshare settlement in the District is really the sum of these moving parts: which policy period was active, whether the defense can pin any fault on you, whether PIP was elected in time, and whether the claim is preserved within the deadlines. Get the official record early. The Metropolitan Police Department issues the PD-10 crash report that fixes the basic facts your claim will rest on.14 If your car lost market value after the repair, that diminished-value loss is a separate claim worth pursuing. And because DC's contributory-negligence rule can turn a strong case into a zero, it's worth speaking with an attorney who handles these before you give any recorded statement.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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D.C. Code § 50-301.29c, Insurance requirements for private vehicles-for-hire. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-301.29c
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DC DMV, Vehicle Insurance requirements. https://dmv.dc.gov/service/vehicle-insurance
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Wingfield v. Peoples Drug Store, Inc., 379 A.2d 685 (D.C. 1977). https://law.justia.com/cases/district-of-columbia/court-of-appeals/1977/11243-3.html
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D.C. Code § 50-2204.52 (Contributory Negligence Limitation for Vulnerable Users). https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-2204.52
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Jonathan Woodner Co. v. Breeden, 665 A.2d 929, 938 (D.C. 1995). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2168023/jonathan-woodner-co-v-breeden/
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Jarrett v. Woodward Bros., Inc., 751 A.2d 972 (D.C. 2000); D.C. Code § 25-781. https://law.justia.com/cases/district-of-columbia/court-of-appeals/2000/96-cv-1715-6.html
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D.C. Code § 31-2404, Personal injury protection benefits. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/31-2404
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D.C. Code § 31-2405, Election of benefits and limitation on right to sue. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/31-2405
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DC Council B26-0057, Motor Vehicle Insurance Modernization Act of 2025 (legislative history and status). https://legiscan.com/DC/bill/B26-0057/2025
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D.C. Code § 12-301(8), Limitation of actions (residual 3-year period). https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/12-301
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D.C. Code § 12-301(3), Limitation for injury to real or personal property. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/12-301
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D.C. Code § 12-309, Notice of claim against the District of Columbia. https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/12-309
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D.C. Code § 50-1731.04; § 50-1731.06 (penalties). https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/50-1731.04
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Metropolitan Police Department, Request an Accident Report (PD-10). https://mpdc.dc.gov/service/request-accident-report-pd-10-or-incidentoffense-report-pd-251