If you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft crash in Nebraska, you're probably looking for one number: what's my case worth. There isn't a set figure, and anyone who quotes you one on the first day is guessing. What your claim is actually worth turns on three things Nebraska law controls: which insurance policy applies at the exact moment of the crash, how fault gets divided, and what damages the state lets you collect. Understand those and you can see the outer edges of your case before anyone talks numbers.
Nebraska treats Uber and Lyft as transportation network companies, or TNCs, and regulates them through the Public Service Commission.1 Several of the rules below cut differently than they would one state over, so the local detail is where the money is.
The insurance that pays turns on what the app was doing
Nebraska's Transportation Network Company Act divides a driver's shift into three stages, and the coverage available jumps sharply between them.2
The application open stage runs from the moment the driver logs into the app until they accept a ride request.2 During that window the TNC's insurance is primary and must carry at least $25,000 for death or injury to one person, $50,000 per incident, and $25,000 for property damage.3 That primary designation matters, because personal auto policies commonly exclude driving for hire, which can leave the TNC layer as the only coverage that responds. It's also the same floor as any ordinary Nebraska driver, so a pedestrian or another motorist struck by an Uber driver who's only waiting for a ping is looking at a thin pool of money.
Everything changes once the driver accepts a request. The engaged stage begins there and runs through the passengers on board stage until the trip ends.2 For that whole period Nebraska requires at least $1,000,000 in primary liability coverage for death, personal injury, and property damage, plus uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.4 That million-dollar layer is the single biggest reason a mid-trip rideshare crash can settle for far more than a routine two-car collision. If you were a passenger when it happened, that's the policy standing behind your claim.
Drivers must carry proof of this coverage any time the app is running.1 The app's own record of when a ride was accepted often decides which tier applies, so the trip log is evidence worth preserving early.
When the at-fault driver isn't the rideshare driver
Plenty of rideshare crashes are caused by a third motorist, not the Uber or Lyft driver, and that's where Nebraska's thin minimums start to bite. The state still requires only 25/50/25 in liability coverage: $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage.5 Lawmakers looked at raising that to 50/100/50 beginning in 2027 under LB793, but the bill was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026, so the old minimums remain the law.5
A $25,000 policy rarely covers a serious injury. Nebraska's backstop is mandatory uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Every auto policy issued in the state has to include UM/UIM at no less than $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, and a driver can't waive it entirely, though they can request up to $100,000 and $300,000 in writing.6 For a passenger this can stack: during the engaged and passengers on board stages the TNC's policy carries its own UM/UIM,4 so when the at-fault driver has little or no coverage, that layer can help fill the gap.
How splitting fault can shrink or erase a settlement
Nebraska uses a modified comparative negligence rule with a 50 percent bar.7 Your damages are cut by your share of the fault, but if your fault is "equal to or greater than the total negligence of all persons against whom recovery is sought," you recover nothing.7
The math is blunt. On a $100,000 claim where you're found 20 percent at fault, you collect $80,000. Push your share to 50 percent or above and the recovery drops to zero. Rideshare cases often spread fault across the rideshare driver, another motorist, and sometimes the injured person, so the fight over percentages is frequently where the real dollars are decided.
What Nebraska lets you collect, and what it won't
There's no cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary Nebraska car crash claim. In practice your recoverable losses are built from medical bills, the wages you lost while you couldn't work, the cost of care you'll still need, and the pain the injury caused, and the state puts no ceiling on that total in a crash case. The $2,250,000 cap people sometimes hear about comes from the Hospital-Medical Liability Act and applies only to medical malpractice occurrences after December 31, 2014, not to vehicle crashes.8
Two Nebraska rules do hold the number down, and both catch people off guard. First, Nebraska allows no punitive damages at all. The state constitution sends penalties to its schools, and the Supreme Court has read that to bar punitive, vindictive, or exemplary awards.910 Even if a rideshare driver was drunk or driving recklessly, there's no punitive multiplier stacked on top of your actual losses. Second, Nebraska is a pure at-fault state with no no-fault insurance and no mandatory personal injury protection.11 The at-fault party's liability coverage pays the claim, which means there's no PIP filing deadline to race and no automatic medical benefit paid regardless of fault.
The four-year clock
You have four years from the crash date to file a personal injury lawsuit in Nebraska, and the same four years to sue over damage to your vehicle.12 Blow the deadline and a claim that was worth six figures becomes worth nothing, no matter how much insurance was in play. Four years sounds generous, but rideshare cases tend to involve several insurers pointing fingers at each other, and evidence like the trip log and any dashcam footage often disappears long before the clock runs out.
Vehicle damage and your records
Your car is its own line item. If the crash totaled or badly damaged it, the resale value you lose even after a proper repair may be recoverable too; the Nebraska specifics live on our diminished value page for Nebraska. The official crash report is one of the first documents any adjuster or attorney will ask for, and you can find how to request it on our Nebraska crash reports page.
Because these claims turn on coverage tiers, fault percentages, and evidence that expires, most people don't handle them alone. If you'd rather talk to someone who works these cases in Nebraska, start with our legal directory.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Nebraska Public Service Commission, Transportation Network Companies. https://psc.nebraska.gov/transportation/transportation-network-companies
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Neb. Rev. Stat. § 75-323, Transportation Network Company Act (stage definitions). https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=75-323
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Neb. Rev. Stat. § 75-334, TNC insurance during the application open stage. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=75-334
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Neb. Rev. Stat. § 75-333, TNC insurance during the engaged and passengers on board stages. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=75-333
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Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-509, minimum motor vehicle liability limits. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=60-509
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Neb. Rev. Stat. § 44-6408, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage required. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=44-6408
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Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,185.09, comparative negligence. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=25-21,185.09
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Neb. Rev. Stat. § 44-2825, Hospital-Medical Liability Act damages cap. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=44-2825
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Neb. Const. art. VII, § 5. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/articles.php?article=VII-5
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Miller v. Kingsley, 194 Neb. 123, 230 N.W.2d 472 (1975). https://law.justia.com/cases/nebraska/supreme-court/1975/39821.html
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Nebraska Department of Insurance, Important Auto Insurance and Types of Coverage. https://doi.nebraska.gov/important-auto-insurance-and-types-coverage
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Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-207, four-year limitation for injury to personal rights and property. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=25-207