The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has decided to centralize over 20 sexual assault lawsuits against Lyft in the Northern District of California. This consolidation aims to enhance efficiency and practicality by bringing together cases currently dispersed across various district courts into a single federal court in San Francisco.
This move mirrors previous actions in the rideshare industry. In March 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed more than 1,600 sexual assault cases against Uber to proceed before a single judge in San Francisco, despite Uber’s contention that its user agreement precluded such consolidation. The court’s decision underscored the limitations of contractual clauses in preventing the unification of similar legal actions.
In October 2025, plaintiffs filed a petition to consolidate Lyft-related sexual assault cases into a multidistrict litigation (MDL). At that time, at least 17 actions were pending across 10 federal judicial districts. The petition accused Lyft of neglecting passenger reports of sexual assault, alleging that the company had been aware of such incidents for over a decade. Notably, Lyft reported over 18,000 incidents of assault and harassment in a single year to the California Public Utilities Commission, surpassing figures reported by its competitor, Uber.
As of December 2025, the federal MDL concerning Uber had grown to include 2,949 active cases, with the first bellwether trial scheduled for January 2026. Concurrently, Lyft’s California state court coordination maintained over 100 active cases. The consolidation of Lyft’s federal cases into the Northern District of California is expected to streamline pretrial proceedings and promote consistent rulings across similar cases.
These developments highlight the increasing legal scrutiny faced by rideshare companies regarding passenger safety and corporate responsibility. The outcomes of these consolidated cases may significantly influence industry practices and policies moving forward.