One of the first things many rideshare assault survivors hear, often from friends or from the internet, is that the company cannot be sued because the driver was an independent contractor, not an employee. It is an understandable assumption, and rideshare companies have long emphasized that their drivers are not their staff. But in Illinois, a claim against the company does not necessarily rise or fall on the driver's job title. It often depends on what the company itself did.
No police report is required to explore that, and nobody needs to have been charged. A civil claim asks what the platform knew, what it should have known and what it did.
What the Statute Says About Control
The Illinois Transportation Network Providers Act, 625 ILCS 57, provides that a rideshare company is not deemed to own, control, operate or manage the vehicles its drivers use. Companies point to language like that when they argue they are not responsible for what happens in a car.
Why Classification Is Not the Whole Story
How a driver is classified is one question, but it is not the only one. A claim against the company usually rests on the company's own decisions: whether it screened the driver as the law requires, whether it acted on earlier complaints and whether the person driving was the person it approved. None of those questions depends on whether the driver was labeled an employee or a contractor.
Think of it this way. A company that decides who may log in and accept rides, collects their background information, receives complaints about them and can deactivate them at any moment is making safety choices every day. Those choices belong to the company. When one of them goes wrong, such as approving a driver who should have been disqualified or ignoring a pattern of complaints, the company's responsibility for that decision does not disappear just because the driver is paid as a contractor.
The Company's Own Legal Duties
The same Act imposes duties directly on the company. Under Section 15, before allowing anyone to drive, the company must collect a detailed application, run a local and national criminal background check that includes a multi-state search and the National Sex Offenders Registry and review the applicant's driving history. It must not allow people with certain recent convictions, including sexual offenses, to drive, and it must not allow registry matches or anyone under 19. It must also show riders the driver's photo and license plate before pickup.
Those are obligations the company owes regardless of how it classifies drivers. If it failed to meet them, the failure is the company's.
Negligent Screening and Retention
That is why claims are usually brought against the platform rather than only the driver, and why negligent screening is the theory that most often carries them. When other passengers had already complained and the company kept the driver active, retention and supervision theories frequently join the claim. Which combination fits depends on the facts.
Chicago's Added Layer
In Chicago, the company must also run a criminal background check on each applicant for a city chauffeur license and attest to the city that each one meets the eligibility rules in Chapter 9-115 of the Municipal Code. That attestation is the company's own representation, again independent of whether the driver is an employee.
What the Company's Records Show
The platform holds the driver's identity, approval history, background check results, earlier rider complaints, the route and timing of your trip and messages between you and the driver. Those records often say more about the company's conduct than about the driver's status.
Private Company, Ordinary Rules
Uber and Lyft are private businesses. Illinois' Tort Immunity rules for public bodies therefore do not limit claims against them in the same way, and the liability questions are the familiar institutional ones.
Questions on Classification
Isn't the driver the only one who can be sued? Not necessarily. The company can face its own liability for its screening and retention decisions.
The company told me drivers aren't its employees. That may be true for employment purposes, but it does not answer whether the company met its own legal duties.
The driver has since died. A claim can still proceed, because it is usually directed at the company that placed that person in a position of trust.
Do I have to report to police? No. A civil claim does not depend on a police report.
Getting Started
You can call to ask whether the company might be responsible, without explaining every detail. If you want us to look further, we investigate without charge what the company was required to do, what it actually did, what it knew and whether a claim can still be filed. You receive a candid answer and decide. If you stop, your information stays confidential. If you go on, we handle filings, deadlines, records and insurers, and can seek protections for your identity. Timing depends on facts like your age and the defendant, so an early look helps.
Get in Touch
Ervin Nevitt has been a member of the Illinois bar since 2014 and is a partner at Coplan + Crane. You can reach the firm day or night at (708) 671-6858, or visit 60 W Randolph St, Suite 333, Chicago, IL 60601.
RAINN provides free, private crisis support at 1-800-656-4673, 24 hours a day. If you face immediate danger, call 911. A call to RAINN does not change your legal options.
Attorney advertising. The material above is general and does not constitute legal advice.
