If you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft crash in Las Vegas, a law that took effect on October 1, 2025 quietly changed what your claim is worth and who you can hold responsible. Nevada AB 523 cut the coverage rideshare companies must carry during a trip and made it harder to pin liability on the platforms themselves. Here’s what actually changed, in plain terms — and why it makes getting the right legal help earlier more important, not less.
What Is Nevada’s AB 523?
AB 523 is a Nevada law, effective October 1, 2025, that reshaped how rideshare and delivery companies like Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, and DoorDash answer for crashes involving their drivers. It did two things that matter directly to an injured passenger, pedestrian, or driver:
- It lowered the minimum insurance rideshare companies must carry while a driver is on an active trip.
- It limited the companies’ liability for what their drivers do behind the wheel.
Both changes tilt the field toward the insurers. Neither one takes away your right to recover — but they change the strategy for how a full recovery gets built. If you’re still getting your bearings on how coverage works after a rideshare crash, our Las Vegas rideshare and taxi accident lawyer page walks through the basics; this article focuses on what the new law changed.
Change #1 — The Coverage Floor Dropped From $1.5M to $1M
Before October 2025, when a rideshare driver had accepted a ride or had a passenger in the car, the company was required to carry at least $1.5 million in coverage for that trip. AB 523 reduced that minimum to $1 million per incident.
That half-million-dollar difference sounds abstract until you’re the one with a spinal injury, a traumatic brain injury, or a surgery schedule that outruns the policy. In serious cases, the gap between $1.5 million and $1 million can be the gap between a settlement that covers your future care and one that doesn’t.
One practical takeaway: any website, adjuster, or article still quoting a flat $1.5 million for an active rideshare trip is using a pre-October-2025 number. For a crash on or after October 1, 2025, the current active-trip minimum in Nevada is $1 million. The coverage that applies to your specific crash still depends on what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact — logged off, waiting for a request, or mid-trip each triggers a different policy. That breakdown is covered in depth in our explanation of how rideshare coverage works after a crash.
Change #2 — It’s Harder to Hold Uber or Lyft Itself Responsible
The second change is about who you can point the claim at. AB 523 reinforced the idea that rideshare drivers are independent contractors, not employees, and limited the companies’ vicarious liability — the legal theory that would otherwise let you hold Uber or Lyft responsible simply because their driver caused your crash.
In plain terms: as long as the company keeps the required insurance in place, you generally recover against the applicable policy, rather than by suing the corporation for the driver’s negligence.
That shield has a limit worth knowing. AB 523 addresses the company’s responsibility for a driver’s conduct. It does not erase a claim built on the company’s own conduct — situations involving how a platform screened, retained, or managed a driver, for example. Those claims are narrower, fact-specific, and far from automatic, so whether one fits your situation is a question for a Nevada attorney who has looked at the details. The point is that “you can’t touch Uber anymore” is an overstatement the insurers are happy to let you believe.
What This Actually Means for Your Recovery
Put the two changes together and the picture is clear: a lower coverage ceiling on the trip policy, and a smaller corporate target. The response isn’t to give up leverage — it’s to find every source of coverage, not just the obvious one.
After a Las Vegas rideshare crash, the money can come from more than the platform’s policy:
- The at-fault driver’s insurance — if another motorist caused the crash, your claim runs against them first.
- Your own (or a household member’s) coverage — when the at-fault party is uninsured or underinsured, uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage can step in to fill the gap.
- The driver’s personal policy — relevant in some periods, though it usually excludes commercial driving; here’s the baseline on Nevada’s minimum insurance requirements.
- First-dollar sources for immediate bills — while the carriers argue over who pays, understanding who pays your medical bills in the meantime keeps you from drowning in costs before the case resolves.
A single $1 million policy is a ceiling on one source. It is not a ceiling on your total recovery when a case is worked properly.
Why the Change Favors the Insurers — and How to Push Back
AB 523 was backed by the rideshare industry, and its effect is to reduce what these companies are exposed to. That’s the reality. What it doesn’t do is change the fundamentals of proving a claim — and that’s where the fight is won or lost.
This is where Howard Injury Law’s founder, Glen Howard, works from a different vantage point than most. Glen spent years as an insurance defense attorney — the lawyer on the other side, defending carriers against exactly these claims. He knows how adjusters use a law like AB 523: to anchor low, to argue the crash fell into a lower-coverage phase, and to lean on the new liability limits to wave you off the company entirely. Knowing that playbook is how you counter it.
The countermeasure is evidence, gathered fast. Which coverage applies still turns on the driver’s app status at impact, and that data — trip logs, GPS timestamps, in-app monitoring — has a short retention window and a way of becoming hard to get when the honest answer would trigger the larger policy. The sooner an attorney sends preservation demands, the more of it still exists to pull.
The Deadline Didn’t Change — You Still Have Limited Time
AB 523 changed the coverage math, but not Nevada’s filing deadline. In general, you have two years from the date of the crash to bring a personal injury claim under Nevada law. Miss it, and the claim is barred — permanently.
Some situations carry different and shorter requirements. If a government vehicle was involved — an RTC bus, for example — special notice rules can apply, and they’re easy to miss. Because every case is different, the safest move is to confirm your specific deadline with an experienced Las Vegas motor vehicle accident attorney rather than assume you have time to wait.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does AB 523 mean Uber and Lyft only carry $1 million now?
$1 million is the minimum Nevada now requires during an active trip (a ride accepted or a passenger aboard), effective October 1, 2025 — down from $1.5 million. It is a floor, not a cap on your recovery. Your total claim can also reach the at-fault driver’s insurance and your own uninsured/underinsured coverage, depending on the facts. The single most important variable is still what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of impact, because that determines which policy applies at all. An attorney can pull the trip data and identify every policy in play, rather than accepting the first one an adjuster offers.
Can I still sue Uber or Lyft directly after AB 523?
Usually your recovery runs against the applicable insurance policy rather than the company itself, because AB 523 limited the platforms’ responsibility for their drivers’ conduct. That said, the law addresses liability for a driver’s actions — it doesn’t automatically bar a claim based on the company’s own conduct, which is narrower and fact-specific. Whether that kind of claim fits your case is something a Nevada attorney would evaluate after reviewing the details. The takeaway: don’t accept “you can’t hold the company responsible” as the final word without having someone check.
My crash happened before October 2025 — which coverage applies?
The date of your crash matters. AB 523’s changes took effect October 1, 2025, so a crash before that date is generally evaluated under the prior framework, including the higher $1.5 million active-trip minimum. Because timing directly affects the coverage available, this is exactly the kind of detail worth confirming with an attorney early — the applicable rules can turn on the calendar as much as the facts.
What if my injuries are worth more than the $1 million policy?
A single policy limit doesn’t automatically cap your recovery. When damages exceed the rideshare company’s trip coverage, a well-built claim looks to other sources — the at-fault driver’s insurance, your own or a household member’s uninsured/underinsured coverage, and any other responsible party’s policy. Serious-injury cases in particular are won by identifying and stacking every available source, which is why the value of experienced representation goes up, not down, when the obvious policy isn’t enough.
Not Sure Where Your Claim Stands After the New Law? Let’s Find Out.
The rideshare companies wrote AB 523 to their advantage, and their adjusters will use it to make your case look smaller than it is. You don’t have to accept their math. Glen Howard spent his career on the insurance side before switching to represent injured people — so he knows exactly how a law like this gets used against you, and how to push back with evidence.
The consultation is free, you pay nothing unless we win, and there’s no pressure to decide anything today. If you were hurt in an Uber, Lyft, or taxi crash in Las Vegas, request a free consultation and get a straight answer about what your claim is really worth under the new law — before a deadline or a data-retention window closes the door.
