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The ridesharing company Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) is being sued by more than 500 women who claim the company’s drivers sexually assaulted them.
In court documents obtained by PEOPLE Magazine, it is alleged that passengers in multiple states were “kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed, and/or otherwise attacked by an Uber driver with whom they had been paired with through the Uber Application.”
Law firm Slater, Slater, Schulman, LLP, filed a legal complaint against Uber in San Francisco County Superior Court on Wednesday, July 13 . The law firm says it has “approximately 550 clients with claims against Uber, with at least 150 more being actively investigated. ”
Adam Slater, founding partner of Slater, Slater, Schulman, LLP, told ABC News that the firm has filed roughly 25 lawsuits so far and plans to file the remainder within the next several months. Uber told ABC News, “This law firm has actually only filed 12 cases against Uber to date.”
In the statement made by Slater, Slater, Schulman, LLP, they claim “As early as 2014, Uber became aware that its drivers were sexually assaulting and raping female passengers; nevertheless, in the eight years since, sexual predators driving for Uber have continued to attack passengers.”
Uber under fire amid sexual assault lawsuit
Sometime in June, the company released their second U.S. Safety Report. In the report it was stated that there were 998 sexual assault incidents, including 141 rape reports, in 2020 alone, the most recent year with available data. Uber disclosed that it received 3,824 reports of the five most severe categories of sexual assault in 2019 and 2020, ranging from “non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part” to “non-consensual sexual penetration.”
Data from the report showed that the rate of sexual assault reported had decreased by 38% from the 2017-2018 report, which had just under 6,000 reports of sexual assault. In 2020, the company announced it would “expand sexual misconduct and assault education to all US drivers,” partnering with RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), the nation’s largest sexual violence organization, “to design this program.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.