Uber is presently going through tons of of lawsuits from ladies saying the ride-hailing firm did not put applicable measures in place to guard passengers from sexual assault. In a win for victims, NPR stories that the newest ruling means about 80 of these lawsuits will likely be joined in federal court docket. Decide Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California will now deal with the entire pretrial proceedings, together with depositions and discovery.

“It is a large deal as a result of these paperwork are going to assist present, we imagine, that the sexual assault drawback from drivers to riders is a large drawback,” Bret Stanley, a lawyer representing a number of victims, mentioned in a press release.

The victims declare Uber might have made utilizing the app safer however selected to not, allegedly doing incomplete background checks and failing to take away drivers accused of sexual assault. “They’re gathering this knowledge, permitting the particular person to remain on the system. After which one thing horrible occurs,” Stanley mentioned.

In relation to holding Uber accountable, one problem these victims face is that Uber’s phrases of service don’t enable customers to hitch a class-action lawsuit in the event that they’re sexually assaulted, which implies all instances should be tried individually. Uber has fought in opposition to becoming a member of instances and has beforehand argued that it “didn’t owe an obligation to Plaintiff to guard in opposition to the felony conduct.”

Between 2017 and 2020, Uber’s newest report exhibits there have been 9,805 sexual assaults of riders, 852 of them rapes. And whereas the choose has initially joined about 80 instances, it’s attainable we’ll see extra victims be part of their instances, as nicely.

“Sexual assault is a horrific crime, and we take each report of this nature very severely,” an Uber spokesperson instructed NPR. “Whereas we can not touch upon pending litigation, we’re deeply dedicated to the security of all customers on the Uber platform.”