A case is often won or lost long before opening statements. That is especially true in transportation network company litigation, where the most important evidence lives on servers controlled entirely by the defendant. An effective discovery strategy TNC cases California attorneys can rely on starts within days of taking the case, not months later after a complaint is filed and a scheduling order issues. This page lays out the framework used in the case behind the firm's rideshare trial verdict.
Days
Window to preserve data before it is purged
4 tools
Preservation letter, RFPs, PMQ depositions, subpoenas
In an ordinary two-car collision, the physical evidence tends to remain available for a reasonable period after the crash. Rideshare litigation is different. Trip data, GPS logs, and driver account histories are stored on corporate servers subject to internal retention policies the plaintiff's attorney does not control and often cannot predict. Some categories of data are routinely purged or overwritten on a rolling schedule measured in months, not years. The strategy begins with a preservation letter sent to the platform immediately upon retention, well before any lawsuit is filed.
A thorough preservation letter should specifically identify all trip data associated with the ride (GPS breadcrumbs, timestamps, route information); the driver's account history, including prior complaints, ratings, and safety flags; in-app messages between the driver and the passenger and between the driver and the platform; the driver's trip history for a defined period before the incident, relevant to fatigue theories; internal incident reports from the platform's safety team; and any dashcam or in-vehicle footage. Generic demands to preserve all relevant evidence are far less effective than an itemized list identifying specific data categories by name.
Start with written discovery on the existence and location of relevant data systems, then serve requests for production targeting the categories named in the preservation letter, with meet and confer sessions addressing burden or privilege objections.
Depose the platform's safety, trust, and data personnel to establish both what data exists and what the company's internal safety protocols required at the time of the incident.
Where appropriate, subpoena phone carriers or device manufacturers if multi-apping or driver phone use is a live issue in the case.
Rideshare companies commonly object that requests are overbroad, unduly burdensome, or seek proprietary trade secret information. Protective orders addressing confidentiality are often a reasonable middle ground. Once collected, the goal is synthesis, not accumulation: a chronological timeline combining GPS data, trip acceptance timestamps, driver history, and safety flags into a single narrative a jury can follow.
The case behind this page
How a jury held a driver and a TNC accountable at trial.
Read the full caseRelated doctrine
The theories the platform data is gathered to prove.
Read the doctrineRelated breakdowns from this case and our transportation practice.
We take rideshare and TNC injury cases as counsel or co-counsel and pay statutory referral fees.
Refer a caseRideshare platforms retain trip data, GPS logs, and driver account histories under internal retention policies that can result in relevant data being purged or overwritten within months. Sending a detailed preservation letter immediately after retention reduces the risk of losing critical evidence.
An effective preservation letter should specifically identify trip data, GPS records, driver account and complaint history, in-app messages, prior trip history relevant to fatigue analysis, and any internal incident reports, rather than making a generic demand to preserve all evidence.
Targeted requests for production, person most qualified depositions of the platform's safety and data teams, and third party subpoenas to phone carriers when device use is at issue are typically the most effective tools in TNC litigation.
