By cryptoadmin 
Uber has filed a racketeering swimsuit in opposition to a bunch of authorized companies and medical professionals, claiming they staged automotive crashes and carried out pointless surgical procedures to commit insurance coverage fraud, Bloomberg reported. The group allegedly recruited passengers concerned in purported or minor automobile collisions and supplied "medical pointless… [sometimes] invasive and painful surgical procedures like spinal fusions," in keeping with the federal swimsuit filed in Brooklyn yesterday.
Driving the alleged racket is New York's no-fault insurance coverage, significantly because it applies to cab and rideshare chauffeurs. The town forces these employees to hold private damage protection as much as $200,000, 4 occasions that required for particular person drivers — offering potential scammers with profitable targets.
There are different points behind the declare. New York Metropolis's largest taxi insurer, ATIC (American Transit Insurance coverage Co.), which insures about 60 p.c of the 120,000 for-hire autos within the metropolis, not too long ago went bancrupt. Uber sued ATIC final 12 months, saying that its "unreasonable practices" spawned 23 lawsuits in opposition to Uber, forcing it to cope with the claims itself in court docket.
On high of that, ATIC itself filed a $450 million racketeering swimsuit in December final 12 months, additionally looking for damages from medical doctors and others for insurance coverage fraud. That has left New York with an enormous mess across the availability and pricing of for-hire insurance coverage, so Governor Kathy Hochul not too long ago proposed laws to make it simpler for insurance coverage to regulate industrial automotive insurance coverage price.
Uber has been pushing for insurance coverage and tort reform in a number of states to deal with rising insurance coverage prices which have harm its enterprise. The corporate not too long ago agreed to a $328 million settlement with New York rideshare drivers who had been underpaid between 2014 and 2017.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-files-racketeering-suit-against-new-york-groups-alleging-car-crash-fraud-130056714.html?src=rss