Independent Contractor (read: Uber) - lost wages, Ontario, Canada

Romantic Undead

Hi all!

I know we have some people with legal background here in the forums, so I thought I'd give a shot at asking:

My wife is an Uber driver and was recently involved in an accident where she was not at fault. We have a police report attesting to this and everything.

However, to complicate matters, a few factors have come into play; the crasher's insurance is being uncooperative, and there have been undue delays at the mechanic's. At this rate, my wife is facing over 2 weeks of lost wages due to circumstances out of her control, so my question is, what are her rights here, if any?

I did some googling and found nothing relevant to my wife's situation (rights of an independent contractor facing loss of the tools of her trade through no fault of her own leading to lost wages), so I turn to you guys. 2 weeks of lost wages amounts to approx. $1000 so we're prepared to go to small claims if necessary, provided there's even a case to be made here. Thank you in advance for any advice you can provide!

bowen

Do you keep track of income and report it properly on your taxes (quarterly as an IC)?

You'll likely need a lawyer because you're going to have to sue the insurance company and the person who hit your wife. But you'll need documentation and paperwork to back up your claims too. Lawyers that specialize in rideshare and taxi-like businesses will be your best bet.

zepherin

If you were in the US I would suggest you contact the commissioner of insurance of your state. Having someone from their office (even an admin) is likely to expedite your claim. I imagine Canada has an equivalent.

For most companies the commissioner of insurance calling is way more threatening than someone saying they are going to sue, because insurance companies get threatened with lawsuits daily, whereas the commissioner can freeze their ability to sell insurance in that state. So I'd suggest looking for the Ontario equivalent and call them.

Romantic Undead

bowen wrote: »

Do you keep track of income and report it properly on your taxes (quarterly as an IC)?

You'll likely need a lawyer because you're going to have to sue the insurance company and the person who hit your wife. But you'll need documentation and paperwork to back up your claims too. Lawyers that specialize in rideshare and taxi-like businesses will be your best bet.

yep, everything is documented and my wife did file this past year. Uber's automated systems do a lot of the work for her, they keep track of everything. Do you believe the expense of retaining a lawyer would be worth recovering the $1000 or so in lost wages? Feels like it might be kindof a wash.

bowen

Romantic Undead wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Do you keep track of income and report it properly on your taxes (quarterly as an IC)?

You'll likely need a lawyer because you're going to have to sue the insurance company and the person who hit your wife. But you'll need documentation and paperwork to back up your claims too. Lawyers that specialize in rideshare and taxi-like businesses will be your best bet.

yep, everything is documented and my wife did file this past year. Uber's automated systems do a lot of the work for her, they keep track of everything. Do you believe the expense of retaining a lawyer would be worth recovering the $1000 or so in lost wages? Feels like it might be kindof a wash.

It might be worth speaking to your own insurance company on how you should recover lost wages for rideshare in an accident, they might be the ones that need to deal with that actually.

You're right it's probably a wash to go with a lawyer.

Veevee

If this were America, and IANAL, but I'm near 100% certain that the responsible party for paying your wife her lost wages would be the person that crashed into her or their insurance if they would cover it. If you have insurance that will cover a commercial vehicle they would help you, but you will have to pay your deductible to get them started on the case. Otherwise your only hope to recover lost wages would be to sue them.

Serpent

In my limited experience, something like this would be paid for by MY insurance.

MY insurance company would then attempt to recover their costs from the other person or other persons insurance company.

If I didn't like the result, I would have to sue MY insurance company.

This is because the only party here with a contractual obligation to me is MY insurance company. I wouldn't be dealing the other party or their insurance at all.

Blarghy

Check your vehicle insurance policy for "Loss of Use" coverage. Then immediately call your insurance company to find out what and how much they cover. A common thing in insurance policies is that you need to take reasonable steps to limit your damages, so the longer you wait to find out your coverage, the more likely it is that they'll find your loss unreasonable.

Romantic Undead

Blarghy wrote: »

Check your vehicle insurance policy for "Loss of Use" coverage. Then immediately call your insurance company to find out what and how much they cover. A common thing in insurance policies is that you need to take reasonable steps to limit your damages, so the longer you wait to find out your coverage, the more likely it is that they'll find your loss unreasonable.

Thanks for this @Blarghy and @Serpent ; I'll have my wife look into this today. As an aside, one of the conditions of being an Uber operator is that you have to seek out commercial insurance, not personal, so it's possible that we may be convered. I'll let you know what we find out.