Does equal fault bar an Oklahoma rideshare claim, and when does the $1 million apply?

Greater fault bars the claim. Equal fault does not.

“Greater degree” is the test. Fault that matches the other person’s fault is not greater. Fault that matches the combined fault of the people who caused the damage is not greater either. In those cases the claim is not barred. The recovery is reduced by the injured person’s share.

The two-year negligence clock is not this test. A claim for injury to the rights of another, not arising on contract, and a claim for injury to personal property, may be brought within two years after the claim accrues. 12 O.S. § 95(A)(3). A wrongful-death action must be started within two years. 12 O.S. § 1053(A). Assault and battery use one year. A suit on the insurance contract is a different clock: five years if the contract is in writing, and three years if it is not. 12 O.S. § 95(A)(1) and (2). Compiled Title 12.

A claim against the state, a city, a county, or another political subdivision does not use that two-year negligence period. It uses the notice rules below.

Acceptance is the switch. Logged on, by itself, is not.

Since November 1, 2017, the lower rideshare liability amount applies when the driver is logged on and available to receive requests, and is not in a prearranged ride. 47 O.S. § 1025(B). The 2017 amendment, Laws 2017, c. 290, § 2, added “available to receive transportation requests.” The dollar sentences have been in force since July 1, 2015. Laws 2015, c. 279, § 16.

That pre-acceptance amount is primary automobile liability of at least $50,000 for death and bodily injury per person, $100,000 per incident, and $25,000 for property damage. The property-damage figure matches the ordinary Oklahoma floor. The bodily-injury pair is higher than the ordinary $25,000 and $50,000 pair.

A prearranged ride begins when the driver accepts a request through the digital network. It continues while the driver transports a requesting rider. It ends when the last requesting rider departs the personal vehicle. 47 O.S. § 1011(3). Acceptance includes the drive to the pickup. The statute does not set a lower liability amount for the time after acceptance and before the rider is in the car.

During the prearranged ride, primary liability must provide at least $1,000,000 for death, bodily injury, and property damage. 47 O.S. § 1025(C)(1). That is one amount. The statute does not split it into a per-person limit, a per-incident limit, and a property-damage limit. Seating does not change it. A separate rule tells the company to prohibit a prearranged ride in a vehicle with a designed seating capacity of more than fifteen people, including the driver. 47 O.S. § 1022. That rule is not a second liability limit.

The statute does not define “available.” It does not fix a minute after “when the last requesting rider departs from the personal vehicle.” It does not use an app-completion test. After that departure, if the driver is still logged on and available and has not accepted another ride, liability returns to at least $50,000, $100,000, and $25,000. Check with an Oklahoma attorney about a paused app or a destination filter.

These sections reflect the legislature’s compiled Title 47, a PDF dated December 30, 2025, accessed October 3, 2026. Compiled Title 47. House Bill 4357 (2026) is not law. The pre-acceptance floor in that compilation is still $50,000, $100,000, and $25,000. HB 4357 bill history.

A personal vehicle under this act is owned, leased, or otherwise authorized for use by the driver. It is not a taxicab, limousine, or similar for-hire vehicle. A prearranged ride also does not include a shared-expense carpool or vanpool, or a taxi, limousine, or other for-hire trip. 47 O.S. § 1011. The company certificates below do not describe a taxi, a limousine, or a delivery trip as a covered auto.

Logged off, do not treat the company policy as the vehicle’s registration security. While the driver is logged into the network, insurance that satisfies § 1025 is deemed to satisfy the Chapter 7 financial-responsibility requirement. 47 O.S. § 1025(G). That sentence stops at “logged into the network.”

The ordinary floor, for a policy issued or renewed on or after April 1, 2005, is $25,000, $50,000, and $25,000 under 47 O.S. § 7-103. The official print shows the one-person figure as ($25,000.000), with an extra zero after the decimal. That extra zero is not a $25,000,000 limit. The same paragraph is not a reason to write the current floor as $10,000, $20,000, and $10,000. 47 O.S. § 7-103.

In each rideshare period, the driver, the company, or a combination may satisfy the requirement. The policy must recognize that the driver is a transportation network company driver or otherwise uses a vehicle to transport passengers for compensation. 47 O.S. § 1025(A), (B)(3), (C)(3). The coverage may be placed with an insurer authorized in Oklahoma or with an eligible surplus lines insurer. 47 O.S. § 1025(F); 36 O.S. § 1100 and following.

The exclusion says “logged on.” It does not repeat “and available.”

An insurer that writes automobile insurance in Oklahoma may exclude any coverage under the owner’s policy for a loss while a driver is logged on to a company’s digital network, or while a driver provides a prearranged ride. The right to exclude may reach liability, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, medical payments, comprehensive physical damage, and collision physical damage. 47 O.S. § 1027(A).

The coverage trigger and the exclusion do not use the same words. After November 1, 2017, the $50,000 / $100,000 / $25,000 requirement applies when the driver is logged on and available. The exclusion permission still says “logged on.” It does not repeat “and available to receive transportation requests.”

A driver who is logged on but not available can sit outside the pre-acceptance liability requirement and still sit inside the words of that exclusion permission. Whether a particular policy is written that broadly is a question for the policy. The statute permits the exclusion. It does not say every personal policy has used it.

The exclusions apply notwithstanding Chapter 7 of the Highway Safety Code. Nothing in § 1027 requires a personal policy to cover the driver while logged on, on a prearranged ride, or using a vehicle to carry passengers for pay. Nothing stops an insurer from covering that use by contract or endorsement. 47 O.S. § 1027(B). An insurer that excludes the coverage has no duty to defend or indemnify a claim the policy expressly excludes. An older public-for-hire exclusion, already in use or approved before the 2015 act, is not wiped out. 47 O.S. § 1027(C).

If an insurer defends or indemnifies a claim that its own policy excluded, it has a right of contribution against other insurers that provide the coverage § 1025 requires at the time of the loss. That right belongs to an insurer that paid a claim its policy excluded. It is not a general sharing rule for two policies that both cover the loss.

The section does not say a logged-off trip is immune from a business-use exclusion. Check with an Oklahoma attorney about a particular personal policy.

Before the driver may accept a request, the company has to disclose in writing the coverage and limits it provides, and that the driver’s own policy might not cover the driver while logged on and available, or on a prearranged ride, depending on the policy. 47 O.S. § 1026. In a coverage investigation, the company and any insurer that might cover the loss have to exchange the precise log-on and log-off times for the twelve hours before the accident and the twelve hours after it, plus the coverage, exclusions, and limits. 47 O.S. § 1027(D). On request, the driver has to say whether the driver was logged on or on a prearranged ride, and has to give the coverage information to directly interested parties, insurers, and investigating police officers. Electronic proof is allowed. 47 O.S. § 1025(H).

If the company’s insurer pays a comprehensive or collision claim, the payment goes directly to the business repairing the vehicle, or jointly to the owner and the primary lienholder. 47 O.S. § 1028. That sentence assumes the claim is paid. It does not require the company to buy comprehensive or collision.

Uninsured coverage stays the rejectable 25/50 floor

Liability coverage and uninsured motorist coverage answer different questions. Liability responds to the rideshare driver’s legal responsibility for the accident. Uninsured motorist coverage, under 36 O.S. § 3636, is for a person insured under the policy who is legally entitled to recover bodily-injury damages, including death, from the owner or operator of an uninsured vehicle or a hit-and-run vehicle.

Both rideshare periods use the same sentence. Section 1025(B)(2) and § 1025(C)(2) require uninsured motorist coverage where it has not been waived under 36 O.S. § 3636. They do not require $1,000,000 of uninsured motorist coverage. They do not say the uninsured limit equals the liability limit. Acceptance raises the liability figure. It does not raise this one.

Section 3636 is one bodily-injury coverage. Underinsured vehicles sit inside it. An insured motor vehicle is included when its liability limits are less than the amount of the claim, and also when its insurer cannot pay because of insolvency. 36 O.S. § 3636(C). That is a claim-to-limits comparison. It is not a separate underinsured statute. The section does not create a property-damage uninsured-motorist dollar. Hit-and-run vehicles are inside subsection B. The section does not print a police-report deadline, a witness rule, or a physical-contact rule.

The coverage has to be offered. A named insured or applicant may reject it in writing, or select a lower limit. The rejection or lower-limit selection remains valid for the life of the policy and does not have to be redone on a renewal, reinstatement, substitute, replacement, or amended policy issued to the same named insured by the same insurer or an affiliate. 36 O.S. § 3636(G). The text read October 3, 2026 carries a history line ending at Laws 2014, c. 307, § 1, eff. November 1, 2014. 36 O.S. § 3636.

If the coverage is not rejected, the floor is the bodily-injury amount for a policy meeting 47 O.S. § 7-204. Section 7-103 sets that minimum at $25,000 for one person and $50,000 for two or more persons in one accident, for a policy issued or renewed on or after April 1, 2005. The selection form in § 3636(H) prints that choice as $25,000.00 per person / $50,000.00 per occurrence. The form says it is not part of the policy and does not itself provide coverage.

Higher limits must be offered, up to the policy’s bodily-injury liability limits, and they are purchased only if desired. A policy with $1,000,000 of liability is not, by that fact, a policy with $1,000,000 of uninsured motorist coverage. Check with an Oklahoma attorney about whether a combined single limit counts as the bodily-injury liability limits for the top of that offer. The certificates below do not show the offer, and they do not show a purchase.

Policies issued, renewed, or reinstated after November 1, 2014, are not subject to stacking unless the carrier expressly provides for it. 36 O.S. § 3636(B). After a payment, the insurer is entitled, to the extent of the payment, to the proceeds of a settlement or judgment against the person legally responsible. A payment by the insured tortfeasor does not reduce the insured’s own uninsured-motorist limits. If there is a tentative agreement to settle for the liability limits, the uninsured-motorist insurer has sixty days after it receives the statutory notice to substitute its payment. 36 O.S. § 3636(F).

Check with an Oklahoma attorney before relying on whether the policies on the Uber and Lyft certificates were issued for a vehicle registered or principally garaged in Oklahoma, or whether a named insured signed a § 3636 rejection. The certificates are not that form. A personal policy may exclude uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage while the driver is logged on or providing a prearranged ride. 47 O.S. § 1027(A). The rideshare statute does not say a passenger’s own uninsured-motorist coverage is preserved on top of the company coverage. Whether that policy applies is a question for its own terms.

First-dollar company coverage applies when the driver’s policy lapses or falls short

If insurance the driver maintains for subsection B or C has lapsed, or does not provide the coverage the section requires, the company’s insurance provides the coverage required by § 1025 from the first dollar, and it has the duty to defend. 47 O.S. § 1025(D). The company may not wait for a personal denial. Company coverage shall not depend on a personal insurer denying the claim first. 47 O.S. § 1025(E).

“The coverage required by this section” is the liability floor for that period, and uninsured motorist coverage where it has not been waived. The first-dollar sentence does not promise every extra limit a certificate prints above the floor. It does not fill a certificate row that leaves the liability cells blank. It does not turn a printed sentence that uninsured coverage “is not included” into a purchased uninsured policy. It does apply when the driver’s policy fails to provide the required coverage, not only when the policy is missing.

The section does not say the two policies share pro rata. It does not say the company policy is excess when the driver’s policy is in force and meets the floor. Check with an Oklahoma attorney about how two adequate policies share a loss, and about a driver logged into more than one app who has not accepted a request. The act does not split that loss across the apps.

A Corporation Commission filing rule uses “excess” for a different job. When more than one insurer files in order to aggregate security limits, the Commission will approve no more than one primary filing and no more than two excess filings for each motor carrier. OAC 165:30-6-5. That “excess” is a filing category. It is not a rule that, at the time of an accident, the company policy is excess to a driver policy that already meets § 1025. Failure to keep required insurance in force suspends the permit. The annual permit fee is $5,000. That fee is not a coverage limit. The Commission permits and regulates compliance. It does not adjudicate a private claim from a prearranged ride. 47 O.S. § 1013. OAC 165:30-6-5.

The first-dollar duty also does not say the company must replace non-statutory pieces of a lapsed personal policy, such as an uninsured-motorist selection above the $25,000 / $50,000 floor, or comprehensive and collision the driver dropped.

Uber prints 50/100/25, then one $1 million limit, and says UM/UIM is not included

The file linked from Uber’s Oklahoma certificates list is issued by United Financial Casualty Company, NAIC 11770, produced by Progressive. The face does not print the word Oklahoma. The state label comes from Uber’s index. The insured block names Rasier, LLC and related Rasier entities. Non-owned autos only is checked. The claim link on the form is http://t.uber.com/claims. Uber certificate PDF.

• Policy 06258211, certificate date March 1, 2026, policy period March 1, 2026 through March 1, 2027. Logged on, available, no request accepted. The cells say $50,000 bodily injury per person, $100,000 bodily injury per accident, and $25,000 property damage per accident. No combined single limit is printed.
• Policy 06278462, certificate date September 1, 2026, same policy period. Acceptance recorded, then traveling to the pickup or from the pickup toward the final destination. The cell says $1,000,000 combined single limit. The split cells on that row are blank. September 1, 2026 is the date box. It is not a new inception.
• Physical damage is in the remarks to policy 06278462 only, effective March 1, 2026. Comprehensive and collision, actual cash value, deductibles $2,500 and $2,500. It is not attached to policy 06258211.

Both automobile forms state: “Uninsured Motorist (UM) / Underinsured Motorist (UIM) coverage is not included in any amount.” That sentence is on the waiting form and on the accepted-trip form. The certificate is not the § 3636 rejection form. Check with an Oklahoma attorney before treating the sentence as a completed waiver.

The $1,000,000 combined single limit matches the statutory dollar in § 1025(C)(1) in amount. The statute does not use the words “combined single limit.” The certificate does not recite “for death, bodily injury, and property damage.” The combined single limit is not, by itself, uninsured-motorist coverage.

The statute can still treat an accident as a prearranged ride after the car has stopped, if the rider has not departed. Check with an Oklahoma attorney about whether Uber’s “traveling to the final destination” wording covers a stopped car with the rider still inside. The certificate does not print a personal-injury-protection dollar or a medical-payments dollar. The workers’ compensation boxes are blank. A national Uber page is not this certificate.

Lyft prints three policy numbers, and one liability row is blank

Lyft’s certificate is issued by State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, NAIC 25143. The face says “Evidence of Insurance Only For the State of OK.” The ACORD date is October 1, 2026. Every dated row runs October 1, 2026 through October 1, 2027. The only insurer named is State Farm. The form does not label any row as waiting, en route, or passenger in the vehicle. Lyft certificate PDF.

• Policy 4728530-D01-36: $1,000,000 combined single limit. The split cells are blank. The physical-damage remarks name this policy for $2,500 comprehensive and $2,500 collision.
• Policy 4728531-D01-36: bodily injury $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident, and property damage $25,000 per accident. The physical-damage remarks do not name this policy.
• Policy 4728526-D01-36: no liability dollar. The combined-single-limit, bodily-injury, and property-damage cells are blank. The remarks name this policy for the same $2,500 comprehensive and $2,500 collision deductibles.

Those dates are the dates printed on the rows. They are not a sorting of the three policies into a pre-acceptance period and a prearranged-ride period. The certificate does not say which number applies before acceptance, which applies after acceptance, or what liability limit, if any, applies to 4728526-D01-36. A reader can see that $1,000,000 and $50,000 / $100,000 / $25,000 are both printed, and that those amounts match the two statutory liability figures. The form still does not say which policy is which. Check with an Oklahoma attorney before assigning them.

The form does not mention UM, UIM, PIP, or MedPay. Silence is not a printed limit, and it is not a printed rejection. The physical-damage remarks say the limit is actual cash value or the cost to repair, whichever is less, less the $2,500 deductible. They do not say that coverage is contingent on the driver’s own comprehensive and collision. They do not say during which use it applies. No employers’ liability dollar is printed.

A claim against a city or the state needs written notice within one year

If the accident involves a city bus, a police car, another public vehicle, or a road defect, the Governmental Tort Claims Act applies. Written notice must be presented within one year of the loss, or the claim is forever barred. Notice to the state goes to the Risk Management Administrator. Notice to a city or county goes to the clerk of its governing body. Incapacity caused by the injury can extend that time by up to 90 days. 51 O.S. § 156.

A claim not approved within 90 days is deemed denied. Suit must then be filed within 180 days after the denial. A written extension cannot run past two years from the date of the loss. 51 O.S. § 157. Compiled Title 51.

The Act also sets dollar limits on what a government body pays. The official compilation prints two conflicting 2025 versions of that section.

For injuries on or after September 1, 2025, pain and suffering is capped at $500,000, with exceptions

Economic damages, such as medical bills and lost earnings, have no limit. Noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering, are capped at $500,000 for a bodily injury that occurred on or after September 1, 2025. 23 O.S. § 61.3(B) and (C)(1), Laws 2025, c. 311, § 10. The same act repealed the earlier cap in § 61.2.

• No cap for a permanent and severe physical injury: substantial physical abnormality or disfigurement, loss of use of a limb, loss or substantial impairment of a major organ or body system, or inability to care for oneself. § 61.3(C)(2).
• $1,000,000 cap for a permanent mental injury that severely impairs the person’s ability to work or standard of living. § 61.3(D).
• No cap where the judge and jury find by clear and convincing evidence that the conduct was in reckless disregard, grossly negligent, fraudulent, or intentional or malicious. § 61.3(E).

The jury must itemize economic and noneconomic damages. § 61.3(F). The section does not apply to suits under the Governmental Tort Claims Act. § 61.3(G). For injuries before September 1, 2025, no cap is stated.

Punitive damages

Each category requires clear and convincing evidence. Reckless disregard allows up to the greater of $100,000 or actual damages. Intentional and malicious conduct allows up to the greatest of $500,000, twice actual damages, or the defendant’s financial benefit. With an added court finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, of conduct that threatened human life, there is no cap. 23 O.S. § 9.1. Compiled Title 23.

Injury accidents are reported to police right away, and in writing if not settled in six months

After an accident involving injury or death, the driver must immediately notify the local police department inside a city, or otherwise the county sheriff or the nearest Highway Patrol office. 47 O.S. § 10-107.

A written report goes to the Department of Public Safety for an accident with injury, death, or apparent property damage over $300 if it has not been settled within six months. If it is settled, the parties report the settlement. Collisions on private property are excepted from that written report, though police must respond to a private-property accident involving injury, a possibly impaired driver, or a government vehicle. The department then notifies the other parties, who have 20 days to supply insurance information. 47 O.S. § 10-108. Compiled Title 47.

A car with no human driver needs $1 million of coverage. How the rideshare periods apply is unsettled.

Before a fully autonomous vehicle operates without a human driver, its operator must prove at least $1,000,000 of insurance or self-insurance to the Department of Public Safety. 47 O.S. § 1704. The vehicle must stay at the scene where the accident-reporting sections require it, and the owner must report the accident. § 1705.

A driverless ride network may operate under the rideshare, taxi, or for-hire laws, and rideshare provisions that reasonably apply only to a human driver do not apply. § 1706, Laws 2022, c. 132. The statute does not say how the logged-on and prearranged-ride periods in § 1025 work without a driver. Check with an Oklahoma attorney about whether a driverless rider has $1 million under § 1025.

Oklahoma does not require a PIP dollar

Oklahoma is a tort state for this accident. Fault still matters, under the greater-degree rule above. The rideshare insurance section does not mention personal injury protection, basic reparation benefits, or a medical-payments amount, and it does not set a tort threshold. There is no required PIP dollar stated.

Medical-payments coverage appears in 47 O.S. § 1027(A) only as one of the coverages a personal auto insurer may exclude while the driver is logged on or providing a prearranged ride. Neither certificate prints a PIP limit or a MedPay limit. Do not read the $1,000,000 liability figure as a medical-payments benefit.

Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Norman follow the state insurance section

Regulation of companies for prearranged rides is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, together with rules consistent with the act. A political subdivision may not impose a tax on, or require a license for, a company or driver for prearranged rides, and it may not subject a company to the subdivision’s rate, entry, operational, or other requirements. 47 O.S. § 1030(A). Corporation Commission transportation network companies.

The main markets, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Norman, all fall under that state rule. None has its own rideshare insurance requirement.

Oklahoma City Ordinance No. 25,189, adopted July 21, 2015, repealed the city’s transportation-network article. Sections 60-56-10 and 60-56-11 are reserved. The city’s vehicles-for-hire licensing page does not state a transportation-network liability dollar. It does say a transportation network vehicle may not park at a taxi stand. Oklahoma City code, reserved sections. Oklahoma City vehicles for hire.

Tulsa International Airport’s ground-transportation policy, amended February 9, 2023, tells transportation network companies to comply with 47 O.S. § 1010 and following. That section sets geofence, staging, and no-dwelling rules. It does not print a separate transportation-network liability dollar. An appendix written for commercial operators states a commercial automobile figure and then points peer-to-peer rideshare companies back to the statutes. Check with an Oklahoma attorney before relying on that appendix figure for the statutory pre-acceptance period. It is not an uninsured-motorist increase. Tulsa ground transportation policy.