By Diana Novak Jones
(Reuters) -Ride-hailing company Uber filed a lawsuit against a Miami law firm and a Miami medical center accusing them of orchestrating a medical and insurance scam that involved staged car collisions.
Uber, in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court in Miami, accuses personal injury firm Law Group of South Florida and firm attorney Andy Loynaz of participating in a scheme to pay drivers to intentionally collide with other cars and then claim they were using the Uber app while driving.
Auto mechanics and healthcare providers at River Medical Center in Miami and other clinics falsely said the crashes caused severe injuries and required medical treatments, according to the lawsuit. Those false statements formed the basis of bogus lawsuits against Uber and its insurer, according to the lawsuit.
Loynaz, described on the law firm’s website as a firm co-founder, declined to comment on Wednesday.
A person who answered the phone at River Medical Center declined to comment and declined to make anyone else available.
The lawsuit, which claims that four fraudulent lawsuits were filed in Florida court stemming from the scheme, didn’t specify how much they have cost Uber. The company’s lawsuit said Uber has spent several million dollars in defense costs and settlements.
Adam Blinick, Uber’s head of state and local public policy in the U.S. and Canada, in reply to a request for comment on the lawsuit, said in a statement that Uber will take action if it sees something inappropriate on the platform.
The 97-page lawsuit details five allegedly staged crashes, all of which took place near Hialeah, Florida, in 2023 and 2024.
After each crash, Loynaz submitted insurance claims for the people involved for the maximum amount allowed under the policy, $1 million, the lawsuit claims. After four crashes, Loynaz filed lawsuits that named Uber and its commercial auto liability insurance carrier. Some of the lawsuits are still pending in court, according to the lawsuit.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; editing by Leigh Jones and Leslie Adler)
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