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Uber driver charged with raping woman in D.C.

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Uber driver charged with raping woman in D.C.

#3

Post by freehunter »

nsxwolf wrote: post #2

Yikes. Anyone know how a startup protects themselves from liability in this kind of situation?

Attorneys. No matter what, make sure you have an attorney on retainer. People sue and get sued, and businesses have much more exposure to a lot more and varied types of people. If you're an even moderate business success, you'll be getting calls from lawyers or you'll be getting someone who tries to skirt your policy based on a loophole in your TOS/AUP/etc. Lawyer up. If you don't have the money for a lawyer to review your business with you, you're putting yourself and your customers at a risk that many would deem unacceptable.

Re: Uber driver charged with raping woman in D.C.

#5

Post by snprbob86 »

I don't really appreciate the fact that the suspect is named publicly, but the victim is not. It should be either neither, or both, preferably the former. Every time I see an article about rape, there are hints of bias to full on convictions in the court of public opinion. Innocent until proven guilty!

Uber probably has GPS data for the Driver's phone. Did he linger at the destination long enough for a rape to occur? Or did he immediately begin traveling towards his next fare?

There's a character witness for the driver, but what about for the woman? After all, she was just kicked out of a bar...

What is the status of her injury?

There's just not enough information here for this to justify as news quite yet.

Re: Uber driver charged with raping woman in D.C.

#6

Post by 1123581321 »

nsxwolf wrote: post #2

Yikes. Anyone know how a startup protects themselves from liability in this kind of situation?

You protect yourself by having proactive policies (e.g. Über will do well for themselves to show the extent of their background checks and driver training), business insurance and legal representation.

Re: Uber driver charged with raping woman in D.C.

#7

Post by speeder »

Rape accusations, true or not, always end destroying the accused, specially because there are low penalties for false accusations, and the media is very fast in plastering the person name and photo everywhere.

Also, being a driver is kinda dangerous regarding that, I have some driver friends, and they all have the same rule: They don't pick up lone women, period, it might be raining, hurricane, dust storm, middle of the night, day, whatever, if she is a woman, and alone, they don't pick up them, ever.

It is because here in Brazil at least, is a very common scam to a women accuse a driver (be him professional, like a cabbie or Uber-like driver, or a volunteer that wants to help a hitchhiker) of rape, or make threats to accuse him unless he pays her something.

On this case in particular, I think the best is wait for what a judge and evidence has to say.

Re: Uber driver charged with raping woman in D.C.

#9

Post by Aloisius »

speeder wrote: post #7

Rape accusations, true or not, always end destroying the accused, specially because there are low penalties for false accusations, and the media is very fast in plastering the person name and photo everywhere. Also, being a driver is kinda dangerous regarding that, I have some driver friends, and they all have the same rule: They don't pick up lone women, period, it might be raining, hurricane, dust storm, middle of…

Why don't your driver friends just put a small camera in the cab? In the US this is fairly common in cabs, though not at all in towncars. It prevents a whole host of potential problems.
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