Can a Delivery Driver Sue the App After Being Shot?

Attorney Answer

Probably not against the delivery app, and no one — including this page — can tell you what a claim is worth. The person who shot at you is the one legally responsible for what happened. Getting a company to answer for a stranger's crime is a much harder claim, and it is not automatic just because you were working at the time.

California sets the test for that harder claim. In Brown v. USA Taekwondo, 11 Cal. 5th 204 (2021), the California Supreme Court held that a duty to protect someone from a third party's criminal conduct is decided in two steps: first, whether the defendant had a special relationship with the person harmed (or some other basis for a duty to protect), and only then whether policy considerations should limit that duty. A platform is not responsible simply because it routed the delivery. What matters is the relationship, what the company knew, and what it did or failed to do.

Your work status is the other half of the question. Cal. Lab. Code § 2775(b)(1) sets the ABC test: a person providing labor for pay is treated as an employee unless the hiring entity proves all three of its conditions — freedom from control, work outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and an independently established trade. If you were an employee, injuries on the job normally run through the workers' compensation system, which Cal. Lab. Code § 3602(a) makes the exclusive remedy against an employer. If you were an independent contractor, that system generally does not cover you. California also has voter-approved rules that apply specifically to app-based drivers and can change this analysis; that is a question for a lawyer who can look at your agreement.

For the car, Cal. Civ. Code § 3333 sets the measure of damages: "For the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, the measure of damages, except where otherwise expressly provided by this Code, is the amount which will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused thereby, whether it could have been anticipated or not." That reaches the vehicle and the losses that followed from it. The obstacle is usually not the law but whether the person who fired can be identified and can pay.

What you can do

1. Get the police report number and request a copy of the report.

2. Save the app's record of that trip — screenshots of the delivery, the times, and any messages with support — before the account data ages out.

3. Report the injury and the vehicle damage to the platform in writing through its support channel, and keep the confirmation.

4. Ask your own auto insurer what your policy covers for a vehicle damaged by gunfire and whether you carry medical payments coverage.

5. Ask about California's state program that helps crime victims with medical bills and lost income; applying is an administrative process, not a lawsuit.

6. Ask a local lawyer whether you were an employee or an independent contractor on that trip, and what that means for your medical bills.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. An injury claim in California is generally governed by Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1, which allows two years for an action for injury to an individual caused by another's wrongful act or neglect; a claim for the damage to the vehicle runs on the three-year period of Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1). A workers' compensation claim has its own separate deadline. Which one controls depends on your facts, so have a local attorney review the dates.