What Denver Riders Should Do After an Uber or Lyft Assault
Colorado law sets a short clock on rideshare records, and it is the first thing worth knowing. Until the Public Utilities Commission adopts data-retention rules — which it has until June 1, 2028 to do — a rideshare company must keep any audio and video recordings it receives from a prearranged ride for thirty days. That window extends to one year, or until the investigation is finished, whichever is longer, if a person files a complaint against the company with the Commission, or if the ride becomes the subject of an active law enforcement investigation.
That single rule shapes what to do after an Uber or Lyft assault in Denver. What extends the thirty days is a formal step: a complaint filed with the Commission, or an active law enforcement investigation. Asking the company by email does not do it, and neither does calling a lawyer. The practical answer to “is there anything left to find?” depends on whether a formal channel is opened while the material still exists.
Two cautions before you start
Two cautions belong here at the start. The retention duty applies to recordings the company receives. It is not a requirement that rides be recorded, and it does not mean a recording of your ride exists. And retention is not access: the Commission’s rules on a complainant’s access to data, also due on or before June 1, 2028, have not been located, so no article can promise you a copy of anything.
Below is what Colorado requires of the company, an ordered list of steps, and how the civil deadlines work.
What Colorado requires Uber and Lyft to keep after a ride
The retention duty is the one in force today. Under C.R.S. § 40-10.1-610, added by HB 26-1424, a rideshare company must keep the audio and video recordings it receives from a prearranged ride for thirty days after that ride. If a person files a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission, the company must keep those recordings for one year or until any investigation is completed, whichever is longer. The same longer period applies if the ride becomes the subject of an active law enforcement investigation.
Read the limits carefully, because they are easy to overstate. This is a duty about recordings the company receives, not a rule that rides in Colorado are recorded. It does not tell you whether any recording of your trip was ever made. And the extension is triggered only by a Commission complaint or an active law enforcement investigation.
Riders often ask the responsibility question in the same breath: if a driver assaulted me, who answers for it? That is a separate subject, and we cover it in our article on who can be held liable for a sexual assault by an Uber or Lyft driver. This page stays with what to do next.
What to do after an Uber or Lyft assault in Denver
Here is the sequence, in the order the retention rule rewards.
- Get medical care. Do this first if you are hurt or unsure whether you are.
- Report to law enforcement. An active law enforcement investigation into the ride is one of the two things that extends the company’s retention duty from thirty days to at least a year.
- File a complaint with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. A complaint filed against the rideshare company with the Commission is the other trigger for the longer retention period.
- Save everything you already hold. Keep the trip receipt, the driver’s name as shown in the app, the pickup and drop-off times, screenshots of in-app messages, and any texts you sent to friends or family that night.
- Report it in the app. Reporting through Uber or Lyft creates a record with the company, though on its own it does not extend the thirty-day window.
- Write down what you remember. Do it while the detail is fresh, including the route and anything the driver said.
- Speak with a lawyer promptly. The deadlines below turn on how a claim is characterized, and that is not a question to settle from an article.
How the company must respond once a complaint is filed
Filing a complaint also switches on a response duty. Where a person has filed a complaint against a TNC or a driver, the company must respond to a subpoena or search warrant for information related to that complaint. The request can come from a court, the attorney general, a district attorney, the Public Utilities Commission or a law enforcement agency, and the company must respond within seventy-two hours unless the requesting party agrees otherwise. That rule sits in C.R.S. § 40-10.1-605(5)(b), which has been in force since August 12, 2026, and it applies to offenses committed on or after that date.
Note who holds that lever. The seventy-two hour duty runs to subpoenas and search warrants from those named bodies, after a complaint exists. It is not a right for a rider or a rider’s lawyer to demand records from Uber or Lyft directly. That is why the order of steps above matters: the formal channels are what give the request teeth.
How long you have to bring a civil claim in Colorado
Which deadline applies depends on how the claim is characterized. A civil claim based on sexual misconduct may be brought at any time — there is no limitation period at all. That holds both for a claim against the person who committed the misconduct and, under subsection (6), for a claim arising out of the same facts brought against someone who is not the perpetrator, such as a company. It applies to claims accruing on or after January 1, 2022, and to earlier claims whose deadline had not already run out by that date. That rule comes from C.R.S. § 13-80-103.7, enacted by SB 21-073. Sexual misconduct is a defined term in that section, and subsection (6) removes the limitation period without creating any claim or saying whether one succeeds.
Other claims run on shorter clocks. Under C.R.S. § 13-80-103(1)(a), a civil claim for the torts of assault or battery is generally subject to a one-year deadline. Two things sit beside that. A negligence claim is a different tort and keeps the two-year period under § 13-80-102(1)(a), which lists negligence expressly. And where the claim is based on sexual misconduct as § 13-80-103.7 defines it, § 13-80-103.7 displaces this one-year period entirely and the claim may be commenced at any time without limitation.
No article can tell you which of these applies to you. That answer turns on how the claim is characterized, and it is a question to put to a lawyer quickly.
Frequently asked questions
Does reporting to Uber or Lyft extend the thirty-day retention window?
No. The extension to one year, or until the investigation is finished, whichever is longer, is triggered by a complaint filed against the company with the Public Utilities Commission or by an active law enforcement investigation into the ride. A report inside the app creates a record with the company but does not, by itself, trigger the extension.
Can I get a copy of the recording from the ride?
Nothing verified supports that. The retention duty requires the company to keep recordings it receives; it says nothing about giving them to you. Commission rules on a complainant’s access to data are due on or before June 1, 2028, and no adopted rule has been located, so access remains unsettled.
What if the assault happened after I left the car?
Report it and preserve what you have either way. The retention and response duties described above turn on a complaint filed with the Public Utilities Commission or an active law enforcement investigation, not on where the incident occurred. Which civil deadline applies depends on how the claim is characterized, which is a question for a lawyer.
Talk to a Denver rideshare assault attorney
The thirty-day retention window can pass before anyone has answered the harder questions, which is why speaking with a lawyer promptly matters. Kurt Zaner of Zaner Law Personal Injury Lawyers is very active in the Trial Lawyer community, both locally and nationally, and he also speaks regularly for Trial Lawyers University.
Our office is across the street from Union Station in downtown Denver. Contact our Denver law office today for a free consultation, or call (720) 613-9706. You can also contact us online. También hablamos español.
