Uber To Pay Contingency Fee Bonuses To Executives To Get Rid of Contingency Fee System, Says Consumer Watchdog

LOS ANGELES, May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumer Watchdog today condemned the use of "contingency fee" executive bonuses for passing "insurance reform" measures, as outlined in Uber's Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, to reward executives for passing laws limiting accident victims' rights to recovery of damages and to contingency fee attorneys.

The bonuses were first revealed by the San Francisco Standard.  

"In California, you cannot pay a lobbyist contingent on a successful legislative result, but Uber paid its executives more based on the passage of SB 371, which limited Uber's responsibility for accident victims' recovery from uninsured motorists from $1 million to $60,000 per person," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "If companies cannot pay lobbyists success bonuses contingent on successful legislation, why should they be able to pay their executives what amounts to contingency fee bonuses. The irony is Uber executives will likely be paid contingency fee bonuses to get rid of the attorney contingency fee system if Uber's ballot initiative limiting accident victims' rights passes." 

California Government Code § 86205(f) states:  "No lobbyist or lobbying firm shall … accept or agree to accept any payment in any way contingent upon the defeat, enactment, or outcome of any proposed legislative or administrative action."  

Cal. Code Regs. § 18626 — Contingency Fees Prohibition clarifies that:  "any payment in any way contingent" includes fees, bonuses, commissions, salaries, or any compensation tied "to any degree" to the legislative or administrative outcome.  

"This is driving bad public policy," said Court. "When executives, like lobbyists, are personally financially incentivized to successfully achieve a legislative result, they often do what's best for themselves rather than what's best for the company or public policy by any means necessary. You would be hard pressed to find another major company with contingency fees to executives tied to legislative results. Uber executives got richer kneecapping innocent victims of accidents with uninsured motorists." 

SB 371 was specifically named in the proxy, as was insurance reform advocacy. Insurance reform was a specific performance goal for Jill Hazelbaker, Uber's Chief Marketing Officer and SVP, Public Affairs; Chief Legal Officer Tony West; President and COO Andrew Macdonald and CFO Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah.

Hazelbaker's 2025 individual goals in the proxy included: "Progress on insurance reform strategy. Generated hundreds of millions of dollars in annualized savings… including the passage of SB 371 in California… and through tort reform efforts at the state-level to combat legal system abuse, including the passage of two bills in Georgia."

The contingent fee payment added roughly $516,000 to Hazelbaker's bonus.  Uber announced Tuesday that Hazelbaker was promoted to President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. The promotion came with a $5,000,000 equity grant — $3,750,000 in Restricted Stock Units plus a $1,250,000 stock option award — per Uber's May 11 8-K.

West's 2025 individual goals were explicit, per the proxy: "Continue efforts on legal reform strategy. Engaged globally with regulators to advocate for fairer insurance policies… and combating legal system abuse through tort reform efforts and proactive litigation," and separately "Successfully advocated for reform in the U.S., delivering significant excess auto insurance reserve savings, including the passage of bills in Georgia… and the passage of SB 371 in California."

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog