Don’t Strangle Uber!

The tech community is rightly on edge because of a 12-page decision that Stephanie Barrett, a California hearing officer, filed in Berwick v. Uber Technologies earlier this summer. Ms. Barrett awarded Barbara Berwick $4,152, most of which was for reimbursable expenses for mileage and tolls, for the two month period that she worked for Uber in 2014. It was clear to Berwick when she had signed up with Uber that she would be responsible for paying these expenses out of the fees remitted to her under the standard Uber agreement whose provisions were at issue in this case.