Safer Rides and Fairer Recoveries: What California’s New SB 623 Means

Senate Bill 623 was signed by the Governor on June 25, 2026. It is designed to make “rideshare” rides safer, and to crack down on unscrupulous lawyers and medical lien industry participants. The law applies only to accidents occurring on or after January 1, 2027, and which involve rideshare vehicles. For those accidents, it creates more regulations for unsafe and criminal drivers, increases transparency regarding medical bills after rideshare accidents, and protects individuals from hidden players who profit from injuries.

First, the law is intended to protect riders from predatory and criminal drivers. Rideshare companies must now conduct a background check on every driver before the driver picks up a passenger, and then repeat the check annually. The law also adds additional offenses to the list of disqualifying factors for drivers, including certain weapons crimes, violations of protective orders, and more convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Additionally, women passengers and women drivers can now choose to be matched with each other if they feel safer doing so.

Second, the law protects your recovery from being diminished by inflated liens from so-called lien doctors and lien buyers. After an accident, some medical providers treat patients on a lien, meaning they are paid out of your recovery in a personal injury case. That system has been abused by some unethical lawyers, as well as lien doctors and lien buyers with whom those lawyers routinely work. For rideshare accidents, SB 623 limits what can be charged for medical treatment provided on a lien to a recognized market standard. Additionally, when a lien is sold, financed, or factored, the lien buyer may collect no more than what was actually paid to acquire it. This means that a speculator who buys a plaintiff’s medical bill from a lien doctor for a fraction of its value can no longer demand the full face amount of the bill from the settlement. Any such sale must also be disclosed. The result is intended to reduce abuse by predatory lawyers and their undisclosed lien doctor and lien buyer business partners.

Finally, the law bars self-dealing attorneys from sending their clients to medical service providers that the attorney or the attorney’s family personally owns, and it prohibits secret kickbacks or referral payments between lawyers and lien-based medical providers.

If you are injured in a rideshare or auto accident in California, SB 623 is intended to provide you with a safer ride, more transparent medical billing, and a legal process focused on your interests.