The judicial front in the long-running battle over Uber and Lyft's treatment of Massachusetts workers has been a flurry of paperwork for nearly four years. That's about to change.
When she first filed the lawsuit, then-Attorney General Maura Healey alleged that Uber and Lyft"have gotten a free ride for far too long." Lauren Moran, the chief of Attorney General Andrea Campbell's fair labor division, is expected to testify. Uber's head of U.S. city operations, Chad Dobbs, is on the witness list, as are a handful of Lyft executives.
In response, the ride-hailing apps will contend that their models are too novel to be defined as traditional employment. They say drivers have — and widely prefer --the flexibility to work as little or as much as they want, set their own hours and decline rides at will, plus pick up trips for direct competitors.
Much has changed in the nearly four years since Campbell's predecessor, now-Gov. Healey, filed a lawsuit against Uber and Lyft in July 2020.