(November 2021) - The Arizona courts have
held that auto policies that cover a driver or passenger when they
enter a vehicle may be limited to the literal meaning of the act of
entering a vehicle, excluding activities that may precede entering
a vehicle, like addressing other prospective passengers in the same
group of friends who are waiting to enter.
In Arizona, if a passenger contacts a rideshare company like
Lyft or Uber, when the operator arrives, they should enter the
vehicle immediately and carefully. If the passengers' friends
sharing the ride are not paying attention and are wandering around,
which often happens at the end of a night of imbibing, the
passenger should not exit the vehicle to round them up. The Arizona
Court of Appeals recently made this clear in Gonzalez v.
United Fin. Cas. Co., Docket No. 1 CA-CV 20-0363, 2021 Ariz.
App. Unpub. LEXIS 202, at *1-3 (Ct. App. Feb. 23, 2021). If the
passenger hesitates and doubles back for their friends,
