Judge Rules Lyft Withheld Evidence and Delayed Discovery in a Pre-Proposition 22 Dispute Over Gig-Worker Classification
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Asvar Law, P.C. announced today that a California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board judge has sanctioned Lyft, Inc. a total of $66,735 for willfully delaying discovery and repeatedly violating court orders to produce employment records in a catastrophic-injury case, finding that Lyft “acted with malice.”
The underlying case involves Mark Nahvi, a former Lyft driver who suffered catastrophic, permanent injuries after being violently attacked by a passenger while driving for Lyft in March 2018. Nahvi has sought workers’ compensation benefits ever since, but Lyft has denied his claim, contending he was an independent contractor rather than an employee — a classification issue that remains central to the case.
Since 2021, Nahvi’s attorneys have sought Lyft’s business and employment records through a subpoena and a series of subsequent court orders issued by four different Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board judges. According to Findings, Award and Orders issued on July 20, 2026 by Workers’ Compensation Administrative Law Judge M. Victor Bushin, Lyft repeatedly failed to comply with orders compelling production — including a February 2024 order compelling production of documents, and a March 2025 finding by a court-appointed discovery referee that Lyft’s delay was “unreasonable”.
In his opinion, Judge Bushin wrote that Lyft “willfully delayed” the case and that “the undersigned WCJ further finds Lyft acted with malice.” The judge awarded $64,735 in attorney’s fees and imposed an additional $2,000 sanction.
The dispute unfolds against the backdrop of California’s long-running fight over gig-worker classification — from the state Supreme Court’s 1989 Borello decision, through the 2018 Dynamex ruling and the 2019 passage of Assembly Bill 5, to the 2020 passage of Proposition 22, a ballot measure heavily funded by Lyft, Uber, and other gig-economy companies that exempted app-based drivers from AB 5. Nahvi’s 2018 injury predates Proposition 22 by more than two years.
About Asvar Law, P.C.: Asvar Law is a premier personal injury and workers’ compensation law firm serving all of California, specializing in catastrophic injury and traumatic brain injury litigation. Asvar Law has twice set the national record for the highest workers’ compensation settlement in the nation.
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SOURCE Asvar Law, PC
