Hertz False Arrest Lawsuit: The $168 Million Settlement

What Hertz Did

Hundreds of Hertz customers alleged that the company falsely reported them to police for stealing rental cars — cars they had actually returned, extended or paid for. The suits described systemic failures: not recording rental extensions, wrongly claiming customers had not paid, losing track of its own vehicles, and failing to correct false theft reports. Some innocent renters were arrested at gunpoint, jailed for weeks or months, and charged with felonies.

This is not a product-defect case; it is about a company’s internal systems causing wrongful criminal accusations against its own customers.

The $168 Million Settlement

In December 2022, Hertz agreed to pay about $168 million to resolve roughly 364 lawsuits — covering around 95% of the pending false-arrest claims — brought by customers who were wrongly accused. The settlement followed public scrutiny and congressional and regulatory attention to how Hertz handled theft reporting.

A settlement of this size for false-arrest claims reflects the severity of the harm: wrongful arrest and detention, not merely a billing dispute.

What Renters Should Know

The case is a reminder to keep records of a rental’s return — the return receipt, date, and any extension confirmation — because those documents are what refute a false theft report. Anyone facing a wrongful theft accusation from a rental company should preserve every communication and seek counsel promptly.