Late Thursday, the lawyer representing a class-action of Uber drivers e-mailed members of the press to say that two pivotal labor cases have been settled.

"We are very pleased to announce that Uber has agreed to a historic settlement of the claims we have brought in California and Massachusetts for misclassifying its drivers as independent contractors," Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney representing the drivers, e-mailed Ars in a statement.

"Under this agreement, Uber has agreed to pay up to $100 million to resolve these claims and will implement a number of significant policy changes."

The Boston-based attorney was referring to two cases, known as O'Connor v. Uber and Yucesoy v. Uber, respectively. The settlements must now be formally approved by the judges in each case to take effect.

Uber will be required to pay $84 million now and $16 million later "if Uber goes public."

In a statement , Travis Kalanick, the CEO of Uber, said that Uber would also agree to create an "appeals process" for drivers who feel that they were wrongly terminated.

"In fact, we’ve been working on a pilot in Seattle for the last few months, which includes having other drivers hear these appeals," he wrote. "Our hope is that this kind of peer review process will improve transparency and accountability and give drivers an additional voice. If this approach is successful, we’ll look at rolling it out across the US."

Drivers who put in more than 25,000 miles may receive $8,000 or more on average, if they opted out of Uber's arbitration clause, with drivers who put in less receiving lower shares.

"The formula accounts also for whether the drivers worked in California or Massachusetts (more of the settlement is allocated for California), whether they were included in the certified class (those who were will receive double credit for their miles), and whether they opted out of Uber's arbitration clause (those who did will also receive double credit)," Liss-Riordan added.

She also noted that Uber will create something called a "Driver Association," which will be able to represent drivers to the management each quarter. Furthermore, the company will "make clear to riders" that tips are not included in regular fares.

"Drivers will be permitted to put small signs in their cars stating that 'tips are not included, they are not required, but they would be appreciated,'" Liss-Riordan wrote.

She concluded: