If you let another person drive your car and that person causes an accident, are you liable for the damages? That depends on the state. Some states have a “Permissive user” statue, which makes you liable for injuries caused by the carelessness of anyone driving your car with your permission. However, such laws may limit the amount of your financial responsibility. In other states, you aren’t liable unless you yourself did something wrong, such as failing to maintain the vehicle in a safe condition and that dangerous condition caused that accident. In all states, you can he held liable for injuries and damages if you lend your car to someone you know is an unsafe driver. As example: Stacy lets her cousin Jim drive her car, even though she knows Jim has caused several accidents and has accumulated a number of traffic citations for speeding and other offenses. Jim gets into an accident with Stacy’s car, caused by his speeding. Is Stacy liable to the injured person for his or her bodily injuries and the damage to his or her car? Yes. In this case, Stacy exercised bad judgment when she handed the keys to her car to a known poor driver, Jim, and is therefore liable for “negligent entrustment.”

Is a parent liable if a child causes an accident while driving the family car? A number of states have a rule called the “family purpose” doctrine, which makes the owner of a vehicle liable for the injuries and damage caused by a spouse or child while driving the car on a family errand. If, for example, a daughter is on her way to the supermarket at her mother’s request and gets into an accident, her parents are liable for the injuries and damages she causes (assuming both parents’ names are on the title). However, if their son, a high school senior, gets into an accident on the way to the school’s Friday night football game, the parents would not be liable, since the boy was not running an errand for the family, but was on a purely personal outing. In states with permissive use statutes, the owner of the vehicle is liable regardless of why the child was using the car, as long as the child was using the car with permission, which can be either express or implied. Hence in both examples used above, in a state with a permissive user law the parents would be liable in both situations. The only way they would not be liable for the injuries and damages done by the son is if they had “grounded” the son and took away his driving privileges for the weekend, and the son was acting in defiance of their orders.

Personal injury law is complicated and should be handled by an experienced Fairfield injury lawyer. If you or a loved one has been injured due to negligence of another it is important to call Fairfield injury attorney Dionne Choyce and protect your legal rights.

CHOYCE & CROWELL
711 Jefferson, Suite 204
Fairfield, CA 94533
Office: 707-422-1202
Fax: 707-422-1292

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We Produce RESULTS in Personal Injury: If you’ve been injured in an auto accident, dog bite, or slip and fall or other accident, you need an attorney who will not only work hard for you, but who will produce RESULTS. Our office has an excellent track record producing great results. For example: One recent client was injured when a car pulled in front of his motorcycle. He trusted our firm to represent him and we recovered a $1.6 million settlement. He is healing rapidly and is already back to boating and his other normal leisure activities.*

Our office fought for a child who was bitten by a neighbor’s dog. We were able to obtain $275,000 for the child.*

A recent broadside collision resulted in knee surgery for our client; we “busted” the driver’s insurance policy and recovered $100,000 for our client*.