Many of us share motor vehicles, allowing our friends and family to borrow our cars to help them get where they’re going. Motor vehicle collisions are an inherent risk of using vehicles, and they can happen to anyone at anytime on the roads. It is important to know that if a car you own was involved in a collision, you can still be found liable for the damages even if you were not driving the vehicle.
After a motor vehicle collision, the police and insurance companies involved will sometimes try to assign fault to the parties involved. For example, when you are rear-ended, it is usually the person who rear-ended you who will be deemed to be at fault. However, the apportionment of fault does not stop there, especially if there is litigation involved. The lawyers on the case spend a lot of time analyzing the mechanics of a collision to come up with arguments about who is really at fault – to the benefit of the client they happen to represent.
Sometimes, the fault is clearly due to one driver’s obvious negligence, but it can go beyond that to the owner of the vehicle if it is a different person than the driver.
Some examples of how an owner can be found liable for a motor vehicle collision despite not operating the vehicle at the time of the collision include:
- Allowing a non-licenced person to operate your vehicle;
- Allowing an intoxicated person to operate your vehicle;
- Knowing that your vehicle is unfit and unsafe to be operated on the road and allowing someone to operate it, and the collision is caused by the mechanical issue of the vehicle that you knew existed; and
- Allowing an obviously incompetent driver to operate your vehicle.
The above list is not a complete list, and other sources of liability may exist.
To consult with a lawyer who has experience dealing with cases involving the liability of owners and operators involved in a motor vehicle collision, please contact our team at JEWELL RADIMISIS JORGE LL.P for a free initial consultation at 1 (855) 546-2525.