Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Parental Financial Liability for Minor's Actions

Yes. Parents are financially responsible for the wrongful acts committed by their minor children.

Re: Parental Financial Liability for Minor's Actions

Thank you for your posting.

In California, there are basically five ways that a parent can be legally responsible for the actions of his or her child.

One way is if the parent knows the child has a tendency toward misconduct that could injure someone or damage another person's property and fails to take reasonable steps to control the child and prevent such misconduct.

A common example of this would involve use of the family car. If the child has a track record of driving irresponsibly, such as a reckless driving or drunk driving conviction, causing accidents, or numerous tickets for moving violations, the parent should refuse to let the child use the car.

This liability is called "negligent entrustment."

If a parent has signed a child's driver's license application, the parent has limited responsibility for accidents caused by the child.

A minor's application for a driver's license cannot be granted unless it is signed by a parent, guardian, or someone with custody of the child. The person signing the application is liable for negligent acts of the minor driver.

In most cases, this liability is limited to $15,000 for injury to one person and $30,000 for more than one person. There is also a property damage limitation of $5,000.

Even if the parent did not sign the child's driver's license application (and even if the child has a good driving record) the parent is still responsible for accidents caused by the child while driving the parent's car with permission. Unlike negligent entrustment, this liability is restricted to the $15,000/$30,000 limits.

California law also holds a parent responsible for the wilful acts of his or her child which causes injury to a person or damage to property. For example, if a child decides to join his buddies in "egging" another child's house, his parents may wind up paying for a paint job.

Liability in these cases is limited to $25,900 for each wrongful act. There is a similar statute relating to damage to school property with a $10,000 limit.

Finally, parents can be responsible for injuries caused by a child using a gun. This occurs if a parent allows a child� to use a gun, or leaves a gun in a place where a child can get to it.

In general, the law expects parents to act reasonably when it comes to controlling their children. If they do, all should be well. However, if they don't, and their child causes injury to another person or damages property, the parents could be facing some severe financial penalties.

Finally, the registered owner of a vehicle, parent or not, can legally be sued for the driver's negligent or intentional acts.

I hope this helps, and if you have other questions, need more information, or feel that you need legal representation, please feel free to email me directly at [email protected]. I'm happy to help in any way that I can.