Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
I was involved recently in an auto accident in which I rear ended another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle was unlicensed in the State of California and was cited by the police agency doing the investigation. My question is...should the unlicensed driver be tagged as party #1 or at fault due to the fact that he was unlicensed and therefore should not have even been on the road?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Whether or not somebody is licensed does not have anything to do with how the accident happened so to answer your question NO.
That's not how it works. Who was at fault depends upon how the parties were driving, not whether their paperwork was in order. If the accident was your fault, there is no good reason to let you off the hook just because the driver who wasn't at fault had done some other things wrong.
Not holding people in your situation accountable would lessen the incentive to drive carefully and make the roads less safe for everyone as a result. Thus, not only is there no good reason to let you off the hook, there is a very good reason not to.
As already noted, even though they were unlicensed, that does default them to at-fault status. i am reminded of a case where a person claiming to be a doctor performed a surgery. the patient sued because the "doctor" was not really a doctor at all. The court held that the surgery was performed well and therefore, he was not "at-fault."
Regards,
Bryan Becker
Becker Attorneys
www.becker-attorneys.com
877.201.8728
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