Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: Liability for eldrly parent

Yes if she is driving your car. This is called "permissive use" liability. The law caps the damages at $15k for injury to one person and a total of $30k for injury to more than one person.

Aside from permissive use liability, you can be sued for negligent entrustment. There is no cap on damages if you are found to have negligently entrusted your mother with your vehicle.

Re: Liability for eldrly parent

Only if she was driving your car, and you knew she wasn't competent to drive, or there were mechanical difficulties which caused the accident.

Re: Liability for eldrly parent

Maybe, but the fact that you are her son would not be reason enough to hold you liable. In addition to the reasons Mr. Bennett listed, you may be liable if you have legal guardianship or conservatorship of your mother or if you contributed in some other way to the accident -- for example, by giving her too much alcohol when you should have known she was about to drive.

Re: Liability for eldrly parent

Yes you can be sued if the accident is caused by your negligence. While this is theoretically possible, it is very unlikely. If your parent lives with you and is cared for by you, depending upon her condition you may be required to prevent her from driving. If you have doubts about her fitness to drive, and she is unwilling to not drive, you should contact the DMV and let them know and ask what they can do to suspend her license until she passes a driving test.

Re: Liability for eldrly parent

Thank you for your posting. The question is "it depends", mainly on additional facts. If you are on the title of the vehicle, then yes, you can be sued. If you are not on title, and had nothing to do with the accident, then the answer is, probably not.

If you have any other questions, feel free to email anytime at [email protected]. It's my pleasure to help if I can.