Today I want to talk to you about negligence of children if they’re driving your vehicle. If you have a child who has a license and they’re driving your vehicle and they get into an accident, you are equally responsible for any of the damages that they cause because of their negligence while driving your vehicle. In Florida, this is called the dangerous instrumental
doctrine and basically what that says is that if you lend your vehicle out to somebody else, including your minor child, if they get into an accident you could be responsible. Now once they become eighteen if the car is in their name and not your name, you do have a level of protection, but if you keep the car in your name and they’re over the age of eighteen again, you can still be responsible for their negligence. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that you have full coverage under your policy and by full coverage, I mean enough on the limits of your bodily injury coverage and also to have uninsured motorist coverage, which I talk about in a different segment, but just make sure you have full coverage on your policy and make sure when you lend your car out to somebody that you understand that you could be responsible if they cause an accident. I hope this was helpful. If you have any further questions feel free to give us a call.
