BEFORE HANDING OVER YOUR KEYS, READ ON:
Holidays are here, kids coming home from college, family and friends coming to sunny South Florida or your employee needs to run an errand. All of them ask to borrow your car. Being the nice person you are, you hand over the keys.
Not so fast.
Before you go out and loan your vehicle to a friend, family member, child, or employee, make sure you understand what Vicarious Liability is, how it works, and whether you are protected in case the borrower wrecks your car- or someone else’s.
“Vicarious liability,” is the legal term that means that a vehicle owner may be held liable for a car accident even if the owner was not the one driving the vehicle at the time of the accident.
Examples of Vicarious Liability
There are several examples in which the law could assign fault to a non-driver of a car, truck or motorcycle accident.