17 year old involved in accident

jgra · #1 03-23-2008, 05:00 PM

What is the name of your state? South Carolina

Hello, My daughters boyfriend let her driver his car and rear ended someone. He was not in the car. She is 17 years old and only has a learners permit. He has insurenance on his vechle but she is not on it. She and 1 other was traported by ems with no serious injurys. The driver of the other vechile refused treatment saying she was not hurt.She was issued about a $1,000 in fines. We own a home and struggle to make ends meet and may be facing layoff in the next couple of month. My question is how may this come back on me and my wife. Do I need a laywer. What if I cannot afford one. Any help or advise would be a great help.

Thanks
JimWhat is the name of your state?

ecmst12 · #2 03-23-2008, 05:24 PM

She should be covered on his insurance since she had permission to drive the car. She will have to pay the fines. It should not affect you at all since she was not driving YOUR car.

las365 · #3 03-23-2008, 05:24 PM

I'm not a lawyer and don't know the laws of your state. This is general information only.

Since your daughter was driving with the permission of the owner of the insured vehicle, the damage to the other car and the other people should be covered by his insurance without a problem. It is probably unlikely that there will be damages in excess of the policy limits, so you don't need to get all worried about that at this time.

Your daughter's medical costs may or may not be covered depending on the kind of coverage the boyfriend has. If he has PIP, she can be reimbursed for medical costs up to the limit of that coverage. If he has liability only, she will not be covered.

Her fines, she (or you) will have to deal with. Has she already been to court and was fined? Or these were the potential fines on the ticket(s)? If she hasn't been to court, hiring a lawyer who deals with traffic tickets may be helpful.

I don't see why you would personally need an attorney at this time.

jgra · #4 03-23-2008, 05:39 PM

Thank you SO much for the responces.She has not been to court. This just happened yesterday. The police officer told her that she needed to get her licence before the court date and that fine will most likely get redused or dismissed. To the best of my knowldge her boyfriend only had lialbility. She and 1 other girl was transported to the hospital but both were realeased but bumps and bruises. Will his insurance take care of the other passanger if they persue other injurys?

ecmst12 · #5 03-23-2008, 06:35 PM

His insurance will cover the passenger. If you have health insurance, that will take care of your daughter's injuries. I guess the passenger was not a licensed driver either.

jgra · #6 03-23-2008, 06:41 PM

No there was no licenced drivers in the car. I do have full family health insurance. My biggest concern was that she is ok an my second is can the other passangers or the driver of the other car come after me since she is only 17 years old. Thanks for the reply.

ecmst12 · #7 03-23-2008, 06:52 PM

Generally speaking, the parents are not automatically liable for anything the child does.

jgra · #8 03-24-2008, 06:14 PM

Just want to thank everyone for the posts and give an update. I talked to my daughters boyfriends insurance company today. They said all the same things that the you people stated. They are going to add her to his insurance since she had his permission to drive his car and cover the accident. They are going to cover the repairs of the other car, all the medical bills for everyone involved execpt my daughter. I hope my healthcare insurance will cover her. They also said before they reinbursed any injury money to any of the other people involved they would have to sign a waiver saying they they cannot come back on my daughter with any type of law suite. I thought that was good. I hope they both learned a lesson in all of this but with kids these days you just never know. Thanks again to everyone.