What is the extent of my liability as the title owner of a car driven by my 20-year-old daughter who was at fault?

The owner and the driver are liable for an accident if the driver was operating with permission of the owner. If you have liability insurance on the car, you would only be personally liable for a judgment in excess of the policy limits.

You need to sit down with a lawyer who is conversant with liability claims (most PI lawyers). The owner and operator of a vehicle are liable for its operation, and if you don't have sufficient coverage you may be personally liable. You may ultimately need to see a bankruptcy lawyer as well if the claims are genuinely worth more than the coverage you ought to have your own personal lawyer in addition to the insurance co lawyer.

In situations like this, your insurance company should have advised you in writing to hire your own personal attorney. Here's the reason: If the case is clearly a "policy limits" case, then your personal attorney should be involved and should be making demand on your insurance carriers to settle the case for policy limits so as to set up a "bad faith" claim against the insurance companies if they have the opportunity to settle the case for policy limits rather than forcing a trial and exposing you to an excess verdict. Then if they force it in to trial and you get hit with an excess verdict, you can sue your own insurance company and/or work a deal with the plaintiffs whereby they take your "bad faith claim" against your insurance company in exchange for releasing you from the excess verdict.

If you are sued your insurer should provide legal counsel for you. You should ask them for advice and to answer your questions. In Michigan, it would not be you, or your daughter, that would be liable for the medical expenses of the injured people, it would be their own insurer. Such medical payments would not come from, nor count against, your liability limits. In Michigan, the owner of a vehicle is co-extensively liable along with the negligent operator if the vehicle was used with permission. However, a spouse of a titled owner bears no responsibility if they are not on the title. Thus joint assets of spouses would generally not be available to satisfy any excess Judgment as the non-titled spouse would have no liability for someone else negligently operating a vehicle. I don't know enough about the law of retirement accounts to advise as to whether they are excluded from liability judgments, but I think they may be? If this matter is not in suit, you may wish to hire counsel to give you specific advice based on your facts and the law of your state (since it may not be Michigan, even though this question is posted on a Michigan forum).

Unless your daughter was an incompetent driver and the car was yours, it is not likely you and your wife will be held liable. Your daughter may wind up getting a judgment against her, though. The best you can do to protect yourselves is to tell the insurance company to settle within the limits of the policy. If they don't and you get hit with an excess judgment, the insurance company picks up the tab. Hopefully, the couple hit has uninsured motorist coverage and will settle with your carrier within the limits so they can pursue their UM coverages. Good luck.

Since your daughter is not longer a minor, your liability is limited to the $15,000 policy coverage. They can not go against you for any other amount unless you were somehow negligent in letting her drive, such as knowing that she was a very bad driver or was about to fall asleep just before taking the car. Ask the insurance company to let you speak, without charge, to one of their attorneys about the situation.

See California Vehicle Code Sections 17150 and 17151. Your liability is limited to 15K per person/30K per accident as the registered owner. The exception is your potential negligence in allowing your daughter use of the vehicle. If that can be proven your exposure could exceed your liability policy limits.

Your liability as owner is limited by law to $15,000. However, if they think that you were individually negligent in entrusting the car to your daughter, they could sue for more. This would be very hard for them to prove unless she had a known history of falling asleep while driving. Most plaintiffs lawyers will do an asset check on your daughter, and if it comes back zero they will accept the policy limit. Our advice: relax and let the insurance co. do it's job.

If you are the registered owner of the car, and your daughter was using the car with your permission, there is no limit to the amount of the judgment which the injured couple could get against you. Go hire an attorney as personal counsel to represent your own interests in addition to the attorney your insurance company provides for you.