Auto Accidents

Typically, your auto insurance policy must list all licensed drivers in your home who are related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, and in some cases, your insurer may even require you to list roommates on your policy. This rule even applies to drivers covered by their own insurance policies, and you must list any and all persons even if they only drive your car occasionally.

However, in Massachusetts, you can get around this requirement by using the Operator Exclusion form. Keep reading to learn more about this form and how to use it.

Drivers with Their Own Insurance Policies

Drivers who have their own insurance policies are usually listed on your policy as “deferred operators” and garner no additional charge. In these situations, you can simply list the driver, and you don’t have to worry about paying higher premiums. Additionally, if that driver ever borrows your car, you can rest assured that they are fully covered by your policy. Note, however, that in some cases, their own coverage may come into play in the event of an accident.

Drivers Without Their Own Insurance Policies

If you have a driver in your home who does not have their own insurance policy, you are usually obligated to list them on your policy. In this situation, the insurer will take that driver into account when calculating your premium. Luckily, you don’t usually have to include drivers with their learner’s permits, until they are fully licensed.

Unfortunately, however, adding some drivers to your policy can drive up costs. If you want to save some money, you may want to consider filling out the Operator Exclusion form. That formally excludes the driver from your policy, but then, you need to ensure that driver never operates your vehicle.

When to Use the Operator Exclusion Form

Generally, it makes sense to use the Operator Exclusion form if you have a young driver in the home who would be listed as an inexperienced driver or if you have a driver who would increase your premiums.

For instance, you may choose to exclude a teen driver, but remember by signing the exclusion form, you promise to exclude your child from driving your vehicle under any circumstances. If your child drives your vehicle and you attempt to make an insurance claim, your claim moves to a misrepresentation of your agreement. As a result, your insurance company is absolved of paying any of your optional liability.

In some cases, policyholders also opt to exclude drivers when they leave the home to go to college, but you need to be careful with that as well. If you let the driver use your car when they are home on vacation, that negates your agreement. Before resorting to using this form, contact your insurer and see if a college student is still considered to be living in your home, check if you need to insure them, and ask about potential student discounts to help offset the cost of coverage.

What Happens If an Excluded Driver Operates Your Vehicle

If an excluded driver operates your vehicle and gets into an accident, you can lose your optional bodily injury coverage in an auto policy. In other words, if you allow an excluded driver to operate your vehicle, you may become liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, if the insurance company refuses to pay the claim. When you fill out the Operator Exclusion form, you agree to these terms, and it is perfectly legal for the insurer to deny your claims.

The Operator Exclusion Form

The form itself is relatively short and easy to complete. You simply note the excluded driver and a description of your vehicle. Then, you add your name, the policy number, and the date, and both you and the excluded driver must sign the form. When you sign the form, you agree to the following points:

• If you make false, incomplete, or deceptive statements, the insurer can refuse to pay claims related to any part of your insurance policy.
• Massachusetts state law requires insurers to withhold payments related to collision losses if an excluded household member operates your vehicle.
• You agree that the excluded driver will not operate the listed vehicle or any replacements you buy for the listed vehicle.

If you don’t use the Operator Exclusion form and you fail to list any “customary” operator or licensed household member, your insurance company might refuse to pay your claim, even if you were driving at the time of the accident.

If you have been in an accident with someone who was listed on an operator exclusion form, you may face additional struggles trying to make a claim. In that situation, you need an experienced car accident attorney, and we can help you. To learn more, contact us today at Mazow | McCullough, PC.

In Massachusetts, young drivers generally obtain a junior operator license after their learner’s permit. This license gives drivers ages 16.5 to 18 years of age the opportunity to operate a motor vehicle. Similarly, New Hampshire drivers between the ages of 16 and 21 years receive a Youth Operator license. In both cases, these drivers are subject to a few extra restrictions and obligations. Here’s a closer look at the junior and youth operator licenses and liability issues.

Obtaining Youth and Junior Operator’s License

To obtain a junior operator’s license, you must have had a learner’s permit for at least six months, completed an approved driver education and training program, and driven a certain number of hours under the supervision of your parent or guardian. You must also pass a written test. During the first six months of having your junior operator’s license, you can’t transport any passengers under the age of 18 years unless they are immediate family members or you have a licensed driver over the age of 21 with you. You also cannot drive between 12:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. unless a parent or guardian accompanies you.

In New Hampshire, drivers must take a driver’s education course, complete a certain number of supervised driving hours, and pass a test to obtain a youth operator’s license. With this license, minors can’t drive alone between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., and up to their 21st birthday, these drivers may have their licenses suspended for a variety of offenses, including building up demerits on their driving record.

Insurance Requirements

All Massachusetts and New Hampshire drivers are required to have car insurance. Youth and junior operators need liability coverage for bodily injury, property damage, personal injury protection, and uninsured motorists, but to be on the safe side, they may also want to have comprehensive and collision coverage as well as coverage for underinsured motorists. They should also consider getting bodily and property damage coverage above the legally mandated limits.

Statistically, teens are three times more likely to get into an accident than drivers over the age of 20. To protect your family financially, you should always ensure that teen drivers are well insured. As a general rule of thumb, insuring a teen driver is more expensive than insuring an adult driver. Parents can add teens to their own policies, and in fact, many insurers require you to add all licensed drivers who live in your home to your policy. The only way to get around this requirement is to buy the junior operator their own car and insure them just on that vehicle.

Failure to List Licensed Drivers

If you fail to list licensed drivers on your insurance policy, your insurer may refuse to pay your claim in the event of a car accident. In fact, even if you are insured and you are driving, the insurer may still refuse to pay a claim if you have an uninsured junior operator in your home. In this situation, you may end up being personally liable for any costs incurred due to the accident.

However, some insurers will accept exclusions. You must submit an exclusion form to the insurer declaring that the junior operator will not ever drive your car and that you want them excluded from your policy.

Driving Without Insurance

If your teen driver takes your car and they are not listed on the insurance, you are responsible. In some situations, your insurer may cover the accident under the “guest driver” rules of the policy, but as indicated above, the insurer may not be legally required to cover these accidents. As a result, you may end up being personally liable. In other words, you may have to cover the cost of the accident with your assets and wages.

Even if your teen takes your car without permission, you can still be held responsible. Parents are often liable for their teens’ actions. The argument in these situations is that you are responsible for watching your child. If your child sneaks out, takes your car, and grievously injures someone, you may be to blame from a legal perspective. In some cases, you may escape criminal penalties, but you may still be civilly liable.

Finding the At-Fault Driver

Unfortunately, teens are often perceived to be irresponsible drivers regardless of how careful they are as individuals, and if a teen is in an accident, the other driver may rely on that stereotype to cast blame on the teen. However, if the teen didn’t really cause the accident, the other driver should be held liable. In these situations, you should consult with an attorney. They can find witnesses or proof of who was at fault, and they can help to ensure that the teen doesn’t have to bear the liability for an accident that they truly didn’t cause.

If you have a teen driver, you should take steps to help them be as careful as possible on the road. Remind them not to text and drive and to minimize other distractions. Also, keep in mind that you may be liable if they are in an accident. Make sure they have adequate insurance on your car or their own car, and if you decide to exclude them from your policy, make sure that you follow the rules of the exclusion and never let them drive the excluded vehicles.

Unfortunately, accidents can happen. If your teen has been in an accident or if you have been in an accident with a junior operator, you may need legal help. To set up a free case evaluation, contact us today. At Mazow | McCullough, PC, we help clients after auto accidents as well as after a variety of other types of injuries.

When a driver crashes someone else’s car, the liability isn’t always clear, and it varies based on the location and the specifics of the situation. To help you get a sense of who’s liable, here’s a brief look at inherent liability and an overview of who’s liable when a car accident occurs in someone else’s car.

Permissive Use

Most car insurance policies have a permissive use clause. This simply means that if the owner gives someone permission to use their car, their insurance covers that driver. To explain, imagine someone lets their brother drive their car and the brother crashes the car, causing property damage. In this situation, it doesn’t matter whether or not the brother has coverage because the owner’s policy covers the damages.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. In Massachusetts, for example, you are required to list all other regular drivers on your policy, and some insurers interpret this broadly to mean that you should list all drivers, even if they only use your vehicle occasionally. As a result, the insurer may deny the claim if the driver isn’t listed on the owner’s policy. To learn about the laws in New Hampshire, contact an auto accident attorney directly, as this state has unique laws.

Roommates and Family Members

Typically, every licensed member of a household has to be listed on the car insurance policy for that household. This applies to family members, but surprisingly, it can also apply to roommates. If you share a house with a few people, your car insurance company usually won’t require you to list them on your policy if they have their own vehicles and their own insurance coverage.

However, if one of your roommates is a licensed driver without a vehicle or insurance, your insurance company may assume that they are likely to borrow your car, and because of that, your insurer may require you to list them on your policy. In this situation, if that individual borrows your car, your insurance should cover any liability issues.

Excluded Drivers

Adding certain drivers to your policy can drive up your premiums, especially if the driver is young or has a bad driving record. To sidestep those extra costs, you can exclude certain members of your household from your auto insurance policy. Those people need to be expressly listed as excluded on the policy, and they should never drive the vehicle, as they are not covered.

Theft

Whether someone is an excluded driver or not, if they take a vehicle without permission, the owner is generally not liable for anything that happens. In that situation, the thief is exclusively liable for any accidents that occur. However, for this to hold true, the owner of the vehicle may need to charge the driver with theft. That helps to establish that the driver did not have permission to use the car and this step may be necessary to protect the vehicle’s owner from a liability standpoint.

Non-Permissive Use

If the owner of the vehicle isn’t claiming that theft was involved, non-permissive use rules may come into play in a different way. Typically, if someone takes a car without permission, their insurance kicks in first, and then, the owner’s policy fills in any gaps. Conversely, if the driver doesn’t have insurance, the owner’s auto insurance policy may cover the damages, but that is not always the case.

For example, in the case of Wayne Mahoney vs. American Automobile Insurance Company, the judge ruled that the insurer was not responsible when a driver caused an accident with a rental car because the rental company (the owner of the vehicle) had not authorized him to use the vehicle. However, this only applies to adult drivers, and the rules vary based on whether or not a child was involved.

Parental Responsibility

In some cases, parents exclude their teenagers from their policies, and if the teen takes the family car without permission, the parents can charge the teen with theft as explained above. However, with parents and children, the rules are a bit more complicated. Parents are expected to be responsible for their children, and if a teen takes a vehicle, crashes it, and hurts someone, the parent can be held responsible. That’s true whether the parent let the teen borrow the car or not. Similarly, parents often can be held criminally and civilly liable for allowing their children to commit a range of other crimes.

Company Cars

When someone is driving a vehicle for work, their employer is usually liable for any accidents that occur. For instance, if a delivery truck driver hits a pedestrian, the owner of that company is liable for the damages. In situations where the driver is an independent contractor, the inherent liability is not as clear. Ride-sharing services in particular, often try to absolve themselves of liability unless the driver is actively carrying a passenger, but the courts have held these companies responsible for accidents occurring between fares.

Liability is a complicated issue, and if you’ve been in a car accident, you need a professional who truly understands the laws inside and out. To get the justice you deserve, contact Mazow | McCullough, PC today. We will help you take a stand against the people who hurt you, regardless of whose car they were driving.