Car Insurance For Teenage Driver?
While hosting Legal Talk, I got a call from a listener with this question –
“My sixteen year old son is now driving a car which I bought for him. Should he have his own insurance policy or should he be listed as a driver on the family’s insurance policy?”
The caller was concerned with the fact that he may be legally responsible for any vehicle accidents that his son has. I explained to the caller that if his son was listed as the sole driver under his own insurance policy, the rates would be extremely high. In fact, I don’t even know if an insurance company would write such a policy. Yes, there are risks if your teenage son or daughter is in an accident which results in a large jury verdict, but Mom or Dad would only be responsible if they allowed their teen to drive a car while mentally or physically impaired.
The best thing that we can do as a parent is to insure our teenage children under our insurance policy and do everything possible to eliminate the risk of them having a car accident. This would include lectures regarding safe driving as well as driving instruction.
Legal Talk is heard every other Tuesday afternoon at 12:15 p.m. on WCHE radio, 1520 AM.
