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Changing the Law for the Better: Making Sure that Parents Are Responsible for their Children's Poor Driving
Posted by: David Abney
July 12, 2011

Knapp & Roberts does not just help its own clients. Without charge, Knapp & Roberts time and effort to improving the law for all people who suffer injuries through the fault of others. One of our law firm's most recent successes in protecting the rights of injury victims came through the Arizona Supreme Court's April 5, 2011 opinion in the case of Young v. Beck.

In that case, parents let their 17-year-old son drive their sport-utility vehicle, although the son was immature and a miserable driver. After enough poor driving, the parents eventually told their son that he could use the SUV-but only if he promised to never use it to drive his friends around. Naturally, the son then took the SUV and drove around with several friends throwing eggs at houses and parked cars. The son soon crashed the SUV into a car. The crash badly injured the car's driver.

The son was not just immature, he was broke. So the injured driver sued the son's parents, hoping to recover money for his injuries from their insurance policy. The injured driver argued that the son's parents were liable for the son's negligent driving under an old legal doctrine called the "family-purpose doctrine." It's a fancy name for a simple idea: If parents let their child drive the family car, the parents are liable if the child drives negligently and caused a crash. The parents in the Young case argued that the Arizona Supreme Court should abandon the "family-purpose doctrine" and hold the son-and only the son-responsible for the collision that he had caused.

Knapp & Roberts invested time and effort in supporting the appellate briefs of the injured driver. The time and effort paid off when the Arizona Supreme Court refused to abandon the "family-purpose doctrine." The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the son's parents were responsible for the consequences of their son's poor driving. The Arizona Supreme Court's decision may eventually help one of Knapp & Roberts's own clients. But even if that never happens, injured people across Arizona will benefit. And that is what really matters.

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