The demand letter shocked Damian. All he had done was let his girlfriend borrow his vehicle for a day or two while hers was in the shop. Damian hadn’t expected her to take her sister out to a bar and then try to drive home while over the legal blood-alcohol limit. And he hadn’t expected his girlfriend to crash into a tree, badly injuring her sister. The whole thing had been a nightmare. The nightmare only got worse when the sister’s lawyer sent Damian a letter demanding that he turn the sister’s million-dollar personal-injury claim over to his motor-vehicle insurer. Damian could now see, from the lawyer’s letter, what was going on but surely wished that he had some legal advice before he lent his vehicle to his girlfriend.

Transportation

Safe and efficient transportation is critical to your success and well-being. Law thus has a lot to say about it. Law heavily regulates public transportation by ride hailing, taxicab, limousine, bus, train, boat, and plane. Law also heavily regulates private motor vehicles, not only their design, manufacture, sale, and operation, but also their financing, titling, registration, repossession, recall, repair, accidents, and insurance. Law in each of these areas can provide you with substantial rights and protections while simultaneously imposing specific liabilities and special obligations. Consider the following sections on your vehicle purchase, titling, insurance, operation, and accidents. Consult a qualified legal representative when you have legal issues relating to your transportation.

Public

Law closely regulates public transportation. State and federal anti-discrimination laws can prohibit discrimination in publicly funded transportation, when based on race, color, national origin, and other protected characteristics. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires public transit to provide reasonable access to riders with disabilities, including things like lifts or ramps for transport entry and exit, securing of wheelchairs, storage of mobility devices, priority seating, and accessible routes and stops. Other laws require reasonably safe and secure transport, including protecting against violence and harassment. Civil recoveries of money damages for personal injury or wrongful death may be available if the public transporter fails to meet the highest duty of care. Public transporters may, on the other hand, restrict riders from possessing weapons, flammable liquids, illegal substances, and large or heavy items, and from engaging in smoking, vaping, fighting, excessive noise-making, panhandling, vandalism, or other disruptive, damaging, or endangering activities. Civil and criminal penalties for disobeying, assaulting, or threatening public transport officials, or disrupting public transportation, can be severe. Customs officials will also closely regulate public transport across national boundaries. Consult a qualified legal representative when facing public transportation issues. 

Audit: Identify which of the following legal issues that you have encountered relating to your use of public transport: (a) denial of public transport based on protected personal characteristics; (b) inadequate handicap access to public transport; (c) violence or harassment on public transport; (d) personal injury from unsafe transport; (e) theft or robbery loss from insecure transport; (f) confiscation of personal items prohibited from public transport; (g) detention for disruptive conduct; (h) detention at customs for inadequate documentation of lawful status; (i) detention at customs for transport of illegal items. Retain a qualified legal representative to help you address any of these issues you face.

Purchase

Law closely regulates your purchase of a vehicle. Truth-in-lending laws require dealers to disclose financing terms including finance charges, loan duration, monthly payments, and annual interest rate. Co-signers also get truth-in-lending notices. Financing your vehicle purchase with a lender’s lien means that you must maintain your payments or may lose the vehicle to repossession. While you should receive notice of your default in payments and generally will receive demands for payment, do not expect notice that the finance company is about to repossess your vehicle. Commercial codes permit repossession of the vehicle from the public street, your driveway or workplace, and other locations where repossession does not breach the peace. Once repossessed, your vehicle may sell at wholesale auction for a price less than the amount you owe, leaving you responsible to pay the deficiency. If the finance company pursues a civil judgment against you for that deficiency, then it may garnish your wages or bank accounts. Vehicle leasing can be particularly profitable for the dealer and expensive for you when you consider the up-front payment, annual mileage limit, and lease buy-out terms. Consumer-leasing laws thus require disclosure of those and other terms. Vehicle manufacturers must also disclose fuel mileage. While sellers of new vehicles will owe vehicle warranties, used-vehicle sellers may generally disclaim warranties, meaning that you buy the vehicle as is. Check a used vehicle’s accident and repair history, and have a qualified mechanic inspect it before purchase.  Consult a qualified legal representative if you have issues or disputes over your purchase or financing of a vehicle.

Audit: Confirm these terms of any vehicle you are currently financing: (a) name and address of the finance company; (b) finance term (last payment date); (c) monthly payment amount; (d) principal balance owing; (e) annual interest rate; (f) whether you are current on payments; and (g) any recent late or finance charges assessed. If you are leasing a vehicle, then confirm these terms: (a) name and address of the lease company; (b) lease duration (last payment date); (c) lease buy out amount; (d) annual mileage limit; (e) per-mile charge for miles over limit; (f) whether you are current on payments; and (g) any recent late or finance charges assessed.  Consult a qualified legal representative if you have any disagreement or dispute with the seller, financier, or lender over these terms, a claimed deficiency in payments, vehicle repossession, or a deficiency judgment. 

Title

Vehicles are so mobile, easily stolen, or otherwise transferred that state laws create vehicle-title systems to preserve some order and control for vehicle owners, financiers, buyers, and sellers. A title is a document proving your ownership. Keep your vehicle title in a secure place with your other legal and financial papers. When you bought your vehicle, the seller gave you a title indicating your ownership. States issue new titles to new owners of vehicles. A seller completes transfer of title by signing the title over to the buyer who applies for the new title in the buyer’s own name. If you financed your vehicle, then the finance company will have placed a lien on your vehicle title preventing you from selling the vehicle with title unless you pay off the financing and get the finance-company release. Registration differs from titling. State laws create vehicle-title systems but separately require annual registration of vehicles operated on the public highways. When you register your new vehicle or renew your registration each year, you get documentary proof of current registration that you must keep in the vehicle to show to law-enforcement officials. You also get a new license plate or tag to display on the vehicle confirming the lawfulness of its operation on the public highways. Consider carefully how you title and register your vehicle. States have owner-consent laws under which all those who hold title to a vehicle or register the vehicle owe personal liability to anyone whom a consensual user of the vehicle injures negligently. If otherwise sensible from an ownership and control standpoint, title and register vehicles only in the usual driver’s name, to reduce the liability exposure of other listed owners.

Audit: Confirm each person who is on each vehicle title and registration for vehicles operated by members of your household. Is your titling of those vehicles unwisely spreading liability risk among members of your household? If, for instance, your spouse carelessly caused a serious injury driving a vehicle titled in both your names, the two of you could have joint liability to the injured person, placing your marital assets at risk, when only your spouse would owe liability had the vehicle been in only your spouse’s name. The same would be true for you owning a vehicle your children operate. Consult a qualified legal representative, but you may be better off titling vehicles in the principal driver’s name only. 

Insurance

State laws require motor-vehicle owners to maintain insurance on vehicles operated on the public highways. Failure to maintain the required vehicle insurance may result in civil liability and infractions or criminal charges, and loss of important rights and immunities. States have different systems for enforcing vehicle-insurance laws, with which vast numbers of vehicle owners fail to comply. Beyond the above penalties including conviction, fine, and incarceration, some states will boot-lock or confiscate uninsured vehicles operated on the public highway. Maintain insurance on any vehicle you own and operate on the public highways. Insurance laws dictate the terms and conditions for motor-vehicle insurance. Those laws differ widely from state to state. Some states mandate no-fault systems that grant generous insurance benefits without respect to fault while barring most fault-based rights of action. Other states follow traditional fault-based systems in which negligent drivers and the owners of negligently driven vehicles owe liability to those injured or whose vehicles or property suffer damage. In both systems, whether you choose to insure your vehicle for collision loss is a significant consideration. In both systems, the policy limits that you choose, and whether you purchase uninsured-motorist or underinsured-motorist coverage, are other significant considerations. Consult a qualified representative about your insurance obligations, rights, and coverages to ensure that you have adequate protection.

Audit: Obtain from your files or insurance agent a copy of your motor-vehicle insurance policy, declarations page, and addenda, to determine the following: (a) identity of all named insured operators; (b) identity of all other persons covered as an insured under policy definitions; (c) identity of any excluded drivers who must not operate your vehicle (for whom the insurer will provide no coverage); (d) identity of all vehicles insured; (d) liability limits; (e) whether you have uninsured-motorist coverage, and if so, the applicable limits; (f) whether you have underinsured-motorist coverage, and if so, the applicable limits. Consult a qualified representative to address any coverage issues or concerns. 

Warranties

Law also regulates vehicle-warranty rights and obligations for maintenance of your vehicle. State commercial codes impose the requirement that new vehicles and other consumer goods be merchantable, meaning fit for their ordinary purpose. Vehicle manufacturers offer specific new vehicle warranties beyond the implied merchantability warranty. A typical warranty would provide for powertrain and other basic repair for three to four years or 36,000 to 48,000 miles. Federal law prohibits dealers from voiding vehicle warranties when you or a mechanic of your choice performs routine vehicle maintenance. Some states require used-vehicle dealers to warrant basic repairs for vehicle use or safety for limited miles or periods, depending on the vehicle mileage. Some states also require used-vehicle dealers and private-party used-vehicle sellers to disclose defects. States have also enacted lemon laws for new vehicles but in some states also for used vehicles. Lemon laws require dealers to repurchase vehicles if the dealer cannot repair a persistent defect. Otherwise, used-vehicle dealers are generally free to sell used vehicles as is, with all faults, and without warranty. When you have a mechanic repair your vehicle, state laws permit mechanics to retain the vehicle as security for your payment, known as a mechanic’s lien. Vehicle-towing and storage facilities may claim similar liens. State laws also regulate repair estimates and return of repaired parts. Manufacturers may issue recalls of your vehicle, meaning to offer free repair of manufacturing and design defects. Consult a qualified lawyer if you face legal issues over your vehicle’s warranty, maintenance, and repair. 

Audit: Identify any express or implied warranty you have remaining for any vehicle in your household. Do vehicles in your household require replacement or repair that may be under those warranties?  Consult a qualified lawyer regarding your warranty rights and claims. 

Operation

State traffic safety codes closely regulate your operation of motor vehicles. Drivers know the basic rules of the road yet frequently deliberately or accidentally break those rules. Drivers must, for instance, have a valid driver’s license to use the public highways. Yet many individuals operate vehicles without a driver’s license or with a revoked or suspended license. Penalties for doing so can be severe. Penalties for many traffic-safety violations increase when accidents are involved and when causing injury. Speeding or other reckless driving will get you a ticket. Speeding or other reckless driving causing accidental injury or death can result in a heavy fine, community service, and even jail or prison time. Comply with vehicle-operation and traffic-safety laws at all times. Especially comply with child-restraint laws and laws against drunk or other reckless driving when transporting children. Violating those laws could not only result in serious injury to a child but also lead to abuse and neglect proceedings and restriction or termination of parental rights. When you receive a charge or citation for allegedly operating a vehicle unlawfully, you have rights to due process, meaning that you may request a hearing before a judge or magistrate to contest the charge or citation. Infractions can affect your insurance rates, driving privileges, employment, and civil liability. Treat citations and charges responsibly while cognizant of your legal rights and broader interests.

Audit: How are your driving habits? Do you often deliberately exceed the speed limit? When driving, are you constantly on the lookout to avoid detection by law-enforcement officers? If so, reconsider your driving habits. You may be mentally healthier and will be safer and wiser complying with traffic-safety laws. What is your driving record? How many additional infractions could you incur before your driving record adversely affects your driving privileges? Do you pay more for insurance rates because of your poor driving record? Would you remain employed if you lost your driver’s license? Retain a qualified lawyer if you face driving-related criminal charges, civil infractions threatening your license, or civil liability claims.   

Accidents

Law helps those involved in motor-vehicle accidents. Vehicle repair or replacement generally first depends on whether the vehicle owner purchased collision-loss coverage as part of the required motor-vehicle insurance. In such cases, disputes sometimes arise over the insurer’s appraisal of the destroyed vehicle’s value or over repair costs. Insurance policies may provide for resolving those disputes either through court action or arbitration. When a driver operates a vehicle carelessly, causing injury or loss to someone else, state common law would ordinarily permit the person suffering injury or loss to recover from the careless driver, who would ordinarily have liability insurance to pay for the defense of the claim and for all or part of the recovery. Under owner-consent laws, vehicle owners share the liability with the careless driver whom they permitted to use the vehicle. No-fault systems in several states modify these common law liability rules. No-fault systems vary widely in their particulars. In general, though, they offer certain insurance benefits to accident victims without respect to anyone’s fault while barring fault claims in all but the most serious cases. Accidents can also lead to citations for civil infractions and even criminal charges when an accident results from a driver’s violation of the state’s traffic safety code. Consult a qualified lawyer about your rights and obligations whenever involved in a motor-vehicle accident causing injury or other loss.

Audit: If you or a family member for whom you have financial responsibility are involved in a motor-vehicle accident, then consider each of the following: (a) whose fault (assuming any) caused the accident; (b) whether police issued citations; (c) what personal injuries the accident caused, and what medical expense or wage loss resulted; (d) what vehicle loss or damage the accident caused; (e) what real property damage the accident caused; (f) what personal property loss the accident caused; (g) who were the responsible drivers; (h) who owned or registered the involved vehicles; (i) what insurers covered the involved drivers and vehicle owners; (j) what insurers covered the involved vehicles; (k) whether those insurers provided collision coverage. Consult a qualified lawyer regarding rights and obligations surrounding the accident. 

Key Points

• Law closely regulates public and private transportation. 

• You have substantial rights and protections in public transportation.

• Law closely regulates the design, sale, and purchase of motor vehicles.

• State laws create vehicle title systems to clearly identify owners.

• State laws require owners to maintain vehicle liability insurance.

• Laws address new and used vehicle warranties and their disclaimer.

• Laws also closely regulate the safe operation of motor vehicles.

• Vehicle drivers and owners can have liability for accident injuries.

Read Chapter 10.