Onalaska-Law.com
  • HOME Page
  • OWI/DWI/DUI Defense
  • Car Accidents and Personal Injury
  • Criminal Charges
  • ACTUAL CRIMINAL & OWI/DWI RESULTS
  • Motorcycle Accidents
  • Attorney Info
  • Contact Us
  • Onalaska-Law Blog
  • Map of Location in Onalaska
  • Court Directory & Legal Resources

CAN TEXTING A DRIVER GET YOU (OR YOUR KID) SUED?

9/20/2013

 
    My law office in Onalaska, Wisconsin, overlooks highway 35, which reportedly has over 20,000 vehicles passing by per day.  From time to  time, I will look at the road below as I am talking on the phone, sometimes while dealing with car accident injuries.  I frequently see driver's pecking away at their smart phones as they speed by at 15 miles over the speed limit.  I think to myself, "I would like to be the attorney who sues that driver after they cause an accident."  However, I never thought about suing the person texting with the driver, at least not until now:

    A seventeen-year-old New Jersey girl was sued for sending texts to a friend she knew was driving.  The evidence
    revealed that driver and the girl had exchanged "hundreds" of texts on the day that the driver crossed the center line and struck a motorcycle.  The texting friend was sued along with the driver.

    The  trial court granted the texting friend's motion for summary judgment (motion for dismissal).  The New
    Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division (Kubert v. Best, 2013 WL 4512313 (N.J. Super. App. Div. Aug. 27, 2013)) upheld the dismissal on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate the texting caused the collision in that case.  However, it left the door open for such claims in the future, ruling that liability may attach when a person sends a text he or she knows is driving a motor vehicle and will immediately read the text, if the driver then loses control of the vehicle and causes injury.  The central premise for the ruling is that a person texting a driver in such fashion essentially aids and abets their distracted/reckless driving.

    The lesson:  Don't "know" the person you are texting with is driving.

Comments are closed.

    Author

    Christopher W. Dyer, a Wisconsin and Minnesota Trial Lawyer, serving La Crosse and surrounding counties.

    Archives

    January 2018
    December 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Blood Testing
    Breath Testing
    Car Accidents
    Domestic Charges
    Forfeiture Cases
    Going To Court
    How To Choose A Good Lawyer
    Implied Consent
    In The News
    Minnesota Dwi
    Owi 1st
    Repeat Owi
    Traffic Court
    Urine Testing.

    RSS Feed