When the driver is in a rental car and is self-insured, who is responsible for damage to my car?

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When the driver is in a rental car and is self-insured, who is responsible for damage to my car?

I had a motor vehicle accident on Thursday; another car drove into me on the highway. I was driving within the speed limit and the other driver looked like he was intoxicated or disorientated but the state police didn’t think it was necessary to have him tested. The other car was a rental car and was

Asked on February 17, 2018 under Accident Law, Connecticut

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 6 years ago | Contributor

The other driver is certainly responsible: the at-fault driver (and a driver who drove into your car when you were driving responsibly would be at fault) is always liable for the damage he does.
If a private person had loaned the driver the car, you could hold the car owner's liable, too, for having allowed an at-fault driver to drive. However, the law protects car rental companies (e.g. Enterprise) from liability for their renter's accidents. (The point of the law is to allow there to be car rentals: if the rental company were liable, they'd have to charge so much to cover their risk that renting a car would not be feasible.) Therefore, since the driver got the car from a rental place, you can only go after the driver himself.


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