Parents usually feel responsible when their children do bad things - a sense of shortcoming or failure when children make bad choices or carelessly cause harm to another. However, whether parents can be held legally liable for the acts of their children is not commonly known. The answer, not surprisingly, is sometimes "yes" and sometimes "no."

General Rule
The general rule is that the mere relationship of parent and child does not impose any legal liability on the parent for the bad acts or carelessness of the child. Instead, parents can be held liable only where the child is acting as an agent of the parent (that is, acting under the authority or the direction of the parent) or some negligence (carelessness) of the parent made the bad act possible.

Regarding liability as an agent, some examples would include harm resulting from a car accident caused by the negligence of a child when the child was running an errand at the direction of a parent or a parent encouraging a child to physically attack another person.

Parents can also be held liable for their own negligence which contributes to a child causing injury to another. Examples of that type of behavior would be a parent serving a child alcohol and then permitting the child to drive a car, or a parent failing to properly supervise a child in a store, which leads to the child damaging fragile merchandise.

So, the general rule is that the child must have been acting on behalf of the parent or the parent must have made the harm possible through the parent's own negligence in order for the parent to be held legally liable for harm caused by a child.

Statutory Liability
Parents can also be held liable for certain bad acts of their children under a statute titled "Liability for Tortious Acts of Children." That statute provides that any parent whose child is found liable or adjudged guilty by a court of a willful act resulting in personal injuries or property damages shall be held liable to the person who suffers the injury.

The statute applies to willful (intentional) acts of children, such as violence or vandalism. If those types of intentional acts are committed, a parent can be held financially responsible up to certain dollar limits, despite having no prior knowledge, involvement or opportunity to prevent the harm.

The limits of liability are $1,000 for injuries suffered by any one person as a result of one act or a continuous series of acts and the total sum of $2,500, regardless of the number of persons who suffer injury as a result of one act or a continuous series of acts. Accordingly, if a child violently attacks and hurts another child, the parents of the attacking child can be held liable for up to $1,000 of damages. Also, if a child commits a series of continuous acts of vandalism, such as damaging several houses one night, that child's parents could be held liable for $1,000 of damages for each person harmed and a total of $2,500 for the whole vandalism spree, regardless of the amount of damages or number of people affected.

Although the general rule is that parents are not held liable for the acts of their children, there are certain situations in which parents will be held responsible for the bad acts of their offspring.

By: Timothy Rayne
Tim Rayne is the author of numerous publications on Personal Injury Law and is a graduate of the Temple University Beasley School of Law's Master's in Trial Advocacy Program. Tim can be reached at http://www.macelree.com/traynelaw

Legal trusts have become one of the most common ways to protect an estate. It can shield and distribute assets according the wishes of the settlor (creator of the trust) and ensure the longevity of a business. In a previous article, we mentioned 3 common types of legal trusts. They included the qualified personal residence trust (QPRT), credit shelter trust (also known as a family trust) and the dynasty trust. Given the settlor's objectives, each of these could be used for varying purposes. Below, we'll describe 3 more common types of legal trusts that you should consider.

#1 - Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust

Increasingly common amongst those who own businesses or other highly-valued assets that can't be liquidated quickly, the irrevocable life insurance trust uses your life insurance policy to pay for your estate costs. Business owners typically don't want their heirs to have to sell the business in order to pay the estate costs. Liquidating under those circumstances can have a significant impact on the value of the business. Instead, the settlor's life insurance policy is used to pay for estate costs that are associated with the business.

#2 - Special Needs Trust

When a person receives financial support from the government, those benefits can be disqualified if that person inherits a large sum or receives a sizable gift. To ensure those benefits aren't jeopardized, a special needs trust can be established. Any gift or inheritance can be placed within the trust. An experienced attorney will often include a special provision within this type of trust. The provision can cause the trust to expire if the beneficiary's governmental benefits are ever subject to disqualification.

#3 - Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trust

Your family may include people who are members by virtue of divorces and remarriages. In some cases, you may want to ensure that the bulk of your estate is received by certain relatives. Many people use a qualified terminable interest property trust when they have children and marry someone who has their own children. This type of trust can be established to make certain their assets are given to their biological children when their spouse dies. In doing so, they can remove the possibility of someone else's children receiving a share of their estate.

Why You Should Hire A Lawyer

If your estate is worth a sizable amount, you should hire an attorney who is qualified to offer estate planning advice. A good lawyer can help you create the right kind of trust for your unique circumstances. He can review your objectives with you and create the type of trust that will best protect your estate. He can offer legal advice that will help you establish provisions and conditions that address how the trust distributes your assets after you die. Creating a trust for your estate deserves the attention of a trained legal professional.

By: Eric Gehler
Consider these Virginia Lawyers and Virginia Attorneys when in need of legal services.

Despite being a nuisance, not all telemarketing calls are illegal. In fact, most of the telemarketing calls you receive are probably perfectly legal and are not something you can legitimately complain about. Thus, just as it is important to know your rights as a telephone consumer, it is also your responsibility to know when a telemarketing company is within their rights to call you.

When are telemarketing calls legal? Telemarketing calls are legal if they follow the rules stipulated by the Telephone Consumer Protection Agency (TCPA). The following are some examples of when a telemarketer is permitted to phone you:

Between the hours of 8 and 9 - A telemarketer can call anytime between 8 am and 9 pm, unless you have requested to be placed on the telemarketing firms internal do not call list, or it has been 31 days after you registered your phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry.

Companies with whom you have an established business relationship (EBR) - Any company you have purchased a product or service from is an EBR company and is permitted to call you until you request to be placed on their do-not-call-list.

The affiliates of EBR companies- The affiliates of the business you have a relationship with are allowed to contact you as long as they are selling a product or service that is associated with that which you purchased from the company. Affiliates can legally call you until you ask them specifically not to.

Any company you have given permission to contact you - If you give any company permission to contact you with phone or fax solicitations, or automated phone calls, they can legally contact you via these methods of communication. This also includes any third party telemarketer who has bought your contact information from a company to whom you authorized to sell it. Therefore, be careful about signing any forms before reading the fine print first.

The company calling is exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry - non profit organizations (I.E. charities), government organizations, and survey groups are permitted to call, even if you have made the request for them to stop. The reason is because though we tend to think of these organizations as a form of telemarketing, the nature of these call isn't to make a sale, it is usually to ask for your opinion or your charity.

By: Dwayne Eisen
Thus, most telemarketing calls are legal until you take action to stop telemarketers and annoying calls by making the necessary requests to be removed from call lists.

Dwayne is an old consumer advocate who has way too much time on his hands (the wife says) so he rants.

When you go to open a bank account or take title to real estate, people often suggest joint tenancy as a simple solution which avoids probate.

What is joint tenancy?

Joint tenancy is the co-ownership of property during the lives of two or more joint tenants. Upon the death of one of the joint tenants, the remaining joint tenant(s) immediately succeed to the ownership of the property. If there is only one surviving joint tenant, he or she becomes the sole owner, thus avoiding the probate process.

What is tenancy-in-common?

Tenancy-in-common is also the co-ownership of property. However, unlike joint tenancy, upon the death of a one of the tenants in common, the other tenants in common do not succeed to the deceased tenant's interest.

What are the risks of joint tenancy?

Simply adding someone to title as a joint tenant in realty is a gift that could trigger a gift tax. More importantly, the creditors of the joint tenants can go after the property. Let's look at an example for illustration:


Mom adds son as a joint tenant on their vacation home. She trusts her son completely. However, her son has an accident which causes injuries. The injured party is able to collect against the son's half of the home. Mom who was home watching TV when the accident occurred has lost half her home's value.

The addition of a joint tenant may have other unintended consequences. When Mom added son to the title, she made a gift which may make her ineligible for Medicaid to pay for her nursing home care for a substantial period of time.

A parent will often add one of his or her children as joint tenant to a bank accounts in order to give the child access to the account in the event of the parent's disability. By adding the child as joint tenant there is danger that a child will make unauthorized withdrawals from the account. Furthermore, title to the bank account will vest with the joint tenant child after the death of the parent, which may be contrary to how the parent wishes his or her estate to be divided at death.

Rather than face these and other unintended consequences, it is often best to avoid joint tenancy and form a revocable trust to avoid probate. A revocable trust is a simple vehicle which holds title to assets for you. A revocable trust designates how the assets are to be distributed at death and provides emergency access to funds in the event of disability, but it protects the assets from the creditors of beneficiaries and prevents unauthorized withdrawals during lifetime. At your death, the revocable trust continues on. Thus, there is no need for a probate court to be involved to re-title the assets which are owned by the revocable trust.

A revocable trust is a simple, straight-forward method of avoiding probate and the risks of joint ownership. Before titling anything in joint tenancy, consult a qualified estate planning attorney who knows the risks of joint tenancy and the advantages of revocable trusts.

By: Joel Loquvam
Mr. Loquvam is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys and has been engaged in the practice of law for the last 22 years. For more information or to attend an upcoming seminar, call (310) 724-7377. You can also visit his website at http://www.LegacyWealthPlan.com for up to date Estate Planning information, FREE Reports and test your knowledge of Estate Planning by taking the online quiz.