Liability and Parenting Plan: Your Questions Answered

Questioner

Have a question about liability. My 10 year old son had a collision with another cyclist while riding his bicycle. On that particular Wednesday of the accident, they were at my ex-husband's house. As we also agreed in the parenting plan, the children are with their father every Wednesday. Now my father wants me to claim the damage from my third party insurance. And the person who had damaged her bicycle was at my door with the bill! Father has not taken out third party insurance. This has no financial reason, but is pure laziness! My ex and I have the following sentence in the parenting plan. The parents ensure that the children are insured against legal liability with both of them. In my opinion, I am not obliged to claim this from my insurer on behalf of my father. And I will not be responsible for this in any way in the future. Is my view correct? Thank you in advance for your response. P.s. I also submitted my question to the mediator who drew up the parenting plan. Her response was somewhat unpleasant...that she did not want to be a referee now that the mediation has ended. But that the parenting plan is clear regarding liability. So as not to offend her further! I hope to receive a clear answer from you to this email.

Lawyer

I assume that you both have custody of the child. You are then both liable for the damage that your child has caused as a result of an unlawful act. The other party can hold you both liable. If your ex-partner does not pay, you will have to do so. The provision in the parenting plan does not affect your legal liability. The provision in the parenting plan is insurance-technical nonsense. After all, the children are co-insured on every AVP family policy, even if they are not with you. Your policy is therefore sufficient in this case. Being double-insured also makes no sense because the insurers have agreed that in the event of damage, the oldest policy takes precedence. I advise you to report the damage to your AVP insurer and forget the incident as soon as possible. Fortunately, your child escaped unscathed. You can replace the provision in the parenting plan with: Both parties ensure that the children are insured under at least an AVP family policy. The costs of this policy are borne jointly by the parties. Settlement takes place annually, in the month before the expiry date of the aforementioned policy.

Questioner

Thank you very much for your prompt response. That's right, we have joint custody of our children. In my case, the children have the main residence. I had no idea about this, if I understand correctly the provision in the parenting plan means nothing! However, I would like to see that legal liability is properly regulated. The damage and the bill were still not too bad, and fortunately no one was injured. Next time it could end very differently. We have 4 children together, if I had to claim all damages every time, this would probably also have consequences for the premium. What adjustments are needed in the parenting plan to properly arrange this for the future? Is the sentence below sufficient with the other provision in the parenting plan? They will each take out separate liability insurance for the children. I would like to hear from you,

Lawyer

Answer adjusted