Q: I am on the title of the car, my son caused the accident. Will my assets be at risk?

A: The owner of the vehicle is liable for its use, up to $15k per person or $30k per accident (if multiple persons are injured). If you knew or should have known of your son's propensity to drive negligently, you could have your own liability for allowing him to drive the vehicle. However, without knowing the specificas of your situation, it is unlikely that your personal assets are at risk.

Your son may or may not be covered on the umbrella policy. Until you have tendered the claim to all of your insurers, and received responses from them, you don't even know what their positions are, much less whether they are correct.

The umbrella policy, which apparently does not specifically insure your son, may nevertheless insure him as a permissive user of the vehicle. An attorney will have to review the language of your primary poicy, and your umbrella policy, to give you a legitimate opinion about that.

You do not need to provide the umbrella information to the attorney, at least not until you get sued. Not providing that information is a guarantee that you will get sued. If you provide the information, you allow the attorney the possibility of investigating the extent of potentially applicable insurance and the ability to try to resolve his client's claims without you being sued.

A: In this situation, it’s important to understand that liability for an accident can extend to the vehicle's owner. Since your son was driving a car that you own, and he caused the accident, your assets could potentially be at risk depending on the extent of the damages and coverage limits on your insurance policies.

Even though your son was not listed on the umbrella policy as a driver, the fact that the vehicle is covered under the umbrella policy may still be relevant. You should provide the umbrella policy information to the lawyer to see if it applies to this situation. However, it's possible that the umbrella policy may not cover the claim if he wasn't listed as a driver, but the lawyer will be able to clarify this based on your specific policy language.

As for your assets, if the damages exceed your auto insurance policy limits and the umbrella policy doesn’t cover it, there is a chance they could come after your personal assets. Consulting with your lawyer on how best to protect yourself in this case is the right step moving forward.