The Dangerous Instrumentality Doctrine holds owners of dangerous instruments strictly liable for damages caused by the dangerous instrument even if someone else is using it at the time of the harm. The Florida Supreme Court has held that motor vehicles are Dangerous Instrumentalities, See Southern Cotton Oil Co. That is because Florida has adopted the Dangerous Instrumentality Doctrine.

Negligent Entrustment is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “the act of leaving a dangerous article (such as a gun or car) with a person who the lender knows, or should know, is likely to use it in an unreasonably risky manner.” Negligent Entrustment claims come up most frequently in high-value claims such as traffic fatalities and catastrophic injuries. When a claim is made for Negligent Entrustment, past driving records are admissible to show the person who entrusted the vehicle should have known better. Exceptions to the Rule Negligent Entrustment Driving records are not generally admissible in Florida courts. In fact, the victim of a traffic crash can’t even tell the jury who got the ticket. Unfortunately, prior traffic violations are usually not admissible as evidence in a civil trial for damages in Florida. After a traffic crash, it is sometimes important to determine if the at-fault driver has a history of traffic violations. There also exists a subculture of drivers who act like everything is a race. We have all seen people driving on the roadways looking at their cell phones. Many times after a traffic crash victims are left wondering if the at-fault driver had a history of bad conduct on the public roads as evidenced by their driving records.

Florida driving record check