Jackson County General Law Blog

It is hard to see teen drivers take to the streets of Lee's Summit and not remember the excitement you felt when you were first learning to drive. Yet that excitement might also be mitigated by the knowledge that their inexperience can make teen drivers pose a greater risk to themselves and others while they are behind the wheel. The expectation is that their parents will ensure that they are only driving unsupervised once they have shown they can be responsible. In cases where irresponsible teem drivers have caused accidents, many come to us here at Kelly, Symonds & Reed LLC wanting to know if they can hold the parents responsible. 

You can assign liability to the parents of a teen driver in an accident, yet only under certain conditions. The legal principle of negligent entrustment does indeed allow one to assign vicarious liability to a third party who provides the person who injured them with the instrument used to do so. In citing the state's view of negligent entrustment, the Missouri State Supreme Court references this passage from the Restatement (Second) of Torts: "One who supplies directly or through a third person a chattel for the use of another whom the supplier knows or has reason to know to be likely because of his youth, inexperience, or otherwise, to use it in a manner involving unreasonable risk of physical harm to himself and others whom the supplier should expect to share in or be endangered by its use, is subject to liability for physical harm resulting to them."

If you are like most people in Missouri, you likely know at least one divorced man who has been required to make alimony payments to his former wife. For some time, this was a relatively normal component in the average divorce settlement. This was a reflection in part on the fact that women either stayed at home to raise their children and did not have their own incomes at all or that whatever jobs women did have earned them much smaller salaries or wages than those earned by their husbands.

MarketWatch reported that data from Pew Research shows that two out of every five American households today are led by primary breadwinners who are female, not male. This fact is having a direct impact on the outcome of many divorces. The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers surveyed attorneys about spousal support and child support payments.

Debt seems to be something that most people in Missouri face in some way. It is all but impossible to buy a car or certainly a house without amassing some serious debt. In addition, credit cards have come to be a commonly used form of payment across the country in today's society. While all of this is normal, it can pose unique challenges for people when they face an impending divorce.

A lot of attention is given to how a couple will split up their assets when they get divorced but the reality of the situation is that debts must also be addressed. As Money Management International explains, people should not assume that the terms of a divorce settlement will protect them in all situations.

Most Missouri residents know that snowy winter weather may lead to slips, falls and injuries. For business owners, it may be especially important to find ways to make their properties safer for employees and visitors. There are several steps employers may take to reduce the chances of slips, falls and other accidents happening during the winter.

Snow, sleet and other winter weather phenomena may drastically increase the number of slip-and-fall incidents. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ice, sleet and/or snow contributed to 1,040 occupational injuries and illnesses in Missouri in 2014. The incidence rate (per 10,000 workers) for such injuries in Missouri was 4.8, which was higher than the national average.