Sued After Your Boyfriend Crashed Your Car While You Slept

Attorney Answer

Being sued is not the same as being liable. California caps what a car's owner owes for someone else's driving — but the cap only helps if he was driving with your permission, and being asleep is not automatically the same as having refused permission.

Cal. Veh. Code § 17150 makes the owner of a vehicle responsible for death, injury or property damage caused by the negligent operation of the vehicle by a person using it with the owner's permission, express or implied. Implied permission is the fight in a case like yours. If he had driven your car before with your blessing, or had access to the keys as a matter of routine, an insurer or a jury can find implied permission even though nobody woke you that night.

If the statute applies, Cal. Veh. Code § 17151(a) caps that owner liability at $15,000 for one person's death or injury, $30,000 for more than one person, and $5,000 for property damage. Those figures were deliberately left alone when California raised its insurance minimums, and they remain the cap. That tells you something about the $75,000 demand: it is aimed at more than the owner-liability statute. It is most likely aimed at the driver himself, and possibly at you on a theory the cap does not touch, such as negligent entrustment — lending a car to someone you knew should not be driving it.

Your own auto policy is normally where this is fought. Coverage generally follows the car and extends to permissive users, and the insurer usually owes a defense. That is a policy question rather than a statutory one, so the declarations page and your insurer's coverage position are what answer it. Because your accident was in 2023, the minimum liability limits in force then were $15,000 / $30,000 / $5,000 under Cal. Veh. Code § 16056(a); they rose to $30,000 / $60,000 / $15,000 only for accidents on or after January 1, 2025. If you carried minimum limits, the demand is above them, which is exactly why a defense lawyer needs to be involved now rather than after a judgment.

If a judgment were ever entered, California protects certain property. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 704.730 sets the homestead exemption at the greater of the prior year's countywide median sale price for a single-family home, capped at $600,000, or $300,000, adjusted annually for inflation — the actual figure depends on your county and year, and no page should print one for you. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 704.010 exempts $7,500 of vehicle value.

What you can do

1. Send the lawsuit papers to your auto insurer today and ask them to confirm in writing that they are defending you.

2. Do the same with any umbrella, renter's or homeowner's policy you have.

3. Do not ignore the papers. A response is due on a deadline printed on the summons, and a missed deadline can produce a default judgment. Filing that response is a lawyer's job — call one immediately.

4. Gather the traffic collision report, your policy declarations page, and anything showing whether and when he had driven your car before.

5. Do not give a recorded statement to the other side's lawyer or insurer, and do not sign anything.

6. Ask a local lawyer about the § 17151 cap on your facts, and about the exemptions in §§ 704.730 and 704.010 if a judgment becomes a realistic risk.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. The injured person's own deadlines are two years for personal injury under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 and three years for vehicle damage under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1). Your deadline to respond to a lawsuit that has already been filed is far shorter and appears on the papers you were served with. Take those papers to a local attorney immediately; this page cannot calculate any date for you.