Direction one: your teen caused it
Three layers of exposure, worst-case first. The signer rule: whoever signed the minor's license application accepts statutory liability for their driving — capped at owner-liability levels. Your policy: the household auto insurance responds as primary (this is why teens must be ON the policy — an unlisted teen driver is a coverage fight you don't want). Entrustment: knowingly letting an unlicensed, provisional-violating, or impaired teen drive is YOUR negligence — uncapped, exactly like lending to a drunk adult. Provisional-license violations (passengers under 20 in the first year, night driving) feed these arguments; enforcing the rules at home is also liability hygiene.
Direction two: your teen was hurt
A minor's injury claim is full-valued and parent-managed: you pursue it on their behalf, settlements require court approval (the minor's compromise — a protection, not an obstacle), and funds typically sit in blocked accounts until 18. The statute of limitations tolls during minority — but treating that as license to wait squanders the evidence window; the crash gets investigated now or never. Teen passengers hurt in a friend's car have the cleanest claims of all — against the friend-driver's policy — and loyalty dynamics shouldn't silence them.
The insurance conversations to have today
List every household driver. Carry real UM/UIM — teen crashes involve other teens, and roughly one in six California drivers is uninsured. Consider umbrella coverage the day the permit arrives; it's never cheaper protection than during the teen-driver years. And if the call already came, either direction: the free review reads exposure and claim alike, judgment-free — every family in this town has been one phone call from the same conversation.
