The Injustice of the Graves Amendment

The Graves Amendment is a federal law enacted in 2005. The Graves Amendment was a part of a federal highway bill and its sole purpose was to immunize rental car corporations for damage, injury, and death caused by insured or uninsured drivers who rent their vehicles all over the nation. In Florida, motor vehicles are legally designated as "dangerous instrumentalities" calling for financial responsibility of those who own them. This is why there is a complex and ever evolving statutory framework of liability and insurance laws surrounding the ownership and operation of private motor vehicles. This includes even some types of mandatory insurance coverages for private owners. The car rental industry rakes in billions of dollars placing almost 2 billion rental cars on U.S. roads and highways every year. The car rental industry earned over $ 38 billion dollars in revenue in 2023 breaking all previous annual record earnings.

There is no legal requirement for car rental companies to assure the renter is a financially responsible person or even a responsible driver.? The renter need only have a valid driver’s license.? Under the Graves Amendment, the car rental company is completely immune from any liability to those injured and maimed by reckless operation of their cars on the roads and highways of the U.S.A. including in the high volume rental economy in Florida, one of the tourism capitals of the nation.

In my 39 years practicing personal injury and wrongful death law, and as a board certified civil trial lawyer, I've seen many injustices resulting from laws unfair to everyday Americans. Most such laws are the creation of wealthy special interests with powerful lobbyists in state and/or federal legislative bodies, and virtually all of them are designed to increase the profits of those special interests and put those profits above public safety. The Graves Amendment represents one of the worst of these laws. In any given year about 20% of Florida drivers are uninsured. An even larger number are woefully underinsured, having minimal levels of liability insurance to compensate accident victims. This is why having uninsured motorist coverage is so important as it takes the place of absent or low liability insurance of a reckless driver who injures the policy holder or their family members.

Since 2005, I've seen untold number of severe injuries and deaths go uncompensated when uninsured or underinsured renters caused accidents while operating rental cars in Florida. All have been injustices, but none have reached the level of injustice of a current client of mine: Gabriella. Gabby was a passenger in a friend's vehicle that stopped in the emergency lane of a local Orlando toll road when Gabby felt sick. Shortly afterward, a rental car operated by a woefully underinsured driver inexplicably left its proper lanes for travel and rear-ended Gabby's vehicle at a speed in excess of 90 miles per hour. The resulting explosive impact propelled Gabby's vehicle ten feet into the air causing massive injuries. Gabby was rendered a 23 year old quadriplegic by the collision and now lives solely with the support of her loving parents.

The Florida Highway Patrol, which is notoriously underfunded and understaffed in Florida, had one rookie trooper trying to investigate multiple accidents on the same toll road that evening. He neglected to demand a blood alcohol draw of the rental car driver who had been taken to the hospital for complaints of internal pain, to interview the sole eyewitness, to obtain or review the driver's ambulance and hospital records, or to review body cam videos of the deputy sheriffs who stopped the driver from fleeing the scene by foot. Yet, body cam videos of deputy sheriffs showed he was stopped when attempting to flee the scene, and the same videos, ambulance run report, and medical records obtained in the civil litigation clearly indicate he was grossly intoxicated that evening and had admitted to drinking and doing illegal drugs, including cocaine. He was cited for reckless driving only. He later hired a criminal defense attorney and contested the reckless driving charge at a traffic court hearing. The rookie trooper failed to subpoena the sole eyewitness who could identify him as the driver and failed to admit in evidence the rental agreement he signed. The traffic court judge did the only thing he could do: dismiss the charges.

I sued the drunk driver and took multiple depositions and conducted a massive investigation revealing the body cam videos and other evidence of his intoxication. Two weeks before we were set for trial, I was notified the driver was filing for bankruptcy. This results in an "automatic stay" of the civil case against him. So, this underinsured drunk driver operating a large corporation's rental car not only rendered Gabby a quadriplegic. He not only escaped criminal responsibility. He not only escaped civil traffic infraction responsibility. Now, he will escape personal civil liability. We contested the bankruptcy under a section of the bankruptcy code that exempts debts for injuries caused by drunk driving from discharge in bankruptcy court. In September 2024 we were successful in bankruptcy court and plan to remand the case to state court for a determination of total damages, including punitive damages and entry of a judgment that will not be discharged by the bankruptcy proceedings. Nonetheless, the driver of this rental car will likely never have enough money to begin to compensate Gabby for her losses and the cost of her future medical care and support. Rather, this medical care and support will be born by her, her family, Medicare, and state Medicaid programs.

Gabby's case represents the worst injustice in the application of the Graves Amendment that I have seen in the last 17 years since the law was enacted. When massive billion dollar corporations make billions in revenues by placing rented motor vehicles on the road for profit, they owe it to other motorists, the society at large and taxpayers to have some level of accountability for damages and injuries caused by the negligence and recklessness of their rental car customers. That's not just good corporate citizenship. It's common decency. The Graves Amendment should be repealed.