Iowa’s Parental Responsibility Statutes

Understanding the possible culpability of a parent or legal guardian in Iowa for a minor’s “willful misbehavior” or carelessness.

A parental responsibility statute holds parents and/or guardians responsible for certain types of injury or damage caused by underage children. Some laws restrict a parent’s culpability to purposeful and/or malicious conduct performed by a child, while others impose parental accountability for accidents.

Iowa has its own form of parental responsibility legislation, which may be found in Iowa Code section 613.16. In this essay, we will go over some of the major details of this statute.

In Iowa, how old must a child be for a parent to be held liable?

Parental responsibility rules only make parents and legal guardians responsible for certain minor children’s behavior. A minor is defined as somebody who is under the age of majority. The age of majority in Iowa, like other states, is 18. As a result, the Iowa legislation detailed below applies only when a kid is under the age of 18.

Note: If a parent does not have custody rights over a minor child, the parent cannot be held accountable for the minor’s behavior under Iowa Code section 631.16.

In Iowa, an unemancipated minor’s parents are accountable for any property damage and/or physical injuries caused by the minor’s “unlawful activities.”

So, whereas many jurisdictions hold a parent liable for a young child’s deliberate or willful activities, Iowa requires the minor’s actions to be illegal before a parent is held liable. This implies that if a youngster commits a crime such as vandalism or assault, a parent may be held accountable for the expenses. However, if the conduct is not criminal in and of itself, section 631.16 cannot be utilized to hold a parent liable.

Limitations on Parental Liability Under Iowa Law

Parents are accountable for the real damages caused by their child’s criminal activities under Iowa Code section 613.16. This includes reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses such as property maintenance or medical expenditures. Under Iowa law, parents cannot be held accountable for non-economic losses like as pain and suffering.

Section 613.16 further limits the amount that a claimant may recover:

A parent may not pay more than $2,000 for any one act, and may not pay more than $5,000 to the same claimant for two or more actions.

Parents Will Be Liable To Business Entities As Well – Individuals Aren’t the Only Ones

Section 613.16 of the Iowa Code states that parents’ accountability is not limited to persons. For example, if a youngster vandalsizes or otherwise causes property damage to commercial property, the parents will be financially accountable to that firm (up to the dollar amounts detailed in the previous section).

Who Are the Appropriate Parties in a Parental Responsibility Lawsuit in Iowa?

The custodial parent(s) and the minor kid are the appropriate defendants in a case filed under Iowa’s parental responsibility legislation. If the minor’s parents submit an Answer to the Complaint, there is no need to appoint a guardian ad litem (or a lawyer).

In Iowa, parents may be held liable under common law.

Even if section 613.16 does not apply, parents may be held financially liable for their children’s acts. There may be situations when parents and guardians are held liable for general negligence under conventional fault notions (derived from a non-state specific set of principles known as “common law”).

Parents who know their kid has a proclivity to behave recklessly or carelessly, for example, may be required to take reasonable precautions to keep that child from causing foreseeable injury to others.

Assume a parent is aware that their kid uses a mobile phone while driving and that the child does everything but pay attention to the road. The kid has even received a few traffic tickets for “distracted driving.” Assume a parent is aware of all of this, but does nothing to restrict the kid’s usage of his or her phone while driving the family vehicle, and the youngster causes a car accident while texting buddies. In such case, the parents might be held liable for enabling their kid to drive. Learn more about the Legal Duty of Care and Negligence.