The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the federal law eliminating vicarious liability for rental car companies nationwide is fully constitutional. In what is certainly bad news for those injured in Jacksonville car accidents caused by the negligence of rental car drivers, Federal Law now definitively prevents any such personal injury cases against those rental car companies. While the United States Congress previously enacted the so-called Graves Amendment, a number of lower courts in Florida had found the amendment to be unconstitutional.
However, last month, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which essentially oversees all cases in the Southeastern United States, issued a ruling that the Graves Amendment is constitutional. This ruling, for all intensive purposes, puts an end to all such personal injury and wrongful death cases against all rental car companies.