Most people assume that if another driver hits them, that driver is the only person they can sue. In many cases, that is true. But when the driver who caused the crash was working at the time, whether making deliveries, driving to a job site, or hauling cargo, there may be another party on the hook: the employer.

This matters because the driver who hit you might carry the state minimum in personal auto insurance, or they might not have enough coverage to pay for a serious injury. Their employer, on the other hand, usually has commercial insurance and significantly deeper pockets. Under Virginia law, you may be able to go after both.

What Respondeat Superior Means in Practice

The legal term is respondeat superior. It translates to “let the superior answer,” and it is a form of vicarious liability. The idea is straightforward. If an employee causes harm while carrying out their employer’s business, the employer shares responsibility for the damage. The employee does not get off the hook. Both the driver and the company can be named as defendants in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.

This comes up constantly in trucking accident injury cases. A delivery driver runs a red light. A tractor-trailer rear-ends someone because the driver was pushing to meet a deadline. A utility company employee sideswipes a car on a narrow road. In each of those situations, the employer’s liability depends on whether the employee was acting within the scope of their job when the crash happened.

How Virginia Courts Decide Employer Liability

Virginia case law has established three things you need to prove to hold an employer liable under respondeat superior:

• An employer-employee relationship existed at the time of the crash
• The employee was acting within the scope of their employment when the accident occurred
• The employee was carrying out the employer’s business at the time

If those three elements line up, the burden shifts. The employer then has to produce evidence showing the employee was not acting within the scope of employment. That is a meaningful advantage for the injured person because it puts the company on the defensive from the start.

A Virginia Beach truck accident lawyer will review the facts of the crash and determine whether the doctrine of respondeat superior applies. If it does, the claim gets stronger because there is a more substantial defendant to pursue.

When the Employer Is Not Liable

There are situations in which the employer will not be on the hook, even when the employee was driving a company vehicle. The most common exceptions include:

• The employee was commuting to or from work
• The employee was on a lunch break or running personal errands
• The employee was using the vehicle for something completely unrelated to their job duties

The lines can blur. A truck driver who detours slightly off route to grab lunch is probably still within the scope of employment. A delivery driver who takes the company van to run personal errands on a Saturday probably is not. These fact patterns get argued on a case-by-case basis.

Negligent Hiring and Negligent Entrustment

Respondeat superior is not the only way to hold an employer accountable. There are separate legal theories that apply when the employer acts independently and does something wrong.

Negligent hiring applies when the employer failed to properly vet a driver before putting them behind the wheel. If a trucking company hires a driver with a suspended license, a history of DUI arrests, or a record of at-fault accidents and fails to check, that is negligent hiring. It does not matter whether the employee was within the scope of employment at the time of the crash. The employer’s mistake was putting that person on the road in the first place.

Negligent entrustment is similar. If an employer knew or should have known that an employee was unfit to drive, whether because of alcohol problems, a medical condition, or a pattern of reckless behavior, and gave them access to a vehicle anyway, the employer can be held directly liable.

These theories are separate from respondeat superior and can apply even when vicarious liability does not. A Virginia Beach truck accident lawyer who handles cases involving commercial vehicles will know which theories to pursue based on the evidence.

Why This Matters for Truck Accident Claims

Crashes involving commercial trucks tend to cause the worst injuries. According to NHTSA data, 5,472 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks in 2023, and over 153,000 were injured. In 70 percent of those fatal crashes, the person who died was in the other vehicle, not the truck.

At Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp, the attorneys have built their careers around representing working people and families who have been seriously hurt. The firm has handled injury and wrongful death claims since 1985, and several of its former partners have accepted judicial appointments, which speaks to the caliber of lawyers the firm produces.

If a company driver caused your accident, contact Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp to talk about your options. The firm recovered a $5.5 million settlement for a Virginia Beach family severely injured when a commercial truck driver rear-ended their car at a red light. Call 833-997-1774 for a free consultation and find out what legal options you may have for compensation.

Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp has offices in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Norfolk, and Chesapeake.