[blparent] question for my fellow parents

[Steve Jacobson]

Scott,

I did not have to deal with this exact issue but know of others who have.
Certainly this does not seem at all fair on the surface, and with your
background, perhaps you can have an effect.

My understanding, though, is that this is a common practice if a teenaged
driver is insured separately.  There are circumstances when parents do not
want the teenager to be a part of their insurance plans.  It has forced
people in several instances to include their teenaged driver in their plan
even though they would rather not have done that.  As a consequence,
teenaged drivers who are not part of a family plan will likely include
teenaged drivers who are for whatever reason on their own, so to speak, a
group that would likely be a higher risk than would your son.  It would be
interesting to know if there are actuarial data on teen-aged male drivers
who live at home with non-drivers.  I would not be surprised if there are no
such data which penalizes us.  

We got a law passed here in Minnesota a long time ago that makes it illegal
to discriminate due to blindness.  While this law was helpful to some degree
in certain instances, it turns out that some of the practices that affect us
negatively are not due directly to blindness but we are certainly impacted
as a group.  Therefore, I think it is likely going to be difficult to make
the case that there is discrimination directly due to blindness even though
we are impacted in a way that families with other drivers are not impacted.


With your legal background, please let us know if you find an approach that
deals with this other than those that have been suggested.  

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

-----Original Message-----
From: BlParent <blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Scott C. Labarre
via BlParent
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2018 9:34 AM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Cc: Scott C. Labarre <slabarre at labarrelaw.com>
Subject: [blparent] question for my fellow parents

Hello everyone, I am new to this list but, of course, not to the Federation.
On Monday, our kids, Alex and Emily, started school.  It's hard to believe
that they are 10th and eighth graders respectively.  On October 4th Alex
will turn 16 and plans on sitting for his driver's license exam at some
point close to his birthday.

 

That is what brings me to my question.  I wonder how some of you have
handled auto insurance.  As many of you know, Anahit and I are both blind
and thus do not drive.  Insurance companies will sell us a policy to cover
Alex for $6000 a year or, $500 a month and which only covers one vehicle.
This is far more expensive than what sighted parents are paying for their 16
year old children.  For example, a couple we know whose son turned 16 in
July and is driving are paying only an additional $133.00 a month and only a
total of $3800  a year or $317 a month to cover three drivers and two cars.


 

They tell us that it is so high because neither one of us drives.  This
argument makes no sense to me because the fact is that a child will not be
driving with their parents in the car 90 percent of the time or more.  The
whole point of getting a license is for the child to be independent and
drive themselves places.  Even when sighted parents are in the car with
their teenage and licensed  child, it is highly likely that the parent will
be driving.

 

The bottom line, in my opinion, is this is a case of discrimination based on
a disparate impact theory.  Although the policy is facially neutral, it has
a disparate impact on those of us who are blind for no justifiable reason.  

 

So, I am researching the legal aspects of this, as you can imagine, but all
of that takes time and I really don't want a lengthy battle on my hands.
Consequently, I am turning to my fellow blind parents to see what solutions
you may have discovered to all of this.  

 

I thank you in advance for any thoughts.  

 

Best,

Scott

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