Exploring the Case for Expanded Remote Texter Liability for Employers

In 2013, the New Jersey Appellate Court decided the potentially landmark case of Kubert v. Best, recognizing for the first time that a sender of a text may be held liable to an innocent third party injured in an automobile accident caused by a driver who was distracted by receiving the text. Other subsequent cases have both confirmed and limited the Kubert ruling. In this article, we explore possible further extensions of the Kubert ruling, anticipating that because of expanding employer liability for acts undertaken by their employees, the next step in the evolution of texting and driving law may likely hold employers liable for accidents caused by their employees whose employment-related texts to others result in accident and harm.