Laws vary from state to state, but in states that recognize a claim for negligent entrustment of a motor vehicle, the plaintiff generally must show that:

• the owner of the vehicle entrusted the vehicle to another person;

• the person to whom the motor vehicle was entrusted was an unlicensed, incompetent, or reckless driver;

• at the time of the entrustment, the owner of the motor vehicle knew or should have known that the person to whom the motor vehicle was entrusted was an unlicensed, incompetent, or reckless driver;

• the person to whom the motor vehicle was entrusted was negligent on the occasion in question; and

• the negligence of the person to whom the motor vehicle was entrusted proximately caused the accident.

Even the lack of a required legal license does not establish incompetence or recklessness. Whether a driver has a license does not determine whether a driver is in fact incompetent. Some incompetent drivers are licensed, and some competent drivers are unlicensed.

If a state’s statutes require an operator of a given motor vehicle to be legally licensed to operate it, then permitting the driver to operate it without a legal license may constitute negligence per se.

Although state laws require licensing to operate some motor vehicles (automobiles), they often do not require licensing to operate other motor vehicles (forklifts). In the absence of a licensing requirement, the plaintiff must show the defendant knew or should have known the operator of the motor vehicle was incompetent or reckless, not that he was uncertified or lacked formal training to operate the motor vehicle.

In New Jersey, the concept of negligent entrustment of a motor vehicle is recognized and can form the basis of a civil lawsuit when an owner of a vehicle entrusts it to a person who is unlicensed, incompetent, or reckless. The plaintiff must demonstrate that the owner knew or should have known about the driver's inability to operate the vehicle safely at the time of entrustment. Additionally, it must be shown that the driver was negligent at the time of the accident and that this negligence was the proximate cause of the accident. While the absence of a driver's license does not automatically equate to incompetence or recklessness, New Jersey law may consider allowing an unlicensed individual to operate a vehicle as negligence per se if the vehicle is one for which a legal license is required to operate, such as an automobile. For motor vehicles that do not require a license, such as forklifts, the plaintiff must still prove that the owner had reason to know of the operator's incompetence or recklessness.