If you caused a rental car crash, you are responsible for the harm done to others. The rental car company doesn’t take on your accident liability just because their name is on the vehicle. Your personal auto insurance, rental car coverage, or credit card benefits typically cover damages. But if they fall short, you pay the rest.
When injuries are serious, you can quickly exceed your policy limits. A single hospital stay at National Park Medical Center after a bad wreck on Highway 7 can push past $100,000 before you leave the building. If you’re hurt near Hot Springs National Park or Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort—or if you caused an accident and aren’t sure where to turn — we can help you sort through it.
Hot Springs draws more than a million visitors every year. Most fly into Little Rock, rent a car, and head south on I-30. Many have never driven these roads before.
Highway 7’s mountain curves between Hot Springs and Jessieville catch out-of-towners off guard, especially during Oaklawn’s race season when traffic through Garland County is heavy. Downtown also gets congested around Bathhouse Row on weekends. Rental agencies near the Hot Springs airport and around town stay busy renting vehicles to visitors who don’t know local roads, speed patterns, or Arkansas traffic laws.
When a crash happens, those visitors face a legal process in a state they’ve never lived in, often while trying to heal from hundreds of miles away. That’s a hard spot to be in, and it’s one we help people navigate every day from our Hot Springs office.
Arkansas is a fault-based state. So, in a rental car accident, who is liable? The driver who caused the accident is responsible for the resulting harm, even if they rented the car.
When you sign a rental agreement, you’re accepting legal responsibility for how you drive that vehicle. The paperwork doesn’t protect you from what you owe to those you injure. If you rear-end someone on Central Avenue or run a light near the casino district, the people you hurt have a claim against you, not the rental company.
For serious injuries like broken bones, brain trauma, or spinal damage, this can mean six-figure medical bills plus lost wages, long-term care, and pain and suffering. Our Hot Springs auto accident attorneys regularly handle these cases and know how Garland County courts look at fault and damages.
Many people assume the rental company shares responsibility because they own the car. A federal law passed in 2005 called the Graves Amendment says otherwise.
Before this law, injured people could sometimes sue rental companies for what’s called vicarious liability. The basic argument: If you own the vehicle, you share some responsibility for what the driver does with it. But Congress closed that door for commercial rental companies.
If a rental car driver injures you, you pursue that driver. You can’t go after Enterprise or Hertz simply because they handed over the keys. This is a huge risk if the driver has minimal insurance and can’t pay for your serious injuries.
The Graves Amendment isn’t a complete shield. Four scenarios allow injured people to bring claims against a rental company:
Proving any of these exceptions takes work: subpoenaing maintenance logs, pulling recall records, and obtaining employee training files. Insurance companies know these cases are complex. They often deny claims early, betting that injured people won’t have the resources to push back. This is exactly when you want the right firm in your corner.
Understanding which policy pays first—and where the coverage ends—is the only way to avoid a massive bill after a crash. Let’s look at the order of coverage.
If you’re on the other side of an accident and injured by a rental car driver, your coverage determines how much you can recover.
Arkansas uses a 51% comparative fault rule. If you’re more than 50% at fault, you can’t recover anything from other parties, even if you have serious injuries. If your share of fault is 50% or less, you can still recover, but your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault.
Here’s an example: A rental car driver runs a yellow light near Oaklawn. Another driver was speeding in the same intersection. Both share some fault, and the court assigns percentages. If the rental driver is 40% at fault and the speeding driver is 60% at fault, the rental driver can still recover, but only 60% of their total damages.
Insurance companies fight hard over these numbers when the injuries are serious. Even a 2% shift is the difference between a check in your hand and a total loss. Don’t let an adjuster push more blame onto you than the facts support.
Some travelers unknowingly let personal policies lapse before a trip. Others rely on credit card CDW, not realizing it only covers the vehicle, not the people they hurt.
If you cause an injury in an accident without enough coverage, you face personal financial exposure. Injured parties can come after your assets, garnish your wages, and put liens on property you own. Arkansas judgments don’t disappear when you cross the state line. If you live in Texas, California, or anywhere else, garnishment follows you home.
Rental car accidents involve more moving parts than a standard collision. Your car accident lawyer evaluates insurance policies, rental agreements, and the rental company’s maintenance records. When insurers start pointing fingers, you need an experienced law firm working for you.
If a rental company’s negligence is a factor, building a real case requires subpoena power. Experienced car accident attorneys can pull corporate records, call on mechanical experts to analyze equipment failures, and take a case to trial when insurers won’t make a fair deal.
With more than 40 attorneys and 150+ staff across eight Arkansas locations, we work through complex multi-party cases while you focus on getting better. Our Hot Springs office serves both residents and out-of-state visitors dealing with accidents throughout Garland County—and we’re used to working with clients managing an Arkansas claim back at home.
We have an office right in the middle of Garland County, close to the national park and Oaklawn, and minutes from the Garland County Circuit Court. If you’re a visitor dealing with an Arkansas claim from out of state, or a resident trying to make sense of a complicated insurance situation, proximity matters.
For cases that need deeper investigation or extensive litigation, our Little Rock offices bring more attorneys and resources to the table. Complex rental car accident claims — the kind that involve maintenance records, recall documentation, or disputes between insurers — need that depth.
Rainwater, Holt & Sexton handles rental car accident injury cases throughout Arkansas. Whether your accident happened near a Hot Springs attraction, on I-30 between Hot Springs and Little Rock, or somewhere else in the state, you have a full-service Arkansas firm to help you sort it all out.
Injured in a rental car accident or facing liability for an accident you caused? Reach out to our firm. We’ll listen, be honest about your case, and put our experience to work for you.
Contact our office at (800) 434-4800 any time, day or night.
Arkansas is our home and we want to make sure our neighbors and friends are supported. With offices throughout Arkansas – Little Rock, Springdale, Conway, Hot Springs, Bryant, Jacksonville, and Jonesboro – our personal injury lawyers are easily accessible when you need help.
Our experienced injury attorneys are here to advocate for you.
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