Revised Code of Washington

Wash. Rev. Code § 46.16A.500 (2026)

Liability of operator, owner, lessee for violations

✓ current as of May 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section WA-LEGapp.leg.wa.gov JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Both a person operating a vehicle with the express or implied permission of the owner and the owner of the vehicle are responsible for any act or omission that is declared unlawful in this chapter. The primary responsibility is the owner's.

If the person operating the vehicle at the time of the unlawful act or omission is not the owner of the vehicle, the operator may accept the citation and execute the promise to appear on behalf of the owner.

[ 2010 c 161 s 436; 1980 c 104 s 3; 1969 ex.s. c 69 s 2. Formerly RCW 46.16.500.]

Notes:

Effective date—Intent—Legislation to reconcile chapter 161, Laws of 2010 and other amendments made during the 2010 legislative session—2010 c 161: See notes following RCW 46.04.013.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 1 case, 2018–2018 · leading case: State of Washington v. Michael Scott Perry (Wash. Ct. App. 2018).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

State of Washington v. Michael Scott Perry (Wash. Ct. App. 2018). “Under Washington law, all vehicles must display license plates assigned by the Department of Licensing. RCW 46.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.