Every year hundreds of Texas residents sustain a serious personal injury as a result of a drunk person. These injuries come from an intoxicated drunk driver that causes a car wreck or sometimes come from an intoxicated person that assaults an innocent victim. Injured persons obviously have legal rights against the drunk person. However, in many cases, there is also an opportunity to seek recovery against a bar/alcohol provider that over-served the intoxicated person.

Having the ability to hold a company responsible for over-service of alcohol that leads to personal injury and damages is a good and fair thing. The sale of alcohol can be a very profitablebusiness. However, as will be discussed, recovering money against an alcohol provider is challenging, thus, it is critical that the personal injury lawyer have experience in this area.

The “Dram Shop Act”

Tex. Alco Bev. Code 202 (b) the “Texas Dram Shop Act” imposes liability on alcoholic beverage providers for damages caused by individuals who were served despite being obviously intoxicated.

Provision Providing Defense for Bar Owners

The Supreme Court of Texas has developed a provision in the Dram Shop Act called the “Safe Harbor” provision. Under the safe harbor defense, the actions of an employee in over-serving a patron shall not be attributable to the employer if (1) the employer requires its employees to attend T.A.B.C. Certified training classes, (2) the employee in question actually attended these classes; and (3) the provider did not directly or indirectly encourage the employee to violate the law.

So in other words, if an injured person files a lawsuit against a bar for personal injury or death caused by the bar’s over-service of alcohol, the injured person or their family must prove that the other person was obviously intoxicated at the time that he or she was served. In order to overcome the Safe harbor defense, the injured person has to then prove that the bar indirectly or directly encouraged its employees to violate the law. If the injured person is not able to develop proof of encouragement, the Court will likely throw out the case and the injured person would get nothing. That is why an injured person must hire an attorney with vast experience in sueing alcoholic beverage providers.

Experience with Dram Shop cases

It is critical to hire an experience and aggressive Dram Shop lawyer. We are experienced Dram Ship lawyers that know the Texas Dram Shop act backwards and forwards, (including the current legislative attempt to fix part of the Act). Without a superior understanding of the law and experience handling these types of cases, a lawyer may quickly find that they are in over their head.

In order to prevail in a Dram Shop Act case, it is critical that the lawyer develop a great deal of evidence (much more than an average negligence case). In order to develop the required evidence, it is obviously important that the lawyer know exactly what is needed. Further, it is frequently necessary for the lawyer to hire a toxicologist and an alcohol policy and procedure expert. We only work with the best experts and have a great deal of experience in forming a case and gaining an early understanding of exactly what types of experts are needed.

If you or a loved one has been injured by an intoxicated person in a car wreck or an assault, you should contact an experienced Dram Shop attorney at the Bonneau Law Firm. We are a Dallas based personal injury law firm and handle serious Dram Shop Act cases across the State of Texas.