Drunk Driver Accident Attorney
If You’ve Been Injured in a Drunken Driving Wreck in Texas, Contact Our Drunk Driver Accident Attorneys
One of the more devastating events you or your family can suffer is going through a drunk driver accident. These accidents are not only senseless, but they can cause serious injury to yourself or they may cause the death of a family member or loved one.
If you or a loved one has gone through such a regrettable and tragic mishap, you should immediately retain skilled, aggressive, and experienced legal aid so that you can receive full and fair compensation for your injuries and losses. Our drunk driver accident attorneys have over twenty years of experience in dealing with drunk driving personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. The drunk driving accident attorneys at our Law Office are intimately familiar with Texas alcoholic beverage law and regulation, and they can aid you in your personal injury or wrongful death legal action so that you can receive the justice and full and fair compensation so that you can begin to rebuild your life after enduring injury and loss due to another person’s careless and negligent actions.
The below web article from our Law Office will inform you of your legal alternatives should you be faced with a drunken driver accident in Texas. Most drunk driver accident cases are never as clear-cut as they may seem at first blush, and the below information will help you educate yourself about why that is usually the case. Nevertheless, this information is not intended to substitute for true legal counsel. Drunk driving cases generally have many different aspects to them that compel different legal alternatives to be taken, and it is to your benefit to quickly seek skilled legal representation if you or a family member has been harmed in a drunk driving accident. After reading what we have to say, feel free to call our Law Offices toll-free for a free consultation and to discuss your possible legal alternatives.
The Difference Between Drunk Driving Accidents and Normal Passenger Vehicle Accidents
There are two primary differences between regular passenger vehicle mishaps and drunk driving incident cases. The main difference is that intoxicated drivers typically cause a significantly greater amount of damage to both passengers and passersby and property than those who cause accidents due to a fleeting lack of attention while at the steering wheel. Moreover, and as you would think, there are dramatically increased fatality rates in drunk driving incidents than in accidents caused by sober drivers. Due to the increased damage and fatality rates, pursuing a drunk driving lawsuit can prove to be challenging to non-lawyers and inexperienced attorneys because so much money is at stake. The insurance company that covers drunk drivers will aggressively defend their interests.
The second difference between a passenger vehicle mishap and a drunk driving accident is that though the drunk driver obviously seems to be at fault for any deaths, injuries, or property damage he or she has caused, many times there are other parties that can also be held responsible for the mishap. Or to state it differently, both the drunk driver and other responsible parties can be held liable for your incident, which can mean the possibility, if not probability, of increased compensation for the pain and suffering you’ve endured in the horrific accident. This is why you need to secure the services of a competent and aggressive drunk driving accident lawyer to help you find and hold accountable all responsible parties for their reckless and negligent behavior.
More Than the Drunk Driver Can be Held Liable for Your Drunk Driver Accident.
It’s a no-brainer that with most drunk driving accidents, the intoxicated driver is at fault for any deaths or injuries that are a consequence of their contemptible and irresponsible actions. But if your injuries and losses are severe, and you are in dire need of compensation and recompense to cover medical or funeral expenses, pursuing a personal injury or wrongful death claim against the driver immediately may not be the best first choice of action to seek full and fair compensation for your injuries or losses. Justice demands these drunk drivers be held accountable and punished for their recklessness, but there are sometimes more parties that can be held responsible in a drunken-driving accident. These parties may have enabled the careless behavior of the drunk driver with the result being a violent or fatal accident.
Texas dram shop law permits injured or harmed parties to bring a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit against any establishment that willfully serves intoxicated patrons and enables their drinking to the point that their blood alcohol content exceeds the legal limit of .08%, or the establishment in question knowingly permits a drunk customer to drive away from their bar or restaurant to endanger other drivers and pedestrians. Stated differently, the alcohol-serving establishment can be held liable for any accidents that involve their intoxicated clientele. This is the way third parties can be involved in a drunken-driving incident. In this case, the serving establishment can be held vicariously liable for the drunk driving mishap.
Why Are Alcohol Service Establishments Held Liable For Drunken Driving Mishaps?
Should every alcohol serving institution strictly obey Texas law and not permit their clientele to leave their establishments while drunk or otherwise intoxicated, the number of drunken driving associated deaths and injuries would highly likely decrease. To help increase this social good, bars and alcohol-serving restaurants and establishments are also held responsible for their drunken customers’ careless and negligent behavior–this is to reduce the number of drunken driving accident-related injuries and fatalities. But as we all know, Texas law does not prevent its citizens from getting behind the wheel while drunk.
It also just so happens that these bars and restaurants, if found negligent of over-serving alcohol, usually have a greater capacity to pay full and fair compensation for the injured or harmed party. These alcohol-serving establishments will usually pay out the increased computation in order to save their reputation with the community. Furthermore, by holding alcohol serving institutions responsible for their actions, the general public is made aware that profit over the public’s well-being cannot be tolerated where the public’s safety is concerned.
You should be aware that merely pursuing legal action against an alcohol-serving establishment does not automatically mean you should assume that the negligent establishment will pay out a significantly increased compensation. If the establishment in question and the drunk driver are co-defendants in legal action, the judge and jury will determine what percentage of responsibility each party is liable to payout. Stated differently, whatever party has the majority percentage of responsibility will be liable for the majority of your compensation. Nevertheless, this should not stop you from holding each party from owning up to each’ share of responsibility. Drunken driving accident injuries and fatalities demand that the answerable party be accountable to justice; and also, by holding multiple parties liable for their negligent actions, you stand an increased chance of being fully and fairly compensated for your injuries and/or losses. In other words, the chances of you seeing greater compensation are enhanced by holding all negligent parties accountable.
What is Texas Law in Regard to Drunk Driving?
State law forbids those with a blood alcohol content level of .08% or more to be out in public or from driving a motor vehicle. Furthermore, state law prohibits alcohol-serving establishments from excessive alcohol service which causes the imbibing customer’s BAC to surpass .08%. Texas law attempts to limit public alcohol consumption because experience and research show that intoxicated persons are unable to adequately reason, judge, and think for themselves and they become unable to safely drive while under the influence of alcohol. Since drunk patrons are unable to reason, judge, and think for themselves, a server or bartender must make that determination on the customer’s behalf. It is at this point that a server and/or bartender have an obligation to public safety by attempting to make every practical effort to stop a drunk patron from getting behind the wheel of a car.
Alcohol serving establishments are aware that they have this responsibility to the public and as a result, they have devised many programs to help take care of their intoxicated clienteles if they should become too drunk to drive. For instance, certain bars and restaurants ally with taxi cab businesses to give drunk patrons reduced fares for trips home, or they offer free appetizers for designated drivers who are patronizing the establishment with a group. Should a bar or restaurant not offer these and other programs or services to their clientele, there is nothing worse for a bar or restaurant’s reputation or worse for its profitability than for it to be accused of over-serving alcohol to its clientele and to threaten it with a drunk driving personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. The drunk driver accident attorneys from our Law Office have over twenty years of experience with Texas dram shop law and we are very good at helping our clients in receiving out of court settlements with negligent bars and restaurants, and we are able to ensure that you receive full and fair compensation for medical and/or funeral expenses, lost and future lost wages and property damage bills you’ve received as a result of another’s carelessness or negligence.
What is Proximate Cause in a Drunk Driving Claim?
Almost all Texas bartenders and alcohol servers are required to be certified by the state in order to be employed and to perform their alcohol serving duties, and because of this certification, bartenders and servers are acutely aware of their duties to their customers and their obligation to public safety. When these servers neglect to uphold their obligations, whatever the reason may be, and their actions or inactions cause a drunk driving accident that results in fatalities or serious injury, the bartender or server in question is said to be a “proximate cause” of the drunken driving mishap. They are partially liable for the drunk driver’s accident.
Bars and Restaurants Legal Obligations
Bartenders and servers can be found responsible for drunk driving mishaps because they are required to know and understand the many legal obligations that are attached to employees in their profession:
Bars and alcohol-serving restaurants are required to have every one of their servers licensed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). This certification requires intense training in the legal obligations involved in serving alcohol to the public. Alcohol serving establishments cannot legitimately plead ignorance for their negligence.
The State of Texas expects those alcohol-serving establishments will have appropriate procedures, practices, and policies that declare how alcohol is distributed and tracked at their respective bars.
There is an expectation that an alcohol-serving establishment will have guidelines and protocols in place showing servers how to handle intoxicated clientele and that all servers both know and abide by these protocols.
There is an understanding that all servers are to look for the often unmistakable indicators that a person is becoming too intoxicated to get behind the wheel of an automobile.
When confronted with negligence or liability for a drunk driving accident, many bars and restaurants will resort to what is known as the “safe harbor defense” in order to protect their interest and show that they have no responsibility for the accident in question. If an alcohol-serving establishment can show that its servers and employees have followed all of the expectations that we’ve just discussed, then the establishment in question will not be held accountable for injuries or fatalities caused by one of their intoxicated clientele who was involved in a drunken driving mishap. The alcohol-serving establishment is then said to be in a safe harbor. Since all bars and restaurants are aware of this safe harbor defense, they will try to hide their carelessness, recklessness, or other negligence behind the veil of this defense. The problem is, however, that it is very difficult to establish that the restaurant or bar is lying about meeting those expectations and guidelines, and the problem is further complicated by the fact that the victim or his or her loved ones bear the burden of proof in trying to prove that the alcohol-serving establishment is being deceptive, deceitful or otherwise trying to cover up their negligence. You or your legal representation bear the task of proving the restaurant or bar enabled the drunk driver’s drinking and that this negligence led to the drunken driving mishap. Proving the relationship between the establishment and the drunk driving incident is a very challenging undertaking, and this can be too much for inexperienced lawyers and new law firms, but the drunken driver accident lawyers at our Law Office have been handling Texas dram shop personal liability and wrongful death suits for over twenty years. We are intimately acquainted with this deceptive tactic and we will dedicate our efforts to exposing it and helping you receive the justice and full and fair compensation that is rightfully yours for your injury and/or loss.
It is in Your Best Interest to Contact a Drunk Driver Accident Attorney as Soon as Possible After Your Mishap
We absolutely know that you are working your way through a very trying time, especially if you’ve lost a family member or have suffered a serious injury. Part of the rebuilding process is seeking financial compensation for your loss and/or injury. It does not matter if you think you may not have the time, money, or strength to pursue legal action against negligent parties, but it is more than likely the best course of action you or your loved ones can take.
If you have any questions regarding pursuing a personal injury or wrongful death claim for your drunken driving accident, please call our Law Office toll-free for a free consultation and discussion of your legal or other alternatives for your unique situation.
Moreover, if you’ve been involved in a drunk driver accident, you should take immediate action. Waiting too long to make a decision on a course of legal action could seriously harm your case or cause you to have no case at all because the evidence you will need to receive your full and fair compensation quickly degrades, gets lost, and otherwise simply disappears. Ensure that you receive adequate compensation to begin to rebuild your life. We can help you in your time of distress and need.
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Texas Dram Shop Laws
Texas Attorney Explains Drunk Driving Accidents & Texas Dram Shop Law
If you are not an attorney, liquor liability laws can be complex terrain to navigate. The validity of these cases is often criticized and misunderstood. However, legal statutes and case law support the fact that these laws stem from common sense ideas that we can explain here.
If you or a loved one has been injured, or someone close to you has been killed in a drunken-driving accident in Texas, call the drunk driver accident attorneys of our Law Office.
With more than twenty years of experience successfully litigating cases predicated upon a Texas Dram Shop Cause of Action, the attorneys at our Law Office are well-credentialed and can readily assist you in getting the justice you deserve.
This article, while here to inform you of your rights and responsibilities, is no substitute for the assistance one of our attorneys can provide. Below you will find useful information to help you understand Texas Dram Shop Laws that assign liability to parties that may be legally, entirely, or in part, responsible for the death or injury of your loved one, what the challenges are in pursuing this kind of civil case, and some of the types of cases and claims we can initiate to afford you some relief for your anguish, pain, suffering, and related expenses.
The Basics
The legal implications and damages involved in a drunk driving accident are far more severe and intricate than the typical auto collision. The most noteworthy distinctions are:
Injuries sustained in accidents involving a drunk driver are typically more severe and have a higher fatality rate, which typically means there are more financial damages and, therefore, the legal battles become decidedly more aggressive, making having competent legal representation of the utmost importance.
Often there are multiple parties who have violated laws that are in place to protect victims of this type of collision, which means you are best served by a multi-faceted strategy that assesses the value that can be recovered or gained by holding each party responsible.
Defendants in Intoxicated Accident Cases
Most people think that the most obvious person to pursue legal remedy from in an alcohol-related collision case is the driver, but often, individual drunk drivers who may bear the bulk of the responsibility for the incident are often not the most viable candidates if your immediate need is financial relief for medical or funeral related costs.
Under the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code, statutes state that in addition to suing the drunk driver for his or her negligence, victims also have the right, under what is referred to as “Dram Shop Law,” to pursue damages for the negligence of bars, restaurants or other persons or business entities that enabled the drunk driver to become intoxicated enough to cause the accident.
This liability was established under the theory that car accidents are not merely caused by the immediate action or reflex at the moment of the accident, but can be caused by a chain of events that led up to the accident. Under this logic, any entity that contributed to the chain of events that caused the accident can be held vicariously liable.
Why the Bar?
While most of us probably consider the personal responsibility of the driver to be most important on an emotional level, it is important from an ethical perspective, to ensure that bars and restaurants are not knowingly serving alcohol to drivers who get involved in these collisions when it is clear that someone who is leaving their establishment and may be operating a vehicle when their behavior or reflexes appear to be erratic, or they have consumed an amount of alcohol that puts their blood-alcohol-content (BAC) well above the legal limit. If these establishments were diligent in ensuring their patrons did not become overly intoxicated, drunk driving accidents could much more easily be avoided.
In addition to having greater means to provide financial remedies than the individual driver, the public message should be sent that the establishments and their employees should not be endangering the public by setting potentially dangerous drunk drivers out on the street simply because the bartender wants to keep collecting the patron’s generous tips or the bar wants to make more money.
In a lawsuit in which the driver and the bar are co-defendants, the court will assign damages for each party’s negligence, and the financial remedy coming from each source will be proportional to the court’s assessment of each defendant’s percentage of liability. Thus, while you may get more financial remedy by filing a case against both the driver and the bar, it is important to realize that this does not necessarily mean that you will get more money by digging into the pockets of the business over the means of the individual driver. It simply allows distribution of the responsibility which means, ultimately, you have a greater chance of actually getting the financial recovery that goes beyond what the individual driver would be able to pay.
Specific Rights and Responsibilities
Under Texas law, it is not only illegal to be behind the wheel of a car with a BAC of more than .08, but it is also illegal to be out in public with this level of intoxication, and it is also illegal for bars or establishments that serve alcohol to serve individuals an amount of alcohol that put them over this limit.
Science has proven that the consumption of alcohol impairs reflexes, judgment, and inhibitions, and thus, while a sober person may know his or her limit, once he or she has had a few drinks, that person may no longer be able to make a sound judgment of when he or she is too drunk to drive, and thus the serving party bears the responsibility of safeguarding the public and taking the appropriate action to prevent this from happening.
Many establishments have implemented programs to reward patrons who have a designated driver or have made partnerships with taxi companies to ensure that their clientele is not driving under the influence. That being said, there is nothing more motivating to the establishments that have not implemented such safeguards, than the potential negative publicity and financial cost of a lawsuit. In most cases, these establishments will likely be willing to settle and award financial remedy for medical, auto, and funeral-related expenses caused by a drunk driving incident for which they bear a portion of the legal responsibility, and with hope, they will then be more diligent in helping prevent public intoxication and alcohol-related accidents.
Proximate Cause
Because bartenders are reasonably expected to know that it is illegal to over-serve their patrons, if they choose to disregard this responsibility, they become the proximate cause of related injuries.
Legal Expectations
Bars are required to have all of their servers licensed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which entails each server’s participation in training that requires learning and understanding their rules and responsibilities and the consequences associated with failing to follow them. A bartender cannot simply be unaware of how they should transact their business.
Bars are expected to have written policies and procedures for handling the distribution and tracking of alcohol served.
Bars are required to have written policies and procedures for how to deal with overly intoxicated patrons.
Servers are expected to be on the lookout for signs of intoxication.
The Safe Harbor Defense
Provided a bar or alcohol-serving establishment has met the legal obligations outlined above, they cannot legally be held responsible for any degree of negligence in a drunk driving accident. However, many establishments may try to employ this defense whether or not it truthfully applies.
The unfortunate reality in preparing a case against an establishment using the Safe Harbor Defense is that the burden is on the victim or plaintiff to establish proof that there was a blatant disregard for the above guidelines. Dram Shop cases are not subjective, and therefore they can only be won if they clearly deserve to be prosecuted.
Next Steps
Deciding to get involved in a lawsuit can be an emotional experience, and you may have concerns about the cost, the time constraints, and in some cases, the consideration of the relationship you have with the person who caused the accident.
However, it would be unwise to allow time to slip by without looking out for the remedies you are entitled to and lose the evidence and opportunity to protect your interests in the matter because if you wait too long, your options may run out and the related expenses you incur could get beyond your control.
If you or a loved one was involved, injured, or killed in a DUI accident, call our Law Office for a free consultation, and we can discuss your concerns and help you find the right course of action to get the justice you deserve.
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Texas Drunk Driving Statistics
Texas Personal Injury & Wrongful Death Lawyer Discusses Drinking and Driving Statistics in Texas
Drunk driving is a major problem in the United States. Unfortunately, it’s an even greater problem in Texas. The drunk driving attorneys at our Law Office share the following intoxicated accident statistics with you in hopes that you will recall them the next time you, or someone you’re with, thinks they’re able to drive a vehicle, even if they’ve had a few drinks.
Texas holds the dubious honor of having the most drunken driving-related accidents in all of the United States. In other words, more accidents occur in Texas related to drunk drivers than anywhere else in the country.
When a fatality occurs on Texas roads caused by a vehicle, nearly fifty percent of these accidents are caused by drunk drivers.
Drunk drivers are the cause behind five deaths per day in Texas.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 886 people were killed in Texas in 2019 as a result of intoxicated drivers.
These drunk driving accident statistics are a grim reminder of the incalculable cost of human lives lost because of drunk drivers.
Regulating the BAC
Furthermore, while steps have been made by the federal and state governments to properly regulate blood alcohol content levels, more progress could be made. Today, every state must enforce a blood alcohol content (BAC) level of .08%. In the early ‘90s, the legal BAC level was .10% for most states. Studies that compared alcohol-related accidents from both time periods showed a marked decrease in incidents after the BAC level was lowered. However, despite this improvement, 16,000 people are still killed every year in America because of the actions of drunk drivers.
What if I’ve Been in a Drunk Driving Accident?
If you or a loved one of yours has been involved in a drunk driving accident, don’t allow yourself or your family member to become part of the drunk driving accident statistics. To the experienced drunk driving accident lawyers at our Law Firm, you or your loved one will never be a number or statistic. We will come alongside you to see to it that you are properly compensated for your pain and injuries. It’s also important that you contact an experienced law firm as drunk driving cases typically involve dram shop causes of action. This means that an establishment or bar that knowingly serves alcohol to an already impaired individual, or allows that person to leave their establishment while intoxicated, can be held partially liable for an accident that may occur as a result of the drunk driver’s inebriated driving. This can oftentimes be difficult to prove for a lesser-experienced attorney unfamiliar with what is necessary to prove a dram shop cause of action in a drunk driving case. However, with our 20 years of experience in dealing with drunk driving cases in Texas, the attorneys at our Law Office are well prepared to handle your case.
Because of that same experience, every major insurance carrier knows our reputation for seeking fair compensation for our clients. They often respect us to the degree that they will offer our client out-of-court settlements because they know we have a high likelihood of winning the case should it go to trial. In other words, our experience benefits you and may help you get you quickly back on your feet while also receiving fair compensation for any physical injuries or property damage sustained as a result of a drunk driving accident. Call us so that we can help you seek justice in your drunk driving accident case.
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