How Does Insurance Work in Texas Dram Shop Cases?
An overview of insurance for bars in dram shop cases: When people are hurt because a bar or restaurant sells too much alcohol to a patron who later causes an accident, they're in need of more than an apology: they need money. Victims of these accidents are out some combination of medical bills, lost wages,...
How Do Attorneys Defeat the Safe Harbor Defense in a Texas Dram Shop Case?
How to beat the Safe Harbor Defense in dram shop cases: Back in 1987, when the Dram Shop Act was in the process of being passed, the hospitality industry lobbied for some kind of defense that granted them immunity from suit. What they got was the so-called Safe Harbor Defense. Simply put, this defense states...
How Do Punitive Damages Work In Texas Dram Shop Cases?
How Punitive Damages Work In Dram Shop Lawsuits As we discussed on our main Dram Shop Compensation page, the law empowers victims of alcohol-related accidents to seek money from licensed alcohol providers that over-serve their patrons. As in just about every type of lawsuit, the main goal is getting compensation for the damages the plaintiff...
What Is the First Element of the Safe Harbor Defense in a Texas Dram Shop Case?
Element #1 of the Safe Harbor Defense: The Bar Requires TABC Certification. Under Texas law, bars are liable for accidents and injuries caused by intoxicated patrons who were served at their establishment. However, built into the same law that allows drunken driving victims to sue bars is a provision that allows bars to have the...
How Does the Texas Dram Shop Safe Harbor Defense Work?
Overview of the Trained Server Safe Harbor Defense in Texas dram shop cases: Under texas law, if a bar serves alcohol to someone who is already obviously intoxicated, the bar can be held liable for any injuries caused by or to the drunken patron. The way these cases work is the injured party files a...
How Long Do I Have to File a Dram Shop Lawsuit in Texas?
With any type of personal injury or wrongful death case, a person who wishes to sue has a short window of time to do so. The point at which this window closes is called the statute of limitations. Once the statute of limitations has expired, a lawsuit can no longer be filed, and the case...
What Is the Second Element of a Texas Dram Shop Safe Harbor Defense?
Safe Harbor Defense Element 2: Servers Are TABC Certified While Texas law permits those who have suffered injuries due to irresponsible alcohol service to sue the establishments whose improper service directly led to their injuries, it also attempts the balance the rights of bars, restaurants, and liquor retailers. It does so by affording them a...
What Is the Second Element of a Texas Dram Shop Safe Harbor Defense?
Element #3 of the Safe Harbor defense in dram shop cases: The bar did not encourage violations of TABC rules: When someone is injured in a drunk driving accident in Texas, if the drunk driver was served by a bar or restaurant while they were obviously intoxicated, those injured in the accident are permitted to...
How Does Temporal Proximity Work in Texas Dram Shop Cases?
Temporal Proximity in Texas Dram Shop Cases When a bar's unlawful alcohol service ends up leading to an accident where someone is injured, the Texas Dram Shop Act permits victims to hold the bar liable for injuries that arise from the bar's over-service through what's known as a dram shop claim. In these cases, the...
How Does the Proximity Defense Work in a Texas Dram Shop Case?
Texas Dram Shop Law - How the Proximity Defense Works In a Texas dram shop case, negligent bars will often attempt to use a Proximity Defense in an attempt to escape liability for accidents caused when their unlawful service of alcohol results in injuries or fatalities. Before getting too far into how this defense works,...
How Did F.F.P. v. Duenez (2007) Change Texas Dram Shop Law?
What F.F.P. Operating Partners v. Duenez (2007) Means to Determining Liability in Texas Dram Shop Cases Our website's mission is to explain the law in clear, concise, standard English to make Texas injury law accessible to attorneys and non-attorneys alike. As such we don't often delve into particular legal cases that underpin how personal injury...
What Are the Steps in a Texas Dram Shop Lawsuit?
Litigation Strategy in Texas Dram Shop Lawsuits There are plenty of attorneys who claim that they have years of experience handling a particular area of the law, but very few will actually publish their litigation strategy. For more than 25 years, the attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have litigated more Texas dram shop cases than...
Can Social Media Posts Be Used as Evidence in a Texas Dram Shop Case?
How social media is used as evidence in Texas dram shop cases: Do not give the other side ammunition to use against you in your dram shop case. Be careful what you post on social media websites, because defense attorneys are likely watching. Due to the nearly ubiquitous nature of social media postings, it's no...
How Comparative Fault Works in Cases Against Bars
How Comparative Fault Works in Cases Against Bars When a drunk driver causes an accident, many people are impacted. Not just the driver and the occupants of the vehicle they hit, but families and friends of those who were in the accident will also feel the weight of the incident. This is a sensitive time,...
How Can Testimony From a Safe Alcohol Sales Consultant Help My Case?
How a "safe alcohol sales consultant" can help your dram shop case: Dram shop cases are not won by simply showing a bar sold alcohol to a patron and the patron later had an accident. Instead, it must be proved that the bar behaved negligently. We must be able to place fault on the bar...
Why Is Toxicologist Testimony So Important in Dram Shop Cases?
How the testimony of a toxicologist can help your Texas dram shop case. When preparing to litigate a dram shop case, lawyers compile all kinds of evidence in order to put their client in the best possible position to recover their losses. Testimonies play a big part in this process. One type of testimony that...
Do I Really Need Expert Witnesses in my Dram Shop Case?
Expert Testimony is Important Evidence in a Texas Dram Shop Case When proving the liability of a bar who over-served a patron, experts in the field of alcohol sales, toxicology, and restaurant management can provide valuable testimony. In this article, our drunk driving accident lawyers will finish our discussion regarding the role of expert witnesses...
How Does Police Officer Testimony Impact a Texas Dram Shop Case?
How Police Officer Testimony Impacts a Texas Dram Shop Case Police officers are often the first people to talk to intoxicated defendants following an accident. In any civil lawsuit resulting from a drunk driving accident, the testimony of the arresting officer can be extremely important, especially if you bring forward a lawsuit against the bar...
How Is Eyewitness Testimony Used in Texas Dram Shop Cases?
How eye witness testimony is used in a Texas dram shop case. If you're pursuing compensation from a negligent drinking establishment under Texas dram shop laws - after being injured or having a loved one killed in an accident by a drunken driver - then you're going to need to be able to prove the...
How Does the Amount of Alcohol Consumed Impact a Dram Shop Case?
How the amount of alcohol consumed can be used as evidence in a Texas dram shop case: Texas law holds alcohol providers liable for intoxication related injuries, provided that the bar or restaurant who served the alcohol broke certain rules. This is known as Texas dram shop law. In order for victims of an alcohol-related...