The Media Is Missing Serious Accidents: What Is to Be Done?
In the course of litigating cases over the last few years, my staff and I have incidentally come across more and more crashes that the news media isn't reporting on. These aren't just minor fender benders, but major crashes where people died or suffered serious injuries due to commercial vehicles or drunk drivers. That's not...
Client Stories: 2 Restaurants Pay a Very Steep Price for a Drunk Driving Accident that Injured a Child
In Spring 2020, a drunk driver changed one north Texas family's lives forever. A mother, father, and their 2-year-old son were driving home on a Monday evening, when at a non-descript intersection, a speeding drunk driver ran through a stop sign and t-boned their vehicle. As a result of the crash, the mother lost one...
Texas Drunk Driving Statistics
Drunk driving is a menace that ruins lives every single day. At Grossman Law, we have made it our mission help drastically reduce drunk driving in Texas. It's why our founder, attorney Michael Grossman, serves on the advisory board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. It's why we offer free sober rides during holidays. It's why...
Grossman Law Offices Congratulates the Winner of the 1st Annual GLO Scholarship Essay Contest
Recently, Grossman Law Offices announced a scholarship essay contest, which was open to graduating high school seniors and college students. We asked young scholars to submit their plan to reduce the number of drunk driving accidents on Texas highways. After reviewing nearly 100 submissions, we are proud to announce that the winner of the $1,500...
One Danger to Police Officers Will Continue Until We Hold Bars Accountable
Mention police officers and drunk drivers in the same sentence, and I'll bet most people will assume that you're talking about the role that police play catching drunk drivers and protecting the public. What many people never consider is the threat that drunk drivers pose to the police. Given that the hours when most police...
Attorney Michael Grossman Receives MADD Attorney Service Award
On April 17, 2019, Mothers Against Drunk Driving - North Texas honored Dallas dram shop attorney Michael Grossman with their Attorney Service Award.
Attorney Michael Grossman Selected For MADD North Texas Advisory Board
The aspect I most enjoy about my job is that the people I work with are highly dedicated to helping our clients. Every lawyer, paralegal, researcher, mailroom clerk, and receptionist has, at one time or another, gone above and beyond to help a client with a personal matter or to help move their case closer...
How Do Dram Shop Laws Benefit Children?
Perhaps one of the most misused arguments in favor of a law or government program is that "it's for the children." People who use this argument often do so in order to stop a debate, instead of starting one. This will not be one of those occasions. I recently read about a horrific crash in...
Nip It In the Bottle: Better to Prevent DWI Crashes Than to Litigate Them After It’s Too Late.
We spend a lot of time writing about dram shop law, which provides an avenue to remedy for people injured due to an establishment's unlawful alcohol service. When someone is over-served at a bar or restaurant it often has dire consequences, especially if they choose to drive in their intoxicated state. While dram shop law...
Harris County Drunk Driving Chronicle
Texas continues to be infamous for leading the country in drunk driving fatalities. Partly due to its size, but also due to a high rate of drunk driving, Harris County (primarily Houston) contributes more to that dubious distinction than any other jurisdiction in the state. In an ideal world, we would be able to analyze,...
For DUI Victims, Crowdfunding Is Good But Dram Shop Law is Better.
These days news stories involving death or injury often end with a link to GoFundMe, a website designed for the Internet at large to participate in "crowdfunding." Crowdfunding is the practice of soliciting small donations from a very wide pool of donors toward a particular financial goal. This practice has a wide variety of applications,...
Is There A Better Argument for Dram Shop Law Than a Fatal Crash With a Drunk Bartender?
Anyone who has spent time sitting at a bar may have seen its tender have a few drinks. Sometimes it's just a beer over the course of a shift, and other times she takes a few shots in a row with a group of regulars. Most bartenders know and maintain their limits like professionals (if...
Only In Houston: Two DUI Drivers Hit Disabled Car in Fatal Crashes
I've mentioned before that Houston ranks uncomfortably highly in matters of drunk driving. Not only does it have the most DUI-related deaths of any Texas city, but it consistently ranks in the top 5 cities throughout the entire U.S. Sometimes it seems like Houston actually wants to remind everybody who wears that tarnished crown in...
Texas DUI Crashes Don’t Just Happen In the Late Hours and On Weekends.
Some people may think that fatal DUI accidents only occur during the times of day when people are most likely to be at a bar--late evening through early morning, after one work day ends and before the next begins. It's true that drunken collisions notably increase during this period, but it's worth remembering that almost...
How Do We Know that Most Wrong Way Drivers Are Drunk?
When we heard that two men were killed in a wrong-way collision shortly after midnight, New Year's Day, on I-35, near Wheatland Road, folks around the office wondered aloud whether or not alcohol or drugs may have played a role in the fatal accident. I don't want to discuss that in-depth, because the reporting about...
Can We Just Assume That Every Wrong-Way Driver is Drunk?
Wrong-way drivers are freaking scary. How does a driver even find himself on the wrong side of the road, let alone stay there long enough to crash? I have a theory about it, actually: Pretty much every wrong-way driver is a drunk driver. I hate to speculate and then be wrong, but when I read...
Why Aren’t Drunk Drivers Charged With Murder?
Drunk driving is a terrible crime. Unsuspecting victims are hurt and killed every day by this all-too-familiar pattern: Someone is over-served, stumbles out to his car to go home, and plows into another vehicle or pedestrian to dire effect. If a police investigation proves that the intoxicated driver was responsible for hurting someone, that driver...
Did Horace Shaw III Have an Accomplice in His Deadly Drunk Driving Crash?
People around Dallas are understandably shocked in the aftermath of a drunk driving accident that occurred around 12:45 a.m. Wednesday, December 13, 2017. For those who haven't heard, authorities charged off-duty Dallas firefighter, Horace Shaw III, with intoxication manslaughter. They allege that an intoxicated Mr. Shaw drove into a Mazda SUV, driven by 18-year-old Alyssa...
Many News Reports Ignored an Important Detail About A Drunken Waffle House Adventure.
We've often had to counsel people not to believe everything they see in the news. While I do believe that reporters make good-faith efforts to get the facts straight, it's still unavoidably true that wires get crossed and misinformation is occasionally conveyed as truth. Sometimes the stories only get benign details like a name's spelling...
If South Carolina Can Mandate Liquor Liability Insurance, Why Can’t Texas?
Good news, South Carolinians! Legislators in your state passed a law in June requiring bars and restaurants that sell alcohol past 5 p.m. to have liability insurance policies of at least $1 million. Under the new law, these businesses will need to show proof of such a policy before they are able to obtain or...