Q: Who can be held responsible if a drunk patron leaves an establishment and injures themselves or another?
A: The short answer is, potentially the bartender, server, manager, owner, and/or the establishment. This is called “Dram Shop” liability, and most states have enacted laws on the topic. “Dram Shop” is a term that now refers to any establishment serving alcohol on premises. Historically, the term was used as early as the 1400’s, and referred to a dram, or a small unit of liquid. Medieval patrons would order spirits by the dram.
The basic premise is that states have enacted laws that could hold the bar, the owner, or the server financially liable if they serve alcoholic drinks to a visually intoxicated customer, and that customer injures someone. The strictest laws in the country even call for social hosts to be potentially liable.
Typically, the situation is as follows. A customer/guest either comes into the establishment intoxicated and is served a drink, or drinks to the point of visible intoxication at the establishment. The intoxicated patron then gets into their car, leaves and injures someone in a motor vehicle accident.
The difficulties that arise for owners, servers, and establishments, is how can you tell when someone has had too much, and what steps can you take to limit liability? There are several tips. First, training programs for servers are good for both management and servers (and even for hosts, security, and valets). The ability to recognize intoxication, and stop service of an individual is absolutely essential. The National Restaurant Association offers a great training program called ServSafe. Second, management should create an official policy for safe alcohol consumption. If a server has any question regarding a patron, a member of management should be contacted and follow the policy in place. Third, taxi numbers or alternate transportation should always be made readily available.
Finally, it is extremely important to recognize that the laws have given you a heightened responsibility over your customers as an employee of the service industry. Whether it is fair or not, the law looks to you to make judgment calls in order to prevent people from being injured. I would caution that employees take this responsibility seriously, and always be alert, avoid drinking on the job, and be knowledgeable about the laws in your state. Not only does that help you keep your job and keep your establishment up and running, but it is also an important step to help prevent tragic accidents in your community.
The National Conference of State Legislatures has put together general informational summaries of Dram Shop laws for all fifty states, and you can view your state’s Dram Shop law at http://www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerce/dram-shop-liability-state-statutes.aspx
Jonathan
Jonathan Boulahanis is an attorney in the Chicago office of Clark Hill PLC and is a leader of the firm’s Food and Beverage team. Since Jonathan can’t cook like his Italian mother and the fast food was going to his hips, he became a self-proclaimed foodie. As an attorney, he has made a commitment to serve the food and beverage industry, no pun intended, by representing restaurants, bars, individuals, and other food and beverage businesses with various legal issues as they arise. You can reach him by sending an email to submissions@shiftgig.com.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER:
The responses provided in this blog are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact an attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Use of this blog does not create an attorney-client relationship between Jonathan Boulahanis or Clark Hill PLC and the user.
***This article was posted as part of a question and answer series that Jonathan Boulahanis is conducting with Shiftgig.com. The article, as well as all other articles in the series, can be found at http://www.shiftgig.com/articles.
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