When you leave the bar after a night of drinking and spending time with friends and hop into your vehicle, chances are that your waiter or bartender saw the incident occur. This means that that individual is allowing you to break the law and rive home intoxicated even though he or she knows that it could cost you your life. This is a serious issue, and lawyers have been looking into whether or not restaurants and bars should be held liable for allowing visibly intoxicated patrons to leave the vicinity and drive home drunk. Currently, statistics say that an average of 28 people are killed in car accidents involving drunk drivers every single day in the United States. This saddening statistic shows that there are a lot of intoxicated drivers out on the roads at all times and they are certainly doing preventable damage.

Most of these drunk drivers are coming from a restaurant or bar where they just consumed large amounts of alcohol. Despite tougher DUI penalties in some states, the widening use of sobriety checkpoints, and public education campaigns which show the dangers of drunk driving, there are still about 1.41 million people arrested each year for driving under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. One third of all drivers that are arrested every year already have a prior drunk driving conviction.

In addition to the prosecution and punishments that result from drunk driving, there are times that drivers have to pay a civil suit as well. These civil suits are a way for other injured victims to obtain the compensatory damages that they deserve. For example, if you hit another car and one of the passengers had to spend weeks in the hospital, then you may be held responsible to cover those medical bills. As the drunk driver, you may also need to pay for the victim’s lost wages at work, vehicle repair, and pain and suffering. If the driver that causes a collision also violates driving safety laws, the courts may impose punitive damages as well. These are traffic tickets which are for crimes such as breaking the speed limit or running a red light.

Shockingly, there are times that a bar or a restaurant may also be responsible to pay damages to the victim of a drunk driver. This is called “dram shop liability.” Dram shop liability laws are evaluated differently depending on which state you are in. For example, if you are in California, the laws saw that establishments do not need to assume liability just for serving alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person. This is because in this state, lawmakers have declared that the person who drinks the alcohol should be responsible for the injuries that arise, not the person who served it. In California, those that serve alcohol to an intoxicated minor can be held liable in this regard.

In some states, establishments that allow an intoxicated individual to drive away from the restaurant or bar can be held liable for any accidents that are to follow. As well, they can be held liable for serving an intoxicated individual additional drinks when he or she is displaying dangerous or reckless behavior. In some situations, a victim of a drunk driving accident will not have insurance. This is usually because the driver’s license has already been suspended from a previous drunk driving conviction. In this situation, those that suffer as a result of the accident may choose to sue the business that provided the alcohol. They can also sue public entities that failed to maintain safe roads or vehicle manufacturers if there was a product defect that was in part responsible for the accident.