Serving Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, Chester Counties, and Eastern Pennsylvania
Have you, or your loved one, suffered from an injury or death due to a drunk driver? Have you been assaulted by a drunk person? If you have been injured by an intoxicated person, it is terrifying, and it leaves you, and your family, afraid, overwhelmed, and upset.
If you have been injured by a drunk person, depending on the facts and circumstances, you may have what’s called a Dram Shop claim or lawsuit against the business that overserved the drunk driver or the drunk assailant.
Call us to learn how we can help you at 215-884-9300.
Under the Pennsylvania Dram Shop Act, bars, taverns, restaurants, nightclubs and other establishments that are licensed to serve alcohol, may be liable if they sell alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person who then injures a person because of that improper alcohol service. The improper alcohol service, or overserving, must have been the cause of the accident and the injuries.
These laws are found in the Pennsylvania Liquor Code, mentioned above. In addition to the laws against negligent service of alcohol, i.e., serving a visibly intoxicated person, an establishment may not: serve alcohol to underage persons; serve alcohol after hours; or serve alcohol without the appropriate license. If an establishment violates these laws, they may have Dram Shop Liability.
If a visibly intoxicated person who was overserved at a bar injures you—or even one of the drunk driver’s own passengers or himself/herself—the establishment that served the visibly intoxicated person may be held responsible for the injuries and damages that the drunk person caused to others. These laws can also apply private events—such as weddings that are professionally catered—that have licensed bar service.
Depending on the specific facts and circumstances, you may be entitled to receive compensation for damages for: pain and suffering, loss in life’s pleasure, loss of consortium, disability and disfigurement, emotional suffering, past and future medical costs, income losses, and in some cases even punitive damages.
Different than a Dram Shop action, described above, another type of liability can occur when an individual serves alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person—adult or minor—in their home who they know will be driving, then the homeowner can be held responsible for injuries caused by the drunk driver. The homeowner who served the alcohol is called the “social host” and the legal term for their responsibility is called “social host liability”.
When a social host continues to serve alcohol to an adult who is visible intoxicated overserves, it is foreseeable that the guest would not be able to operate their care safely. And when a social host serves any alcohol to a minor—even if the minor is not visibly intoxicated—the host can be found liable because the minor should not have been given any alcohol.
If you have been injured by a drunk driver and would like to find out if there are other responsible parties for your injuries, please call us today at ThePhillyLawyers: 215-884-9300. You pay us nothing unless we recover money for you.
When Emmett Madden took over my case, everything got better almost overnight. He promptly and professionally kept me in the loop of where my case was going and had genuine concern for my injuries. I was very happy with how quickly he settled my case and got my bills paid without ever having to go to court.
Brian, Philadelphia, PA
