Conroe Drunken Driver Accidents

If You've Been Injured due to an Accident With a Drunk Driver in Conroe TX, Call Attorney Michael Grossman Today

Real life nightmares are an apt description of drunk driving accidents. These tragedies, however, affect over 30 percent of this country’s population during some part of their lives.

Drunk drivers kill other motorists approximately every 45 minutes a day. These numbers help you understand the horrific truth of the intense damage that an intoxicated motorist can cause through their negligent, selfish and reckless behavior. If you live in Conroe and have been involved in a drunk driving wreck, or have lost a family member due to a drunk driver’s negligence, you’ll be able to get compensation for your injury or loss by seeking a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.

The tough part is that several people who’ve experienced such a painful tragedy are often hesitant about contacting a lawyer, or just have no idea about the legal process and what’s involved. What we’ve discovered is that lots of accident victims just have no knowledge about their exact legal options. Many are unaware that alcohol-serving establishments can be ruled to give you compensation based on their part in a Conroe drunk driving accident that caused an injury or fatality. This article discusses Texas dram shop law, plus your legal options in getting compensation from the right party so you can focus on the recovery process.

The Unique Details in Drunken Driving Wrecks

Unlike your everyday car accidents, drunk drivers create infinitely more damage that can quickly been seen in property damage, extensive personal injury, or death. Because of that, drivers face far greater judgments, and the damages pursued in Conroe drunk driving cases will tend to be exorbitant. With so much on the line, focused and sharp legal action is necessary in order to see that the plaintiff is compensated for their injury or loss so they can heal from the accident. Besides that, Conroe drunk driving accident cases usually include several liable parties who take responsibility for the accident, and each specific defendant will have a case built against them, holding them accountable for their negligent actions in the drunken driving accident.

Liable Parties in a Conroe Drunk Driving Accident

The first suspect in a Conroe drunk driving accident to consider is the driver. Any motorist whose negligent choices contribute to an accident and lead to an injury or death can be found liable for the victim’s injury or death. The reason for this is that every driver owes a legal duty to other drivers to make sure they’re safe while on the road. When legal duties have been violated, causing injury or death, then the liable party can face problems for the damages sustained by the victim, either through a personal injury wrongful death lawsuit. What this means is that even when a negligent driver could be as sober as possible but still was liable for an accident resulting in injury or loss, then they could still be ruled guilty for the wreck. But if a driver was smashed, and well beyond the .08 percent limit, then there’s a solid chance that an extra group could be involved, which turns out to usually be an alcohol-serving establishment such as a bar or restaurant. These entities are ruled vicariously liable for a Conroe drunk driving accident if a relationship can be proven showing their negligence caused a chain of events that wound up with a drunk driving accident. The law governing this is known as the Texas dram shop law and is included in the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code. Establishing a relationship between a negligent bar and a Conroe drunk driving accident can be difficult, especially with law firms I haven’t worked long for. At the same time, establishing a relationship between these parts is key since an alcohol serving establishment that over- served will be held responsible for providing the plaintiff with a set amount of compensation. Thanks to our 20 years of experience in cases involving Texas dram shop law, Conroe drunk driving accident lawyer Michael Grossman and his collection of attorneys at Grossman Law Offices are able equipped and trained to work a Conroe drunk driving accident so they can see if it was a negligent-serving business that may have factored into a drunk driving accident.

What Makes the Bar Liable?

Lots of people are unaware of the Texas dram shop law and become surprised when they learn that a bar or restaurant can be found vicariously liable for another customer’s decision to leave and drink and drive. The thinking is that an alcohol-serving establishment has no way to control a person, so they shouldn’t be found responsible for the customer’s choices after they leave the property. However, there was some actual logic used with the Texas Dram Shop law and why bars and restaurants stand the chance of being found liable in these issues.

The Bar’s Responsibilities in Distributing Alcohol

Texas dram shop law isn’t in place to take the civil pressure away from the intoxicated motorist for their choices and move it to a bar or restaurant. A Conroe drunk driver will still be held responsible for an accident resulting in injury or death, regardless of what role the bar or restaurant had in it - if any at all. This occurs, for instance, when an individual decides to drink 18 beers at home, and then gets out on the road and drives. However, Texas dram shop law is there to make sure the public safety is looked after by seeing that alcohol-serving establishments keep even more watch over their patrons and the distribution of alcohol.

For instance, the law in this state forbids people to be in public, which includes driving, with a blood alcohol content level over .08%. Texas law states that individual becomes a threat to themselves and others close to them, and you can’t rely on that individual to come to a sound decision because of their blood alcohol content level and how it’s effected them. Knowing that, then you’ll agree it makes since for Texas dram shop law to forbid a bar or restaurant for over-serving a patron and letting them go over the BAC of .08%. If over-serving takes place and a drunk patron creates a Conroe wreck resulting in injury or death, then the bar or restaurant can be held partially liable for that tragedy. The sad part here though is that over-serving takes place for numerous reasons, from a bartender trying to earn extra money to waiters who are exhausted and accidentally ignoring signs of a customer getting drunk. Since drunk patrons aren’t able to make smart decisions about their capability of driving home, another mature adult has to take charge, which is why Texas dram shop law was established. Now, those alcohol-serving establishments could be held accountable for their decisions that led to a Conroe drunk driving accident. The same form of liability happens when a bar allows a drunk customer to drive away from their parking lot, or a bar willfully sells beer to minors.

If this manner of vicarious liability is hard to understand, then how about this: If you had surgery and were provided with anesthesia shortly after, would the physician allow you to leave for home before the anesthesia had tapered off? That’s a gutsy, and almost too risky, of a situation for the doctor and could likely lead to you and others being injured or dying if you drove in that mental and physical state. In this scenario, a doctor would be found vicariously liable for any accident you caused.

One other key fact is that bars, restaurants and other establishments serving alcohol can’t try and act dumb about these issues. All of these parties and entities, if they’re seeking to provide alcohol, have to obtain a liquor license from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

To keep this license updated, businesses must keep up with rules involving alcohol sales and serving for managers and servers. Besides that, bartenders, waiters and servers have to participate in training where they’re told about spotting the signs of intoxication and learn about their legal obligations they must provide to customers when it comes to alcohol. Due to this, any person or company engaged in legally giving alcohol to a customer can’t try and appear stupid of Texas dram shop law.

Restaurants and bars also have to have written guidelines and rules set when it concerns with handling and overseeing customers’ consumption of alcohol, which require intricate details to be kept about the number and type of alcohol purchased at their job-site. Some of the more popular ways to track intake include tally sheets, color-coding of glasses or even hand signals. That way servers know what’s being purchased, and the amount, while working. Also key here is that a bar or restaurant must have a game plan for handling drunk customers. Most of the time the manager will diffuse it quickly, and stop the patron from getting anymore drunks, provide them with food (which mops up extra alcohol) or gives them a ride home via a cab or taxi service. When that happens, managers have to make sure the customer gets in the cab safely and actually leaves. In issues where patrons try to sneak their own booze into a restaurant, like a flask, the manager will see to it that the booze is taken away.

What are the Signs of Intoxication?

Servers and bartenders must have the ability to notice signs of intoxication and keep a mindful eye on customers and see to it that they aren’t over-served. Those signs can be obvious, ranging from slurred speech, to poor logic, drowsiness, aggressive behavior that suddenly begins, or other apparent changes. Some customers however will be able to “hold their liquor” and will appear perfectly fine when they’re actually very drunk. In those situations, a waiter has to monitor the total drinks provided to a customer since that person can still be intoxicated even if it doesn’t appear to be that way. The regular formula used to total drunkenness is that one patron shouldn’t be sold more than two pints of beer an hour, two glasses of wine, a cocktail or a shot of liquor. If these amounts are exceeded, chances are high that a customer is going above the legal .08% blood alcohol content level.

Do Texas Dram Shop Laws Seek All Compensation from the Bar or Restaurant?

The purpose of Texas Dram Shop isn’t to get all of the compensation for a plaintiff’s damages from the alcohol-serving establishment that was negligent. Dram shop is meant to hold those parties partially responsible for a Conroe drunk driving accident, letting someone seek compensation from both the drunk driver and the alcohol-serving establishment that may have played a role in the tragedy. Each defendant will then be ordered to compensate a plaintiff in proportion to their degree of responsibility in a Conroe drunk driving accident. For example, if a plaintiff is handling $1 million in damages and a bar is ruled as 10 percent liable, then the bar would be forced to pay just $100,000 in compensation to the victim. The drunk driver, if liable for the remaining 90 percent, would be demanded to pay $900,000. If legal action was sought against just the bar, then compensation would likely be much smaller than what’s needed to cover the damages a victim has sustained. A bar or restaurant will never have to be concerned with being ruled 100 percent liable, and because of that will never be totally made to pay 100 percent of the compensation since that business wasn’t completely at fault for the accident. Texas dram shop isn’t meant to hold a bar completely accountable for a Conroe drunk driving accident, but it serves hold defendants responsible for their part in an injury accident or fatality in a drunk driving accident.

What Does Proximate Cause Mean?

In a Conroe drunk driving accident, the legal phrase “proximate cause” is something you can hear thrown about on a consistent basis. This term refers to a defendant that wasn’t primarily responsible for a wreck, but factored into what took place. In drunk driving wrecks in Conroe, a proximate cause can be an alcohol-serving establishment that behaves in a negligent manner. Other potential causes can include third parties that may have also played a part in a wreck, like a manufacturer of a faulty device. If an outside party can be revealed to have been a key factor in a Conroe accident causing injury or death, then that proximate cause will likely turn into another defendant along with the defendant who’s already responsible.

What is the Safe Harbor Defense?

When an alcohol-serving establishment is viewed as being a possible liable party in a Conroe drunk driving accident, a defense counsel working for the bar or restaurant will probably attempt to go with the safe harbor defense. For those move to work, the defense team must show that the alcohol-serving establishment followed all state guidelines pertaining to the distribution of alcohol. If this compliance can be shown adequately, then the bar or restaurant is provided safe harbor and will likely be guarded from a lawsuit. At the same time, attorneys representing negligent bars or restaurants will know all about the safe harbor defense and will attempt to say such a business followed the law when they really weren’t just so a personal injury or wrongful death claim can be thrown out. In these matters, it’s important to the successful verdict in your Conroe drunk driving accident case to have the help of a qualified Conroe drunk driving accident lawyer like Michael Grossman and his team at Grossman Law Offices. They’ll do an investigation to determine all the key parties and hold them responsible for their negligence.

Conroe Drunk Driver Accident Attorney Michael Grossman Can Make Sure You Get Fair Compensation from All Liable Parties

Spotting the responsible parties in a Conroe drunk driving accident can be very complicated for some law firms, but Grossman Law Offices has 20 years of experience in cases involving dram shop causes of action. Because of this, we’re able to figure whether or not alcohol-serving establishments bare any responsibility when it comes to a drunk driving accident.

If no business involved in a Conroe drunk driving accident, we’ll aim to hold any other party responsible so you can get a shot at being fairly compensated for your injury or loss because of a drunk driving accident. Call us at 1-855-392-0000 (toll free) for a free legal consultation to discover what your legal options are so you can start recovering. Along with getting compensation for your damages, you have to make sure negligent parties face justice for their behavior so more drunk driving accidents don’t harm others in the long run.