Houston Drunk Driver Accident Lawyer

Attorney Michael Grossman Can Help You Recover Compensation if You Have Been Hit by an Intoxicated Driver

In Texas, accidents involving drunk drivers happen every day by the hundreds. The odds are high that one day you will be probably be involved in an auto accident in which the other driver was legally drunk and caused the accident.

In addition to the damage to your vehicle, you may have suffered serious injuries and are in need of financial compensation. If so, it is your right to file a personal injury lawsuit that can compensate you for damage to your vehicle and your medical expenses. If others were in your car and also injured when a drunk driver hit you, they may also be able to seek a personal injury claim against the drunk driver or any other liable parties.

Houston drunk driver accident lawyer Michael Grossman from Grossman Law Offices can help you understand the complexities involved in pursuing – and winning – a drunk driving lawsuit. They are much more technical than normal automobile accident cases. Often, not only the driver is at fault, but the people who are responsible for making him or her intoxicated must answer for their part in this matter. Our experienced attorneys can make sure that this point is made legally clear so you receive the compensation you need.

The laws surrounding responsibility and compensation for accidents arising from Driving under the Influence of Alcohol, or DUI, have changed in recent years. Although they are more complicated than in the past, these new laws now also place some blame (and the responsibility for compensating you) at the feet of the bar or restaurant that “loaded the gun” by continuing to serve liquor to the intoxicated person whose automobile hit yours.

Texas Dram Shop Act

The Texas Dram Shop Act is a set of laws designed to hold sellers of alcoholic beverages responsible for the accidents caused by their patrons and stop the sale of alcohol to people who are already intoxicated. Recent research has shown that well over 95 percent of all DUI-related accidents in Texas are caused by a bar or restaurant that continued to serve intoxicated customers who then got in their cars and caused an accident.

Texas Dram Shop Laws were passed years ago, but, in the past few years, due largely to the aggressive actions of organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), they have been amended and modified to make them more effective. These laws have two main objectives.

The first goal is to make bars and restaurants more responsible for their customers and their level of intoxication. To that end, a stricter set of rules is now in place that makes bartenders and waitresses legally liable for the amount of alcohol their customers consume. These employees must undergo instruction and certification on how to recognize these intoxicated customers and when they need to be cut-off. Since this new legal liability affects their livelihood, many restaurant and bar employees have acquired a new sensitivity to apparently intoxicated customers and it has helped to make Texas roads safer than before the laws were updated.

But the very nature of establishments that serve alcohol still - at times - works at cross-purposes with Dram Shop laws because these establishments make their profits from the alcohol they serve to their customers. So, even though over the past few years DUI-related accidents have seen a moderate decline, too many of them still occur.

That is why the second objective of Dram Shop laws is so important: to assure that the victims of a drunk driving accident receive fair and adequate compensation for the recklessness of not only the drivers, but the people who are equally responsible for their intoxicated condition that caused the accident.

Before the Dram Shop Act was more stringently modified and applied, the victims of drunk driving accidents had no legal case against anyone but the drunk driver. Today, bars and other alcohol-serving establishments can be held just as responsible – and legally liable – for injuries or fatalities caused by drunk drivers to their victims. In some cases, even the passengers who are in the car of a drunk driver have been able to successfully bring suit against the drivers and the establishments responsible for a DUI-related accident. However, such success is not always assured.

When is a Bar or Restaurant Liable for Damages Arising From a DUI-Related Accident?

A bar or restaurant must be granted a license to serve alcohol by the State of Texas. These establishments agree that they will serve alcohol responsibly and accept liability standards for their customers’ safety and welfare when it comes to intoxication. In many bars and restaurants, computer-monitored ticketing systems allow employees of these establishments to easily track the amount and frequency of their customers’ alcohol consumption. With a few exceptions, such a tracking system is now a legal requirement in most bars if they are to hold a license to serve liquor in Texas.

Even though better monitoring systems are in place, employees also know they are ultimately responsible for making sure their customers are not intoxicated. If they are intoxicated, these employees must stop serving them alcohol. But often, detecting the legal level of intoxication in a customer is not that cut-and-dried because every person reacts to alcohol differently.

A number of factors not immediately known to the bar or restaurant employee about that customer, such as how much alcohol they consumed before they arrived, can make it quite difficult to determine just how intoxicated a person is. Sadly, there is no universal way, short of bars and restaurants having a breathalyzer, for the owners to know for certain that a customer is legally drunk, so these employees and owners must be observant and use their best judgment.

That doesn’t always happen. In spite of common understanding, it is against the law to be drunk in public in Texas and it is illegal for bars to contribute to public intoxication. Simply put, if they break the law, they are liable. If necessary, bars must call police to prevent intoxicated individuals from leaving. Some even call cabs for their customers. But until the day when every bar owner calls a cab for every drunk customer, we will have DUI-related accidents. For every one of those drunk driving accidents, some bar or restaurant – in addition to the driver – is usually liable.

If a drunk customer leaves a bar, even if he doesn’t intend to drive, that person is breaking the law, as is the bar that served him. When this happens, the bar and the customer are viewed as negligent in the eyes of the law. Each is responsible for contributing to the intoxicated patron’s condition, and each can be held financially responsible for any damages, injuries or deaths arising from their shared actions that caused this intoxicated patron’s tragic accident.

The Only Way to Receive Fair Compensation From a Drunk Driver is With an Experienced Law Firm at your Side

On first glance, many might think the process of seeking legal compensation in a drunk driving case appears to be reasonably straightforward. But all-too-soon, those who fail to quickly retain competent legal counsel find out first-hand that lawsuits against drunk drivers or the establishments who are responsible for their intoxication are far from simple. Without a competent and experienced Houston drunk driver accident lawyer as your legal advocate, you have virtually no chance of a fair outcome at all.

On the other hand, a knowledgeable and skilled drunk driving accident attorney, like those at Grossman Law Offices, can help a victim overcome the challenges everyone must deal with as a victim moves through the complicated process that is necessary in order for them to win a drunk driving accident lawsuit.

Your Legal Partner Might be Able to Negotiate a Fair Settlement for You Without a Trial

Almost anyone will tell you that the best outcome in a lawsuit is to reach a fair settlement before you go to court. The reasons are simple. You have more control over the outcome and trials can be very expensive. Although favorable settlements are not easy to reach, having an experienced law firm representing your drunk driving case who does all the work necessary to assure success in the courtroom, and has a reputation of winning their cases in court, often increases the chances of a positive outcome for your lawsuit before it goes to trial.

This is why you should retain capable and aggressive legal counsel at the earliest opportunity so they can begin the process of investigation. Witnesses to the circumstances and events leading up to an intoxicated driver causing your accident need to be found and found quickly. The more time that passes, the harder it is to track them down. These witnesses are often vital to your strong case.

Other investigations and assessments of liability must be conducted, chronicled and documented. Insurance companies must be contacted. Law enforcement officials and others who are able to shed light on your case must be found and interviewed. One issue is certain: Your opponents begin working against you almost from the moment the accident occurs. Shouldn’t an aggressive Houston drunk driver accident lawyer be doing the same for you?

By assertively and thoroughly managing your case the moment your legal counsel is retained, the better the chances that lawyer can favorably resolve your lawsuit before going to trial.

Winning the Fairest Compensation for You in Court Requires Many Legal Skills

Now sometimes, no matter what you and your lawyer do, a trial is inevitable. In such cases, the diligence that your attorney displays in preparing the best case possible and negotiating on your behalf before the trial can produce success for you in the courtroom

Grossman Law Offices has demonstrated for the past 20 years why they are successful in winning fair compensation against those who cause drunk driving accidents and their representatives who oppose your rightful and fair compensation. Success in the court room requires many sophisticated legal skills from your attorney in order to win your case. These include:

1. Your attorney must successfully counter aggressive and often well-funded defense lawyers whose job is to cloud the issues of responsibility for your injuries and damage to your automobile at the hands of a drunk driver.
2. Your legal counsel must also prove the bar or restaurant disregarded the law and continued to serve the customer who then became the drunk driver and caused your accident.
3. Your attorney must also stop the bold, heavy-handed and behind-the-scenes behavior of insurance companies who are funding this legal battle against you, because in the end, they’re the ones who usually end up writing the check for your settlement.
4. Your lawyer must be skilled at educating a jury in all the nuances of drunk driving cases and create sympathy in the minds of jurors that you have indeed been wronged.

By successfully countering the aggressive, often under-handed tactics of all your opponents and by making the strongest argument to convince a jury that your case is just, Grossman Law Offices will work toward seeking fair compensation for you in your drunk driver lawsuit.

Experienced Attorneys Counter Aggressive Defense Lawyers

Our firm represents victims in drunk driving accident cases. Furthermore, since the Dram Shop Act was amended to include those who serve alcohol as responsible parties, some law firms now devote their entire focus on defending liquor retailers from their legal responsibilities in causing a drunk driving accident. Not many attorneys are willing to undertake these cases. Because of that, they have represented defendants in literally hundreds of cases. This makes them very experienced, very capable and very aggressive. That is why it is quite difficult for many personal injury firms, and almost impossible for lawyers who do not specialize in personal injury at all, to succeed on behalf of their drunk driving accident victims against these experienced defense lawyers.

But the good news is this: The Houston and Galveston Dram Shop legal professionals at Grossman Law Offices have faced almost every insurance company in the US when arguing drunk driving cases in court. We have successfully resolved hundreds of such cases against highly competent defense firms. We are very experienced at meticulously assembling the strongest possible liquor liability case on your behalf. We are committed to the belief that our clients must receive the compensation they deserve for their injuries and other damages. This means not allowing our clients to become victims of the tactics employed by aggressive defense lawyers.

Fair Inclusion of Third Party Liability According to Texas Dram Shop Law

Defense attorneys who represent a bar or restaurant in many drunk driving accident lawsuits often immediately argue that the drunk driver alone caused the accident and the bar should not be punished. By raising this simple argument, the burden is on your Houston drunk driver accident lawyer and you to prove this is not so. Just because there is now an aggressive Dram Shop Law doesn’t automatically make a bar or restaurant liable. We must clearly prove that they are.

Although there is some truth that the drunk driver is mostly responsible for the accident, once it is proven that bar served the driver up to – or beyond – the point of intoxication, the owners can then be held financially liable for a drunk driver’s negligence that caused the drunk driving accident.

Our attorneys make certain a jury understands this fact. We dedicate our energies to holding all those responsible for your injuries fully liable for their part in this injustice and making certain you receive the full amount of compensation that is due you by law.

Underhanded Insurance Company Tactics: “Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain.”

Scratch a liquor liability defense lawyer and you will find a large insurance corporation beneath. It’s a poorly-kept secret that these insurance companies often pull their strings. They know – and use – every trick in the book to avoid paying accident victims. And when they must pay, they fight just as hard to pay as little as possible.

In Texas, the legal playing field has been skewed even more in their favor. A huge advantage for insurance companies in a drunk driving lawsuit is the fact that juries cannot be told an insurance policy – or the carrier that underwrites it – applies to this lawsuit. What this does is place a simple underlying thought in the minds of jurors; which is this: Those who caused the accident - the driver and the bar or restaurant – are the only liable parties to be considered. How they pay for damages is not relevant to the case. In some cases, this can influence a jury to award less money to a drunk driving accident injury victim.

But, even if they are not mentioned directly in the case, the insurance companies are still the ten-ton elephant in the room that everyone ignores because the law says we must. This frees them to exert a great deal of quiet influence in several ways once your case reaches a courtroom. Insurance companies often use misleading, deceitful and even sinister influence in their attempts to wiggle out of paying fair compensation to an injured drunk driving accident victim in Texas. No one can tell a jury that an insurance company is the real puppet master who pulls the strings behind the scenes.

To further complicate your case, today’s more restrictive liquor liability laws have emboldened insurance companies even further. They now encourage cases be to be taken to trial that only a few years ago would never have seen the inside of a courtroom.

Insurance companies often get away with a lot just because they think they can and few are willing to stop these bullies. Don’t you need an experienced attorney with a proven track record to let them know you are serious about fighting for your rights to get the settlement you need and are legally entitled to?

One thing about bullies: if you’re willing to fight them, they don’t want to fight you.

Perception of the Jury

In the final analysis though, it comes down to the jury.

Your drunk driving personal injury lawsuit means only as much as the compensation a jury can award you. It’s not that difficult for an experienced lawyer to explain to a jury the numerous technicalities of liability when it comes to a drunk driving accident, nor is it all that complex to prove damages or explain why – by law - their client deserves compensation. It often isn’t hard for your attorney to make the jury “feel your pain.”

What juries have a hard time with in drunk driving liability cases is a clear understanding of the shared liability for the accident as it pertains to the Dram Shop Act. A lot of times that’s because some jurors can become confused over the differences between criminal punishment and civil liability. Drunk drivers who hurt or kill someone usually go to jail. The bar or restaurant that served the driver has probably paid a hefty fine. Maybe they’ve even gone out of business.

It’s not unusual for some juries to see this as punishment enough. When that happens, this can make them hesitant to further punish the drunk driver, especially when the law seems to complicate things by also forcing them to punish a bar or restaurant in addition. The defendant’s attorneys leave no stone unturned in placing this hesitancy in the minds of your civil jury. Many times we’ve heard them ask “haven’t these people paid enough already?”

Juries must be made to understand that bars can often act at cross-purposes to public safety, that they must take responsibility for their actions and Texas law now demands that they do so. They also must appreciate just how tragic a price, both monetarily and physically, drunk driving accident victims must pay for the actions of those who placed that drunk driver behind the wheel. When it comes to DUI accident liability, the one who “fires the gun” is just as responsible as “the one who loaded it.”

The only way to defend your rights as a victim of a drunk driving accident is an attorney who clearly speaks in a manner that each juror will understand, to make them clearly agree that you must receive compensation to get back on your feet and move on with your life. Those who have been injured by a drunk driver suffer great financial, emotional, and physical injury. Bringing a drunk driver to criminal justice is one thing, but until the damage drunk drivers cause to their victims is repaired and their lives return to normal, justice is never done.

All of our professional staff and attorneys understand this. We pledge to every one of our clients to do everything within our power to make the jury in your case clearly understand this too.

Grossman Law Offices Can Help You Build A Strong Case

Houston drunk driver accident attorney Michael Grossman of Grossman Law Offices has been helping drunk driving accident victims successfully seek compensation for twenty years. The firm has effectively resolved hundreds of cases for its clients against negligent bars and drunk drivers and the insurance companies that try to shield them. Our professional lawyers and staff are highly-qualified and experienced at patiently managing the many challenges and obstacles you face when fighting for your rights when you are involved in an accident with a drunk driver.

We are experienced at building strong lawsuits against liable parties in Houston drunken driving accident cases. Most of the time the driver is clearly at fault. Our cases concede that, but we are also dedicated to bringing the bars that serve them to justice. Every party liable for your injuries must take responsibility for their negligence.

We have a successful track record as litigants on our clients’ behalf. Because of this, once they know we’re on the case, defense firms and insurance companies who represent these liable parties often offer our clients sizable settlements because they do not want us to take your case to court.

If you or someone in your family is suffering as a victim of a drunk driving accident, contact Houston and Galveston drunk driving accident attorney Michael Grossman for a free consultation. Grossman Law Offices can help you win the compensation you need and give you the justice and peace of mind you deserve.