San Antonio Drunk Driver Accidents

San Antonio, Texas auto accident attorney Michael Grossman discusses the legal ramifications of accidents that involve a drunk driver

• Texas Dram Shop Law
• When Can A Bar or Establishment Be Held Liable?
• Jury Misconceptions
• An Experienced Defense Counsel
• Ruthless Insurance Companies

Being hurt by a drunken driver is often a devastating experience, and victims rightly want to seek justice after such an accident. Furthermore, intoxicated driver accidents often cause serious injury, and require a victim to spend a significant amount of time away from work.

The financial burdens associated with these accidents can be overwhelming. Victims deserve to be compensated for these expenses. Unfortunately, however, filing a drunk driving accident lawsuit is a complex process. Experienced San Antonio drunk driver accident attorney Michael Grossman is here to tell you what you will be up against and how Grossman Law Offices can help you.

Texas Dram Shop Law

Prior to the Texas Dram Shop Act, when a victim was hurt by a drunken driver, his or her only option for seeking compensation was to sue the driver. No one else could (generally) be held liable for the intoxicated driver’s actions. This created a system wherein bars, restaurants, and other establishments did not usually care about public safety. All in the name of profits, bars would serve an individual as much alcohol as that person wanted. That person would then leave the bar and pose a serious risk to other people, especially if that person got behind the wheel of a vehicle. In other words, bars’ interests were at odds with the safety of other people.

In order to combat this discrepancy, legislators enacted the Texas Dram Shop Act. This act is designed to hold bars and establishments liable for the actions of their patrons under specific circumstances. This serves, not only to provide additional means of compensation for victims of drunk drivers, but also to dissuade bars and restaurants from serving patrons to the point of intoxication.

When Exactly Can A Bar or Other Establishment Be Held Liable?

Bars and restaurants must apply for a license to serve alcohol. An alcohol license is contingent on the existence of certain safety procedures. For example, a bar must carefully regulate the amount of alcohol a patron consumes, and bars are responsible for making sure that their patrons are not served to the point of intoxication. Being drunk in public is illegal in Texas, and when bars help an individual reach the point of intoxication, they are breaking the law.

Of course, alcohol affects all people differently. Sometimes a patron may become intoxicated very quickly – more quickly than a bar’s employees expect. In these situations, the bar is responsible for ensuring that the intoxicated person leaves the bar safely. If that means calling the police to pick the drunken person up, then that is what a bar is obligated to do. If a patron walks out of the door of a bar while intoxicated, in almost all cases, that bar is breaking the law and can be held legally responsible for any damages, injuries, or deaths caused by that intoxicated patron.

Legal Obstacles You Will Face When Filing an Intoxicated Driver Accident Lawsuit

While the concept behind a drunken driver accident lawsuit may seem relatively straightforward, the truth is that these lawsuit are complex, technical matters. Without an experienced drunk driver accident lawyer on your side, you have almost no chance of securing a fair settlement. You will face four main difficulties in any drunk driver accident lawsuit: jury misconceptions, an experienced defense counsel, the third party defense, and ruthless insurance companies.

Jury Misconceptions

The real value of any civil lawsuit is whatever a jury is willing to give to a victim in terms of compensation. Any experienced lawyer can explain all of the technical and legal details surrounding their client’s case, and explain very thoroughly why their client deserves compensation. But the problem is that juries do not generally understand dram shop causes of action. In most drunk driver accidents, the drunk driver seriously injures or kills another person. That driver then goes to jail. Many juries see this as adequate punishment, and they cannot see why the drunk driver should face additional punishment – and the jury certainly does not understand why the bar should be punished for the drunken individual’s actions.

The problem is that the drunk driver going to jail does nothing to compensation the victim for the serious injuries he or she might have received. In addition, most juries do not realize that bars often act so contrary to public safety and deserve to be punished for that negligence. But our experienced San Antonio lawyers can speak the jury’s language. We know how to explain complex legal issues in ways that a jury can understand and sympathize with. In other words, we know how to convince a jury that you need compensation in order to get on with your life after this type of accident. Medical treatment and lost wages can put severe financial burdens on accident victims. Our lawyers can make sure that a jury understands this.

An Experienced Defense Counsel

Since the Texas Dram Shop Act was established, there has emerged a group of attorneys who do nothing but defend bars, restaurants, and other establishments from lawsuits. Not many attorneys are willing to handle these types of cases, but the ones that do generally do nothing but defend bars in dram shop cases. This means that they have years of extensive experience with these types of lawsuits, and they have developed intricate defense techniques. Very few people can successfully go up against these aggressive defense lawyers in court.

But our attorneys have faced every big liquor liability defense firm. We have made substantial recoveries in hundreds of cases. We are dedicated to protecting our clients from the unscrupulous defense tactics employed by these attorneys. Do not try to go up against them without experienced help.

The Third Party Defense

Most defense arguments in dram shop cases center around the driver. The defense counsel will almost undoubtedly argue that the driver was far and away the largest contributing factor to the accident, and so the bar should not be punished. But the truth is that, while the driver might be mostly to blame, the bar should not have let that driver get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Bars take on a responsibility when they accept a liquor license to ensure that this type of situation does not happen. Our lawyers will make sure that a jury sees this, and we will do everything we can to make sure that every responsible party in your accident is brought to justice.

Ruthless Insurance Companies

Behind all the defense attorney antics are the big insurance companies that cover bars and other establishments. They have one goal: to pay you the smallest settlement possible. In Texas, they have a huge advantage: no one may tell a jury that there is an insurance policy applicable in a lawsuit. This allows an insurance company to employ numerous underhanded tactics to get out of paying a settlement – and the jury will never know it. Furthermore, Texas liquor liability laws have been getting more restrictive, so insurance companies will go to court over almost any case. They are not afraid of non-attorneys, and they know that many people will not realize that they need an attorney until it is too late.

But our attorneys can scare them into offering you a fair settlement. We have faced every major insurance carrier in the country over the past 20 years, and we have successfully investigated and litigated hundreds of cases. We have experience both in litigation and in resolving cases outside of court, and we are prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure that you receive fair compensation. Defense attorneys and insurance companies know how successful we have been, and they are often very cooperative with our attorneys so that they will not have to face us in court. In other words, we can get you back on your feet quickly with the compensation you need to get on with your life. So if you or someone you love has been involved in an accident involving an intoxicated driver, contact experienced San Antonio drunk driver accident lawyer Michael Grossman at Grossman Law Offices today, and make sure that every party responsible for your accident is brought to justice.

Use the navigation menu to the left to read about more specific drunken driver injury topics including drunk driving statistics & an explanation of Texas dram shop laws.