Liquor Liability

Are you looking for information about liquor liability? We'll help you understand the different types of laws & liability involved with liquor. You may be surprised to find out that there are liability laws associated with liquor that may affect you.

If you are involved in serving liquor for a job, selling liquor at your place of business, or even just offering liquor to your guests, the liability and laws for liquor apply to you. Alcohol liability comes in three different forms: criminal, administrative and civil.

The first type of liability you need to be concerned about is criminal liability. Let's say that you are a social host who has offered some wine to a guest in your home. If that individual became intoxicated from what they took from you and they in turn injured or killed an innocent bystander, you can actually be sued. Social hosts are not the only ones who can be sued in a situation like this. Licensed establishments, employers or employees from that establishment are also subject to these damaging lawsuits. So if you're thinking about liquor at your wedding, you might just want to rethink that.

If you have a liquor license, then you are subject to the second type of alcohol liability: Administrative liability. This is for all those individuals that do not follow all the rules that come with being a licensed vendor of liquor. You may think that bending the rules a bit won't matter, but severe penalties follow law-breakers. For example, if you serve liquor to someone already intoxicated or if you not only fail to check id but you also serve liquor to an underage patron, you can lose your license. Losing a license for some businesses can mean losing an entire business. Even if it was one of your employees that made this mistake, it is you who will pay the ultimate price.

The last type of liability that could affect you is civil liability. You can receive a lawsuit if you are a licensee, a social host, or a business where a liquor related incident takes place during a work-related situation or company function. It's not just the person who was inebriated that can file the lawsuit, but also individuals who were injured or victimized by the inebriated person. You might as well know that most juries will take the side of the victim, even if the person did voluntarily accept liquor from you. Be sure to double check that your insurance coverage is reliable since the amount in punitive damages that you might have to pay can be as little as a few thousand dollars to as much as several millions. Basic forms of law compose the basic foundation for all civil lawsuits. They do however, change from state to state therefore talk with your local liquor board.