Your Rights When You Are Injured By a Drunk Driver Who Was Served Negligently By a Bar or Tavern

Last week the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to hear a case to determine whether or not a man who was intoxicated when he crashed his motor vehicle causing injury to himself has the right to sue the liquor establishment that served him alcohol that he claims negligently served him alcohol.

Many states around the country have what are known as dram shop acts. They allow injured people to sue a bar or tavern (historically known as dram shops) that negligently sold alcohol to someone (either a minor or someone who was already intoxicated) who in turn injured the victim.

Here in Michigan, we have our own dram shop act. The law has been changed over the years with the most recent changes coming into effect in 1998. Without this law, innocent victims would have no right to sue a bar that negligently served alcohol to visibly intoxicated people or minors that went out and caused their injuries. That is because this type of claim did not exist under the common law, and as such, courts would not recognize the claim without action by the Michigan Legislature. This law passed by the Michigan Legislature allows the following types of claims.

1. Claims against bars or taverns that serve alcohol to a minor, without requesting proof of age, or having seen the minor’s actual license, still served alcohol to the minor. The minor must, of course, then cause an accident that was caused by his intoxication.

2. Claims against bars or taverns that serve alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person. A visibly intoxicated person is someone whose intoxication would be apparent to an ordinary observer.

Unlike the New Jersey statute mentioned above, Michigan’s Dram Shop Act does NOT allow the person who is served alcohol to then sue the liquor establishment when his own intoxication is the cause of his injuries.