Are Texas Dram Shop Laws About Seeking All Compensation from the Bar?
A misguided approach in drunk driving cases involving Texas dram shop laws is to believe that a plaintiff’s lawyer will sue the bar for 100% of the damages instead of suing the drunken driver. Commonly, a lawyer will sue both the bar and the driver in order to make a recovery that is proportionate to the percentage that each defendant is at fault. Envision a man that drives to a bar and the bartender serves him alcohol until he’s at double the legal limit for blood alcohol content. If the drunk driver then causes an accident on the way home and the plaintiff’s medical bills are $1,000,000, and the bar is found to only be 10% at fault, then the bar would only owe $100,000 to the plaintiff. If the bar is found to be 50% at fault, then they will owe $500,000. The bar does not have to pay 100% of the damages in a drunken driving case as they are not solely responsible for the accident. Since the bar only pays for their portion of responsibility, this is clearly not an attempt to get the ba
