What Are the Dram Shop and Social Host Laws in Washington? These laws provide victims of drunk drivers or other impairment-caused accidents with the opportunity to hold negligent alcohol vendors and servers accountable for contributing to the incident.
If your claim presents grounds for a lawsuit, an experienced Seattle drunk driving accident lawyer will work diligently to secure justice.
Compensation Potentially Available After a Drunk Driving Accident
There are two categories of damages you can sue for after an accident in Washington. Economic damages compensate you for related financial losses.
These include your medical bills, lost wages, property damage, and other related costs. Non–economic damages acknowledge your emotional pain, physical pain, and other losses to your quality of life.
Under pure comparative negligence in Washington State, any accident victims can sue for damages, no matter how much fault they bear for the incident. In drunk driving accidents, victims do not usually hold much, if any, blame. Fault typically falls on the drunk driver.
In some cases, fault may extend to those who provided the drunk driver with alcohol and contributed to their intoxication and the resulting accident.
A lawyer can determine if the dram shop and social host laws in Washington apply to your case, and if so, fight to make the offending parties pay you back for the damage they caused.
For a free legal consultation, call (801) 266-0999
Understanding Drunk Driving Laws in Washington
The Washington State Department of Licensing explains the State’s DUI (Driving Under the Influence) laws. Anyone who operates a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs violates the law.
For adults 21 and older, breath tests indicating a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or higher can lead to charges. For commercial drivers, the limit is .04%, and for underage drivers, it is .02%. If a driver’s behavior or appearance indicates impairment, they can be charged even if the BAC does not reach these thresholds.
Data collected by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission shows there were 341 impairment-involved fatal crashes in the State over a recent year.
Whether you are injured or a loved one dies in a drunk-driving accident, an experienced attorney can help you hold responsible parties accountable.
How Washington’s Dram Shop and Social Host Laws Work
A “dram” is an old-fashioned word for a small amount of liquor. Though we use different terms today, the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 66.44.200 represents the State’s dram shop laws, which hold restaurants and bars accountable for negligence when selling and serving patrons alcohol.
The statute makes it unlawful to sell alcohol to anyone “apparently under the influence of liquor,” or to allow them to “purchase or consume” alcohol on “any premise” licensed to sell liquor. Signs of intoxication include slurred speech, aggressive behavior, lack of coordination, and impaired judgment.
Of course, these businesses are also forbidden from selling alcohol to those under age 21 per (RCW) 66.44.270. If you are hurt by an underage drunk driver who was served at a business, you have an even higher likelihood of securing compensation through Washington’s dram shop law.
Social Host Laws
A private homeowner is not held to as high a liability standard when serving alcohol to guests, except when those guests are underage. The homeowner, or “social host,” breaks the law by providing or serving alcohol to minors. If the minors get hurt or hurt others because of the intoxication, the host may be liable.
Per the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board’s explanation of social hosting, the host is not liable if they only allowed underage drinking on the property. The host has to have provided or served the alcohol that led to intoxication and injury to be culpable.
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Types of Lawsuits You Can File Under Washington’s Laws
You can file a first-party or third-party lawsuit using dram shop and social host laws in Washington.
In a first-party claim, you are both the intoxicated person and the accident victim. For example, you may be overserved at a bar and have an accident while walking home.
You could be a minor and have an accident after being served in a restaurant, bar, or someone’s home; you may be able to hold the business or host responsible, even partly, for your damages. It is easy to see the challenges presented by these claims. A successful outcome is more likely for minors than adults.
Third-party claims are more common. In these, you are hurt by an intoxicated person. Through your claim, you hold the business or host who overserved the drunk person liable for damages. To win a first or third-party claim, you must prove the party in question served alcohol irresponsibly.
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How a Drunk Driving Accident Attorney Can Help You
A Seattle drunk driving accident attorney can help you best if you reach out quickly. Prompt action allows your attorney to determine the negligent parties and file your claim within the car crash statute of limitations in Washington.
For most accidents, the deadline is three years. Some cases include special circumstances with a shorter deadline.
Your attorney will handle all the legal details of your claim and provide guidance right from the start. We can keep you on track with doctor’s appointments and orders, and make sure you avoid saying anything that could hurt your claim. We will also gather evidence from all possible sources to build a strong claim.
Critical evidence in dram shop cases often comes from:
- Witnesses who observed your intoxication and saw you get continuing service
- Footage from surveillance cameras at the establishment or mounted nearby
- Receipts showing an excessive number of drink orders
- Staff training records, or more specifically, a lack of evidence that staff were properly trained to recognize signs of intoxication
The sooner we get to work, the more likely we are to find the evidence needed to support your claim.
We Will Pursue All Possible Sources of Compensation
Anyone who contributes to the damage caused by drunk drivers must be held accountable for their heinous actions. Siegfried & Jensen is ready to fight to make that happen.
We will demand payback from the negligent businesses or social hosts that caused you harm under Washington’s dram shop and social host laws.
Call or text (801) 266-0999 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
