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Virginia is one of only 8 states that still refuses to hold bars and restaurants accountable for over-serving their patrons. Sure, the bar can profit from the 10 beers that the man drinks while watching a football game, but when that game is over and he gets in a car to drive home, Virginia courts and the Virginia General Assembly say that the bar is not responsible to anyone on the road.

43 other states have enacted laws known as “dram shop” laws. These laws are designed to provide incentive for bars, restaurants, waiters, and bartenders to act responsibly in serving their guests. If the bar or bartender serves a drink to someone who is already over the legal limit and that person gets behind the wheel of a car and injures someone, the bar can be held accountable.

These laws make sense in drunk driving cases. Drunk drivers cause far and away more damage than the average car wreck. Many times, the drunk driver does not have adequate insurance to cover the injuries to the victim. The 43 states that have enacted dram shop laws realize that the appropriate place to look to cover the difference between the cost of the injury and the extent of the drunk driver’s insurance coverage is the restaurant or bar that profited from the sale of the alcohol.

Not Virginia.

Here, if you are injured and the other driver doesn’t have adequate insurance coverage, you will be paying out of pocket. The bar or restaurant that sold the driver alcohol for hours on end has no responsibility or accountability to you for your injuries.

Social Host Liability

The same immunity that protects bars and restaurants protects individuals who throw a party in their own home. This is true even if the person throwing the party knows that their friend has had too much to drink and plans on driving home. While many social hosts are responsible enough to talk their friends out of driving home, some simply do not care.

People who host parties and provide alcohol to their guests without requiring designated drivers or a taxi ride home are only putting you at risk when their friends head back out on the roads.

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Weisberg & Zaleski, P.C.
112 College Place
Norfolk, VA 23510

Toll Free: (800) 690-0235
Phone: (757) 622-7740
Fax: (757) 533-9223

©2008 Weisberg & Zaleski, P.C., All Rights Reserved, Reproduced with Permission
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