Practice Areas

Dram Shop Litigation and Liability

Dram Shop Liability Lawyers Assisting Arizona

One American dies every 30 minutes in an alcohol-related traffic crash, meaning that drunk driving shows its face in 41 percent of the country’s traffic fatalities. Three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives. When the illegal sale of alcohol plays a role in an alcohol-related accident, most states call it a “dram shop” case.

Dram shop liability laws hold alcohol servers/bars responsible for harm that intoxicated or underage patrons cause to other people or, in some cases, to themselves, after they drink and drive and cause accidents. Law Offices of Shane L. Harward PLC represents victims in Dram Shop actions against bars, nightclubs, and restaurants for injuries and damages caused by patrons who drink and drive.

Dram Shops: What Are They?

In 18th Century England, thousands of so-called “gin-shops” sold homemade gin by the dram (about a spoonful). When the King of England decided to tax the sale of gin, these “dram shops” quickly went underground in an effort to avoid paying taxes. Today’s legal system considers any establishment selling liquor illegally as a modern day equivalent of these “dram shops” of the 1700’s.

Furthermore, dram shop laws hold these establishments responsible for the dangerous actions of an intoxicated person when they have illegally sold liquor to that person. In addition to bars and liquor stores, these establishments can include restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, social clubs, and even private events where liquor is sold.

While selling liquor to an obviously intoxicated customer represents the most common dram shop violation, the illegal sale of intoxicating beverages can take other forms, such as:

• Selling liquor without a license to do so;
• Selling liquor after hours; or
• Selling liquor to a minor.

When you sustain injuries which are due, even in part, to the involvement of alcohol, ask an Arizona dram shop lawyer at Law Offices of Shane L. Harward PLC to examine your case to decide whether a dram shop claim should be pursued.

A dram shop claim often represents one component of a larger accident claim. Very often, it is part of an auto accident case involving a DUI or DWI. For example, if you were injured by a drunk driver to whom a liquor store sold alcohol when he or she was obviously intoxicated, your dram shop claim would be against that liquor store.

Cases involving injuries due to assaults can also contain a dram shop component. Let’s say a bar continued to serve a patron after he or she became intoxicated and belligerent. Later that evening, you are injured as a bystander when a fight breaks out involving that over-served patron. Here, your dram shop case would be against the bar that continued to illegally sell liquor when it should have simply done what the law requires: cut the patron off.

How Our Dram Shop Lawyers Can Help

Our personal injury lawyers can help you determine if a dram shop violation played a role in your accident. Dram shop laws vary state by state. While a few states impose no dram shop liability or restrict that liability to cases involving sales to minors or known alcoholics, most states do recognize some form of dram shop liability.

In order to protect your rights, we act quickly when pursuing a dram shop case. Verifying the obvious intoxication of a patron often relies on the eyewitness testimony of employees and other patrons who were present. By locating and interviewing these witnesses quickly, we avoid potentially losing track of the witnesses as well as the possible blurring of memory as time passes.

The statute of limitations governing the dram shop portion of an accident case can differ from those that apply to the rest of the case. If a dram shop claim is not made within that time frame, you can potentially lose the right to pursue the claim at all.

If you or someone you care about has been injured as a result of an alcohol related accident, please contact us or call 480-874-2918 for a free initial consultation with one of the firm's qualified attorneys. We offer reduced rates to those contacting us through the Internet.

Our Arizona dram shop liability attorneys represent clients throughout the state of Arizona including, but not limited to, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Glendale, Gilbert, Sun West, Sun City, Tucson, Flagstaff, Kingman, Bullhead City, Yuma, Lake Havasu, Fountain Hills, Anthem, Ahwatukee, Carefree, Cave Creek, Gold Canyon, Bisbee, Sierra Vista, Cochise, Paradise Valley, East Valley, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, Gila, White Mountain, Heber, Payson, Prescott, Forest Lakes, Apache Junction, Avondale, Queen Creek, Benson, Black Canyon City, New River, Buckey, Casa Grande, Coolidge, Cottonwood, Douglas, Florence, Gila Bend, Goodyear, Greer, Lakeside, Guadalupe, Holbrook, Huachuca City, Oro Valley, Avra Valley, Parker, Peoria, Pinetop, Pine, Prescott Valley, Quartzite, Strawberry, Safford, Show Low, Sun City West, Sun Lakes, Superior, Surpise, Snowflake, Tombstone, Wickenberg, Winslow, Wilcox, Williams, Young, Youngtown, and surrounding areas.

Law Offices of Shane L. Harward PLC
Phoenix Personal Injury Attorney
Arizona Wrongful Death Lawyer
10575 North 114th Street, Suite 103
Scottsdale, Arizona 85259

Phone: 480-874-2918
Facsimile: 480-588-5063
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