Alcohol Injury Lawsuits in South Carolina
What happens when you are injured by a drunk driver in South Carolina?
Based on an article published by Safewise.com, South Carolina has the third-most drunk driving deaths per 100,000 residents in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2018 data reports that 22% of children who were killed in car accidents died in alcohol-impaired crashes. 31% of those children were not in the drunk driver’s vehicle. When considering all fatalities, 26% of all people killed in crashes involving at least one alcohol-impaired driver were not in the drunk driver’s vehicle. Those figures tell us what we already know: alcohol and automobiles do not mix.
To be sure, drunk driving is a crime. But the solicitor prosecuting the driver that injured you or killed your love one will not pay your medical bills or provide you relief for the pain and suffering you endured (and likely continue to endure). You need to consider your options and protect your rights. These are not cookie-cutter cases.
You can sue the drunk driver.
Sometimes, that can give you relief. But if that driver carries the state-mandated liability limits only, then there won’t be a large source of insurance funds. Odds are the expected recovery may be lower than the medical bills you incurred. If the driver has assets, punitive-damage caps found in the South Carolina code will likely offer no protections for him or her. It goes without saying that punitive damages should be fully explored along with compensatory damages.
You can recover from your under-insured motorists’ coverage (if you purchased it).
Auto insurance carriers are required to offer you under-insured motorists’ coverage in South Carolina, but you are not required to purchase it. This coverage can pay for injuries you sustain when the at-fault driver doesn’t have enough insurance to pay for your medical bills.
You can sue the bar or restaurant that over-served the drunk driver.
The State regulates the sale of alcohol in South Carolina through the Alcohol Beverage Control Act. Restaurants and bars must have permits to sell beer or liquor drinks to the public. And, importantly:
South Carolina law requires bars and restaurants to have a million-dollar insurance policy to cover alcohol-injury cases.
It is a crime to sell alcohol to a person who is intoxicated. South Carolina doesn’t have a Dram Shop Act like many other states, but injured people can bootstrap their civil claims against bars based on a bar’s violation of a criminal law.
As interpreted by the South Carolina Supreme Court, the “statute does not contain a requirement that the intoxicated person be visibly intoxicated, only that a person ‘knowingly’ sell beer or wine to an intoxicated person.” The bar’s staff may say that they do not remember serving the drunk driver who hit you or killed your loved one. Sometimes, the drunk driver may have died in the accident, so they aren’t available to testify. In other instances, the impaired driver may decide to plead the fifth to avoid incriminating themselves in a parallel criminal case. You don’t have to rely on those kind of admissions to bring a case, you can prove circumstantially that the bartender should’ve never served the drunk driver:
by introducing the BAC results pulled from the drunk driver.
by hiring an appropriate expert to determine how much alcohol an individual had to consume over a period of time to reach a particular BAC at some later point in time.
by utilizing expert testimony about the symptoms exhibited by someone who is intoxicated.
by showing video footage from the bar or footage obtained from dash cams.
by obtaining receipts and other information from the bar’s point-of-sale system.
by establishing a timeline of the driver’s day.
Bars must train bartenders and servers to responsibly and safely serve alcohol. Failing to properly train staff can put a bar in hot water. The amount and type of training that a bar or restaurant offers its staff must be investigated. Experts can be consulted or retained in alcohol-injury cases to testify about the training available to bars and restaurants.
You can sue someone who provided the alcohol to the drunk driver under a social host theory of liability.
Under South Carolina law, “[a]n adult social host who knowingly and intentionally serves, or causes to be served, an alcoholic beverage to a person he knows or reasonably should know is between the ages of 18 and 20 is liable to the person served and to any other person for damages proximately resulting from the host’s service of alcohol.” The same goes for an adult social host “who knowingly and intentionally serves, or causes to be served, alcoholic beverages to a minor under 18.” Marcum v. Bowden, 643 S.E.2d 85, 372 S.C. 452 (S.C. 2007).
Protect your rights if you’ve been injured in a DUI accident.
Every alcohol-injury case is different. DuRant & DuRant, P.A. can assist you in evaluating the varying defendants and theories of liability when you’ve been seriously injured. Contact us today at 843-448-1541 to set up a consultation.
DISCLAIMER: You probably already know this, but you can’t become DuRant & DuRant, P.A.’s client by reading anything (including this blog). This blog doesn’t constitute legal advice. Every situation is different. If you want legal advice about your unique issues, contact a lawyer.
DuRant & Durant, P.A. - Frank H. DuRant, Julian W. DuRant, 2107 Farlow Street, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577