New Jersey Dram Shop Liability Lawyers

Dram Shop & Social Host Liability in New Jersey

In personal injury cases arising from alcohol-related accidents, injured victims (or families of victims who suffered a wrongful death) will typically pursue lawsuits against the intoxicated party. Often, this is a person who drove while intoxicated and caused a drunk driving accident.

In some cases, however, plaintiffs may have grounds to hold third parties liable for their damages under New Jersey’s dam shop and social host liability law (N.J.S.A. 2A:22A-5). That’s because the law holds that “licensed alcoholic beverage servers” and “social hosts” can be held liable for injuries caused by individuals they served, under certain circumstances.

To hold a third party liable for damages under New Jersey’s dram shop and social host liability law, certain circumstances must apply. For example:

1. Restaurants, bars, taverns, and other drinking establishments classified as “licensed alcoholic beverage servers” can be held liable for damages when they serve alcohol to a person who is visibly intoxicated or a minor, and the individual later causes injury because of their intoxication. Plaintiffs must also prove that injury was a “foreseeable consequence” of serving alcohol to the at-fault party.
2. Social hosts can be held liable for damages when they “willfully and knowingly” provided alcohol to someone who was visibly intoxication in their presence or, if the person was not in the presence of the host, provided alcohol in a manner that constituted “reckless disregard of the consequences as affected life or property of another.”

There are many nuances when seeking to hold alcoholic beverage servers and social hosts liable under this law. In the case of social hosts, for example, that includes the irrebuttable presumption that social hosts did not violate the law if the intoxicated person had a BAC of less than .10, and the rebuttable presumption that they did not violate the law if the person tests between .10 and .15. Generally, this means that social hosts are given the benefit of the doubt in terms of their conduct when serving guests until intoxicated persons have high BAC readings of .16 or above.

Given the need to meet specific elements when proving dram shop or social host liability, these cases should be handled by experienced and qualified attorneys. At Levinson Axelrod, our award-winning trial lawyers have extensive experience litigating personal injury, auto accident, and dram shop liability cases and can discuss how we can help during a FREE consultation.

Dram Shop Cases We Handle

Dram shop / social host liability can become an issue in a variety of alcohol-related accidents. Some examples of the types of cases our firm handles include:

• Drunk driving accidents caused by motorists who were overserved alcohol.
• Auto accidents involving minors who were served or provided alcohol.
• Third-party assaults involving intoxicated guests, including assaults at bars or nightclubs.

Pursuing liability against a third-party drinking establishment or social host isn’t possible in every case. However, it can make the difference in cases where the intoxicated party is under- or uninsured and cases where victims’ damages exceed the policy limits of the intoxicated party’s insurance coverage. As such, exploring the possibility of dram shop liability is a worthwhile exercise.