Who Else Might be Liable For Your Drunk Driving Accident?

If you are injured in an accident involving a drunk driver, you sue the driver if you have been injured in that accident. That makes sense.

But in a drunk driving accident, there may be other people or entities that also may be liable for you, for injuries that you sustained in a drunk driving accident. Identifying them can help you maximize your recovery, after an accident caused by a drunk driver.

Employers of Drunk Drivers

In many cases, people are driving drunk while on the job. Yes, it’s true—many employees who work outside the office, or who may travel for work, or who, for any other reason, may be on the roadways as part of their job—may be behind the wheel, drunk.

When they are, they may not be the only ones liable to you—their employers may be as well. Even if they were driving their own vehicle, or a vehicle that didn’t have a company marking on it.

Employers can be liable for two reasons. The first is that the employee is acting in the course and scope of his or her job, as the employee was driving drunk.

But also, employers may be liable under negligent hiring legal theories—that is, that the employer did not do thorough background checks on the employee, before letting him or her get behind the wheel for work purposes. Employees who, for example, may have a history of DUIs, or who may have criminal records, should not be trusted by an employer, to get behind the wheel of a car for work and endanger the public.

Dram Shop Laws and Social Hosts

Often, people on the road drunk were served alcohol by someone else. Massachusetts has dram shop laws: laws that make a business liable, if they serve someone alcohol and then knowingly allow them to leave behind the wheel of their own vehicle.

The same is true for social hosts, like friends who may serve alcohol and allow people to leave behind the wheel while intoxicated.

To be liable under dram shop laws, a drunk driving victim must show that the business or social host saw that the drunk driver was “visibly intoxicated” before allowing them to leave and get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Negligent Entrustment

If the drunk driver was a minor, parents can often be liable. One theory is negligent entrustment—that the parents carelessly either trusted the minors with alcohol, with the vehicle, or both. Imagine a parent who doesn’t lock away alcohol in the home, and then allows the minor to drink it before he or she borrows a parents’ car.

The same can be said for co-owners of cars—that is, other people on the title of the vehicle.

Even if that person didn’t know the other owner would drink, get behind the wheel of a car, and cause an accident, as a co-owner of the vehicle, that owner may also be liable to compensate you for injuries suffered in a drunk driving accident.

Let us help you see who might be liable to compensate you, for your drunk driving injuries. Call the Boston personal injury lawyers at The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. today at 617-275-4200 for help.

Sources:

malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Chapter138/Section69

odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/tools-action/browse-evidence-based-resources/alcohol-excessive-consumption-dram-shop-liability