Dram Shop Liability; Bar owners are responsible for over serving alcohol when accidents result.
Under Kentucky Law, bar owners can be held liable when they over serve alcohol to persons who then cause auto accidents. KRS 413.241, the Kentucky Dram Shop statute, upon cursory read would lead a person to believe that bar and tavern owners are immune from liability & responsibility for serving alcohol to persons who then have or cause auto accident or other injuries. However, a more thorough read of the statute, reveals that when a bar or tavern serves a person alcohol that they knew or should have known was already intoxicated, the bar or tavern can be held liable for the accidents and injuries that then result of the conduct of the drunk driver.
The result is the drunk driver and the bar which over served alcohol are liable and responsible for injuries that result. Brent T. Ackerson, an injury attorney with Bahe Cook Cantley & Jones PLC, who handles cases where people where hurt by drunk drivers, says: “The problem with drinking and driving does not rest solely with the drunk driver. Bar owners, who are more worried about profits than responsibly serving alcohol, should be held liable when they continue to serve patrons who they know are intoxicated and those patrons then in while drunk go out and hurt people.”
For more information on the rights of injured persons, who have suffered injury or death due to a drunk driver, who got behind the wheel of a motor vehicle after drinking at a bar or restaurant, call or email Brent T. Ackerson & Bahe Cook Cantley & Jones PLC.
