One For the Road: Dram Shop Cases

Volume 2 / Edition 7

This Week; Focus On: One For the Road: Dram Shop Cases

Historically, a person who provided alcohol to another was NOT liable to a third party who was injured as a result of excessive alcohol consumption. The prevailing view was that the drinker was solely responsible for his alcohol consumption. In 1963, the New York Legislature created an exception to this rule. Under the Dram Shop law, a third party injured as a result of excessive alcohol consumption may sue any person who unlawfully sold or unlawfully procured alcohol for the drinker.

In the full swing of summer now in the Northeast, there is an historic, recorded elevation of alcohol involved incidents - from drunk driving arrests to gross intake fatalities. Our focus this week is on the structure of a dram shop case.

It is the responsibility of the establishment and its employees serving alcohol to patrons to act preemptively to avoid over consumption of such within their place of business. After an alcohol related incident has occurred, the patron's legal representative needs to move quickly and determine the negligent and/or complicit factors of the serving establishment. Our experience in these types of cases has enabled us to formulate the following investigative outline:

1. Obtain legal name of the corporate entity. This is done through the NYS Division of Corporations. NYS Department of State Corporation and Business Entity Database

2. Obtain licensing information through the NYS Liquor Authority. (Their site can be searched by premises or trade name, license number, premises location or name of principal.) New York State Liquor Authority

3. Also through the NYS Liquor Authority, obtain prior incident information on the establishment in question.

4. Construct a timeline for the patron's activities on the day of occurrence.

5. Obtain a full list of potential witnesses (including prior to any alcohol related incident, on the day in question). (We recommend the following reverse search engine for names, addresses and phone numbers : www.argali.com.) Obtain witness statements from such.

6. Obtain a full list of employees on the date and time of occurrence.

7. Conduct a criminal background check on primary employees.

A thorough investigation conducted in the above manner should yield the background and information an attorney will need to successfully pursue a dram shop case on his client's behalf - or, determine from the start if there is, in fact, a viable case.

Many of the searches related to a dram shop case can be conducted online, enabling the investigative specialist to concentrate on the field investigation as well.

BNI investigators: Street smart; Net savvy.

I look forward to any comments you may have or and questions I can answer for you.

Sincerely,

Lina M. Maini
Editor, The Beacon Bulletin
CEO, Beacon Network Investigations, Inc.