Texas Dram Shop Laws and San Antonio Establishments

Is a drunk driver alone responsible for the injuries he caused you? Or does the establishment that got him so drunk in the first place bear some responsibility, too? That’s the question the Texas Dram Shop Law exists to address.

The term “dram shop” refers to an establishment that sells or serves alcohol. Such establishments include:

• Bars
• Convenience stores
• Liquor stores
• Restaurants

And according to the Texas Dram Shop Law, part of the Alcoholic Beverage Code, a dram shop may be liable for damages if the specific requirements of the Texas Dram Shop Act are met.

What does the Texas Dram Shop Law actually say?

Per Chapter 2 of the Alcoholic Beverage Code, alcohol vendors may be liable for damages if those they serve subsequently cause personal injury to others after becoming intoxicated. However, potential vendor liability will only ensue if:

1. The customer, during his time at said establishment, became “obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others” and
2. Said intoxication can be determined to be the proximate cause of another person’s injury.

Now, how obviously is a person “obviously intoxicated”? While there’s some subjectivity involved, an alcohol vendor might generally determine obvious intoxication by asking themselves: Is this customer slurring their words, becoming belligerent, or unable to walk in a straight line? If it’s reasonable to answer in the affirmative, the vendor may be liable under the Texas Dram Shop Law if an employee continues to provide that customer with alcohol.

However, the fact of a customer’s observable, obvious intoxication is not enough in itself to suggest that a dram shop is at fault for your accident. The dram shop must have served a patron who was obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others. Then, that driver must have caused an accident because of being intoxicated. This is what is meant by “proximate cause”: Establishing that the service was a substantial factor in bringing about the intoxication and resulting accident. Additionally, the outcome had to be reasonably foreseeable.

Your lawyer attempts to prove this by reviewing security camera footage, gathering eyewitness testimony, reviewing an exceptionally large bill of sale run up by the drunk driver that night, etc. This is seldom a simple process, which is why it’s important to contact an experienced lawyer as soon as you can.

What is the purpose of dram shop laws?

Texas dram shop laws provide victims recourse to civil action against not just an individual driver but the business that was the proximate cause for his excessive intoxication. The implication here is that the driver would not necessarily have become so dangerously drunk had a dram shop employee done his due diligence and ceased serving him earlier in the evening.

If an attorney can successfully prove proximate cause, you may be able to sue a dram shop for damages such as:

• Lost wages
• Medical bills
• Pain and suffering

However, it can be difficult to prove that a dram shop shares fault for your accident: Vendors have recourse to what’s known as a Safe Harbor Defense. This allows an alcohol vendor to be deemed not at fault for a customer’s drunken behavior if the employer required TABC certification, the employee was certified, and the employer did not directly or indirectly encourage the employee to violate alcohol-service laws.

In short, getting a person intoxicated isn’t necessarily an irresponsible thing for a dram shop to do – serving alcohol is legal in Texas. What matters is whether a dram shop served a patron who was obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others.

What other Texas laws apply in drunk driving cases?

Texas takes driving while intoxicated (DWI) very seriously: San Antonio alone saw 43 drunk driving-related fatalities in 2024.

Operating a vehicle while having a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at or above the following levels qualifies as a DWI offense:

• 08% for those 21 or over
• 04% for commercial vehicle operators
• Zero tolerance for those under 21

DWIs are criminal cases, that is, a suit is brought against a drunk driver by the state. A DWI can result in fines, license suspension, and jail time. But if you’re personally injured by a drunk driver, you need to initiate a civil case in order to collect damages.

Drunk driving suits fall within the realm of personal injury law. You might bring a personal injury case against a driver whose negligence results in catastrophic injuries such as:

• Bone fractures
• Limb loss
• Nerve damage
• Spinal cord injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries

All of the above can cost you or a loved one your ability to work, your financial well-being, or even your life.

What can an attorney do for me?

Drunk drivers violate the duty of care they owe to those who share the road with them. Your attorney is there to hold them responsible for that. Your attorney will attempt to do so, roughly speaking, as follows:

• To establish that a drunk driver indeed violated their duty of care to you, you must prove that the driver was intoxicated at the time of the accident, which may be shown through BAC evidence or other legally recognized proof. This may require nothing more than accessing a police report that states that, following a field sobriety test, an officer determined that the driver was, indeed, unlawfully intoxicated.
• Then, an attorney needs to prove that the driver’s intoxicated state was the proximate cause of your accident. This means proving that you were injured by the drunk driver through no fault of your own.
• Next, it must be established that you incurred measurable damages as a result of your accident, such as medical bills, lost wages, or the death of a loved one.

Now, that’s just what goes into proving a case against an individual drunk driver. You may have a case against the dram shop that over-served said driver if your attorney can prove that the establishment was the proximate cause of the driver’s dangerous level of intoxication.

Injured by a drunk driver? Contact Pat Maloney today

Regardless of who, exactly, is to blame for your accident, a drunk driving crash is a serious thing. Victims risk permanent, debilitating damage that can result in mountains of medical bills, permanent loss of earning capacity, and even death.

At the Pat Maloney Accident & Injury Attorney firm, we’ve been fighting for San Antonians for more than 70 years. If you were injured by a drunk driver, contact us for a free initial consultation. We’re here to help determine if liability for your injuries extends to a dram shop.