If an Intoxicated Driver Injures You, Can You Sue the Bartender?

In Nova Scotia, if you are injured in traffic by a distracted, intoxicated, reckless, or negligent driver, you have the right to recover compensation from that driver for loss of income, uninsured medical costs and other losses. The first step in that process is scheduling a consultation with a Halifax personal injury lawyer.

When alcohol is a factor in a traffic collision that results in injuries, in some cases, an injured victim also has the right in Nova Scotia to seek compensation from a third party – the party who served or provided the alcohol to the driver.

Can a Business Be Held Liable if an Impaired Driver Injures You?

If an establishment provides alcohol to someone who becomes impaired as a result and that person then drives a vehicle and causes a crash that injures you, can the business be held partially responsible?

The answer is yes – in some cases. After an intoxicated driver injures you, if you sue for damages, a Nova Scotia traffic accident lawyer will identify the liable parties – and potential sources of compensation – which may include the business that served, sold, or manufactured the alcohol.

Proving an establishment’s liability in these cases is a difficult job that requires the skills and services of an experienced traffic accident lawyer.

How is an Establishment’s Liability Determined in These Cases?

A business may be liable for injuries caused by an intoxicated customer in several situations. The most common is when employees serve alcohol to a customer who becomes intoxicated and then allows that customer to get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

Suppose an impaired driver injures you, and you sue the business that served the alcohol. To prevail with your claim, you and your Halifax personal injury lawyer must offer evidence that the establishment’s staff knew or should have known that the customer posed a risk to others.

What Should You Do at the Accident Scene?

If an impaired driver collides with and injures you, taking the following steps at the scene of the accident will put you in the best position to prevail with a subsequent personal injury claim:

  1. Immediately call for medical help and the local police.
  2. Exchange personal contact and insurance information with the other motorist.
  3. Take photos of the accident location, the damage to the vehicles, and the license plates.
  4. If there are eyewitnesses, ask for their names and personal contact details.

After a medical professional examines and treats you, schedule a consultation with a traffic accident lawyer who will discuss your options and explain your legal rights as the victim of another driver’s negligence. Those rights include the right to seek compensation for damages.

How Will Your Lawyer Handle Your Alcohol-Related Personal Injury Case?

Your Nova Scotia traffic accident lawyer will examine your medical records, the police report, eyewitness statements, and photos or videos of the crash. Your lawyer may also seek statements or testimony from medical authorities, accident reconstruction specialists, or other experts.

If you sue the establishment that served the alcohol, you and your lawyer must offer evidence that the staff knew – or should have known – that they were serving drinks to someone who was either already intoxicated or would become intoxicated after consuming the alcohol served. Your lawyer may seek witness statements and, if it is available, video to support your claim.

Your lawyer will negotiate for full compensation for your lost wages, pain and suffering and other injury-related damages. Most of these cases are settled out-of-court, but if liability is contested or if no reasonable settlement amount is offered, your lawyer will take your injury claim to trial.

What is the Nova Scotia Liquor Control Act?

The Nova Scotia Liquor Control Act is the law that regulates the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol in Nova Scotia. It makes the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation responsible for regulating the liquor industry in Nova Scotia.

While the primary responsibility for any alcohol-related accident belongs to the impaired driver, bars, restaurants, and other establishments that serve alcohol also have a legal responsibility to make sure patrons do not overindulge and put themselves and others at risk.

What Does the Act Provide?

The Nova Scotia Liquor Control Act holds businesses that serve alcohol partially responsible for reckless behavior that results from overserving. Under the Act, it is unlawful for bars, liquor stores, restaurants, and other businesses to sell alcohol to a person who is already intoxicated.

If someone serves alcohol to an already intoxicated driver, allows that person to drive, and as a result, the intoxicated driver dies in an alcohol-related accident, under the Nova Scotia Liquor Control Act, the driver’s family may – with help from a Halifax traffic accident lawyer – sue to recover damages from the party who provided the alcohol. In that case the family has only 6 months to sue!

When Should You Contact a Lawyer?

Nova Scotia’s deadline for filing personal injury claims based on alcohol-related accidents is two years from the accident date. Where the accident has resulted in death, the family of the deceased typically has one year to start a lawsuit from the date of death. In a wrongful death claim under the Liquor Control Act the limitation period is only 6 months.

However, if you have been injured by an impaired driver, or a loved one has been killed, you can’t wait until the deadline and rush to take legal action at the last minute.

Contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after your doctor has examined, treated, and released you or immediately after learning of your loved one’s death. Your lawyer needs to speak to the witnesses while their memories are fresh and scrutinize the evidence in your case before it can be altered or lost.

Your first consultation with a Halifax traffic accident lawyer entails no cost or obligation. If you move forward with your injury claim, you pay no lawyer’s fee until you receive compensation. If, for any reason, you do not recover compensation, you will owe no fee to your lawyer.

Who Should Handle Your Alcohol-Related Personal Injury Case?

If you are injured by an impaired driver, you must be represented by a lawyer who understands how to identify all of the parties that may have liability. You’ll need an experienced lawyer who:

  1.  is familiar with Nova Scotia’s laws regarding alcohol and liability
  2.  knows how the insurance companies negotiate
  3.  knows how to prevail on your behalf if the case goes to trial

We know how to bring your case to its best possible outcome. If an impaired driver injures you, after you’ve been examined and treated for your injury, contact McKiggan Hebert Lawyers by calling 902-706-2298 to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation evaluation of your case.

The award-winning personal injury team at McKiggan Hebert Lawyers has decades of experience advocating for the victims of negligent drivers in and near Halifax and across Nova Scotia. Let us represent you.