When you get hit by a drunk driver in South Carolina, you need some good news. Here’s some: you can definitely sue the drunk driver to get a settlement. And if the drunk driver was bar-hopping or got overserved by a South Carolina bar or restaurant, you’ve got the right to sue these businesses.
The first thing you need to know is that you’ve got a complicated case—especially if you have serious injuries or your family’s case involves someone who was killed in the accident. The reason is, you’ve potentially got two cases in one: a case against the drunk driver and a case against the bar or restaurant.
If you’ve got burning questions about suing a bartender for a South Carolina drunk driving accident, we are Spartanburg car accident attorneys ready to help you for free. You can contact us with a live chat, fill out a Get Help Now form, or call toll-free at 888-230-1841.
Good News on How You Can Get a Settlement From a South Carolina Bar or Restaurant for Overserving a Drunk Driver
Recently, South Carolina added a new law requiring bars and restaurants to carry liability insurance to pay settlements for injured victims of drunk drivers they sold alcohol to.
Under South Carolina Code section 61-2-145, bars and restaurants selling alcohol after 5:00 p.m. are required to carry at least one million dollars in insurance to cover alcohol-related injuries and deaths caused by their customers.
Now for the bad news.
The Bad News—You’re Dealing With a Tightfisted, Hard-Nosed Insurance Company That Makes Money by Not Helping You
No matter how crippling your injuries are, or how searing the emotional pain of the loss of a family member is, the insurance companies don’t care about you. The only way they make more billions of dollars is to keep it from you—no matter how justified paying a settlement is.
To get a settlement from the bar or restaurant’s insurance company, you’ve got to prove your case as required by law. The bar or restaurant will never admit fault. The legal standard is challenging: You’ve got to prove the bar or restaurant’s employees knew or should have known a customer was intoxicated when they sold him alcohol.
From a legal standpoint, you’ve got a tough but worthwhile case. It will be built on circumstantial evidence, and you’ve got to make some critical strategic decisions fast.
You need a skilled South Carolina car accident injury attorney who knows the law and how to make it work for you. In these cases, we put tiny pieces of circumstantial evidence together to create a big picture showing the bar or restaurant endangered the public by overserving customers.
Assuming you can assemble the evidence to prove fault or liability, you’ve also got to prove you can justify a substantial amount of punitive damages.
You’ve Got a Lot at Stake. Don’t Risk It.
If you’ve suffered serious, crippling injuries from a South Carolina drunk driving accident, you may need a settlement covering future medical care, which requires specific types of proof, plus lost income, medical bills, and potentially the biggest part of your case—which we call human loss.
If the drunk driving accident was fatal, there are many reasons you need a South Carolina wrongful death attorney. Key among them is protecting your right to a potential wrongful death settlement allowing you to get justice and badly financial support to replace some lost income of a breadwinner.
You don’t have to make tough legal decisions or develop high-level legal strategies on your own. Let us handle the dirty work of dealing with the insurance company and help you make a case for a solid settlement from your drunk driving accident.
We are Spartanburg car accident attorneys who want to help you before you hire us, for free. To get your questions answered, call toll-free at 888-230-1841 or fill out a Get Help Now form. We also offer a FREE, EASY strategy session to answer your questions in person. Check out what others say about us in unscripted reviews on an attorney review website and Google.
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